Blaise's b-day

Blaise had a pretty unconventional birthday because we drove to Kansas City to pick my inlaws up from the airport. On the way there he said "umm, do you have to take trips on your birthday?" But I think it was worth it for him once Oma and Opa were in the van! We stopped at Costco on the way home and then made it back to Fayette around 5pm - just in time for some birthday cake for dinner (which luckily I had thought ahead and made the night before) It was divine!


My inlaws had this easel shipped to our house for Blaise. Roy didn't get a chance to put it together until Saturday, so he got it a day late. This is one of the first pictures he drew - I love it!


When Rae had her birthday she got a balloon, so ever since then Blaise had been talking about what sort of balloon he wanted for HIS birthday. Thursday night Roy went to Walmart and I told him to get some sort of superhero or toy story balloon. According to Roy this was the only one they had - it's bigger than Blaise! It has been played with a lot and is still around!



All in all I'd say he had a pretty good birthday! I can't believe he is 4 now!

More milestones

Rae - During kindergarten last year many of Rae's classmates were losing teeth and it was just killing Rae that she wasn't losing any. I had to remind her that she was the youngest in her class and that sometimes kids didn't even lose their teeth till they are 7. She would constantly talk about her teeth "feeling funny" and "maybe starting to be loose". It was cute.

And then, on November 23rd it finally happened! We were at my sister's house in Charlotte and she was playing on the trampoline with her cousins. I don't think her tooth was even loose, but she was biting a rope and was having her cousins pull on it and that got it lose enough to fall out! She said she saw a little blood and tasted blood so she went inside to see what happened and that's when she realized it was a tooth! They had to go back out to the trampoline to find the tooth and luckily it was still there. Oh, and of course all of this happened while Roy and I were out on a date and we missed the whole thing! I was kinda sad about that!

Just like Santa, my kids know that the tooth fairy isn't real, but we still planned to give them money under their pillow. And since we were at my sister's house with two kiddos that DO believe in the tooth fairy we had to make sure our kids didn't ruin it for them! Rae got $2 that night (since it was her first tooth) Then, Thursday morning the tooth next to it came out too! She got $1 for that one. (which is lost somewhere in a plastic baggie at my sister's house)

She hasn't had anymore loose teeth since then but that's okay because the excitement over the first ones hasn't even worn off. She is always showing me "cool" things she can do while she is eating with her missing teeth. It's cute. My baby is growing up! (um, sorry if there are mixups with lose and loose - I tried to double check, but may have messed up anyway)


I'll have to write more later about my milestone - time for a movie with the hubsters.

Milestones

There have been a few exciting developments in the Wright household. The title of this blog could have been "better late than never" because I was nervously awaiting some of these accomplishments. Let's take it person by person:

Isaac - When I took him to his 15 month well-child check up the doctor was slightly concerned about his lack of talking. He had started saying several words when he was around 12 months, but had stopped saying those words and at the time of the appointment he was really only saying "no" and "mama" and "dada". I was a little worried about it, but not too much because I could tell that he was understanding everything going on around him and he followed directions really well. But of course the doctor got me all worried and said that when we came back at 18 months they would do a hearing test if he wasn't talking more. Well, I spent two months stressing out over whether he was going to start talking more! There would be some days that it would completely consume me and I'd spend time browsing the internet for articles about "late talkers". One night I was particularly upset about it and I was praying for comfort and I just felt like it was something I needed to let go of and everything would be fine. So, I did.

When we were visiting my family for Thanksgiving I noticed how much my sister's son Ollie was talking and I started worrying about Isaac again. I kept reminding myself that Olllie is 9 months older than Isaac. Also, it seems like when we were visiting in May, Ollie didn't talk that much, so I stopped stressing about it again. Sure enough, by the end of our visit Isaac had started saying a lot more words. I think it was good for him to be around a lot of kids, especially ones more his age. And since we've been home he has been attempting so many words! He now says "balloon, bubble, oma, opa, bye bye, choo choo, Rae rae, me, amen and a lot more that I can't think of. I'm really glad he's able to start expressing himself more, and I'm glad Heavenly Father was able to give me the comfort and patience to wait for him to do it! Hopefully he'll keep adding words to his vocabulary and keep learning and developing so mama doesn't have to worry anymore!
See, can't you tell he's going to be a genius?

Blaise - this boy has been SO hard to potty train. We tried EVERYTHING! Seriously - after a while I just didn't want to talk about it because people would say stuff like "have you tried giving him an M&M if he goes potty" - umm, dude, I'd bake him a cake if he went potty willingly! He just didn't seem to be able to tell when he was going to poop, and that was the biggest struggle of all. I couldn't really have him wear underwear because he would poop in them a couple of times a day and the mess was just too much for this pregnant girl to handle! Every few days I could catch him right before he started to poop and get him to sit on the potty, but it was never his idea. Again, this was keeping me up at night and causing me to read all sorts of articles on the internet. And, again, I prayed for help and was told that it would happen when he was ready. So I kept him in pullups and kept encouraging him to use the potty, but stopped stressing about it. It's not fun having an almost 4 year old poop when you are in public - but I had to get over being "embarrassed" and just know that it was something he was physically unable to do right now. I know it sounds like a nice excuse, but seriously, he just wasn't ready.

And then, suddenly, he was! We left Fayette on Friday night (Nov 19th) and drove to Charlotte for Thanksgiving. We were so glad because Blaise didn't poop on the entire trip! On Sunday he pooped on the potty (twice even I think) and on Monday he did it all on his own! On Tuesday he did it again and even on Wednesday when we went on a date he pooped while my sister was watching him! It was amazing!! I still didn't want to get my hopes up, but he continued to poop on the potty all week! On Sunday the 26th (we had gotten home late Saturday night) he woke up and had pooped a tiny bit in his pull up, but he told us he needed to poop and did the rest on the potty. And since that day he has not had a single pooping accident!! At first I thought i was the fact that he was around other big boys - but I don't think so because he started immediately when we got there. I think it was just that he was finally able to control his body and recognize the signals. I don't know the medical facts, but that's this mommy's opinion :)

We are still working on the peeing part, but twice this week he told me he needed to pee (which he has NEVER done before) and he has been staying dry for longer periods of time - so I think this is something that will happen on its own when he is ready. Definitely different than normal potty training, but it has been a good learning experience for me.



I have to write about mine and Rae's milestones, but this post is long enough already and I need to get the kids some breakfast, so I'll try to write it tonight.

What works for you?

I've been trying to decide what we are going to do with gift giving between the kiddos. I'd like them to give each other and us gifts so that they aren't just doing all of the receiving. This year they don't really have any money of their own (except for Rae who has some money from winning a contest and from the "tooth fairy" - ack, I need to blog about that). I think I'll just take Rae and Blaise shopping and let them pick out some small items and find a few things to be from Isaac - but of course that doesn't really teach them anything about sacrifice and using hard-earned money to buy things for other people. SO, my goal for the new year is to set up some sort of allowance system so that they learn to save money for toys they may want in the middle of the year and also saving money to buy gifts for people.

My questions for you:

How do your kids earn allowance and how much do they earn? After tithing what do they get to do with it?

Do your kids give each other gifts for birthdays/Christmas?

Answer my questions and I'll get back to blogging regularly ;)

My 30 days of thanks

I know a lot of people naming what they are thankful for everyday either on their blog or facebook, but I didn't want to commit to doing it daily - so here's my whole list :)

I am grateful for:

1.Knowing that I am a child of God and knowing the Plan of Happiness.

2. Eternal marriage and the wonderful husband that I have.

3. My wonderful children - they totally stress me out, but they bring so much joy to my life also.

4. Being able to conceive and bear children easily. A few friends of mine have lost babies recently and it makes me especially grateful that I haven't had complications like that. Also makes me think twice before whining about how hard pregnancy is.

5. Roy's job. I complain a lot about how busy he is, but he is able to be home every single evening and every weekend. And he makes enough money that I don't have to work, which is really important to me.

6. Great parents that raised me really well and are fantastic grandparents.

7. Great in-laws that are super supportive and wonderful grandparents also.

8. Fun siblings and sibling-in-laws that give me lots of support and laughs.

9. The internet - so that I can keep in touch with those in 6,7 &8

10. The gospel of my church is most important, but I am also grateful for the organization of the church - for things like visiting and home teachers and fantastic primary teachers.

11. Roy's sense of humor. Some people may not get him, but I do :)

12. Being able to rent a beautiful home that has plenty of room for our growing family.

13. Dishwasher. Seriously folks, the first 6 years of our marriage we had no dishwasher and I really really hate doing dishes.

14. Other modern conveniences like a washer and dryer, cell phone, minivan with automatic sliding doors and a dvd player inside. (I have the most awesome van)

15. I'm halfway there and I'm starting to get pretty trivial :) TV shows that make me laugh and wind me down at the end of the day.

16. Tasty treats and wind me down at the end of the day

17. Tasty drinks like diet dr pepper and Pibb Zero that wind me up in the middle of the day.

18. Living in a beautiful part of the country. I loved CA and the weather there, but there is so much variety and lovely lovely countrysides here that really make me appreciate the world Heavenly Father made for us.

19. Having a nice warm house during the winter months. Our gas bill just came though and I'm trying to turn the heat down a bit!

20. Thanksgiving break that starts today - so we have an entire week to travel - woot!

21. Christmas break - Roy will be home for almost 4 straight weeks. Double woot!

22. Our health. We haven't had any serious health problems and don't get hit with too many serious bugs. It's actually been almost 2 years since Rae has thrown up! And it's been almost 3 years since Roy has!

23. This is getting kinda hard. Seeing the joy in my kids' eyes when they have learned something new.

24. Modern medicine and equipment - I've had two ultrasounds already during this pregnancy and I can't imagine living in a time where they weren't available.

25. Digital cameras. Can't even imagine trying to get a shot of a squirmy baby with a regular camera!

26. Lovely decorations (especially Christmas ones) that make my home feel festive and beautiful.

27. Drawings from my children. They LOVE to draw, and love to hang their pictures up all over the house.

28. Disposable diapers. And Costco wipes. They are seriously the best.

29. Cartoons that keep my kids entertained while I do stuff like this.

30. People who read my blog and comment ;)

Fall

Here are some pictures from October:


We went to the university's observatory. Couldn't really see anything out of the big telescope, but there was another one set up outside and we could see Jupiter. Rae was kinda disappointed - she said it looked like a star. I think she was expecting to see craters or something :)


Isaac kept climbing out of his crib, so he graduated to the toddler bed. So stinkin' cute.


Nights started getting chilly so we pulled out the footsie pajamas and I was really happy that I bought the boys matching pjs on clearance last year for them to wear this year.


We let our grass get too long.


We started decorating for Halloween. Rae got really into it.


I went out of town for a weekend and Roy decided it'd be a good time to teach the kids the important skill of TP-ing. I love that the kids are all half-naked. I wonder what our neighbors think of us.


There have been a ton of caterpillars around our yard. We adopted two of them. Isaac really likes them.


They were doing great at first but I don't think they have enjoyed being kept inside in a vase. They might actually be dead now. Hmmmm, I should check.


We have lots of animal friends in the field behind our house. This is a groundhog. Our neighbor said there is a fox living out there somewhere. The other night we came home after dark and when we pulled into our driveway our headlights were pointing towards this field and we saw about 5 deer! Then the next night Roy saw a couple hanging around our van. The field behind our house is a soybean field, but they just harvested it last week and we haven't seen any deer since then. Bummer.



Isaac learned how to read. Okay, not really, but he really loves books lately.


The tree in our front yard provided us with lots and lots of leaves to play in!




Action shot of Isaac being thrown into the leaves!


Then we used the leaves to fill these cute bags. It is our little ghost and pumpkin family!


Thursday night I took the big kids to the library for spooky stories and treats. The stories were a little too spooky and waaaayyy too long for the kids, but the treats were worth it! Rae is a candy corn witch and Blaise is a cowboy. (we got a Woody costume for him but in the end he decided to be a regular cowboy)


Saturday morning I took the kiddos to a costume parade in town. I got this costume on clearance last year and it was just a little bit too small this year. Bummer. But I made him wear it to the activity. It was super cold and there was a lot of waiting around while everyone was judged for the costume contest. But Rae won 3rd place in the "Halloween Theme" category! She won $5, so she was super excited!


On Saturday night and on Sunday I put Isaac in this costume instead. He was so stinkin' cute! Saturday night we went to a nursing home to trick or treat and then on Sunday we went to the houses on our street.




It was windy and cold so Blaise decided to go as Tigger.


This is what our house looked like on Sunday. At the last minute Roy did the face for the attic window. We got a ton of compliments. Also, Roy dressed up like a dummy (stuffed his shirt and pants with newspaper and everything) and sat on the porch with a mask on. On the other side of the porch was the real dummy. People would walk up and say "ummm, which one is real" and "they are both fake" and then Roy would say something and scare them. He also had a smoke machine. It was a real hit - I would hear people talking about it while we were out at other people's houses. Now he's excited to decorate for Christmas!


Rae and Blaise's pumpkins. Rae did the traditional one and Blaise went for a more abstract face.

Whew, October is over - bring on Thanksgiving!

Catch up

In September my parents came for a visit. It was fantastic. We spent a day in the Kansas City area checking out church history sites and both my mom and dad helped us get a few projects done around the house! The kids loved having them here too!


Obligatory picture of everyone before church!


At the vistor's center in Independence. The kids loved all the pioneer displays.








Liberty Jail. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures here because Blaise was really scared.


Far West temple site.


Adam-ondi-Ahman

Rae had grandpa wrapped around her finger and got him to play a lot of ridiculous games with her.



Isaac warmed up to granny by the end of the trip

Terribly exciting

I went to the doctor on Wednesday. I really like my doctor a lot. He does routine ultrasounds for the first visit. I've been able to have early ultrasounds for all 4 pregnancies - I really like it. And THIS time, I was able to get a little video of the baby. It's only 3 seconds long, and the baby is kinda nubby at this point, but it's fun to see it moving around. And boy, it was moving a LOT!





I've been feeling pretty awful the last few weeks, so I haven't been feeling like blogging. But I'll try to get back into the habit. No promises though.

And the winner is.....

My sister-in-law Jamie with her guess of May 5th! My due date is May 4th. Only three people guessed days in May. Most people probably didn't think I'd be announcing it if I wasn't further along. When I was pregnant with Isaac I waited till I was 13 weeks before I announced it to most people but this time around I just felt like getting it out there!

I found out on August 31st. I really, really didn't think I was pregnant - I even bought a three-pack of pregnancies tests so that I'd have some for the next month. We were trying, but I had only been "fertile" for a couple of months, so I wasn't expecting it at all!! Isaac and the new baby will be just one week shy of 2 years apart - our closest kids so far. I'm a little nervous about that. But May is a fantastic time to have a baby because Roy will get done with school the second week of May and then have the whole summer off. So, he may not get 6 weeks of paternity leave like my brother-in-law, but it's the next best thing :)

Just this week I started feeling a little queasy and have started getting headaches. I probably need to start taking iron supplements to help with the headaches - I've had to do that every pregnancy. I haven't puked yet, so I'm happy about that. Oh, and I haven't been to the doctor yet, but I'm 95% sure about my due date - and I've been exactly right about the other three!

I'm excited that Jamie won - because I know she loves chocolate as much as I do, and she will be winning a bag of these:



Oh YUM! And Jamie, you don't have to share with Aaron, because he didn't bother to come and guess ;) Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

I don't like to steal thunder

A month or so ago was the 4 year anniversary of my first blog post. Back then I had maybe one or two readers and zero comments. My posts were few and far between. But even so, I wanted to celebrate with a giveaway (because that is totally the thing to do these days) Things were a little crazy here at the time, so I kept putting it off. Then my cousin Olivia had her blog anniversary and a giveaway and I didn't want to be a copycat, so I just decided not to do it.

Then I decided I was going to write a really vague post about my news and see who could guess it and award them with a prize. But then my sister did this post. What the heck - I just bought the same rug and Ikea chair as her - so I can copy her on this too. Think you can guess my due date? I'll send you one of my favorite pregnancy treats if you are the closest. (You have till Saturday at 10am Central time) No guessing if you already know. Hint: it is just a little bit after Katie's. I think we are both hoping for girls :)

Rae's actual birthday

Poor Rae, this is the second time that we've moved right before her birthday. Last time (in 2008 when we moved to Kirksville) she was sick on her birthday and our moving truck hadn't arrived yet, so her birthday was pretty sad. This year was a lot better, but we didn't have our oven working yet, so I couldn't make her a homemade cheesecake like she wanted. But I think she was okay with it, because she got this instead:


Reese Peanut Butter Cheesecake - yummy!

My mom made her this great apron with her name on it. And gave her a little toy cupcake set and a treat cookbook - all so perfect for Rae!

The day before her birthday we went to Columbia and went to Chuck E. Cheese

Can you tell she had a blast?

Blaise, on the other hand, did not like it. Too many lights, loud music/games and crowds.

We had to get some fries for him just to get him to sit down and relax!

Finally his good friend Barney got him to smile!


This picture of Rae reminded me of the last time we went to Chuck E. Cheese and she got stuck in the play tunnels and couldn't figure out how to get out! I'm glad she had more fun this time!

Stuck in the mud

I didn't mean to go an entire week before blogging again. This week was a tough week for me - getting used to Roy being back at work. But I feel like I'm getting back in the rhythm and the kids are a bit more agreeable now that our routine is back. Isaac is still a mess - clingy, grumpy, tons of tantrums - but each day he gets a little more adjusted.

Anyway, here's the next thing I wanted to share:

Our move:

This move would not have been possible without Roy's mom. She was amazing. She had been visiting friends in Michigan and flew from there to Kirksville on Monday (July 26th). Even though she had been up since 4 in the morning she still worked her tail off helping us. We had picked up our uhaul earlier in the day, so that evening after the kids went to bed we started loading it up. My friend's husband and their son came by and helped us with the really heavy stuff. At around 10 we decided to call it quits on the truck, and started boxing up misc stuff from the house. The next morning we got back to work bright and early and finished loading up the truck at around 10. Then Roy took the kids out for a bit while Baerbel and I cleaned, cleaned and cleaned some more! It would have taken me so long by myself! Roy and the kids came back and then my friend Pattie came by and took them to her house (Isaac stayed home and actually napped - glad I remembered to leave the pack-n-play out! I picked up the kids while Roy and his mom finished up and by the time I got back they were done, so we loaded up the van and took off! We stopped in Moberly (an hour from Kirksville, 30 minutes from Fayette) for lunch.

I just loved this picture of Roy walking Rae back to the Uhaul after lunch. Rae and Blaise got to take turns riding with Roy. Blaise rode from Kirksville to Moberly but he slept the whole way!
So he was kinda upset about that. But he soon discovered that it was fun in the van too! :)



We got to Fayette and ran to the grocery store for some basics - milk, bread, etc and then waited for members from our branch to come and help us. The branch president and his wife (the Georges) showed up and then Sister George took off to get us some dinner. She came back with a ton of food - dinner, groceries, paper plates, ziplock bags - everything! She is so awesome! Then a couple of other guys showed up and we had the truck unloaded in about an hour. It was really really hot and really really humid, so I am SO glad we had help! Sister George even wiped down our bathtub for us so the kids could take a bath that night.

When we got to the house, Roy wanted to back the truck right up to the porch and then maybe lift the ramp directly onto the porch. Great idea right? We forgot to take into account the recent rains and condition of the grass. He immediately sunk into the mud and couldn't get out. Ugh. So we planned to just empty the truck and then try to get it out, but our landlord came by and hooked us up to his tractor and pulled the truck out. Great first impression huh? Now our lawn has HUGE tire track holes. Ergh. It would be a much nicer front yard if it weren't for those tracks. Our landlord said he'll come by sometime with some dirt to fill them up. Luckily he wasn't upset about it! After we got pulled out we were able to go on some grass that wasn't quiet as muddy and still back the truck up to the house - just not as close as we were trying :)


Okay, I didn't mean for this to be such a detailed post, I just wanted to write the story about getting stuck. But once I started writing I figured I might as well write down all of the details. This blog is really the only place I record stuff, so it's nice to be able to look back and know the dates and events. So, sorry it was a little boring :)