Olivias Baptism Pictures

 Olivia will be getting baptized this September. We already have her dress and shoes, so we thought we would take some pictures before the baptism. Now she has TONS of beautiful pictures at the Draper Temple in her beautiful dress. She looks stunning! We are all so excited for her to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Dress Ups

Claire had her 5 year check up this last month. although she is really 5 and a half. Here are her stats:

Weight: 43.2 lbs (65%)

Height: 45.6 inches (90%)

Around the World

 I decided it would be fun to have some "around the world" nights where we had the girls pick a country and then decide what we would eat, wear, and how to decorate. Liv chose China.They had a blast and loved getting china make up.We laughed for a long time about Emma in the China make up. It just looked sooo funny. Claire chose Italy. she made a lasagna and we ate by candle light! We have done a few other countries... but they were more last minute, less extravagant endeavors and I forgot to take pictures! We also did Russia and ate some roll like things with meat in the middle. And we did Mexico with some virgin pina coladas and nachos!

Growing Growing

 This is what happens when I let Claire watch Ash for a minute. He gets a bracelet and a smart phone to play on!

 still a binky lover

 He is also in love with his bouncy chair. He bounces all day. It is his favorite! He is getting really good with it. He can swing any way he desires and turns it to face which ever way the people are. It is so funny that he can maneuver it around so well!

A rare picture of Asher smiling at Emma

Asher stats for 6 months:

weight: 16lbs 5 oz (14%)

Height: 27.8 inches (72 %)

Head: 44.1 cm (51%)

He has grown like crazy these past 2 months! The reason: he switched over to formula from breast feeding! We tried supplementing with formula, but he wouldn't have it! He only wanted that bottle! What a little turkey! So I stopped fighting him and just let him be a bottle baby. It has really helped him. He is happy, content, and sleeping through the night! And gaining weight and height. It was a good switch for him.

the cutest

Claire is my biggest helper with Asher. Today I asked her to hold Asher while I finished making a chocolate smoothie. She happily agreed. Then off she went to the living room with Asher on her hip. She thought she would bend over to grab Mr Ash a toy on the floor to play with. She nearly fell over and almost dropped Asher in the process, but was saved by the couch. She was so over come with anxiety that she had almost dropped her brother. She was on the verge of tears and kept saying "I almost dropped him!" I couldn't be mad at her with such remorse for what she had done. So instead I comforted her and told her she was a hero and had saved Asher. Claire has such a tender heart and hates to hurt or even almost hurt anyone. She feels just horrible if she feels that she has hurt anyone. 

The Every Day

 He cries real tears

 just capturing an every day moment. Emma dancing around in Ashers bassinet, Claire kicking at Emma, and Asher rubbing his head into my shoulder asking for a nap too late in the day to give him one

 trying to get a picture of Asher- Em and Claire came to join in

Emma got a bottle of "bath fizzies" for Christmas. They turn your water a lovely blue, pink, or yellow color. You are to use 1-2 per bath. Emma dumped the WHOLE container of fizzies in. There were 150 fizzies in that container.

twins

Sarah 1985--------------------Asher 2013

I thought Asher and I looked alike! I was right... Although Ash is cuter!

Ashers Stats

Asher had his 4 month check up today. His stats are as follows:

 

Weight:12 lbs (0.49%)

Length:24.5 inches (8%)

Head circumference: 16.5 inches (39%)

 

 

It is a bit concerning that he is not gaining much weight. He eats every 2 hours and I seem to have enough milk supply breast feeding him. He has even been waking up every 2 hours to eat in the night. We are going to start doing some formula bottles and rice cereal too to see if his weight will go up! Hopefully he is well and he just has a fast metabolism! Maybe he just hasn't been getting enough to eat and that is why he wakes up so much at night and is fussy a lot. Who knows! 

This little man

Has stolen my heart! He is so cute! We never want him to grow up!

An Epiphany

This morning I was thinking about Christmas and what gifts I wanted to buy, and how much money we should spend, ect. Then I had the thought... What if Christmas wasn't about gifts? What if we took gifts out of the equation all together. What would we do? What would Christmas be about? How would we celebrate?
As much as we all like to preach "Christmas isn't about gifts, it's about the Savior", it would seem as though our actions speak much louder then our words. We all KNOW what Christmas is about, yet what we focus on is gifts. We spend tons and tons of time thinking about what to give , what we want to get, how to package it, how to give it, etc. etc.
So I asked myself, "If I knew nothing of Christmas and how it were celebrated, only that it were a day to remember the birth of our Savior, how would I want to celebrate and remember?" Well, I may want to give gifts, and that is fine. The thought has changed the way I will look at Christmas and gift giving on the Holiday. It will no longer be about how much money I am spending, how many gifts we are giving, and being disappointed about not getting what I wanted. We will exchange gifts, but it will not be my focus anymore.
I know... These thoughts are oh so original. Haha

A little about Emma

Emma loves her "me-me" (blank-y)

 

  

 

 She would like to still be the baby and enjoys being treated like one! She has me rock her in my arms and sing her songs each night. Some favorites are "Ne-No" (Twinkle Twinkle little star). Popcorn Popping and Sun-Beam

 

 She gets into more trouble then you could ever imagine. She is SOOO busy. I try to create things for her to do, but there is a lot of hours in the day to fill! Today she ate the brownies. That pan was 100% full... until Emma found it while I was nursing Asher.

 She loves to climb and push chairs to where ever and what ever she would like to get to. She would rather sit ON the table then on her chair. I really need to do some more serious child-proofing to the house. Her latest love is markers. (pictured below) She climbs the chair to get to them. She colors on wall, and furniture and books. Some times paper.

 

Emma is by far my busiest and craziest of all my girls. She is fierce! She is not timid and shy. I love her little personality and I love that it is so opposite of my own. She makes our days fun and always keeps me on my toes. I always know if there is quiet I have to find Emma... 99% of the time I can't see her, she is into something she shouldn't be! I love it and hate it at the same time. It makes me laugh, and it makes me cry. I have probably already posted about her mischief, but since it is such a HUGE part of our lives right now, I figured we needed more pictures and proof of it ;) Because hopefully she will grow out of it soon! haha

A random story- I always cut our bananas open with a butter knife. Emma took note. As soon as I was away she climbed the chair, took out a butter knife and stabbed all of our bananas. It made me laugh, and then I was mad because our bananas were ruined!

Olivia's twins

We have some neighbor girls that are twins. I think Olivia looks so much like them they could be triplets. Their profiles are even more similar then straight on. I always think I see Olivia in the neighborhood or at church and have to take a closer look.

Funny

 The girls hopped out of the bath. Emma got the hand towel to wrap up in. LOL.

I was so inspired by some adorable sibling photos on pinterest. I decided to take some myself. You could call this a pinterest FAIL! LOL. Never as easy as it looks.. never!

Asher's Stats

Claire changes Ashers diaper quite frequently. She is such a little mother. Not in a bossy way .Claire is just very nurturing. She sympathies with her siblings when they are hurt, she wants to help with chores, she loves to cook with me, and she loves to try to soothe Asher when he cries. Nothing makes her more proud then when she gets Asher to stop crying by holding him or putting his binky in. She is such a sweet heart.

Here are his latest Growth measurement:

2 months

Weight: 10.96 lbs (12th %)

Height:23 inches (35%)

Head circumference:15.5 inches (47%)

Asher is a sweet little buddy. He still loves his binky. He sleeps at night pretty well, but has a hard time with naps during the day. He LOVES to be held by his mama and gets very upset when he is handed over to his Daddy. That is depending on his mood. If he is just fed and happy he is ok with Dad, but most of the time Asher is in a state of fussiness. He is usually either hungry, poopy, or wanting Mom to rock him to sleep. He is growing less fond of his car seat and the Ergo baby carrier every day. Only my arms will do apparently. He also has a quick temper. If i do not answer his sweet cry with in a few minutes it quickly changes to screaming. He just sounds SO mad! He is starting to smile often and it melts my heart. I LOVE baby smiles. We haven't heard him laugh yet. He has found his voice in the last week and has been talking up a storm. It is so darned cute! And have I mentioned how much he poops? EVERY 2 hours. It is ridiculous. Fastest metabolism around! Maybe that is why he is so small! Oh- and he can roll from his tummy to his back. Not ALL the time, but about 75% of the time. He has been doing it since he was 5 weeks. Really weird... the girls didn't roll until 6 months!

Halloween 2013

 we had a bumble bee... Because we always have one since we have the costume!

 A basket ball player... because it was the only thing I could find in the closet last minute.

 A mermaid and Snow white

 close up of her fish scales

and this is Claires original costume, a mermaid (minus the crown). I made Liv and Claire mermaid dresses this year because the cost of buying them was ridiculous. They were $20-$30 per costume at Wal- Mart.. Anyway- they didn't really turn out all that great and took way too much time. They look so home-made... but alas, I only spent $10 for them and that was so much cheaper!! Claire decided last minute she wanted to be snow white... I said "well then, if your going to be Snow White we will make you the best Snow White there is!" and we just let the mermaid costume be used for dress-up.

Halloween was really fun this year. It was pretty cold out but not rainy or snowy! We had a neighbor hood pot-luck in our cul-de-sac. We have some great neighbors. Then we went trick-or-treating with some of the neighbors. The girls LOVED it! Emma just loved stuffing her face with candy any time she could! At one point all the kids thought it would be fun to sing Christmas songs. So there they were yelling "Jingle Bells...." The best part was when a group of kids across the street joined in. LOL. It was so silly and random. I let the girls pick out 10 of their favorite candies to keep. Brett thought I was crazy and said "We're going to be THOSE parents!?" Yes. Yes, we are! They really didn't mind too much. I don't think they know that other kids get to keep it all. Plus, what is a parent to do with out any candy for themselves!?