A quick hello and good-bye to Mom and Dad

My parents have been in charge of planning their ward's Youth Conference this summer.  Their ward wanted to come here to Utah, and see "the sights" more or less.  When my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, they were unsure whether or not they would still be able to come, but my Dad recovered from the surgery really quickly, and he felt up to the trip.  Yesterday, they were down in Provo doing a ropes course, so we drove down to say hi and visit for a couple of hours.  It was good to see them, and the girls really enjoyed the short visit.

Here is Cam, Lexi, and Colton is asleep in the car seat.  I tried to pictures of the girls with my parents, but nobody was cooperating, so this was the best I could do.

Playing at the splash park, kind of

The other day, I took the kids to the splash park that opened a few weeks ago here in Eagle Mountain.  This was my second attempt.  This first time, Cam and I took them, and both the girls just went around, only getting their hands wet.  I was getting frustrated, because we were sitting in the hot sun, so they could wash their hands, I DON'T THINK SO!  But Abby was begging to go again, so I took them.  This time, though, I came more prepared.  I brought snacks, and a shade umbrella for Colton and I to sit under.  For about the first hour, the girls wouldn't go play in the water.  If they went in, one or both would start crying very quickly.  So they sat under the umbrella with me and Colton, eating snacks.  Eventually, Abby started playing with a little girl from the group sitting next to us in the grass, and she finally started to play in the water.  It was fun, and all the kids were relatively happy the whole time.  I'm certain we will be going a lot more this summer.

Colton, 2 months

Colton is 2 months old!  How did that happen?  I swear we just brought him home from the hospital a few days ago.

• He weights 11lbs 10 oz which really suprised me because he is quite lean, so he doesn't look like he has gained hardly any weight.  That puts him in the 50% for his age.
• He's 24 inches long, which puts him in the 90% for height.
• There is little concern about a flat spot on his head that's being caused by him usually looking only one direction.  We have some stretches and exercises to do to help prevent the need for a helmut.
• He still is the king of spitting up, but the Dr isn't concerned because he considered a "happy spitter". 
• He is starting to become a pretty decent sleeper.  If he is in his swing, he'll nap a good 2 or 3 hours, and at night if he is wrapped real good and tight, he'll sleep for a good 6 hours.  Last night he even slept for 7 1/2 hours.  I can't complain about that :)
• He is sensitive.  If I let him get the least bit over tired, I'll pay big time.  If he's tired, or has a dirty diaper, or his clothes are wet (from the spit up of course) he will let me know with a good deal of crying.
• He is such a smiler.  We joke that he is either smiling or crying.  It's so cute, he is such a flirt.
• He is dearly loved by his sisters, especially Abby.  She just adores Colton!

The rains came down, and the floods came up

On Sunday, it totally down poured in the late afternoon, and our backyard was flooded.

Abby was in awe of all the rain.  She kept saying "Holy heck, thats a lot of rain!" 

We lucked out and no water came into our basement, but I think a lot of people in the area weren't as lucky.  Our neighbors dug a trench from the backyard to the street to try to get the water to drain instead of going into their basement.

Fun in the sun

These are just pictures of the girls playing outside.

Playing with some left over "Pop-its" from the 4th of July:

Abby totally posed for this picture.  She said to me "Can I stand like this when you take the picture?"

Lexi couldn't throw them hard enough to make them pop, so she just liked to step on them.

Playing in a bucket of water:

Running around:

Yes, they were trying to climb that 2 inch thick tree

Running in circles around the tree

Our little challenges

Everybody says that the third baby is the hardest.  Which, I would probably agree with IF I wasn't dealing with a few other challenges that have completely overshadowed it.

Challenge #1?

Having Lexi and Colton less than 18 months a part.  What was I thinking!!!  Both kids need me to pretty much do everything for them.  It just makes for a very busy, hectic day. 

Challenge #2?

Colton.  I would describe him as my most difficult baby yet.  Abby, I struggled with because she was my first, and I was clueless.  Lexi was easy breezy.  Colton, he's a spitter and a crier.  We started him on Good Start formula, which I used with Lexi and really liked.  However, he managed to spit up the majority of every bottle we fed him.  Which in turn meant he wouldn't sleep because he was never satisfied.  I swear I was doing his laundry almost everyday just so we'd have enough clothes, jammies, blankets, bibs and burp cloths.  Nothing escaped being covered in spit up.  A couple of weeks ago, I switched him to Enfamil A.R. which is a thickened formula to help prevent spit up.  It's worked pretty well.  He still spits up quite a bit, but is able to keep enough in that he is able to sleep better.  Even with this problem taken care of, he's still just a fussy baby.

On the plus side, even with these challenges, I would say we are holding up pretty well.    Life is going on pretty normally.  It's just a little noisier, and a little less organized at our house now.  But give us a few more months, and I think we will have things back under control :)

I'm loving life right now, taking care of our three little cuties.  Even though our days are long and hard, I am unbelievably happy.

Lexi, 18 months

Here is what Lexi is up to now that she is a year and half:

• Her favorite toy is building blocks.  She will quietly sit there forever and put them together, then take them apart.  I'm so grateful she found a toy to keep her distracted for a few minutes.
• She loves climbing...everything.  The table, chairs, bed, whatever.  I can not take my eye off of her for a minute, because she will move from one thing to the next.
• She's learning more and more words.  Shoes, car, ball, bye-bye, no, night night, here mommy, mommy, daddy.  I think she even says Abby and Lexi, but they sound so close to mommy and daddy, it's hard to tell for sure.
• She's learning some body parts.  She knows where her head, hair, nose, mouth, teeth, hands, feet and tummy are.
• She loves to be held.
• She's made two attempts at attending nursery, and failed both times.  She's horrible at good-byes :)  We'll keep trying, because there is no way I'm taking Lexi AND Colton to classes with me.
• She's a bit of a bully.  Hitting and biting.  Where do they learn this stuff?!  So, she is quite familiar with time out.
• She desperatley tries to keep up with Abby.  She loves to copy and follow her big sister around.  Lexi loves it, Abby, not so much.
• She gives kisses.  So cute.
• She loves to sing and dance.
• She loves to try to jump.  I think her feet only barely lift off the ground.

I just love my little Lexi.  She is such a cutie and quite the character.  Everyday, she makes me laugh.  I love this age, where they are learning and growing so much, it's an adventure everyday!