Other updates

Last Friday, my juicer came! Woo-hoo! Can't wait to make some carrot juice! :)



And on Saturday, Brandon and two men in our ward came over who are starting a landscaping business, and started getting to work on getting the area ready that will become my garden! :) Most of the day was grinding the tree stumps from the pine trees we cut down in 2006, and removing all the rocks the previous owners had placed around the trees. WHY anyone would put a bunch of rocks in the middle of the yard is beyond me! Can't exactly grow my garden in all those rocks! We figured that was the best place to have the garden since we didn't want to tear up nice grass. That area is already grass-less and ugly, so might as well put it to good use! I'm sure the rocks looked nice at first when first put down, but they start to look awful as the years go by, plus it makes it hard to plant grass or other things there. Next time we buy a house. . .we'll be skipping houses with rocks in the yard. Unless the owners trying to sell have them removed at their own expense because we will not be dealing with rock removal EVER again! Moving rocks is a huge nightmare. . . .we've even had to remove rocks from the flower bed area in the front. That's even odder than the middle of the back yard! In a flower bed? How do you expect to grow flowers if you put a bunch of rocks there? The people here before us did NOT have my tastes at all! Including all the ugly stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, silver colored light fixtures throughout the house, along with matching doorknobs! Ugh! Silver looks so cold looking. . . Go gold color! . . . Anyway, I'll post before, during and after pics of the back yard later when the job is all done!

Potty Training!

At 3 years and 1 month old, I think Michaela is finally starting to get it! I tried again today, and she's had 6 successes, and one accident so far! Hopefully it continues to go well. . . . I put her in a dress with no panties or diaper, and she went a couple times. Then, we put on panties, and she usually keeps them dry. She's on her 2nd pair today since she wet the first during her accident. . .but on the whole keeping dry!

It's reminding me of training Rachel. Although Rachel was overall easier, today with Michaela reminds me of the day Rach finally got it. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Rachel's class had a Mother's Day celebration on Friday. It was a lot of fun. I would have taken her out earlier, but she REALLY wanted to be there for that and for me to come. So, we waited until then. The class sang a bunch of songs to the moms, gave a story to their moms they had written for them, and a "breakfast in bed" thing. Soooo, cute! There was also cake, punch, and some other finger foods. Brandon worked from home yesterday so that he could be here to watch the other two, and I attend her thing at school. Yesterday was her last day. :)

Here's the story she wrote for me: (exact spelling and all!)
"My Mommy is 30 yeer's old. She macke's potata salid it is my favrit dinr. She wochis me woch TV and mom too. I love Mommy!"

Not sure why she said she likes potato salad. . .???. . . She HATES it! lol

Here's the "breakfast in bed" bag:


There was a honey bun inside the bag. The scrap of wallpaper is supposed to be the blanket with me in bed (head sticking out). Cute!

This evening we went to Olive Garden for dinner as a family for our Mother's Day eat out. They quoted us 65 minutes, but our buzzer went off in 30-35. :) That was nice! We talked to the girls before going in about behaving in the restaurant. To our surprise they behaved VERY well! WOW! Even Alyssa!

My big gift this year is a juicer! We ordered it a week ago, but looks like it won't be here until the 16th. It's part Christmas (from some of my grandparent money), part Mother's Day from Brandon and the kids, and part my birthday coming up this summer! I'm VERY excited. . .wanted one for a couple years now!

Carolina Conceptions called

Got a call from my fertility Dr office shortly before noon. It was a courtesy call, and they wanted to know how the delivery went and if I had a boy or girl. I thought that was nice of them to do a follow up and see how all went. They also said that they'll be inviting our family to a little get together of past patients and their families at some park in the fall. I thought that was, um, interesting. . . I guess it'll be fun, nice idea. Maybe they want to meet all the miracle babies?! :)

Dentist and Dancefest!

Early this morning, Rachel had a dentist appointment. 8:20 all the way in Cary! Ugh! The lady I talked to when I made the appointment had to pull some strings just to get us in. It was either that, or wait until end of July! She said that if we waited that long, she couldn't guarantee us a spot in the hospital this year. So, Rachel was so disappointed to learn that she'd miss "Dancefest" at school because of the appointment. That started at 9:30, so we worked something out where Brandon came with us, and when they were done needing Rachel physically there, I took her back to school and left Brandon there to talk with the dentist. That enabled us to get her to school on time.

So, then she did her two little dances with her class. Some Cha-Cha Slide thing and a Pink Panther dance. They were up first. During her second dance, she tripped and fell. I felt so bad for her. She ran over to her teacher and they put a band aid on it. Had band aids sitting right there as if they expected someone to need one! After she performed, I was out of there! I was not waiting around for the 1st through 5th grades to do theirs. Plus, Alyssa was getting hungry and fussy, and I didn't want to have to fight trying to get out of there when ALL the other parents were trying to get out. Of course, I forgot the camera again! Later, we were in the car that evening, had the radio on and Flo Rida's "Low" song came on, and I went to change it, and Rachel made some comment about how the 4th and 5th graders did a dance to that song. . .I'm thinking. . .Nice. *inset sarcasm* That was Brandon's comment too. NOT appropriate for Elementary school if they really did dance to that! I left early, so not sure. . .just going by what Rachel said.

Brandon came home in the evening and discussed the plan to fix Rachel's teeth. Looks like we'll be getting some teeth done this year, and then some next when her 6 year old molars have come in. He showed the quotes to some co workers when he got in after his talk with the Dr. and he said there was a lot of jaw dropping. Yeah, it's a lot of money, unfortunately! But, our child can't live a life with no enamel on her teeth either. . . . I told Brandon that if Alyssa's teeth have Rachel's problem (Michaela has enamel), then definitely NO more kids! ha! Still don't know since Alyssa still is a gummy grin girl!

Tooth #4 for Rachel and an Alyssa scare!

So, Rach lost her 4th tooth today! First top tooth. She talks funny now. . . . It really wasn't ready to come out yet. It got "helped" along by little sister! It was loose, just not loose enough to come on it's own. Everyone was taking Sunday nappy naps (or supposed to be taking a nap!), then all of a sudden Brandon and I hear this frantic screaming upstairs. It was the "something is definitely not right" kind of screams. I was expecting to go up and see a child with broken bones, seriously hurt or something. Rachel is standing there on her bed (top bunk of a bunk bed), holding her tooth with one hand and the other hand cupped under her mouth trying to catch all the blood. I was actually impressed. . .NO blood on her bedding! That's my girl! :) She did get some on her clothes, but we got it out. Poor thing couldn't get down to get to us or the bathroom, and was screaming for help. Ended up finding out that Michaela climbed up to her bed, started playing with her, and kicked her in the mouth by accident! The loose tooth got the blow and became loose enough that Rachel could pull it the rest of the way out with ease by herself. (Daddy pulled out the last two when they were ready) She said it hurt REALLY bad this time coming out with a kick. :(

(I'll come back and edit this to add a picture of her "new smile" later, once I take one!)

Before that, on the way to church this morning, I was turning left onto Timber Dr. and all of a sudden heard a loud "ker-thump!" behind me. I'm like, "What the heck was that?" Rachel said, all calmly and matter of fact like, "It was the baby." I'm thinking, "The baby!? She's strapped into her chair! What can the baby do to make a noise like that?" I looked back when I could while driving to see the bottom of the base to her car seat pointing up at me, meaning Alyssa was upside-down facing the floor! Usually I follow Brandon to church, but today I felt like being first for some reason. Glad I was first! I pulled over when I could safely, and since he was behind me, was able to follow. He was confused as to what I was doing, but decided to stay with me and see what was the matter. He helped me strap her base back in. Ended up, one of the girls undid the seat belt holding the base down and I didn't know. I assumed that it would stay strapped! So, now we check every time we put her in that the base is still strapped. I'm sharing this story so those with a baby and older kids might be aware that this could happen, and not to just assume their baby's car seat base will always stay strapped down after you strap it. Our girls got a good talking to about not undoing Alyssa's base, that they put her in danger. Luckily, we found out it wasn't strapped anymore in a "not as" dangerous situation. She was a little shook up, but no scratches or bruises or injured from flipping over her chair and onto the floor. I shudder to think what could have happened to Alyssa if we had been in a bad accident before realizing this.

"Now I know what's in beans. . . ."

"Potatoes!" Silly Rachel. . .lol. Last night we had some cheesy chili at dinner, and she saw a pinto bean that was cut or bitten in half, and saw the inside. She thought there were potatoes inside. lol

May Day!

Happy May Day! :) Can't believe it's May!

I was just thinking. . . .there's some things last month I didn't get around to posting about.

Alyssa update:
She FINALLY started eating solid foods! April 17th, she started swallowing the food I was feeding her instead of spitting it out. :) She is a MUCH happier baby since then, back to smiling, and is holding her head up again. I feel bad that she's been hungry all this time since breast milk started to not be enough, but what could I do if she wouldn't swallow the food or take a bottle as supplement? I tried! I tried a soft sippy cup since she started 'eating'. . .she likes that much better than her juice/water mixture being put into a bottle. Which is fine. . .6 months old and using a sippy already. :) She's rolled over a couple times, probably by accident since she hasn't done it since. She's still small and wearing 0-3 month clothes (at least we're getting use out of the summer clothes sizes 0-3 we had for our July and April babies! lol), and 3-6 being slightly big on her. People in stores still think she's 3 months old. All of them have been on the smaller side, but I think she's been the smallest so far. She's liking her jumper and exersaucer more now, and doesn't slouch in them anymore. Still won't grab toys. Still hates tummy time with a passion, just like her sisters did! I think that's about it on her.

Michaela:
April 21st, I took Kayla to Baskin Robbins for her free birthday scoop of ice cream. Here's some pics of that. We went to the Fuquay BR since it's nicer than the "ghetto BR" we used to go to. Both are about the same distance. . .so, go to the nicer one! They had a little kiddie table, and she wanted to sit at that! She got strawberry!