A trip to the park in February

Last Friday, the weather was unbelievable.  It was in the 50*'s.  I knew we had to take advantage of the warm temps and I took the kids to the park.  It was such a treat.

Coltons very pink jump-up

A week or two ago I got out the jumper that hangs in the door for Colton to use.  He enjoys it a lot, but that's probably because he's completely unaware that its a pink/girl toy :)

Poor kid, his pants are too short and he's stuck with all the girls hand-me-downs 

Planet Play

Earlier this week, I decided to count the money in Abby's piggy bank.  She's been saving and collecting coins for quite a while, hoping to get enough money to go to Chuck-E-Cheese.  She had $32 in her bank.  She kept saying "Why does Daddy give me so much money?!"  I was wondering the same thing!  Turns out Cam just dumps all his change in her bank, so don't think that we are just handing wads of money to our 4 year old daughter :)

But because she did have all this money burning a hole in her pocket, we decided to make a trip to somewhere where she could spend it.  We found the place "Planet Play" that sounded fun, so we went up Thursday night.  We had dinner first (the food wasn't anything spectacular) then played the games.  The girls had a blast and could have gone all night, but Colton was tired, and ready for bed so he kind of had the final say as to when the fun had to come to an end.

playing skeet-ball

working together on another game

Merry-go-round

car ride

Nothing exciting going on, so just a random update of our lives

Well, the posts this month have been a little sparse, and it's basically because our lives have been pretty dull and boring.  Most days are just cleaning, errands, and more cleaning.  So unless anyone wants to hear about our latest trip to Walmart, or how I swept the kitchen floor for the millionth time, I basically haven't got a lot to talk about.  But I'll try to share what's new in each of our lives.

Colton:

He's just getting so big.  He is pretty much a pro now at sitting up with no support, which thankfully allows him to stay pretty entertained playing with any toy that's in his reach.  He is being a little stubborn when it comes to sleeping at night.  I know he could probably go all night without a feeding, but he is holding on to it and is so inconsistent with when and how often he wakes up at night.  I'm getting pretty anxious for him to sleep through the night, but not quite desperate enough to completely cut him off.  I do, however, know that he is nearing the end of the line with me getting up with him.  So, either he'll have to make the switch on his own (highly unlikely) or I'll have to give a little push (i.e. crying him self back to sleep).  He has six teeth, and I'm pretty sure another two are on their way.

Lexi:

Such a flattering picture

She is such a character.  That's absolutely the best description for her.  Every little thing she does is so darn cute.  She is such a talker, and repeats everything that her big sister does and says.  She is still taking her afternoon naps, but I'm noticing I've got to keep them short, and in the early afternoon otherwise she doesn't fall asleep till well after 8:00pm.  She still is unbelievably attached to her blankets.  I'm not quite sure when and if we will have to pull the plug on that, we'll just cross that bridge when it comes.

Abigail:

She's amazing.  I look at her and see a beautiful little girl.  It makes me sad/excited at how quickly she is growing up.  She loves to play with Colton and even likes to hold him and carry him (which gets me a little nervous every time I see her walking around with him).  She is learning so much at school and church.  She asks so many questions about the church, life, science, everything.  I always have to be on my toes ready to answer whatever random question comes out of her mouth.  She must have recently learned about choosing the right at church, because she seems genuinely concerned that she is not able to always choose the right.  Cam recently has shown her how to play a few basic games on the computer (not real sure how I feel about that).  We try to limit her "screen" time (TV, movies, computer, etc) otherwise I'm sure she'd gladly spend the entire day watching TV or playing games.

Cameron:
It's just more of the same for him.  Work, work, and then more work.  He is planning a trip with some guys at work to head down to Vegas for a few days in March.  I think he's excited for that.  As always, he's just amazing with the kids.  They miss him so much when he is away for several day's at a time, and literally count down the day's till he will be back home.  At night, after dinner, he plays a little game with the girls.  He calls it "Crazy Sheep".  It's basically he puts a little sheep hand puppet on and chases the girls.  They love it!  He's been pretty generous lately, and allows me to run out and do my errands while he stays at home with the kids.  I feel so blessed.  He really wants to take a trip, just me and him this year.  We haven't really gotten anything planned, but we are hoping we can iron out the details to make it happen.

Me:
Like I said before, it's been pretty dull and boring as of late.  Just taking care of these three kids and things around the house.  I am planning a little girls trip, which was sparked by Cam's announcement that he was taking a guys trip.  So my sister, my mom and I are planning on going on a short cruise in April.  I'm so excited!  I am back to running, but only a couple days a week.  However, if all goes according to plan (when does that ever happen) I hope to run a half marathon in March that's right here in my neck of the woods.  It starts in Saratoga Springs, does a little loop in Eagle Mountain, then ends back in Saratoga Springs.  Since it's so close, I just can't pass it up ;)  I have, in an effort to stay injury free, broadened my interests, and have added biking (well stationary biking), ellipticizing (that's totally a word), strength training, and SWIMMING.  I never in a million years would have thought that I would find myself in the pool, doing laps on a weekly basis, but I have actually fallen in love.  So now, more than ever, I've come to really enjoy working out.  It's become one of my favorite things to do.  I've found that it helps me have more patience with the kids, helps build my self esteem, and just makes me a more pleasant person to be around.  I keep toying with the idea of adding a little page to the blog to track my training and such.  I haven't made up my mind whether or not that will happen :)

So, that what we've been up to.  Nothing exciting, but we've been busy none the less.

Making pizza

I'm trying to think of ways to involve the girls in all the activities/chores that I have to do so they aren't just running around destroying the house (or each other) while I get my things done.  I've found a few cleaning chores that Abby enjoys doing, and both the girls like to help in the kitchen.  This week we each made our own pizza.

My mom comes for a visit

I'm really late getting this post up, but my mom came for a visit the first week of the month.  I was talking to her on the phone after Christmas, and just invited her to come visit some time in the future.  My mom looked at the calendar, and realized that the best time would be to come the very next week. My parents haven't done any traveling in the last 6 months or so while my Dad was doing his chemo treatments, and my Dad just finished his last treatment, so my Mom was kind of itching to get away.  I also think she knew I struggled this last Christmas, and was kind of needing some "family" time.  It happened to be perfect timing, because was going to be working 5 days straight, only coming home one night the whole time.

The kids and I picked her up from the airport on Wednesday ( the same day Lexi's hives appeared) and stopped by my grandparents for a quick visit, then headed home.  It was about this time that I started to get worried about the rash all over Lexi.  The rest of the day was pretty much spent running to the doctors, and  then running to the store for some Benadryl.  I felt bad that the first day of my Mom's vacation was pretty chaotic.

Thursday was a pretty easy going day.  Lexi and Colton were both in need of some good nap time, so we stuck close to home, other than another quick trip to the doctors for Lexi.  We baked cookies, and just went through the typical daily routine.  This also was the one night that came was going to be home, so when he got home, after we put the kids to bed, we ran off to see a movie.  It was a late movie, and I was tired, so I might have slept through a little bit of it :)

Friday we ran errands and stuff.

See, lots of relaxing and hanging out :)

Saturday morning there was a local 5k fun run to help a family in our ward, and I really wanted to participate.  Thankfully my Mom was willing to watch the kids while I ran over and quickly busted out a 5k (I think I was the 2nd or 3rd female finisher).  It was fun to be back running again, and definitely gave me the itch to do more races.  Hopefully, my lame hip will cooperate :)  The rest of the day was just running more errands and hanging out.

Sunday was Cam's glorious return home from work.  He was tired, and we all took it pretty easy.

Monday my Mom flew back home.  Before I dropped her at the airport, we stopped at my Grandparents for another visit.

It was SO, SO nice to have her visit.  She was able to help me out, and the girls loved having someone around to show off to.  I think my Mom also got a good idea of how crazy and non-stop our lives are right now.  I hope we didn't overwhelm her too much, because I want her to come back soon!

Lexi's hives

Wednesday morning, Lexi woke up with a rash.  It was mostly on her torso, and I was only mildly concerned.  I was pretty sure it was from the amoxicillan she has been taking because she got a little rash the last time she was on it.  I decided to just keep an eye on it through out the day.  By the middle of the afternoon, it had spread to her entire body, head to toe.  So, we were off to the Dr to find out how severe of an allergy she had. The Dr confirmed that she was allergic to amoxicillan.

The next day it was even worse.  It was all over her face.  Luckily, as long as she was taking the Benadryl the itching wasn't bad.  So even though it looked awful, she was pretty much her same old happy self.