Feeling Blessed

This week has been a rough one. I won't get into the details, but it was not a good week as both Ben and me questioned our decision to have children. Cats would have been much easier.

Nevertheless, we survived and today the kids were super cute. I got a few snapshots, and when I look at these I am reminded that we are incredibly blessed- even if there are tears at times.

Ben Takes The Girls On A Hike

This morning instead of going swimming Ben decided he wanted to take the girls hiking. He HATES taking the girls swimming, so he says, "Hey, do you girls want to go to a CAVE instead?"

They were all sorts of excited.

Claire LOVES the mountains and being in the outdoors.

I was able to worm my way out of going. You know, because the baby probably wouldn't enjoy it and she needed to have a good nap. And if it also meant I could take a nice, long, relaxing bath then so be it.

They had a great time and nobody got hurt- the sign of a true success.

Claire was VERY excited about this hole she found:

What Do You Think?

If there is one thing I know women have an opinion on, it is mothering.

So, now I come to you with a question.

This little love bug had some fun in the Jenny Jump Up today:

It was really cute (of course, she is always cute!).

This is the first time any of my girls have been in a Jump Up. I have heard they are absolutely wonderful and moms all over the world love them.

Here's my questions: Aren't they pretty much the same as an exersaucer? That is what I used with the other girls. Or is the Jump Up so much better? I am borrowing the Jump Up. Should I keep it because it is different than the exersaucer, or give it back and haul up the exersaucer from the basement? The big con of the Jump Up is that the only place we can put it is in the hall, so I can't be making dinner while she's jumping away. But is it worth it?

Discuss.

Four Months

In some ways it is hard to believe that four months have already passed. But in other ways, it seems like she is older than four months- she is so big, and it seems like she has always been a part of us. Isn't it weird how that happens? How you can go your whole life not having kids or knowing how many kids you'll have, or what their gender will be, but then you have them and it is just perfect and right and feels like that's just how it always was? That's how it feels.

Camille is still a really sweet baby. She is figuring out her vocal chords and using them to her advantage. She coos quite a bit, and can definitely be fussy, but for the most part is a perfect baby.

At four months, here is what she is up to:

-Rolling onto her side, but not all the way over quite yet
-Nursing about every 3 hours. It only takes her about 5 minutes to nurse. She has always been the best eater I know!
-She is still sleeping in the swing next to us or in bed with us (after she wakes up around 4 to nurse she usually sleeps the rest of the night with us). I did put her in her crib once last week for a nap and she did fine, but I still love having her close to me. I can't bear to put her in her crib at night yet.
-She is still a pretty bad napper. She takes about 4 one-hour naps a day. Again, it is in part my fault. With two older sisters, we don't stay home and we have places we have to get to. But, she is a trooper and sleeps well at night, so I'm not too overly worried about it. I try and be home and get her a good nap when I can, and that's all I can do.
-She is starting to play with toys.
-She LOVES her hands. She eats them a lot.
-She LOVES pressure on her feet. She wants to stand A LOT and is often pushing off on our hands if she is laying down, or grabbing the sides of the floor mat with her feet.
-She opens her mouth in the biggest smiles, but doesn't laugh a whole lot yet. Still, her big smiles are the best.

I will have her official stats next week when I take her to the doctor.

Every day I feel incredibly blessed that a) I have 3 healthy, beautiful girls, and b) that I get to stay home with them and just be their mom. I love my girls!

Rise and Shout, the Cougars Are Out!

While Mom Was Away...

This last weekend I had the opportunity to fly to Provo and visit with my old roommates.

It was wonderful, to say the least!

I was so blessed to have fantastic college roommates (and I include you guys, too, Dani and Heather!!!). We will be friends forever for sure! It is so great that now we all have husbands and kids and we have all gone in different directions, but every 2 years we get together and it is like we were never apart.

So, two years was up and it was time for us to get together.

I took Camille, of course, but left the other kiddos with Ben.

Here's Camille about to embark on her first plane trip (and first Roommate Reunion):

I had to make sure she was SUPER cute so that if she cried the whole time her cuteness would make up for it. Check for cuteness! And, she didn't cry so we didn't have to test my theory that her cuteness would override crankiness.

 Both there AND back this guy was on our plane:

You get bonus points if you know who he is, and bonus bonus points if you know who he is AND you didn't graduate from BYU.

We flew in and out of Provo, which I HIGHLY recommend if you ever fly to Utah- it was SOOOOO nice! Such a small airport, and zero stress.

Anyway, Camille was a perfect baby until the second night when we went out to dinner. Then her lack of naps and regular routine caught up with her and she started to get pretty fussy. Poor girl.

My roommates and I had a great time!

We went to Bridal Veil Falls.

 We went and toured campus- it has really changed since I was there.

We ate at the Brick Oven- YUM!

My Audra thought it was awesome that I was going to visit Audra, so I had to get a picture of Audra holding Camille. (I knew when I lived with Audra that I was going to name my daughter Audra. Not only is it a fantastic name, but she is also perhaps the best person I have ever met- I love that girl!)

 This is a favorite pose of ours. Normally, we put Kristin in a superman pose, but we thought it would be fun to include Camille in our tradition:

I am so glad that we still get together! The late night talks, The Creamery ice-cream, the time capsule- all of those things are a reminder of just how blessed I am!

First Day of Pre-School

Today was a big day for Claire: her first day of pre-school.

I was not planning on putting her in pre-school this year. This was actually a very difficult, and sudden, decision.

As you all know, Claire has a very feisty and spunky personality. I have been trying to figure out how I can best help her. I have been doing more and more reading, and I finally realized what part of the problem is.

Claire wants desperately to be a big girl. Audra gets to go to school, so she wants to go to school. She has had to sit idly by for 3 years while Audra has gotten to take dance class, pre-school, etc. Claire was so jealous when Audra got a backpack. Claire would go around telling everybody, "I'm 5. I'm going to kindergarten."

Her tantrums increased. She got worse and worse with her behaviour.

I reached a breaking point and realized that not only did she need something that was HERS (not Audra's), but I also needed a break from her.

That day I signed her up for pre-school.

This is perhaps the best decision I have ever made. (Better than marrying Ben? Hmm....that's a tough one)

Claire was/is SOOOO excited to be going to school! For two weeks she talked about what kind of backpack she wanted. When I bought her a Tinkerbell backpack, she slept with it.

FINALLY today she got to start school! No surprise, she ran in and was so excited. She did great.

I am sure the teachers LOVED the beautiful outfit she 

chose- mismatched bows and all.

Her tantrums have almost stopped. Just being able to not be in Audra's shadow is making a HUGE difference! Now she can make her own friends, have her own teachers, be her own person. I am surprised it took me so long to figure it out.

Part of me feels like a bad mom because I am not able to provide Claire with everything she needs. But, the bigger part of me feels like a great mom for realizing that I can't provide her with everything she needs and providing her with the resources she needs to excel.

Unfortunately, because I decided this so late, Claire is in morning pre-school and Audra is in afternoon kindie. Not the most brilliant plan, but it provides me with one-on-one time (well, Camille joins us as well) with each kid. Plus, I can run errands with Audra- I can't with Claire- so I can run errands while Claire is in school.

Overall, I think this is a great plan. I am so excited for Claire to have her own thing!

Lair O' The Bear

Yesterday we went with Ben's parents and sister on one of our favorite hikes, Lair O' The Bear. It's a nice flat hike, making it easy for the kids, but in the mountains and absolutely beautiful. There is a creek that you walk along, so it provides a nice water feature for the kids.

 Audra absolutely refused to smile for a picture with me. What's up with that?!?

 Claire figured out how to work the system: Get Grandpa to carry her!

The weather was hot, of course (this summer has been dreadfully hot!), but it was nice and shaded and pretty perfect.

This place really is special to Ben and me for a number of reasons. We have some great memories from this place. One of those memories is that we got our engagement pictures taken here.

Just for fun (and for posterity), I thought I would post some of them. What a flashback to the pre-kid, pre-marriage days!

 These ones were taken at Red Rocks, but I think they turned out great as well so I wanted to add them in:

Is It Legal To Be So Cute?

I know that all moms think their kids are cute, but seriously: Is she not the cutest little thing?

Field Day

Audra had her first Field Day yesterday. I think Ben and I were more excited than she was, and that's saying a lot because Audra was quite excited.

It's a little strange to have field day in August, but the weather in CO is crazy in May- we could have snow, rain, or nice weather. Finally after dealing with too many indoor Field Days, the school just decided to move field day to August.

Ben had the day off from work so we all got to attend. I am so glad we did! It was so much fun! We all had a great time.

 Thankfully, Claire was allowed to join in the fun for almost every event. She LOVED being a big kid!

 Both kids said the "hopping" race was their favorite:

 Here you can see Claire waiting in line. She was REALLY good the whole day:

 In this race you had to get water in your cup (which had holes in it), put the cup over your head, carry your water back, and dump the water in a bucket:

 Ben had the task of holding Camille while she slept. He held her for over an hour! His arms were very tired.

 Claire stole the show with her dancing- it was awesome:

Our two star athletes: