Haylee's 4 Months!

Haylee turned 4 months the end of December. Her appointment ended up being on New Years Eve. We got home from Utah the previous day and she didn't sleep well up there. It was nice going to see her doctor and venting a bit. Just after turning 3 months, Haylee went from sleeping 9 hr stretches at night to 4 hour stretches. It was killing me. I never feed my kids oatmeal this early, but her doctor felt she needed something more than just my milk. Yes, I was still nursing but struggling with it...had nothing to do with Haylee at this point, it was my issues. Hopefully getting oatmeal started now, she will start sleeping better at night. Haylee still loves her bumbo and just started hanging out in the exersaucer, getting the hang of scooting (or pulling herself on the wood floor), loves playing with Bryce and Kylee, and still loving her swing naps. Even with the sleeping issues at night, she is still my happy and sweet girl!

Stats:

13 lbs 10 oz (35%)

25 in long (75%)

December 2013

December is always a crazy month. It started out with Drew turning 7!! I have no idea why I don't have a single picture of him on his birthday. Not even anything close except the picture of him in his new glasses. Oh well! I will blame it on baby brain. I have serious issues when I don't get a good nights sleep. I have no brain and can be quite cranky. Drew turned 7 and can't wait till next year when he is 8. He is so excited to be baptized. It was low key, of course, and had a small celebration at Nana and Papa's house. He of course wanted donuts instead of a cake. He is my picky eater when it comes to sweets. He only likes certain candy and loves ice cream, brownies, certain cookies, and donuts. He is not a big cake person, unless it has pumpkin in it. Oh, he is in love with my Mom's pumpkin pie....Aren't we all!! For his birthday, I took him out to lunch to one of his favorites, McDonald's. He felt special! He loves the Wii and getting so much better at his reading. He struggled a little bit at school. First grade was quite the adjustment for him, for some reason, but he has an amazing teacher that is helping him become a better student. His favorite subject is math. I tell him he is going to be my engineer when he grows up. 

Haylee turned 3 months and started getting sick of the floor. I moved her to the bumbo and loves hanging with me in the kitchen when I am cooking.

Haylee learned to roll over at the beginining of December. A few days later she was scooting all over the place. She used the wood floors to help her get all over the place. In this picture I had her by the burp rag and facing other direction. A minute later, she had turned around and was scooting toward the couch. She's a smart one!

Kylee loves to draw. She is our little artist. This picture she drew for one of her preschool teachers. It is one of my favorites. I love how she drew the shoes.

Just before winter break, the kids have parties. I went to Bryce's and helped him build gingerbread houses. Bryce loves his class and teacher.

My girls!

Christmas finally came. The kids were so excited. I didn't take much pictures because Ryan videos the whole waking up and opening presents. After we opened presents at our house, we went to my mom's and had breakfast and then visited Ryan's brother and their family. After naps, we went back over to my mom's and opened a few more presents. It was a nice day and quite the adjustment with 4 kids now. The next day we headed out to St. George to visit Ryan's parents for the weekend. Ryan was still working for American Express doing contract work, so he didn't have any time off. We kept the trip short so he could get back to work. The kids always have fun up in Utah. They went and saw Frozen with Ryan and his Mom. I waited for it to come out of DVD so I could stay home with Haylee. It was a great year and felt very blessed!

November 2013

November came and went. Life is always crazy with a baby, but I'm kind of a hermit at the same time. With 3 kids in different schools, it keeps me pretty busy.

 Playing with one of Kylee's new birthday toys.

Haylee sleeping in her swing during a nap. I love taking pictures of this girl sleeping.

Last month, we found out Drew needed to have his eyes tested. We went to the eye doctor and sure enough he needed glasses. He now officially wears glasses and loves them!

I came home from Black Friday shopping to this sweet girl waiting for me to feed her. She looked so peaceful. I had to take a picture. Haylee loves sleeping with her eyes cracked and mouth open.

Elf on the Shelf came back to visit us. He left the kids new PJ's the first night. We love Ralph and look forward to him coming to his visit every November/December.

Haylee's 2 months!

This girl had her 2 month check up the beginning of November. Oh, I just love her to pieces! She loves to take naps in her swing and nursing great still, yay! She sleeps in my closet because we are afraid she will wake up Kylee when she wakes for feeding in the night. She is such a happy girl and we love to hear her laugh.

Stats:

11 lbs (33%)

23.5 in (82%)

Halloween 2013

Halloween was a fun one. We had our ward Trunk or Treat and had a blast on the bouncy houses they had this year. Then we had my parent's annual Ward Halloween Carnival. They raised the ticket prices this year which made it not so fun, because we had to limit the ticket spending. We ran out of tickets early which meant it was time to go home. The kids had fun and that's all that matters. Then we ended with Trick or Treating on Halloween in my parent's neighborhood. Drew was a ninja, Kylee was Cinderella, Bryce was Green Machine, and Haylee was a Kitty Cat!

Kylee's 5!!

 Oh this girl is going to be my demise! I love her to pieces but man is she one strong-willed 5 year old. 

Stats:

35 1/2 lbs (30%)

42 1/2 in tall (55%)

Her favorite things:

dolls, playing with friends, Haylee, color purple and pink

Loves:

to talk, color and draw pictures (she's an amazing artist), playing outside, and ballet

Hates:

meat, being in time out, cleaning up her messes, and chores-she used to love them ;(

Right before Kylee's birthday, she decided to give herself her very own hair cut on the side of her head. It was pretty bad. I took her to a friend who had to chop her hair off and give her cute layers. I was worried Kylee would hate it because she always refused a good haircut, but she loved it. She liked getting lots of compliments.
Kylee really is a great help when I need her. She loves holding Haylee and having all the attention. I think that is why she is struggling right now. She has been really great in sharing the attention with the baby, and it's finally hit her that she misses it being all about her. We are trying to work on this and hoping her behavior can improve. She is soooo ready for kindergarten, but absolutely loves preschool right now. She has some amazing teachers that are teaching her how to read. I love it. I will have no worries about her once she starts kindergarten in August. She will just continue to excel in her academics. She has been taking ballet class these past few weeks and loves it. Time will tell if that's a direction she wants to take. I think I am going to try and get her in an art class and see if she likes that better. She is one amazing artist. I love her drawings!

Haylee's Blessing

On September 15th, we blessed Haylee Lori. It was such a beautiful day with lots of family that came to support us. Ryan gave her a sweet blessing, and we know she is our calming angel that perfectly completes our family. We had a brunch afterwards at our house and loved spending time with all our family.

A little background on her name. We always knew we wanted her middle name to be Lori, after my aunt and my middle name is Lori, but we had the hardest time deciding on a first name. We went back and forth with so many names. One month it was Devin, the next month it was Hallie and continued this way all the way till she was born. We liked to ponder the name we could agree upon and then practice saying it. Nothing ever clicked. It was the hardest decision we had to make, seriously! Finally, 3 weeks before she was born, I came across the name Haylee Duff on the internet. It kind if jumped out at me and got the wheels going. Ryan and I both liked the name and the kids did too. It sounded and felt right. So when I finally went into labor and had to tell the nurse her name, Haylee was her name.

Haylee's 4 Weeks Old

This cutie is 4 weeks old. We have just been loving her to pieces. She is a great sleeper at night and gives me 6 to 8 hour stretches. I love it! Naps have been a different story. She LOVES to be held and just wants to sleep in your arms. We bought swaddle blankets but that doesn't suffice her. So we finally gave in and let her take naps in her swing. As a mom of 4 kids now, I have to pick my battles, and for my sanity I took the easy way out. It actually ended up being a blessing in disguise in the long run. Her doctor was totally fine with it because she loves to sleep at night in her crib, so if he was happy, I was happy!

Stats:

8 lbs 13.5 oz (29%)

21.5 in long (58%)

14 3/4 in head (71%)

Haylee's Newborn Pictures

I have a dear friend who is a great photographer and wanted to take pictures of Haylee when she was just born. These are some of my favorites. She is 1 week old here. Love this girl.