Merry Christmas 2014!

First Family of Five Pictures!

A picture session with a 20 month just really isn't a good idea.  Well, at least when your 20 month old is Alison.  My other kiddos didn't seem to mind the camera, but then again we never did an outside photo shoot before.  We had my friend Jerrae Wilson take our photos, she did Audrey's baptism pictures too.  Despite a toddler running away and trying to squirm out of pictures, a boy who likes to make the cheesiest grins and an older sister who tries to run the show (including this photo shoot, yikes!), we survived and got at least a couple good family shots and a bunch of photos of the kids, well the older 2 at least.

Fall 2014 ~ Alison

This little character is now 21 months old! She's as feisty as she is sweet. While Audrey & Owen are at school she still has to share me a few days a week when I watch another kiddo, a few months younger than her.  But we enjoy our one on one time when the other kiddo is napping or when we have days just the 2 of us.  All I know is that the 3rd kiddo is...well, somethin'.  We knew she would be our "grand finale baby", or as someone recently called her, the "caboose kid".  As she gets older I am even more certain.  I call her my personal "Sour Patch Kid", if you don't know about these they are candies that are sour and then sweet.  They have funny commercials and it makes me think of Alison.   It seems our girls get even spicier, and yes sweeter, as they come.  But I am not sure I could handle another girl spicier than Baby Tres!  Now if I could guarantee Owen would get a brother as sweet as him, maybe there could be a #4.  But we know that's not possible.

At 17 months I gave Alison her first little haircut.  She just had a funny baby mullet that needed to go.   Her hair has since grown longer, but still kind of strange. I am not sure what to do with it!

Birth: 8 lbs, 20 in

6 months: 14 lbs 14 oz--24%, 26 1/2 in--72%

12 months: 18 lbs .5 oz--5%, 29 1/2 in--57%

15 months: 20 lbs 8.5oz--38%, 31 3/4 in--84%

18 months: 22 lbs 2 oz--20%, 33 in--82%

 In September Alison turned 18 months old.  Now at church she gets to go to Nursery.  She still cries when she gets dropped off.  She still clings to the same dad that works in there.  We still haven't quite figured out her napping schedule with 12-3 church, so sometimes she falls asleep during Nursery.  She's making progress though, she has played with toys a few times and feeds her snack to the teachers.  Baby steps for this girl.  She certainly loves being the baby, but doesn't let that stop her from doing what she can't, or shouldn't do. Can scream NO at the top of her lungs, hasn't learned to say Yes yet. Sweetly smiles right after she tackles you. Her weight seems to be like her sister, always on the light side, but her height seems to match her brother's.  

She loves to watch movies and loves to get them in and out of the DVD player.  Which has been the downfall of a couple DVDs.  There are only a few she'll actually watch for long periods of time, like Frozen (of course, right?), Pinocchio and any of the Toy Story movies.  She also loves to grab a hold of pens, pencils, markers, crayons and draw.  And a few times that has been on the floor, walls, cabinets and TVs.  I guess that is a common thing, but would believe my other 2 never did that?  It's true.  

The latest development is Alison learned to climb out of her crib.  Pretty safely, but still.  She hasn't had her usual 2 naps/day this week because she just climbs out.  After a couple days we decided to just take the side rail off her bed and convert it to a toddler bed.  Her naps and bedtime have been kind of wacky ever since, but we'll get there.  Here are some pictures of our sweet & spicy girl.

She likes to wear her backpack when we take Owen to school.

She's just a silly girl who does silly things, and loves to make us laugh.

Just chillin' watching a movie.

I had just given her a bath, changed her diaper and put on clean shorts, and when I went to find a shirt she hopped right back in.  Gave me a heart attack because I didn't know where she was and it's also scary that she was in water by herself.  Thank goodness she was ok.  But how silly!

She loves the rain!

Fall 2014 ~ Owen

September 10th, Owen turned 5! 

Sandwiched between two sassy sisters is the sweetest boy a mom could ever ask for and now he's 5!!!  My Mr. O loves to learn and is always trying to figure out how things work. He likes constructing things, vehicles of all kinds, puzzles and reading. Big brotherhood has made his heart even bigger. Nice to have a sweet boy to mellow the house out.

 Birth Stats: 8 lbs 1oz -- 50%, 21 in -- 80
1 year: 22.3 lbs -- 48%, 30.7 in -- 75%
2 years: 30 lbs -- 75%, 35.5 in -- 75%
3 years: 37 lbs -- 88%, 39 in {3'3"} -- 88%
4 years old: 38 lbs 4 oz -- 73%, 41.5 in -- 77% 
5 years old: 43 lbs 2 oz -- 67%, 44.5 in -- 79%

Fall School Picture, K-Prep

This fall Owen started Kindergarten Prep class at another Gilbert school not far from us.  I debating with putting him in this program or the preschool program at our home school where Audrey goes.  I'm so glad I decided to do K-Prep!  He has great teachers, great friends, and is doing so well. My main goal for having him in K-Prep was getting him to be more social, more specifically with speaking in class.  I hate that he got the shyness from me, but am glad he's making a lot of progress.  Besides that he's doing well academically and starting to read!

He is getting tall!  He's still our quiet, sweet boy most of the time. Still loves being a big brother and always willing to help with Alison.  Not always willing to help with household chores though. ;o)  He also gets to be a big brother to the little girl I watch 4 days a week.  She's a few months younger than Alison.  One things for sure, he's surrounded by girls!  That's why he loves being with cousin Jay soooo much.  He gets a little rough when they are together, I guess he just tries to be like the boys.

He has school everyday, but only goes for 3 hours in the afternoons and gets a Friday off once a month when his teachers have training.  We try to do some fun activities out of the house when we can.  We've gone to the IDEA museum in downtown Mesa with our new membership, bouncing, and lots of parks.  Anything active for this boy!

Playing with a friend at the IDEA museum.

Helping Alison do Bug Life Cycles.

We decided not to put Owen in any extra activities like Parks & Rec classes or sports.  We wanted to see how he adjusted to half day school.  We hope to get him in something for the Spring.  At least a parks & rec class if possible with his school schedule. He will definitely be ready for full day Kindergarten next year, and be at the same school as Audrey, yay!

At Owen's class Christmas party before Winter Break we made some crafts, enjoyed some treats and the class sang a few Christmas songs in their PJs.  It was a very cute and fun way to end the first half of the school year.

Fall 2014 ~ Audrey

Here's what Audrey's 3rd grade year has been like so far.

As I mentioned in a couple posts back, Audrey turned 8 on July 29th.  She was baptized on August 23rd.  We were all so happy that her GreatGrandpa & GreatNana Giberson could make a very quick trip to be down from Salt Lake to be here.  At first she was sad to wait so long after her birthday, but afterward had said it was worth the wait!  :)
Also in that July post I shared a few of the baptism pictures taken by our friend Jerrae Wilson.  I made this collage to display at her baptism.  There were so many cute ones to choose from, you can see all of them here: https://neerings.shutterfly.com/8008

 We were also so happy that Paul baptized her, just like she wanted.  She was then confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by her Opa Neerings.  She wore her baptism dress (given to her by an awesome friend!) all day!  After the baptism we had family back to the house for a little lunch.  It's always nice to visit with those you don't see often enough, and we were so glad to see those who could make it.

Another fun thing that girls start when they turn 8 is Activity Days.  Twice a month for an hour they meet with girls their age and leaders to work on completing the Faith in God program. It helps cultivate gospel principles and also prepares them for the Personal Progress Program that they do when they enter the Young Women's program when they turn 12 and advance from Primary.

Audrey joined the AZ Lady Ducks Cheer Team this Fall.  My best friend volunteered to coach a team since her 2 boys play football for the organization.  She also has a daughter just a couple years younger than Audrey who always goes to practices and games, so why not do something fun?  Audrey had a lot of fun learning to do something she'd often talked about.  She was happy and proud to try it out and learned a lot.

      3rd Grade School Photo                        AZ Ducks Cheerleading Photo

All 8 girls on the team were first timers.  A big challenge in my book, but Coach Rodriquez did an amazing job.  She included all ages, sizes, abilities of girls and had clear expectations for everyone.  Each week she would focus on traits that created successful people, then tied it in to cheerleading.  I loved that there motto was YES!  (You're Extra Special) Here are a couple videos of some halftime cheers they learned.

This first video was from mid-October.

This video is from one of their last games in November.

Another activity Audrey tried this Fall was her school chorus.  She loves to sing and this was a free program that I really wanted her to be involved in before we thought about putting her into singing programs that cost a lot of money.  I thought it was a good starter.  She goes to chorus on Wednesday mornings before school.  They just had their first program, a holiday program, last night, Dec. 11th.  It was hard to see her since she was in the bottom row in the very middle, but she did a great job and most importantly had lots of fun being a part of it.  She will continue with chorus after Winter Break.

I would say that the biggest thing Audrey has learned so far this school year is responsibility and time management.  She has had a tough time wanting to do activities and keep up with school work.  Which let's face it, will only get harder!  She really wants to do well at everything and had many little breakdowns from feeling like she was pulled in so many directions.  We never wanted her to be overwhelmed, but we also wanted to teach her about commitments.  A couple of times she wanted to quit something, but usually only when she was faced with a choice...like a church activity at the same time as a game or a birthday party.  She hated having to choose, she just wants to please everyone.  (Gee, I have no idea where she gets any of this from???)