It's December...

And I have some November to catch up on.

Since we last spoke, a few exciting things have happened:

This little lady learned how to crawl:

This Family of mine finally got together for some pictures:

These parents of mine got their mission call...and LEFT on their mission a few weeks later. Well they actually never got the call, but they figured it out:

This little lady lost her first tooth (and her second too...but that was December):

 This little friend came for a visit to our house...and plans to keep our kids in line for Christmas:

This little lady got the stomach flu (as well as the rest of the family...me first, and then the others at at the worst possible time - in MEXICO)

AND...we went to Mexico. Well that's technically a December thing. So I'll post about that one later!

When I have time...

Big sister

Someone was clearly made to be a big sister...and that someone is Hailey. She's just sooooo good with her little sisters. Paige is more her friend than her little sister, but still once in a while I catch her trying to teach Paige a few things. Like this morning I overheard her coaching Paige through a particular hard princess puzzle. I heard things like "now...do you think you can find hair that matches?" or "let's find the corner piece...what colour do you think goes here?". Seriously, how sweet is that?

She also is always playing with the baby and usually is more than willing to hold her for a few moments so I can finish whatever it is that I feel needs finishing. Cait loves Hailey more than anyone too...although Paige is a very close second.

Anyway...I caught her holding Cait while watching tv yesterday and it just reminded me so much of a picture from about 3 years ago when she was holding Paige...also while watching tv. She's just so capable and such a great sister! We certainly feel blessed to have her in our family.

Hailey and Cait - November 2012

Hailey and Paige - September 2009

Gymnastics

My girls desperately wanted to take dance this year....they just want to prance around to music, and twirl, and wear tu-tu's and be all sorts of girly. Well...I just wasn't on the ball nearly enough to get that kind of magic to happen. So I pondered, and procrastinated, and played on the computer, maybe facebooked a bit here and there, and then finally I signed them up for Gymnastics here in town. It has been such a great experience. Great enough that I would rate it pretty high on the scale of good mom choices I've made. Paige attends her class first and I get to help her with all her moves...while Hailey babysits (hahaha). Then Hailey gets to attend her class ALL on her OWN!! They have the same coach...and let me tell you, she is wonderful! I'm especially soooo happy with how she pulled little Paigey out of her shell. Miraculous I tell ya!! Anyway, here they in action. Spinning on the bars...practicing holding still...working on pikes...and just plain old hanging out...while skinning the cat of course (something to do with spinning all the way through and back?)

Paige

Hailey

Hailey

A cute little animated GIF iImade...fun hey?

It's a series of pictures. I thought this was honestly the MOST genius thing ever!! That is until Ben pointed out that I could have actually just taken a video...and then it would have been smooth. Uhh...right. It may have also save me about half and hour!

Brrrrrr...it's Halloween

I know we've experienced this kind of freezing Halloween before and I know it's not the last time it will snow...but I'm still annoyed! Why????? Why does there have to be snow on Halloween??? Especially when my kids are clearly going on a safari...you just don't look for Zebras or Lions or Giraffes in the snow! I think we lucked out though and got a few to visit for the day:

 

p.s. aren't you proud of me? I took this picture BEFORE the rush of Halloween started!! I sure one upped myself from last year.

Teeth?

It's just been one of those weeks...the kind that have me exhausted and barely hanging onto sanity. Maybe wondering what I've gotten myself into. And the sad part of it all is that there's nothing really concrete to blame it on other than a perpetually cranky baby. That's enough though right? I think there will be a light at the end of this teething baby tunnel...and I'm pretty sure it will be a three year old. And maybe that's why I'm barely hanging onto my sanity, because THREE seems so far away!! hahaha. I KNOW there are great and wonderful stages between 7 months and 3 years, but right now I'm stuck in the deep never ending stage called 'teething'. Anyway, I'm not all doom and gloom...in fact I do have time to enjoy life...and make cookies...and laugh at my sweet older girls as they share the spatula and lick from it every last morsel of icing. LOVE.

Summer's over

So it's official...that beautiful thing called summer is over. And I'm pretty sure no one checked with me to see if I was ok with that. And I'm not. I LOVE the long days where the sun never seems to set; I love the windows open, the neighbourhood kids running in and out of my yard; I love the smell of barbecues fired up, and fact that the TV is mostly ignored. I just love it all. And although there are great things to love about winter...I still just miss summer.

And so here is the last picture I'm sure I'll have this year of the girls on trampoline and their staticky hair...because soon it will be taken down and put away until next year. And soon I will forget how cute they were this summer. But for now I have this: 

Outtakes

I was going through pictures from the last few months tonight...getting rid of ones I clearly would and SHOULD never use for any reason. And then I realized that I HAD a reason. A really great one. Blackmail. And there you have it, some of us are more photogenic than others (i.e.  every other picture of mine is a great outtake, however I had to go all the way back to 2005 to find that gem of Ben). And that's the way it is. 

Scary Scary Paige

So we decorated for Halloween today. The kids got dressed into costumes to mark the occasion...not this years costumes though. I asked Paige to show me a scary face while showing off her fall leaves. And here's what I got:

Apparently she didn't want to be scared by her own scary face. So I asked her to make a pirate face...and here she is again. "Arrrrr":

We're still working on her camera faces...but boy oh boy is she sure cute! And maybe a little dramatic. 

That Face

See that face? That's the face of a child who says "I'm NEVER going to let you figure me out!" That's the face of a child who slept like an Angel for 6 months of her life...and then one day decided it was time to wake up and scream for hours on end in the middle of the night. It's the face of a child who did that for almost 2 weeks straight...and then slept through the night again for another two weeks, only to start it all over again. It's the face of a child who's so deeply loved that only she (and her sisters) could get away with that kind of stuff...but just barely. It's the face of a child who's momma is desperately hoping to get some sleep tonight, and who would like some answers! But I hear those are hard to come by...so I guess we'll just wait. Because this won't last forever! But one lesson I've learned...NEVER ever brag about how great your baby sleeps, because that's when they won't. So I'm wondering if the opposite is true? Can I say that she's a terrible sleeper and hope she gives that bad habit up? I hope so.

Common Knowledge

You don't have to tell me...because I already know:

They're just beautiful.

And fun.

And silly.

And crazy.

And all mine.

Today

So Cait had her surgery today....and everything went perfectly! We woke up at the crack of dawn...literally, and headed up to the Children's Hospital. They asked us a million questions...had us dress her in the striped hospital pj's and took us into the operating area. We then met with the anesthetist who discussed her role...which really is they only part of the whole thing I was worried about (too many Grey's Anatomy episodes where people didn't wake up from Anesthetic I guess).  

And then the Anesthetist said "I'll take your baby from here".

And so I handed my sweet little baby over...

and watched as the team of doctors walked with her down the hall and into the operating room.

Without me

WOW.

That is not something my heart was prepared for.

A tear or two (or a million) may have slipped down my cheek as I bravely walked out of that room. 

Seriously, I was not at all prepared for that!

But Ben, the ever brave husband he is, took charge and forced me to come with him to the cafeteria to grab breakfast. And then before we knew it we our surgeon walked into the waiting room with a big thumbs up!! Such a relief. He did ask us a few questions about her breathing and coughing because apparently she had some difficulties with both while under...and they had a bit of a hard time controlling it. UHHHHH...what?? But he quickly reassured us that she was ok now. NOW. As in 'she wasn't before'?? Who knows, they were all very calm and professional about it. So I'll just have to be too. And really, it's the NOW that counts. So that's it, we now have to wait a few months to see if the procedure was as successful as we hoped.

I'm hopeful.

Anyway, last night before we put that tired baby of mine to bed I thought "I NEED one last picture of her" I NEEDED that picture like I've never needed a picture before (mom jitters). And so here it is. Way past bedtime, under the orange glare of the kitchen lights, super grainy, in her loving dads arms, and just exactly as I want to remember her at this age. Sweet as always.

Three things

I'm grateful for the following three things:

Well, and my husband too (I'm seriously more grateful for him than I can even express). But he wasn't around when I was taking pictures. These pictures aren't even really amazing, but I was just playing around with my new lens and had three semi willing participants. Three little girls that are deeply loved and cherished. 

We've got a date!

So we finally have a surgery date for this Darling little babe! She's going to have the 'sting proceudre' also known as the 'deflux' on October 9th.

One week.

I just got off the phone with a nurse from pre-op and we discussed things a little bit. When we met with our nephrologist he immediately knew she needed to see a urologist. He said that nephrologists are like the 'engineers' and 'urologist' are like the plumbers...the guys who actually fix the problem. So he ran into the hall, and 5 minutes later showed up with a urologist straight out of surgery. He looked at her chart and within a minute said "she needs surgery, and she needs it within the month".

Yikes!

Nothing like a doctor's urgency to freak a mom out a bit!! But we know she's ok and that she's going to be ok!!

So now we're just sitting back...thinking about possibly isolating our family from the world to make sure she doesn't get sick before her surgery. We're trying not to watch any doctor's shows that may unnecessarily freak us out. And we're just trying to pretend like it's no big deal.

 Because it really isn't.

I mean this surgery will save her kidney and prevent further damage, so that's a big deal. But as far as surgery's go, this one's pretty minor! Anyway...that's the deal. It's all new to me though...and I'm just the tiniest (maybe a bit more) nervous about it all. That's my job though right?

 

Bigger every day

She's growing up and I never said she could

I always struggle with my babies getting bigger. Not in the way most people do though...as far as I know. I can't WAIT for them to grow up, because for me toddlers are easier than babies. But I'm always sad when they do grow up because I feel awful for wishing those sweet baby stages away.

Well...here we are at another milestone. Cait is now eating solids. She will never be that exclusively breastfed baby again (not that she was anyway...since she usually gets a bottle of formula a day). But still, who said this was allowed to happen?? I sure didn't. I AM happy that this means we're headed in the right direction...away from the hard baby stuff (that I can't handle all that well) toward the hard toddler stuff (that I can handle a TON better). But I'm a tiny bit sad that she's not quite the newborn I feel like she is. Maybe that's partly because I can't keep blaming the extra baby weight on having a newborn...I think people are starting to wonder where that newborn is.

Anyway...way to go Cait!! You are a champ! You LOVED that sweet potato we fed you! You gobbled it up and asked for more! You also LOVED having your big sisters feed you (and they loved it equally as much)

p.s. do you notice her left eye? It's a little droopy compared to her right eye. She was born with a condition called Ptosis. We've done some testing to determine the cause for her case of Ptosis...and came to the conclusion that there was no cause (other then a speedy speedy delivery that may have done some damage to her eye). So she may outgrow it (i.e. strengthen that muscle over time), deal with it (i.e. have a droopy eye her whole life), or have it fixed (i.e. reconstructive surgery). We don't have too worry too much though...and only need to get it checked out every 6 months...and then at around 3 or 4 we'll consider our options. Interesting though. 

Alone

It's a strange feeling being by myself...well mostly by myself. Hailey's in Kindergarten, Paige is in joyschool and Cait is napping. I'm ALONE! I feel so much like I want to have a nap...but I feel even more like I want to read a book. So that's what I'm going to do. It feels soooo nice.

Some girls in my ward have put together a little joyschool program. It's going to be fun, laid back and a great way to get our 3 year olds out of the house! I only have to teach once a month...and since we're all pretty easy going I don't have to stress too much! Plus I've done it before.

Paige was soooo excited to go to school...but was a bit disappointed when she realized it was just at some one's house. She wanted to go to an actual school! Next year. I decided to take the customary first day of school pictures with Paige...since she got to see her sister get hers done this year. The thing about Paige is she's equal parts shy, sassy, happy, grumpy, sweet, adorable, adventurous, and just plain old wonderful. The funny thing is she's not equal parts at all times. She chooses one persona at a time and commits fully...for at least a minute (or days). And that's why we LOVE Paige so much. I honestly feel like everyone needs a child like Paige in their family...you will never be shy of adventure, drama, cuteness or mystery. Something knew every day. And each day is just as exciting as the one before. Trust me. 

My Girls

It's funny how I sometimes see soooo many similarities between Paige and Cait...and most people think they look the most alike between the three girls. BUT when I look at Hailey's baby pictures I see soooo much Cait in them as well. Really, I think they just all look so much alike. Cait and Hailey have the same eyes and nose, and Cait and Paige have the same lips...and every other last detail they share. My babies come from one mould...and one mould only! But in these pictures...I think it's Cait and Hailey that are twins.

Anyway, I took pictures of my other two girls in their blessing gowns when they were three/four months old. But I forgot to with Cait. So this morning I pulled the gown out and put it on her. She barely squeezed into it at 5 months old. But she's still cute as ever.

Cait - 5 months

Paige - 3 months

Hailey - 4 months

Kindergarten

Kindergarten...yep. I've got a kid in Kindergarten! Wow. Where did the time go. I can't believe it!

Those are the kind of things I'm supposed to say right?

It's interesting how going to preschool was more monumental then going to kindergarten. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that her preschool was IN the elementary school and felt so much like real school to me. Plus she only goes to kindergarten two full days a week (with a Friday thrown in there once in a while). Next year will be a different story, I believe.

Anyway, we're all excited and happy to see Hailey excited and happy about Kindergarten.
 

Her first day was a success. She was happy as could be. Had no complaints or concerns. And really seemed to enjoy herself. We dropped her off at the crack of dawn...ok 8:30, but we haven't woken up before 9:00 am all summer. So it felt like the crack of dawn. So we dropped her off, she leaped out of the van and bounded off towards the school...and left poor Paige in her wake. Poor poor Paige.

Does this picture get any sadder? I mean besides the fact that Paige is still sporting some serious bedhead and is clearly dressed in rags. But the saddest part is how forlorn Paige looks.  Her big sister is off to bigger and better things...and that means Paige has to stay home with mom and the boring baby sister.

Anyway...Hailey was very happy about her class room. It's a brand new school with brand new everything. And she was especially happy to play with the littlest pet-shops. So we left her with her teacher and other kids. AND I didn't shed a single tear...how is that even possible?

 

We (Paige, Cait and I) then spent the rest of the day cleaning up from our last camping trip...relaxing, watching Dora etc. Later that afternoon we loaded back up in the van and picked Hailey up while we anxiously waited for her to share every little detail about her first day. Which she refused to share. So I'll assume it went fine. She said she loved it, but just couldn't remember anything.

 I did get this sweet little gem though...a picture she drew in class. A beaver and a turtle. So randomly adorable! That's Hailey for ya! We sure love that kid...she's the best!