Happy Birthday Slade!

This post is a week late, but better late than never, right? I just keep telling myself that...

Anyway, on November 9th, Slade turned 4! He is becoming quite the young man. There is so much to say about Slade!

• He is enjoying is preschool class and all the friends that he has made there.


• His favorite toys right now are Bumblebee from Transformers, RC cars, helicopters, dinosaurs, Spiderman and so many more!


• He spells his name wonderfully and loves to rhyme.


• He can count into the 30's on a good day.


• He LOVES to ride his bike!


• He loves doing "jobs" (chores) around the house for me.


• He asks to say the prayer but helps Daisy when its her turn.


• Loves being a Sunbeam and he did wonderfully in his first Primary program!


• He is always making Maylee laugh.


• He is Daisy's best friend.


• He tells me he loves me everyday along with hugs and kisses.


• His Dad is his hero and wants to be big and strong like him when he grows up.


• Thinks he can do everything himself and has to prove that he can :) (Like dressing himself, obviously)

Instead of having a birthday party this year, we celebrated his birthday with just our little family. We decorated the house and made him feel very special. Skylar was off that day so we picked up lunch and headed to the park. We then took him to Wal Mart and let him pick out a small gift. He was ecstatic! Later that day, we went to my parents house to celebrate his and Kayci's birthday's.

I could not imagine life without Slade. He brings such joy to our family! I love seeing his smile every morning and hearing his cute laugh. He is growing up way to fast but at the same time, I love watching him become his own little person and learn new things everyday. Love you Slade!

Maylee is 9 months!

Our sweet Maylee is 9 months old as of today! It amazes me how fast time seems to fly by and when I look back, I wonder if I took my time to cherish every moment possible that I had with them. Children grow up too fast!
Maylee's personality is starting to blossom a lot more and she is so much fun! Of course she is very much a girl and demands things to happen her way, right away. She loves to play with her dad on the floor but prefers mom all other times of the day. She still army crawls with an occasional knee crawl and she has started pulling herself up on the couch, chairs, toys and our legs. She has learned how to dance and it is the cutest thing! She says momma and dadda, waves hi and bye and loves to eat. She also loves to play with Slade and Daisy and tries to keep up with them all the time. Her hair is coming in beautifully and I'm excited about that! She has her two front bottom teeth and she had two upper teeth just pop through this weekend with more coming.
Now for her stats. She weighs a whopping 14lbs 8oz! A whole 1lb 6oz weight gain from her 6 month appointment which places her in the .5 percentile. Yep, point five. I was a little disappointed in that seeing how she was in the 10th %, but since she is moving quite a bit more, her Dr is not concerned. She is healthy and happy and doing what she should. Her height is 26 inches (8th %), and head circumference 17 inches (27th %). We love our sugar bug!

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year! Slade had a little party at his preschool on Thursday and learned a new song about a scary witch that he and Daisy sing all day long.
Friday night was our ward party and it started out wonderfully. The kids were doing a craft at the craft table when all of a sudden Slade throws up. After we cleaned up and ran out of there, Slade said his costume was choking him (Batman) but it was apparent that a hot dog did not agree with him :) He said that his tummy felt better and he was back to his normal self the next morning.
Saturday night we went to the Boretsky's home (2 houses away) for yummy food and fun. After we ate, we got the kids ready to Trick-or-Treat. The kids had a blast and after every house we stopped at, Slade would tell me his bag didn't have enough candy yet.
Sunday morning, I had the kids ready for church early and was about to get myself ready when Daisy throws up. We ended up skipping church. No more candy for the kids! The good thing is, is that the candy isn't very tempting after I've seen it thrown up.


Daisy was Thumbelina. She picked out every part of her costume and she did a great job! She really couldn't decide if she wanted to be Tinkerbell, Thumbelina, a ballerina or a princess...but decided last minute that she was in fact Thumbelina.


Daisy and Cale (spider) got to ride in the wagon!

BATMAN!!

I love how Slade is looking through the window. Good thing no one was home!

Kleven, Slade, Maylee, Cale, Kambri, Daisy and Ezra

I wasn't going to fight with her all night to keep a costume on, so my mom got her a ghost onesie and we called it good!

Slade shared candy with Dad, but he really didn't have a choice :)

October Fun so far!

The kids and I were able to visit Skylar at his station and the kids loved every moment!

Slade and Daisy loved talking to each other on the head sets.

Maylee wanted a turn too!

She sure loves her food!

I had to post these. My mom found these for Daisy and she LOVES them! She wore them the next day and ended up stepping on my toe which resulted in part of my toenail coming off. (Sorry tmi...) But I still love them and her.

She has mastered the bike and wants to ride it everyday! But, she has to have her necklace, purse and no pants on everytime.

Dancing!!

Skylar is building a new closet in the spare room. Why, you ask?!? Well, he knocked out the wall of the old closet which exposed the laundry room and built me shelves right there. See pics below...

He also added another shelf above the washer and dryer.

My new shelves!! Five 24 inch shelves. There is so much space it is amazing!

The kids and I made and decorated Halloween cookies! A little early, yes, but SO good!

Slade has asthma and needs to take medication twice a day through the nebulizer. We had just gotten back from a friends birthday party and I came back in the room to find him doing this...

Miss Maylee! She is such a sweetheart and we love her so much! The past 8 months have flown by! She sits by herself, army crawls, has one tooth, waves hi and bye, says dada, hates having head bands on, responds to her name, and babbles all the time. She is still petite for her age as most people think she is 3 or 4 months old, but she is doing great! We just love those cheeks!

Look close and you can see her tooth!

Swine Flu

I have not decided on whether to give my children the swine flu vaccination. I need some thoughts from you guys. My husband will be getting it, but he's a fire fighter and that is a no brainer because he works very close to the general public. So why is it so hard for me to want to give it to my kids?!
Slade is in preschool now and can bring home all sorts of germs. He also has Asthma... He has never had the regular flu vaccination because I am scared of him getting Guillain-Barre' Syndrome. My brother, Austin, got that when he was 15 years old and it was very scary. He is now getting ready to leave for his mission and is doing great, but he was paralyzed and in a wheel chair for a while. Its not hereditary but the thought of it freaks me out.
Daisy has had the regular flu vaccination but she was born early and after talking with her doctor, we decided she needed the added protection. She didn't get the flu last year...
Maylee has not had the vaccination. I just want to know your thoughts and if you are going to get it or have your children receive it. Thanks!

Baseball Game and Randoms

Okay, random stuff first. Daisy normally doesn't take a nap anymore but it seems we have been going non-stop lately and she finally crashed on the couch. She is the craziest sleeper I have ever known besides my husband.

I refer to my children as my ducklings. They follow me everywhere. All the time. Its not that I don't love having them around but sometimes a little privacy would be nice :) At this particular moment, I was making dinner and they all followed me into the kitchen and entertained themselves right by my feet.

I love this boy. He is always very entertaining.

Oh yes, my model. I have taught her well and we enjoy some photo shoots every once in a while. As soon as she sees the camera, her hands are on her hips and she turns perfectly!

Then her hands go behind her back and she tries to have a serious face...

A fellow firefighter on Skylar's crew gave him 7 season tickets to the D-backs game and a parking pass! We decided to take the kids and invite my 3 younger brothers but only 1 of them could make it, so he invited a lady friend (yay!) and a guy friend. We all had a great time! The kids loved the atmosphere and Maylee did pretty well. I felt like I needed to boil her hands and cheeks because those vendors that sell beer and cotton candy kept stopping and talking to Maylee and TOUCHING her! It bothered me but she got a kick out of their gold teeth and other interesting facial features. She really liked the guy with the cotton candy hanging from the stick as she would almost jump out of my arms whenever he walked by. A few of them thought she was 3 or 4 months old and thought it was amazing how well she held herself up. One even thought I was her babysitter and after I told him I had 2 more kids, he became creepy. It was a fun night. We had awesome seats, right behind/next to 1st base so there were several very close fly balls.

The kids became a little restless at one point so we took pictures of our silly faces...

We had just finished eating some gushers which turned our tongues blue...

Maylee eventually fell asleep and was in Skylar's arms when we took this picture.

Although the D-backs lost, we had a great time! The game only lasted 2 1/2 hours but there were post-game fireworks which were awesome.