Landon at 2 Months Old

I don't know how it's possible that our little Landon is already 2 months old! 

His little personality is starting to show through and he has started smiling more lately. He is also chunking up and the rolls are beginning to appear. He continues to be a good baby and we are working towards getting him on a consistent schedule. 

He has been on an every 4 hour feeding schedule at 8-12-4-8 now for a few weeks and doing well with that. At night after he nurses at 8 he has been pretty consistently sleeping till 2 am, then gets up again about 5. After his 5 o'clock feeding I have a hard time getting him back to sleep and he grunts like crazy for a couple of hours. I've been trying to leave him in his bed, but after about an hour of popping his binky back in his mouth every 5-10 minutes he eventually ends up sleeping on my pillow next to me. I don't know what it is, but as soon as he is by me he usually quiets down and goes back to sleep. We are then up anywhere between 7 and 8 in the morning.

 During the day he's been staying awake for roughly an hour after he eats before sleeping again. I've also been trying to start putting him in his room for his naps, but that is still a work in progress. It has certainly been a little harder getting him on a regular schedule since I'm not home everyday with him to be consistent. This going back to work at 6 weeks for me has been hard and I miss being home to snuggle our baby. On my days off that's all I want to do is sit and snuggle with him, I think that's why I don't always mind that he ends up next to me in the morning. It ends up just being my time with him and I love it. 

I just love this little chunker so much and I love the joy he brings to our family.

Family Update

It's been awhile since I've written about what we are all up to lately so here is a little update:

Steven: He made the switch a couple weeks ago to working 4 ten hour shifts each week instead of 5 8 eight hour ones in order to help cut our spending on childcare now that we have 3 kids. He has every Monday off so that I can work and he is home with the kids. So far this is working out well, but it is a little harder on the other days having him leave by 7:30 am and not getting home till 6 or 6:30 pm. he has stayed busy at work and was just asked this week if he would be interested in being part of a regional section of USITT here in Utah. If voted in it would be a great opportunity for him. In church he continues to serve in the Sunday School presidency as 1st counselor. At home when he's not helping with the kids, he's helping out around the house, doing yard work, grocery shopping and anything else I need help with. He does so much for our family and we are blessed to have him.

Me: I returned to work in the PACU at Logan Regional Hospital on September 8th and am trying to adjust back to being a working mom with 3 kids now. On days that I work I feel like I'm in a rush to get things done from the time I get up to the time I go to bed. It has been exhausting, but each day it is getting better as we fall into our new routine and Landon sleeps better each night. At home I feel like I am struggling to keep up on all the daily chores, let alone try and get anything extra like keeping up on our blog done! I look forward to the weekends when Steven is home and I have the chance to do a few extra things. In church I remain an Activity Days leader for the 8-9 year old girls and after taking a couple months off to have Landon I returned to the activities just this week. Thankfully I have had an awesome partner who has been very understanding and accommodating. It's a fun calling and I am enjoying getting to know the girls in our ward.

Mason: He is loving preschool and had his first field trip with it this past Thursday. They went to the local fire department and were allowed to climb on the fire trucks, but according to Mason he didn't want to and stayed by his teachers side the entire time. He has been working hard on learning his letters and numbers lately. At home he loves to play with blocks, play outside and watch cartoons. He also loves to torment and antagonize his sister. He has been very defiant towards us lately and we are really struggling with him getting to listen and be respectful. He tries our patience daily and honestly we don't know how to get through to him. I'm not one to wish that time goes faster, but I am wishing that this phase will pass quickly.

Emma: Our little girl has also been trying our patience with her display of a whole lot of attitude. I was anticipating this with adding a new baby to the family and she has not disappointed. Like her older brother she has been flat out defiant and naughty. It is my belief that she is acting out to get attention. To deal with her frustrations of constantly being told what to do by Mason and being tormented by him she lashes out by hitting, kicking, screaming and whining. Time outs with her seem to be rarely effective, but at her age I'm not sure what else to do with her. On the flip side she still has a very sweet, lovable side and is a great cuddler. I love to hear her talk in her little toddler voice mispronouncing half her letters. She is also getting closer to being potty trained, but we really haven't had the time or patience to set aside and dedicate to it yet. Like her brother she also likes to play with blocks, she has been playing with her baby dolls more lately, and has been into watching the Little Ponies cartoon.

Landon: Our sweet baby boy is quickly approaching 2 months old and growing so fast. He has been a good baby and is a champ to put up with so much screaming and yelling from his siblings every day while he tries to sleep. He has been a better sleeper this week and 4 nights in a row has made it from 8:30 pm till 2 or 3 am before he wakes to nurse again. I have especially appreciated these longer stretches of sleep at night and hope they continue. He remains in our room for the time being, but I think I'm getting closer to moving him to his own room. There is more to tell about him, but I'll save it for his 2 month update coming up soon.

Sawyer and Emma

Our neighbor's little boy Sawyer came over to play today and him and Emma were really hitting it off. They played so well together and were so cute! He is about 6 months younger than her, but I think he is already taller than her!

Canning Peaches

Steven brought home a box of peaches again this year and after they've sat in the garage for over a week we decided we'd better actually do something with them before they all rotted. So Steven got to see how canning peaches was done. 

I was thrilled to be doing this can't you tell!

This is how Mason helped in the process, he stayed out of the way by watching TV. 

Landon helped by sleeping soundly in the swing while Emma was napping in her room. 

Blanching the peaches. Thankful for neighbors that let us use their canning supplies. If this becomes a yearly thing we might actually have to start investing in our own supplies. 

Steven had to show me up by making his sliced peaches all pretty looking so that he could make a pie with them. 

This is Steven's first, made from scratch peach pie and it was delicious!

Relaxing and snuggling on the couch after a long afternoon of canning and baking. 

Little Bro

I just had to take some pictures of Landon in his new "Little Bro" outfit. 

Emma Goes Poop on the Potty!

Emma has been peeing sporadically on the potty for months now, but we've never been able to get her to poop on the potty until today. Steven had just gotten home from work when Emma said she needed to go poop, so he rushed her into the bathroom. A few minutes later I heard her saying she went poop on the potty. When she got off we made sure to make a really big deal of it and gave her a cookie. She looked pretty proud of herself as were we. This is such a big step for her and if she keeps it up we may actually be able to start really potty training her.

Aquarium

I was able to get cut from work today so we decided to spend an extra night at Cory and Terrie's and have a family day today. However, this morning did not start off like I'd hoped and the kids were both being so naughty and whiny that I was beginning to rethink our whole day. At last we decided to go ahead with our plans anyways and headed off to the new aquarium. Mason and Emma loved seeing all the different animals.

Checking out an eel.  

Sting Rays 

Watching the giant fish.

The kids were to afraid to give the rope bridge a try, but Steven thought it was fun. 

Penguins Emma and Mason

Watching the penguins was my favorite part of the museum. We sat around watching them forever hoping to see them jump in the water and of coarse as soon as we started to walk away they started jumping so we hurried back to watch. 

Finally seeing one of them in the water. 

Photo op with an orca. 

My sister Rebecca and her son Cannon met up with us at the museum just in time take a family picture of us, minus Landon who was sleeping. 

This was Becca's first time meeting our new baby boy and of course she couldn't wait to hold him. 

Watching the scuba divers feed the sharks was pretty neat. 

The aquarium was fun, but not nearly as big as we thought it was and we were able to see everything in just over an hour. Becca and I sat and talked for awhile while the kids ran around playing and then we said our good-byes and were on our way. 

Following the aquarium we went to lunch at Zupas which turned into a HUGE fiasco! Mason had wanted to go somewhere else and then was throwing a huge fit about even getting out of the car. We basically had to drag him into the restaurant and then he continued to throw a huge fit! We were so beyond frustrated and embarrassed as everyone in the restaurant was watching us. One lady even stopped by and whispered to me that we were doing a good job. I was so ready to bail on even having lunch, but I really needed to feed Landon. By the end of our lunch Mason had settled down a little and we all made it out in one piece. We were more than ready to head home afterwards though and were so happy to be back on the road. 

Swimming at Grandma's

Steven took the kids swimming in grandma's pool today despite the fact that the water was freezing. They all squealed a lot when they first got in the water and it didn't seem like moving around helped to warm them up. The kids didn't last very long before I think the first stages of hypothermia were setting in and I took them in for warm baths.

Little cold Steven?

Mason hitting the freezing water. 

Emma's face makes me laugh so much!

What an awesome daddy to bare the freezing water to play with this kids!

Finally some smiles

Bubba and Brayden also braved the cold to swim. 

Later this afternoon the happy newlyweds Cheyenne and Carrie came over to open their gifts. We had fun watching them open their gifts and seeing what they got. Afterwards we just hung out and talked with everyone and it was a nice relaxing Sunday in which I didn't even get out of my pajamas.

Cousins DezaRae and Landon getting to know each other while Dez gives his hands kisses.  

Carrie's Wedding

Yesterday we drove down from Logan for Carrie & Cheyenne's wedding which we thought wasn't until 7 pm. We got to Cory and Terrie's around noon and after we had lunch and Landon was fed I ran to Target to pick up their wedding gift. While I was out Cory had come back to the house and informed Steven that the wedding ceremony was actually at 4 and the reception is what started at 7. Unfortunately, we had kept Emma up hoping to give her a later nap since we'd be out late, but now there was no time for her to have a nap. I hurried back from the store and we rushed to get all of us ready for the wedding and to the church. Emma was so so tired and fell asleep in the car on the way over which wasn't very long, so she was a little cranky when we arrived. They tried to get some pictures of her with the wedding party being that she was the flower girl, but she was in no mood to participate and I was worried if she would play her part in the ceremony. Thankfully by the time the ceremony started she had come around and did a great job as flower girl and loved dropping the pedals. The ceremony itself was simple yet beautiful and they both looked so happy. After the ceremony we sat outside and ate lunch and waited around for the reception to start.

Steven was busy helping prepare the food in the kitchen, the kids were busy running around playing with their cousins and I was busy holding a fussy baby most of the time. The reception was beautiful and it was great to see so many friends and family members that we don't see often.

Grandpa's girl. 

Of course everyone was mostly interested in seeing Landon, who was killing my arms by the end of the night. Mason and Emma continued to run around all evening and by the end of the reception they were both so tired, Mason even sat down and asked if he could sleep on the way home. Steven and I decided it would be best if I took the kids home to put to bed and he would stay to help clean up. I got all the kids in bed and was ready to climb in bed myself when Steven came home with Cory and Amanda about 10:30. We stayed up and waited for Cory and Terrie to arrive who didn't get there until close to 11:30. We helped them unload and I then I went to bed just in time for Landon to wake up and eat. It was after 1 before any of us went to sleep, so it was a long day/night to say the least.