Super Aunt

Cass is great the other kids too! They love hanging out with her at the pool, slam dunking basketballs in the game room and, of course, reading book after book on the couch or in her bed. These kids are so blessed to have such a cool aunt that comes to visit them so much just spend time with them (and me).

Sleep Machine

Aunt Cassie is here visiting for the week and in addition to all the help she has given us with dishes and general cleaning, on multiple occasions she has gotten Norah to fall asleep.

Who would have guessed how great Cass would be at getting a fussy baby to go to sleep!

Sitting Pretty

Norah is doing so WELL!! She is becoming such a sweet little thing, it has been so fun to finally get to enjoy this cute little one.

More Naps

Today Norah has taken three solid naps. She has even given me signs that she is ready to go to sleep, something I have been looking for and guessing about for the past 10 weeks!

This is truly a breakthrough!

Purple Spit

It couldn't have been coined better if I said it myself...

"What could be more annoying than a baby who spits up all the time? How about a baby who spits up purple?"

This phrase was found today while Kyle was doing some research to find out what could be behind Norah's purple spit up. Since sometime this morning, Norah has been spitting up purple chunks, making life even more fun for us.

I was about to head to urgent care thinking the chunks were some sort of body part, when Kyle found out about Prevacid causing purple spit up in some babies. It turns out that the coating that the Prevacid forms in the baby's tummy to block acid can be spit up and it is purple!

We didn't go to urgent care, but will be on the phone with the pediatrician again tomorrow!

Never a dull moment around here, Happy Father's Day!

Naps

Norah has never been a napper, mostly due to her utter discomfort from the reflux and her being a newborn. She would usually fall asleep in our arms and only for little bits of time, and never on a consistent basis.

Well, the past 4 days she has taken monster naps that last between 3 and 4 hours and at a regular time. The best part has been that this nap actually overlaps with Jack's afternoon nap, giving me the first glimpses of some much needed down time!

Hi Mom!

This morning, Jack was found roaming around the house-Kyle thought I had gotten him up, but I was still asleep in the guest room after a rough night with Norah. When this was discovered, Kyle realized that Jack had jumped out of his bed on his own. This would be pretty impressive if Jack's bed wasn't in the highest position. Kyle and I were pretty worried since once Ava started climbing out we put her in a big kid bed-something Jack is too young for at this point.

Well, Kyle was gone all night at the Roller Derby with Fish, so I was left to myself with the three kiddos. I put Jack down and then went in to sing to Ava. When I came out, I went into the media room where Norah was crying. I had just gotten her settled and turned on the TV when the doors opened and Jack appeared with a smile on his face spouting the words, "Hi Mom!" If he wasn't so adorable, I would have been pretty alarmed. I didn't acknowledge his awesomeness when he said, "Bed, self," but instead brought him back to bed. He did that one more time and hasn't since.

Now, though, whenever Jack does something he knows isn't great, he promptly says, "Hi Mom!"

Funny Faces

This face is so cute, even when it is making these funny faces!

Up Late

Norah isn't the greatest nighttime companion. She definitely has a witching hour from 7-9 and then has a final feeding and is off to sleep for at least 4 hours at that point. The two hours she is awake with us after the kids go to bed are not her finest. Most of the time she can be heard crying or whining, but tonight she was totally chill. She just hung out most of the time and only fussed a tiny bit, which is huge for her. We are so excited to finally be able to enjoy this tiny princess!

Ball Hoop Shirt

When we bought this Kobe jersey for Jack over the weekend, he wasn't that excited about it. When I put him in this morning he wasn't that excited about it either, but somehow throughout the remainder of the day, he started loving it, telling everybody about his "ball hoop shirt!" It was super cute to see him sport it such pride.

Right before bedtime, the kids usually shoot some hoops with Kyle and then get their pj's on. Tonight was no exception, and I got some super sweet shots of our little all star showing off his skills!

A Family Affair

I purposely didn't take swimming today just so we could all take a family picture in our Lakers attire. I think Jack's jersey takes the cake for awesomeness, but even little Norah is sporting an all purple outfit. GO LAKERS!!

LA's Biggest Fan

I know there are people out there who love the Lakers, but I don't know anybody who's a bigger fan of the team than Kyle. He has been following them his whole life, even when the kids at school would make fun of him and Kobe got busted for some nasty stuff. He is no fair weather fan and his purple work shirt confirms it all the more!

In Awe

In celebration of the Lakers' first championship in seven years, I decided, with the kids' help, to make the day extra special for Kyle.

It started off right with the kids and I donning Lakers' colors or team gear. Then we headed to the store to pick up some stuff to make a giant chocolate chip cookie with a special Lakers message frosted on it. The cookie not only looked amazing, it tasted out of this world too!

The kids both drew Kyle a picture using on Lakers colors, and Ava even busted a masterpiece. Picturing both Kobe Bryant and a basketball, she is simply amazing.

Kyle was so impressed when he got home, he just stood there and stared at all our effort for a minute before telling us how cool we all were for doing this for him. He agreed that today was special, no doubt about it!

Asleep

This morning I was taking a shower while Norah was chilling in he seat on the floor nearby. I was just beginning to shave when she started to fuss a tiny bit. Normally when that happens I either get out immediately or start shaving at lightning speed hoping I don't cut myself. Today I did the later and all of a sudden Norah stopped crying. I looked out at her and she was just sitting there happy as can be!

To top that would be pretty hard, stopping crying all by herself (that's huge), but when I got out of the shower I was getting ready and let Norah check herself out in the big mirror and she just fell asleep. There was no rocking, no walking, no holding, nothing, just Norah being super happy and content!

Laker's Are #1

Every night there is a Lakers game on tv, no matter what time it is, Kyle is either recording it or watching it live with Norah at his side. She is his little Laker Girl and when LA won the championship, she was right there with Kyle cheering them on, sort of!

Sleeping through a game is pretty normal for Norah, but tonight, she was sleeping so happily she even had a smile on her face. The best part was when we were watching the Lakers receive their trophy, Norah started flashing a #1 sign with her finger and smiling so big. All while totally snoozing. She must have been dreaming about her favorite team!

Playdoh Porcupines

Another creative activity, Playdoh. The creative part isn't the dough, it's the fact that both kids started putting a few dozen toothpicks in little mounds of it!

Backpacks & PJ's

While Grammy was in town, we hit up the Disney store and the kids scored some cute new pj's. Ava picked out Wall-e, oddly enough, and Jack insisted on having lightning jammies!

The kids were playing some game today that involved backpacks and I convinced both kids to pose with them on at the bottom of the stairs. Ava and Jack are so creative sometimes!

Feeling Better

It seems like the Prevacid has built up in Norah's system and that she is now a more content baby.

Today, I was holding her and had a hankering to make some chocolate muffins. I put her in her bouncy seat on the counter and she was so happy. The old Norah would cry and fuss whether or not she was being held!

In fact, Norah was so cool with being up on the counter baking with me, that I actually got her to smile super big for the camera! She is so sweet these past few days, it has been a real treat to see the real Norah for once!

Tornado Warning

Tonight after baths our whole family could be found within the confines of our master bedroom closet (aka Norah's bedroom). Jack was getting his pjs on and kept saying fire truck, when we finally listened ourselves, we realized it was the tornado warning siren blaring nearby. We flipped on the news and found that sure enough a tornado watch was in effect in our area!

We got out our trusty wind-up radio/flashlight and headed for the closet with Kyle's IPhone in tow. It was fun to sit in there and keep the kids up late to read books and be together in such a small space. Everything ended up blowing by us, leaving everybody sleepy and happy!

Playing Around

It was a cloudy day today, allowing us some time to play outdoors without being wet.

The kids were into chalk and riding bikes, while I was trying to bounce Norah in the BabyBjorn and enjoy the breeze.

Prevacid

After strong feelings to go back to the doctor were heeded, the three kids and I found ourselves in the waiting room of the Radiology department at our local hospital. We were sent down from the pediatrician's office for an upper GI X-Ray. The doctor thought with all of Norah's projectile spit-up that she might have pyloric stenosis (a narrowing of the tube that dumps the food from the stomach into the small intestine).

A few misunderstandings later and Norah was given a "normal " stamp in the pylorus department and diagnosis 0f mild gastric reflux. We also were given a prescription for Prevacid to test out and look for any improvement.

We'll have to wait and see!

Drammy and Ammer

My mom and Amber came to visit us this weekend. They were here for about 5 days and it was awesome the whole time. We kept it low key, for Norah's sake, spending most of our time at home, but we managed to go to a bounce place, eat at Jack in the Box, the Olive Garden and Freddy's, make cookies and awesome Eggplant Parmesan, go shopping for skirts, swim a little bit, rock out on Guitar Hero and watch Wipeout. It was so fun to see them and the kids loved all the attention both gave them. Ava was sad to see them go and even said she was going to cry, while Jack loved them while they were here but is still happy now that they are gone.

I forgot to take a single picture while they were here, keeping preoccupied with a fussy baby and other household responsibilities, but managed to force a photoshoot right before they jumped in the car to drive to the airport. It was so rushed, both Jack and Norah were overtired and super uncooperative, but I think they turned out great nonetheless.

One Rough Night

The night before Norah's blessing she was up what seemed like every hour, making it nearly impossible to get any sleep. It was super hard, considering she is almost 9 weeks and not sleeping through the night, or anywhere near it, like Ava was. We aren't sure what her deal is, but know that she is a cute, but not super happy baby. I have always heard third children are almost always easy, because they don't have a choice, but Norah has proved to be a toughest one yet.

Norah's Blessing

Norah's blessing was today at church. She looked so beautiful in the blessing gown from Kyle's mom that Ava wore at her blessing. It was super sweet to see Kyle holding her up in the front of the chapel, and she never cried the whole time too, making it a much more pleasant experience.

I waited to put her in her gown until right before the blessing and immediately took her out of it right afterward to save it from spit-up, but was able to keep her happy until Kyle got home after priesthood to take some pictures.

She did pretty good for about five minutes, but was finally too ticked off to continue, but gave us a funny picture of her screaming.

Being Creative

More creative games come up with by Ava to pass the time, she is so cute and imaginative. Here she is vacuuming the stairs and doing a fine job of it too. She literally hit every single one and was photographed here near the bottom.

Food Storage

Kyle and I are more than aware of the need for food storage, and even planned on getting some after graduation, but didn't. It has been on my to do list for over a year now and when I received an email asking if anyone wanted to join in on a bulk food storage order, I signed up immediately. We got it all in our pantry and it looks like we are set, but with only wheat, rice, oats and beans, we are far from it, but at least we have a start!