Pics from 3/4-3/17

When we first got Creighton's potty seat ( a couple weeks ago) He would go in to the powder room and sit on it and read and come out 15 min. later. He has since learned that we use it to go to the bathroom. I really haven't worked with him at all on this yet because he is just now 2 and boys don't usually have the ability to understand the idea until closer to 2 1/2. He knows exactly what it is for though. He will tell me "poop" and then go in there. He hasn't gone yet, but it's mostly my fault. He tells me as we are walking out the door to go get Kiley from school and I say "okay, we will go when we get back" and he goes in the car. It's good that he is telling me when he gets the sensation to go. I think he will be pretty easy to train. We will see.

This is a trophy that Kiley made Creighton. She saw it in a magazine at school and came right home and had to make it.

Eating his cake, he kept it pretty clean. He doesn't like to have messy hands or a messy face. I was actually surprised he didn't use his fork-he uses a fork for everything.

Hitting his pinata.

So, here is my big bird cake. I have never made a cake before. I also didn't have and couldn't find yellow food coloring. All I could find was pink, purple, orange and green. I thought I would be able to find a box of primary colors-since I can use those to make all the other colors. I also didn't have any tools for frosting the cake besides a butter knife. Overall, given my tools and skills, it turned out fine. It was very tasty and that is what is important!

See his watch in this photo! It's another thing-besides his hat and shoes-that he always wears. He is so funny. He loves babies! He doesn't play with them (dad would not allow that) he just holds them and kisses them. He is so nurturing. He is like that with Cort too. Creighton is really protective of Cort, especially at church when other kids try to see him. Kiley is so affectionate to Creighton and he, in turn, is so affectionate to Cort. They are three of the greatest kids!

Like Creighton, Cort also sleeps with a blanket over his face. I might have to start making him sleep with crocheted blankets instead of these, so I know he can breathe fine. He has been sick for a couple weeks with Bronchiolitis. He slept most of that time in his bouncer with a vaporizer right next to him because his nose was so stuffed up. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about the other kids getting sick. The Pediatrician said that Bronchiolitis only occurs in kids under 2 and 90% of the time in those under 6 months.

He is starting to do better at brushing his own teeth. I bought him an electric toothbrush because it will get more done in the minute he lets us do it. I brush his teeth first and then he is allowed to brush his tongue (that's what he wants to do) for 15 sec. So nice to have a kid that doesn't want candy or money, just to be able to brush their tongue for a few seconds. :)

Trying to convince me that putting maple syrup in his sippy cut is a good idea.

Creighton's favorite activity is to color on his dad's blue prints. I am convinced he will be an architect like daddy. He is always into fixing things, figuring out how things work and are put together, he has extremely developed fine and gross motor skills-he could even snap his fingers perfectly (better than me) at 1 year old. He is allowed to use markers because he stays on the paper and puts the lids back on.

Per Kiley's request, I have included some pics of her room. She is allowed to decorate it however she likes. She is 100% responsible for keeping it clean (except for vacuuming and dusting). She actually does a good job. Each day after school she has to do her homework right away and then spend 10 min. tidying her room. Once she has done both, she can go outside and play. It never gets messy. Occasionally, I will have to re-make her bed just so it looks nicer, but she tries. It's actually a pretty large room, but she has it packed with things-

I found this shelf in our goodwill box and painted it to match her room.

3/17/2010- Such a busy, busy week

I can't seem to keep up with my promise to update this once a week. I started a post over the weekend, but didn't finish and forgot to save it. I started this one a couple days ago and am not sure if I will have enough time to finish it. I will try better. Recently, Chad and I have been watching several documentaries. We saw just a brief clip on this new one called "Food, Inc." I went to the grocery store to pick up items for the week ahead and looked at the price comparison of organic items over processed items. I found that milk was about $3.50, instead of the normal $2.00 milk I usually buy, chicken was the same price per package, but the chicken breasts were smaller. Actually, I like that idea better-who needs an 8 oz chicken breast when a serving is only supposed to be 4 oz. For $5.00 I was able to buy 4 chicken breasts, about 4 1/2 oz each. I like it much better because they look nicer, cook better, taste better, and are individually wrapped so I can freeze them separately. I found beef was about 20 cents more per package, not bad at all. Fruits and vegetables were quite a bit more when I bought organic. However, I found that if you buy frozen vegetables (less preservatives) it was not much more at all than canned vegetables and you get more in a bag than in a can. Overall, the cost to replace our milk/dairy products, fruit, vegetables, and meat with the healthier alternatives only added about $10.00 to my bill. We were very pleasantly surprised. Our neighbors are putting in a 30 X 10 foot garden this summer and are taking our requests for vegetables. That will really help with our plan to eat healthier.
Easter is quickly approaching. Kiley has her Easter dress but still needs a cardigan. I have to make a trip to the mall to pick up outfits for the boys. I have several thank-you cards to send out for gifts/money that was sent to Creighton for his b-day but am waiting until I can send an Easter pic of the kids in with the card. Creighton had a fun b-day. It was pretty low key though. I made him a big bird cake (my first attempt to make a cake....and the only tool I had was a butter knife. I need to prepare better next time! We had the neighbors over and grilled out brats, polish sausage, and hamburgers. We had cake and ice cream for dessert. The kids all hit the pinata several times, but it eventually took Chad to break it open (even after I tried and failed) . Creighton loved his Black and Decker weed whacker and wore the batteries out that night and again the next day. I eventually put rechargeable batteries in it. He also got a shovel, rake and hoe (he thinks it's a pooper scooper because it looks like ours that Chad uses). He loved his kitchen I made him and our neighbors got him tons of food and dishes to use with it. Sabrina, Kiley's friend, stayed the night and we had a friendly game of Texas Hold'em with our neighbors. It was a really fun night.
Daylight savings made for a rough weekend with the kids. Instead of getting up at 6:30 Sunday morning to get to the church, we had to get up at 5:30 and it took them several days to adjust. I am not a fan of daylight savings. I like it to be light out when I wake up and now it's dark until about 7am, which makes it more difficult to pull myself and the kids from bed at 6:45. I do like it staying light in the evenings, but not at the expense of the morning.
Cort has been sick with bronchiolitis for about two weeks and it looks like we are on the road to recovery now. Fortunately, the Pediatrician said it is really rare for a child over the age of 2 to get it, so we have been safe from him passing it to other kids. He did sleep in a bouncer seat, in my room for the two weeks and it has been difficult to transition him back to his crib. He was waking up about 10 times a night when he was sick-he was coughing and couldn't breathe well out of his nose. I think he has now gotten into a habbit of waking up and even though he isn't sick any more he is still waking up about 6-8 times a night. I hope he adjusts and gets back to his normal sleep schedule soon!
I am looking to take Easter pics of the kids this weekend. Hopefully, I can get them posted right away....no guarentees though.

Weekly Update 3/4/2010

I had all intentions to update the blog last Friday and begin my routine of doing some every week, but the weekend came and went and I hardly had a chance to put my feet up. It was a very busy weekend, but fun. On Friday, we had our neighbor over and talked with him for a long while. It was after midnight before we got to bed and that is very late for Chad and me. We so enjoy their company though. It's so nice to have great neighbors. Jeff (our neighbor) did some landscaping work for us and Chad returned the favor by helping him put in his granite counter tops over the weekend. While it meant that Chad was gone a lot this weekend, he did learn some things for when we put granite in our kitchen. I made the guys cupcakes...well, I had to make 50 cupcakes for our weekend dinners and gave some to them. Chad and I made our first batch of beef jerky and it was awesome!! Our neighbor, Jeff, got us started on this. He has a meat slicer and dehydrator at home and was always making us jerky. We tried to make our own and were very pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was. Of course, we gave some to the neighbors as well.



On Sat. night we went to a going away party for our close friend, Jeremy. We couldn't stay past 8pm because the kids were tired and we were bummed to learn we missed an exciting game of Apples to Apples. It's a good thing we left though because the kids were all asleep within minutes of leaving and they were all a bit crabby in the morning for church.



On Sunday, we hosted a "long time, no see" dinner and we had a few friends over who we hadn't seen in a long time. It was really nice to catch up with them and to fire up the grill after not using it for a couple months. It has been in the 40's and 50's for most of the winter, but I think we get spoiled in Denver and consider it too cold if it's not in the 60's. It did get up to 60 degrees this past week and I had my house opened up and did a nice "spring cleaning".



This weekend I have to get things together for Creighton's 2nd b-day. After giving it some thought, I think we have decided to just have a little get together at our house. It will just be us and our neighbors. We will get Creighton a pinata, a cake, and of course presents.



A couple of our friends are putting together a get together every Friday night for some of the younger couples at our church. Our first meeting is March 19. It will be nice to be able to meet with other people who share our values and faith and whose company we really enjoy. The kids can go too and all play together. It will be good for the kids to see us be involved in our faith outside of just going to church. This is particularly good for Chad. Chad grew up going to church, but he has a hard time getting motivated to attend regularly-especially because I am working there so I can't sit in with him. He also finds service boring, which most of us do. I think these get togethers will appeal to him much more than service.



Cort is cutting his two bottom teeth and kept us up all night last night. He is running a low fever and having a hard time sleeping during the day. He gets over tired and can't fall asleep in the evening. It was a rough time, but he is showing improvement today.



Chad and I are not attending the Green Tie Charity event for MCPN this year. We have gone every year, but decided that it's a bit expensive for a night out when Chad's work is still slow. I think Chad still intends to play in the Celebrity Golf Tournament though. It's about time to set up our golf net in the backyard and start practicing. Creighton is getting good at hitting balls. Can't wait for summer to get here!!!


We watched the premiere of "The Marriage Ref" last night and loved it. We have so much fun in our marriage. We laughed because I have the same rule with my formal dining room and living room as a couple on there. We only use it for formal events, otherwise it is meant to be looked at and not touched. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. We are going to rent movies tonight and probably just have tacos or pizza for dinner. We have a plan to start making one night every weekend "game/movie night". We want to order in pizza and watch a movie together and when the kids are older, play games. We want it to become something we do that night every week until our kids are all moved out of the house. We will have a rule that they are only allowed to go out with friends one night during the week and one night on the weekends, so we want for their time at home to be fun too.

Weekly Update Pictures 3/4/2010

Here are some pics from the last two weeks. I take a lot of photos. So many, the I have had two digital cameras give out on me. I only post about 1/20 of the pics I take. Each kid has so many photo albums. Cort is only 4 months and he is already on his 4th large album. They will have lots to look back on. I only have a couple of pics from the time I was a baby to a teen. My kids will have albums, scrapbooks, video, etc. I like to look back at them too.




Kiley is getting so big. She had a bad cold this week and had to stay home two days. She did get to go to school on Thursday though, so she was also allowed to go to Girl Scouts.

Playing with my sofa cushions one morning. Notice, he is still in his pj's, but has his hat and shoes on too.

After bath one night. Creighton's loves baths. He usually takes one every other night, but he has found a way he can get one every night. We make him take his hat off during dinner time. He gets food on his hands and rubs it in his hair and then says "bath?" and we say "no, we'll just wipe it out". Then, he gets more food and puts it in his hair and looks at me and says "bath?" and I say "well, yes, now you have to have one". I like giving him baths though, it's so time consuming though because he doesn't want to get out.

We thought that by the time Cort was 4 months and went into the nursery, Creighton would be done with his crib. Creighton has a beautiful crib, much nicer than this one, but he loves it. He is not ready to give it up yet, so we had to buy a new one for Cort. The little decals on his wall are individual, wooden animals. I used double sided tape to put them up. I will have to take a pic. of the whole nursery, it's really cute.

Cort's feet are always in his mouth. It's so cute. When I feed him his baby food, I often have to fight off his feet. He tries to stick his feet in his mouth as I am feeding him.

Daddy was in charge of dressing Cort one morning and he grabbed clothes out of a basket. He ended up putting our 4 month old in Creighton's 18 month clothes. Silly daddy.

Getting some more hair, but his eyebrows are still too blond to see.

Because this is Creighton's old swing and he is still slightly possessive of it, he feels he needs to supervise when Cort is using it. I usually put Cort in it when Creighton is asleep, otherwise Creighton will not leave this spot until Cort is done swinging.

Kiley is such a good big sister. She adores her brothers and they love her. When Creighton gets hurt, he runs to her for a hug. They never fight and are always cuddling and playing together.

Kiley turned over the ottoman for Creighton to lay in and watch a movie.

Creighton loved this swing when he was a baby. Most of the time, he doesn't pay any attention to it. This day, he decided he wanted a little rest. He looked ridiculous, but he was very happy to spend a few minutes in his swing.

Creighton thought the dog should eat in the dining room, like everyone else.

Creighton, with a sock on his hand of course, telling me he doesn't know where the dog is. He is so cute.

Baby Cort spent much of Wednesday night in our bed, crying. His teeth were bothering him. He had a low fever (the rosy cheeks, cute-but the result of a 100 degree temp). He also has a cold and his nose has been stuffy. We have tried to use the baby nose syringe but the congestion is too far up. He can't breathe well out of his nose right now and that frustrates him when he wants to drink his bottle or suck on his pacifier. It was a terrible night, but it only lasted 24 hours.