Quilts

Since last year Ashely has wanted to make quilts for each of the kids. We got the supplies together and she finally was able to get them done this last February, after months of working on them in the free time she had. She put a lot of effort into them and had a few trial and error experiences, but she worked through all that, with some of the kid's help along the way and managed to get them done. They ended up turning out great. It was funny when Ashley told Adahleigh she was making her a blanket and it had flowers on it, this was after she had already started, and Adahleigh said,"I don't want flowers I want butterflies". She ended up putting some butterflies along the edge for her. She loves her quilt now and demands to sleep with it instead of one of her littler blankets.Charles quilt probably took the most effort and trial and error. Ashley found a picture of one she liked on the internet, but no description really of how it was made or pattern available. We blew up the picture and just used it as a template, that didn't work out very well at all. Looking closer at the picture we decided that each lizard had been pieced together, so they all weren't the same. Instead of doing that Ashley decided to just cut the lizards out individually and allow enough overlap between the different colors, so she could just zig-zag them together. It ended up working out really well and the end results looks great. When Adahleigh saw it done, she changed her mind about her quilt and said she wanted the lizard one instead. We had to tell her she had one and this one was Charles. In the end she decided she liked hers just fine and would be ok with letting Charles have this one. He isn't as picky with what he sleeps with yet, but if Adahleigh wants hers and he sees then he wants his too.

One Last Stop at the Zoo

In April, we were lucky to get one last stop at the Pocatello Zoo before moving. The weather even cooperated enough for shorts and T-shirts. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to go back up to Idaho Falls to visit the zoo there, which was a little disappointing. The kids really enjoyed going around again. It was particularly fun for Charles since he has gotten into animals lately and is big enough to walk around on his own.

As usual Adahleigh had to hang on and jump off everything in site. Charles was a good sport for the most part, but we had to carry him around on occasion.

This time while we were there the petting zoo was actually open, so the kids got to interact with the goats (since that's all that's available to touch in the petting zoo. Adahleigh has become willing to touch animals again and Charles is now shy, go figure, she went right up to the goats and started petting them.

No matter what I tried Charles wouldn't touch them, he'd get close and then pull away.

We tried to get a nice picture of the two of them in front of the buffalo cut out, but needless to say you can't ever get a good picture with more than one kid in it. These are our best attempts.

Of course the both got right up next to the fence to get the best view they could of the animals in their enclosures.

The whole time your in the zoo you can hear the the peacocks calling all over the place because they run loose. Just before leaving we came across one in an area the kids could get close enough to get a good look at. Adahleigh thought she was going to get up close and personal, till the peacock started walking around then she decided it was a little too big to take on, so she ran away.

The kids also enjoyed playing on the learning toys, beside the slide and tree fort, the spider's web was a big hit. Adahleigh enjoyed playing on it, Charles tried but he wasn't quite big enough to climb around on it and really have fun.

We all enjoyed our day out in the sun, we even had a picnic after the zoo. Now we just wish it would get warm enough her that we could enjoy some time outside and some pool time, hopefully by next weekend.

More Monkey Business

We've been really bad with keeping up on the blog lately with everything going on, between finals, packing up and moving, and Keisha's blessing. Now that we are pretty much settled in we will try to catch up on recent events and keep everything else up to date and the posts more frequent.

The move went really well for the most part and we really like our new apartment (we'll get some pictures and put them up). Adahleigh and Charles are waiting for the pool to open up so that they can go swimming. They both really enjoyed swimming at the hotel with Kenya and Azure when they came to Pocatello for the blessing. Adahleigh asks every day if she can go swimming.

Charles has enjoyed the freedom that a bigger place allows and the lapse of supervision that has occurred while we've been unpacking or taking care of Keisha. He likes to play a combination of hide and seek and peek-a-boo, so he knows all the good places to go (he especially likes the front closet since there really isn't anything in it yet. He recently discovered all the stuff to get into under the bathroom sink. Luckily it was his bathroom so there isn't too many dangerous things in there to harm him, but he does like to eat soap.

He has also enjoyed full access to every room in the apartment since the doors don't have regular round handles, but have the ones with an arm on the side so he can open any door with ease. To keep both the kids in the apartment we had to get one of those safety latches that go toward the top of the door so they can't get out.

He is still honing his climbing. Which looks like he has pretty much mastered. We are constantly hearing him playing with stuff he shouldn't be in or even able to reach for that matter. This evening we heard him banging dishes together and found him on top of the kitchen counters.

It doesn't even phase him when he gets caught he just continues to go about his business until we pull him down.

We weren't quite sure how he got up because the boxes that were stacked weren't that close to the counter. He was nice enough to show us how he got up there as soon as we put him on the floor.

I took the orange tool box off after recording his climbing and he attempted to get back up by standing on the box left and them putting his foot on top of the cabinet door. He didn't have a good enough hand hold or he would've been back up. I didn't get a picture of this because by the time I got the camera back out he had given up the attempt. He has had a few mishaps in climbing, especially with out 3' chair that he likes to climb. He has had them fall on him a couple of times, worst to come from that is a bruise on his thigh though.

Easter Sunday 2010!

Adahleigh dying eater eggs!
She started off by coloring on them with the wax crayon.
She really enjoyed coloring her eggs. She was really good at letting us show her how to do it then was able to do it herself without making too big of a mess. She was even able to use the egg scoop to get the eggs in and out of the dye.
There were a few mishaps, but due to excellent reflexes not an egg was harmed by her in the dyeing process and very little dye made it other places than on the eggs.
She was really fun to dye the eggs with since she has learned most of her colors she would ask for the color she wanted to make her eggs. Even though she wanted to be completely independent in her dye she did allow us to help a little to minimize the mess made.
Adahleigh with all her eggs, and yes she died all of them but a couple.

Charles was just as enthusiastic about dying eggs, but of course he wanted to do it his own way, which is a slight variation from the norm. He watched Adahleigh do a few and then got impatient and demanded an egg for himself. Before we could get him some dye to put his egg in he had manage to crack his egg open and demolish it beyond recognition. He was definitely proud of his handy work.

When he didn't get another egg quick enough he threw a fit, which ended the moment he got another egg in hand.
We let him give it a shot at dying his egg. He managed to drop it in without splashing dye everywhere and coloring himself.
Once he decided it was the shade he wanted, he pulled it straight out (just couldn't wait for help).
He ended up with some pretty sweet colored hands. Since he couldn't keep his hands out of the dye, we put a stop to the dyeing, he wasn't having any of that.
We came up with a good compromise, he got his own cup and egg, but instead of dye he got just plain water. He was just fine with that. He event attempted to use the egg scoop. At first he used it to try and get the egg out, but then found out that you can break and egg with it too.
He thought he was pretty hot stuff and ended up drenching himself a few times and everything around him when he started splashing.
He ended up realizing that breaking the egg up in the water made it a different color, kinda like egg soup.

Which eventually turned into this......

.......

Who really knows what goes through little kids heads to make them decide to taste or eat something.

Egg soup must be pretty good because he didn't just sample it, but devoured it. We'll take his word that it's actually good.
We finally ended up taking it from him because it looked so gross and he just kept drinking it.

Overall dying easter eggs was actually not as big as chore as we thought it was.

We enjoyed relaxing, listening to conference, dying easter eggs, getting our easter baskets from the easter bunny, and just hanging out this easter weekend.

The Easter Baskets

Of course the kids enjoyed their easter candy the best. They both love chocolate and peeps.

The next best part of our day was the dying of the easter eggs.

Who's Who

Lets see how well everyone can match the correct baby picture with right person. Some of these picture aren't the greatest, but we didn't want to make it that easy. The pictures for the most part are within a couple of days being born. Let us know how ya did if you would like to share!

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

1. Adahleigh


a.

b.

c.

d.

e.




2. Ashley


a.

b.

c.

d.

e.




3. Adam


a.

b.

c.

d.

e.




4. Keisha


a.

b.

c.

d.

e.




5. Charles


a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

First Encounters

During the pregnancy we've been preparing Adahleigh for the arrival of Keisha. For the last few months she has constantly been bringing her up by asking "Baby sister in Mom's belly?". At first she would also say "I have a Baby in my belly too!!", but we taught her that she had food in her belly so then she would say "Mom has baby sister in her belly, I have food in my belly." She has been really excited to finally meet her and hold her. She told us the week before Keisha got her that she wanted to hold baby sister all day. She didn't know what to think about going to the hospital, but when she finally saw Keisha she got really excited. She loves to hold her and look at her now and Keisha doesn't seem to mind. One of the funniest things Adahleigh has said is "Baby sister's belly is falling out." She said this the first time she watched us change Keisha and saw her umbilical cord there. I asked her if her belly was falling out, so she got a little worried and lifted her shirt up just to make sure then said "Adahleigh's belly not falling out". She isn't quite sure that Keisha is okay even though we've reassured her that it's just her belly button.

We were a little worried about how Charles would handle a new sibling. He's very independent so we weren't too worried about him being jealous of her getting attention, since he doesn't like a whole lot of it himself. The thing that worried us is he likes to pick on Adahleigh and will whack her pretty good sometimes, his favorite thing to do is wait until she's getting her diaper changed and then run up and hit her, since he knows she can't really do anything at that point. He ended up being just as interested in Keisha as Adahleigh was from the start. He wanted to get a good look at her and hold her himself. He has been especially gentle with her and may even be a little more protective of her that Adahleigh is. He really likes to go up and rub her head. We've yet to have any problems with him getting too rough with her.

The Real New Arrival

  Keisha was forced into this world Monday @ 12:31. She didn't want to come on her own, so the Dr decided to induce Ash. Once she was hooked up to the monitors they showed that she was actually having contractions on her own, but they weren't that big or frequent. Once the oxytocin was started the contraction came on with some force and really close together within 30 min. Keisha wasn't  progressing all the quickly and the contraction were strong enough that Ash opted for the epideral. Once that was taken care of she was able to relax and actually take a nap, since we came in at 4 am she was really tired. Things progressed pretty quickly over the next 2 hours. The Dr came in at about 12 and decided things were ready to go. He disappeared for a couple of minutes and by the time he got back the contraction were basically non-existant, but he decided to have Ash start pushing anyway and within 20 min. she was here.
  Keisha weighed 7 lbs 8 oz (now the largest of our 3) she's 20 inches long and has a head circumference of 14 in. She definitely fits in with her sibling with being extremely alert right from the start, she actually doesn't look all that much like a newborn to us either (especially compared to the newborn in our ward). She is more of a fusser than the other two were, but is still pretty happy and has taken really well to nursing.

  At first she came out really blue, but shortly after she started breathing she turned pink almost right away.

  She's the first one that has needed her nails trimmed from her first breath. We had her hands covered so she couldn't get at her face.

  She definitely enjoys her sleep when she finally decides its time to sleep.

                                      

  She also likes to watch everything that is going on.