Summer Wrap up, part 1....

Since I am not the best at aligning photos with captions, I am doing one post for the update and one for pics.

Summer went by fast. Probably much faster than usual because of baby Cheyenne entering our family. It was a great summer though, but I am anxious to get into fall-schools back in session, beautiful colors and amazing weather. Here is a quick update on everyone and how their summer went:



Chad: Chad didn't really get much of a summer break. His work stayed busy until the day Cheyenne was born, which also happened to be the deadline for his VA project. Since then, it's been steady, but not too busy and he was able to get a ton done on the basement. I think we will be ready to call for an inspection next week. It is still so impressive to me that he was able to design, frame, and complete the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing on his own. I am excited for the next stage because some of the design elements and architectural details will be done once the drywall is hung. There's an archway, some recessed areas in the columns that will fit a vase, lamp, or pictures, there is a tray ceiling with rope lighting in the living area. I am so excited to see it all come together and decorate!!!



Kindra: My summer has been spent caring for my children and recovering from having Cheyenne. She has been an easy baby though, so I can't do too much complaining. She started to sleep through the night at around 6 weeks and can go about 10 hours right now. I didn't have an overly exciting summer, but it was such a blessing to have Cheyenne 1 day after school let out and have the whole summer break to lounge around with the kids. I am glad that school is back in session though. I really prefer a scheduled day. I keep meaning to set my alarm for 6am to get up and work out in the morning, but so far, I have hit snooze each time and missed my window of opportunity. Maybe tomorrow......



Kiley: Kiley spent her summer playing outside with her friends-riding bikes, swimming, taking walks, and just hanging out on the curb with her girlfriends. I am so glad she is able to play outside with friends so much. Those memories will be some of her fondest. She took a trip to Omaha and seemed to have a good time. Once she got back, we had to get her ready to head back to school. I heard on the news that the typical family spends $600 to get their kidS back to school items-school supplies and clothes. That's for a family, we spent that on just Kiley!!! What are we going to do when the rest go to school.....I am pretty certain that she has nearly every item in the Justice store and am absolutely certain that I hate the Justice store!! Last weekend, I took her there to get one pair of jeans, 2 shirts, a backpack and water bottle and it came to $175!!! I had some coupons for $50 off, but still-they are much too expensive. Fortunately for Kiley, she has two grandma's who love to take her shopping! She is definitely the most stylish one in her class this year and those clothes will be boxed up and handed down to Cheyenne-I don't care if they are still in style or not. :) Kiley starts dance on Sept. 3. She is taking advanced child's ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop. It will keep us busy. I have been pushing her to take dance for years. I finally made her take a month long introduction course just to see if she liked it and she loved it!! Her life is all about dance now and some of her close friends go to the same dance studio. It did cost quiet a bit of money to buy ballet shoes, tap shoes, jazz shoes, leotards, hip hop gear, and the monthly cost of the classes, but again these will be some of her best memories as a kid and hopefully she can continue it in high school and even college.



Creighton: Well, Creighton has had a summer busy with "work". He is still waking up early, putting on jeans, boots, a t-shirt and a hat. He grabs a quick breakfast and heads outside where he spends most of his day building things. He is either going to be an engineer, architect, or construction worker. His mind is so organized, much like mine. He is one of the smartest kids I have ever met. He is talking tons and we are making progress with potty training. He is so stinking cute.



Cort: Sweet baby Cort. He spent most of his summer just trying to stay alive. He is the younger brother, so he gets bullied some. About 50% of the time, the boys play great together and that seems to be increasing in frequency as they both get older. Cort is cutting his 2 year molars right now and is pretty miserable. He loves to go outside, but is still a bit small for our play equipment. He has the best little personality. He is reserved and more quiet than the others, but such a free spirit. He is definitely a mama's boy and I hope it will stay that way.

Cheyenne: Cheyenne rolled over on Tuesday!! At 11 weeks. She rolls to the left, back to front. She doesn't quiet know what to do with herself once she gets on her tummy though. Sometimes, she cries, other times she just squirms around trying to get her arms out, and often she just gives up and goes to sleep! She is quite possibly the best baby!! She sleeps about 10 hours at night, rarely cries, and has such a sweet disposition. She coos and smiles a ton and lights up when Kiley comes around her. We have been so blessed with healthy, beautiful, laid-back kids that love to sleep!!!

This year has flown by, but been a great year. Next on the agenda is losing all this darn baby weight. I would love to get back down to my pre-wedding weight. I was 117 lbs and a size 2 at our wedding. However, I have 4 children now and am nearly 30 years old so I would love to keep some curves and get to a size 4-6. We have a romantic trip planned for our 5 year anniversary in 9 months. I am just going to stick to a healthy diet and exercise program. I don't want to lose to much too fast because I mostly want to tone up and get more muscle, so I have to do it the right way. Slow and steady! For every 5 lbs I lose, I can go buy myself a gift. First gift is a pair of earrings. The big gift at 25 lbs is a makeover! New makeup, new hair cut and color, and some new clothes. Hopefully, I can lose most of it by Christmas so I can feel good in our Christmas photos! Fingers crossed!!!

Summer wrap up....

We have been spending a significant amount of time in the hot tub this summer. It's cool in the evening and so relaxing to go hang out and talk after the kids are in bed. The problem we have is that both boys want to clean it and fight like crazy over the tools to clean it. So, here we begin with always having two of everything....Baby Cort taking his turn to clean it.

Girls on the water slides.

Creighton and Cort

Baby Cort. He spent much of the time finding things and eating them...and it's a wonder why he ended up sick a couple days later. :)

Creighton spent his time swimming around like this pretending to be a shark....yep, he got in a lot of shark week this year.

Baby Cheyenne sunbathing. She looks chunky, but she's not. She's so petite, but this picture might suggest the opposite.

The boys playing at the fountain at the mall. We took Cheyenne to get her ears pierced, but I thought they would have fun in this too. We just swung by Children's Place on our way out to pick up some new, dry shorts.

Grandma got the kids "Pacimals" and they LOVE them. These will definitely be my go to gift for baby showers from now on. They are so cute. Cheyenne has a bunny, lamp, and doll. Cort has a frog and monkey.

Cheyenne at 2 1/2 months. I am biased, but I think she is so pretty.

Kiley's first day of school. I like how the picture of her at 2 years old is above her. Time flies....

Cheyenne officially rolled over on Aug. 23rd at exactly 11 weeks. She started here

and ended up here..... She still can't get her arms out from under her so she just squirms around until I come get her.

Cheyenne is 2 months!!!

I can't believe that the time has gone by so fast and Cheyenne is now 2 months. It really seems like yesterday when I had her. It's been a wonderful 2 months though. Above is a picture of Cheyenne's little knitted booties that one of my sister's made for her. I love little baby feet! Cheyenne is a great baby. About as good as they come, I think. She is so content and laid back. She only fusses if she is really hungry. She is smiling and cooing and seems to recognize both my voice and face. She gets very excited when she sees me walking over to her and gives me a big smile, kicks her feet, and makes noise. I love it!!

Cheyenne's 2 month baby stats:

Height: 22 inches long****10%-25%

Weight: 9lbs 3 oz. **** 5%-10%

Eyes: Blue, sometimes blue green...I wonder how much of this has to do with what she is wearing.

Hair: Light brown/dark blond. It will most likely come in blond. I can already see a lot of blond strands.

Sleeping: Great! 4 hours at a time at night. She wakes to eat, get changed, and is back asleep in about 15 min. I am easily getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

Eating: Every 4 hours. We are introducing rice cereal to her to help her put on some weight. She is petite, and Kiley was too, so I am not concerned. I think she looks a like a little chubs until I see her next to her friend, Eden who is our church Pastor's little girl and is 2 weeks younger than Cheyenne, but about 2X as big!

Who she looks like: Not me!!! We recently were organizing pictures into folders on our computer and noticed that in several pics of Creighton, they are almost splitting images of each other. I'll do a post with side by sides of them. They really do look almost identical! I always said Creighton would make a beautiful girl. :) All 4 of the kids do have one of my features with is tiny dimples above their upper lip when they smile. I have that and they all do to and it's nice to see some of me in them. I also think Kiley and Cheyenne have my eye shape and all 4 of them have my long eye lashes. So, they did get some good traits of mine, but my genetically dominant dark, curly hair and dark eyes did not make the cut. O'well. They are all beautiful kids and are healthy, smart, active, and have such different personalities. Life with 4 is wonderful and to Chad that means that a 5th can only make it even better. I am good with 4!!