Thanking my LUCKY stars

Setting the scene: I was prepping food for dinner in the kitchen before church. I had vacuumed the carpeted areas earlier and left the vacuum plugged in so I could do the kitchen floors later. The kids were playing Twister in the front room.

All of a sudden, I heard Preston cry, an "I'm hurt" cry. When he came to me, he said his fingers hurt and he saw fire. What??! He showed me where. Preston had put a quarter in between the vacuum plug and the outlet, which shocked him and sent sparks flying. When I yanked the plug out by the cord, even MORE sparks shot out of the outlet!! Talk about freaky!I'm not sure how much damage can be done by something like this, but I'm grateful that nothing more serious happened. I said a silent prayer, thanking Heavenly Father for watching over him this day.

He took them, I took her

Last weekend, Matt took all three boys to see the Harlem Globetrotters. He got the SWEETEST hookup on 2nd row tickets from a patient of his that works at the Globetrotters headquarters here in Phoenix. She also got them these basketballs!!! I was jealous because I've always wanted to see the Globetrotters, but I'm glad that the boys got to have a fun night with their Daddy!! Blake, especially, couldn't stop talking about how cool it was!
Last night, I took Brooklyn to see Wicked. She had NO idea we were going! I started giving her clues on Wednesday, but nothing too revealing. I brought out a brand new dress that I got her for the occasion, we got dressed up and picked up Jen, Emily, Melissa and Matt's mom. I turned on the Wicked soundtrack once we got on the freeway, but the girls didn't get the hint. haha As we were heading to dinner, we passed Gammage and there was a huge semi-truck trailer with the Wicked logo across the side. Emily mentioned something about it, then put two and two together and asked if we were going to see Wicked. OH, they were so excited!!! We ate dinner at Oregano's beforehand.
Then we headed over to the theater and got seated. This was my 4th time seeing Wicked, but it never gets old! Brooklyn was glued! It was so fun to be there with my {oldest} daughter.
She picked a winged monkey stuffed animal as her souvenir (I got a t-shirt) and I didn't even get to take a picture of her with it because she zonked out before we even got home! See the little blue wings sticking out of her hair?

This is him, below -- of all the things...

I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to take our kids to things like this and make good memories with them. They love being able to have special outings with just mom or dad! I hope we can continue to make this a yearly tradition.

EGGS!!!

We knew this would be coming any day now. Both Matt and I have been checking the nesting box area of the coop every couple days, hoping to see something. The hens have been restless and noisy so I decided to check this afternoon and, voilà! FOUR eggs!!If we're going to be getting four eggs a day, either we're going to have very happy neighbors or I'd better start baking every day! Can't wait to cook these up!

Good job, ladies!!

Two month stats + milestone

Hayden had her 2 month well check today with our favorite pediatrician, Dr. Mohler. She's right on track with her growth!

Weight- 11lbs 9oz (50th %ile)
Length- 23in (66th %ile)
Head- 16in (96th %ile) ~ keeping right up with our other big noggin children!

Hayden got 4 vaccines plus the rotavirus drink thing. She was NOT a happy girl after being stuck in each thigh twice.
Brooklyn and I have a Mommy/Daughter date this Friday, where a baby cannot be present (more on this after Friday). I've been meaning to have Matt try giving Hayden a bottle for weeks now because it gives me anxiety that she might NOT take it when I can't miss this event. When we attempted to give Preston a bottle for the first time at five months old, it took DAYS for him to give in. Time was ticking so I pumped some breastmilk today and had Matt give it to her in a bottle and guess what? She took it right away! Crisis averted and I can enjoy myself thoroughly on Friday! I'm not quite ready to leave her for hours at a time with anyone except for Matt, but it's great to know that she will take a bottle if necessary. We'll just have to keep up on it every so often so she doesn't forget!

A Day Off

Today was President's Day, which meant the kids didn't have school and Matt was off of work. Yay! It's always nice to have Matt home when the kids are home.

I send Blake and Matt to get donuts for breakfast~ the kids love this!!

We decided to take the kids bowling today. Obviously it was a great idea because a million other people decided to do the same thing!! It was soooo crowded! Blake had gone bowling once with cub scouts but the other kids had never been. Matt began by showing the kids what to do and then they were on their own, aside from Preston. He couldn't even HOLD the bowling ball on his own! haha Surprisingly, Blake and Gavin did pretty well (with bumpers, of course)! Brooklyn just pouted because she wasn't doing as well as everyone else.

I love how Matt's right leg slides behind his left leg every time he bowls! Blake takes after his Daddy, apparently. Like father, like son!!

By the end of our ONE game, I was ready to get out of there! Preston was being wild, climbing all over, then he smacked Gavin so Gavin whacked him back. Brooklyn was complaining all the way out to the car that she didn't have fun. Sometimes I wonder why we try to take our kids to do things together as a family and then they whine and complain and act like heathens. Aye yi yi!!

Then we were off to the dentist for teeth cleanings for Brooklyn, Blake, Gavin and me. We emerged with four clean mouths and NO CAVITIES!!! Hooray!

The rest of the day was spent hanging at home. Derek, Kristin and kids came over for pizza while Derek and Matt chatted about their upcoming trip to Philmont in June. The kids were loud, loud, loud!! I'm so glad that we live so close to Derek & Kristin and that we are able to spend so much time together.

Although we had some "moments" today, it was nice to be able to spend a full day together as a family! Seems like days like this are far and few between as of late.

Blue & Gold

Last night was the annual cub scout blue and gold banquet. This year it was quite the affair! Since Arizona just celebrated it's 100th birthday, the theme was all things Arizona. Each family was asked to bring an AZ side dish (I brought chips and homemade salsa with cilantro from our garden) and a cake to represent Arizona. Here was our contribution- I forgot to take a picture of the inside.... it was a rainbow of red, yellow and blue.Everyone was supposed to dress up cowboy-ish. Brooklyn won an award for being the cutest cowgirl!!!They had these animal skins and skulls on display that the kids loved to touch and look at.Blake received a few awards, including his Wolf. They always do these cute things as the boys get a new rank ~ this time they had to get their patch by "wolfing" through whipped cream! I got my wolf pin too. They had a piñata for the kids but it busted before they could start hitting the thing so it pretty much became a candy free-for-all!It was a fun family night to celebrate all the boys and their recent accomplishments.

Hayden is 2 months!!

I can't believe Hayden is already two months old!She has come alive this last month! She's smiling and cooing up a storm and I'm just eating it all up! She's so alert and will make eye contact and track me.

She's staying awake for longer periods during the day and taking about 4 naps a day. She sleeps pretty well at night, usually down at 9 o'clock and wakes around 3am, goes straight back down then wakes about 6:30, back down til 8ish when she's up for the day. So as long as I am getting to bed early, I can get some decent sleep.

I'm still swaddling her for sleep times and it's working well. She takes the binky when she's desperate, but doesn't really rely on it to soothe herself. Will this be my first non-binky/thumbsucker child? Time will tell...

She rarely goes three hours before wanting to eat again (except for the one long stretch at night) but she is getting more efficient with nursing so I'm not stuck in the chair quite as long during the day.

She's solidly into size 1 diapers and is starting to push the limit on some of her 0-3 month clothes!

She's a happy baby most of the time and is starting to learn to be patient since I can't always run right to her. She has a knack for knowing when I'm preparing or eating dinner - she always gets fussy right then! She gets a lot of attention from her siblings and I'm having to remind them constantly to stay out of her face!Matt and I are still head over heels with this little girl!!!

Love Day 2012

We started off the day with a little rain! Preston begged for an umbrella so he could go outside. :)Yesterday, Matt brought roses home for each of his girls ~ pink for me, red for Brooklyn and white for Hayden.Lunch~ heart shaped sandwiches, strawberries and red Jello {Preston chose orange Jello instead}. Twins had the same plus a cheese stick.I spent the afternoon making a couple V-day treats. These have always been a favorite for the kids at holiday time!I also tried my hand at these adorable little pies, including making the crust from scratch! They aren't perfect, but they sure were yummy!Then these were Matt's Valentine's Day gift from me.... because he loves them.
I started the little gift-giving tradition a couple years ago and last year, I picked up these cute mailboxes from the Target dollar section. Thankfully they had them again this year so I picked up one for Hayden too. The kids have been asking about and talking about the Valentine mailboxes for DAYS!! They found them on the table after school. The older three had a pack of Pokemon and gum. Preston's had a Miles Axelrod diecast car (from Cars 2) and mini M&Ms.

Hayden got a bib, a binky clip and a princess rattle.The kids had their Valentine's Day parties last Friday. I always see all these darling homemade Valentine cards on crafty blogs, but my kids wanted to hand out candy to their classmates and I wasn't about to argue with them! ;) Valentine's cards get thrown away about two seconds later so I'm glad I didn't waste all that time and effort doing something cute! haha

Matt and I sorta had our Valentine date over the weekend. We went out to dinner with all his sibs and parents (while Kimberly & JJ were still in town) and then we saw The Vow at the movie theater with Derek & Kristin.

I love ALL my Valentines!! Matthew, Brooklyn, Blakey, Gavin, Preston and Hayden ♥♥♥♥♥♥