My 3 Greatest Treasures

I took these photos of the girls back on May 4th. And I smile every time I look at them. I took a photo of Adelynne because she had just lost her second tooth of her top two teeth, and I love the smile kids have when they are missing their front two teeth. Adelynne is my sweet natured, sensitive, compassionate child. She is always aware of the feelings of those around her, especially of her mother's feelings. She doesn't like to upset people, and wants to be liked and loved by those around her. She is a great helper and usually willing to help out around the house with cleaning or just watching over Aurora. Adelynne is very intelligent. Her reading is getting better and better, and she loves to read on her own. She has a great memory too, and is capable of memorizing scripture verses, songs, and movie lines. She loves to write. She has written her own talks for church, and she wrote and illustrated a talk on keeping the Sabbath day holy and then gave it for our family home evening lesson on Monday night. She will write notes to me, and to her sister. I am beyond blessed to have her as my first child, and to have her be my friend throughout the rest of my life.

Amy. Oh, Amy. Can you tell from this picture how much {fun} she brings to my life? But really she does. And I just love her and I am grateful for the challenge AND joy she gives to me. Amy is full of sass and spunk, silliness and sweetness, innocence and deliberateness, oh she is full of a lot of things. She is full of PINK! All girl, but she will definitely fight for what she wants, watch out boys! Amy declares that she wants to be a princess when she grows up. When I asked her why she wanted to be a princess (oh, about 2 or 3 months ago), she got around to telling me that its because she wants to wear pretty dresses all the time. Then while we were on our recent trip to Utah, I pointed out to the girls the big "Y" on the mountain that represented BYU. I then told them that someday when they are a little older, that their Dad and I would have to take them on a hike up to the Y. Amy then said, "But someone will have to carry me because I will get my dress dirty!" It seriously took me a minute to figure out why she would say such a thing, but then I realized that when I said that when she "is older" meant to her she will be grown up, and when she grows up she wants to be a princess so she can wear pretty dresses! Get it?! Amy loves a good snuggle, does not like to be told no, and can produce tears and a pouty lip quicker than you can say, "What's wrong?" She wears her thoughts on her face, but she is smart and quick and loves to learn on her own time. She also loves to write me notes that usually go something like this: "ILOVEYO

UMOMM

YLOVEAMY"

Amy is a beautiful girl that tugs deeply at my heart. I am greatly blessed to call her my daughter, to have her be mine forever. She is a dazzling treasure.

My Princess Aurora. My Light. She is my constant reminder of my true source of Light, my Savior Jesus Christ. That without Him, I know that my life would not be what it is today, that it would not be blessed with my 3 greatest treasures. Her smile reminds me that there is a God in heaven who is my Heavenly Father, and that he does love me. She is a source of great joy to me. Motherhood has been a difficult but ever rewarding journey and dream come true. I am grateful and blessed to have my 3 daughters to be a mother to. I look forward to watching Aurora grow and develop.

10 WHAT?!

Seriously, she is 10. Months. Old. In just two short months she will be 1!!!!

Aurora, (AKA Rori), has added an immense amount of joy to our home and to my life. She is such a low maintenance, happy baby nearly all of the time. She loves to eat, just about anything. She had her first bite of baby food meat tonight, and she did NOT like it, and that has been the only thing that she has not liked. She will eat anything and she has loved everything, until tonight. At lunch today, she ate zucchini, peas, squash, and tomatoes. She has enjoyed her baby food fruits and vegetables, she loves baby rice cereal. Seriously, she has been so easy to feed, it has been nice.

On Monday, I took her to the doctor for her 9 month appointment, and she weighed 20lbs 9oz. She was 28 inches long. She's a big girl with lots of sweet baby rolls that I just can't ever seem to enjoy enough! She can clap and wave, she will imitate me when I do baby signs, like "more" and "all done." She pulled herself up to standing for the first time on Wednesday, but she is not crawling yet. She loves to sit up and reach for toys, and she will turn herself around in circles. She kind of scoots herself inches at a time, and has gone up on her knees a few times, but she doesn't like to do that. She just doesn't want to be mobile yet, and I'm really okay with that as long as its not something that is a real problem with her development. Her doctor informed me that she is about 6 weeks behind on her motor skills.

The tongue:

Her favorite person is me, which I love. But she lights up when she sees her sisters and her Daddy. This past month she has had some pretty awful nights, and I'm not going to lie, they were terrible for me too, definitely my worst times as her mother. But I think the awfulness has been because she is teething. She has gotten 3 new teeth this last month and two more are trying to come through the gums but have not broken through yet. But I also found out at the doctor's that she has double ear infections. Yikes! Poor baby. She has not been taking good naps either, pretty much 20 minutes at a time, usually twice a day, if I'm lucky. I'm just waiting for this anti-sleeping phase to pass, (and hoping it does)! But even with the lack of sleep, she is a remarkably happy baby. I've been taking her to aerobics with me, and for an hour she sits on a blanket with a few toys and some cheerios, and just watches me dance and kids run around her. It has been great. At home I can sit her down with some toys and get some chores done for about 20 minutes at a time, which is nice because I am terrible at doing things with one hand/arm! Aurora's favorite "words" to say are "dada," "nana," and "mama." And when she sees herself in the mirror she smiles and waves.

Lots of pictures from the quick trip to Utah

There are so many pictures, and believe me, I already narrowed it down. So enjoy

The Reason for a quick trip to Utah and Nevada (back in March)

Could we have a better reason than this adorable baby?!?! That's right, my nephew Brek was sealed to his parents (my sister and brother in law). Brek belongs to them for all eternity now, nothing more precious and comforting than knowing that what we have on earth will also be ours in heaven. Families are forever.

This is how you do dessert when you stay at Grandma Belt's house

We stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Belt for about 3 days at their home in Cold Creek. They have a wood burning stove that is perfect for snuggling up next to and reading a good book or talking late into the night with wonderful company. But, it also serves the purpose of providing the way to roast marshmallows! This was actually the first time we have ever done this while staying on the mountain with Grandma Belt, so the girls were very excited.




YUM!!!!

Cousins

Of course we also visited with cousins while we were in Las Vegas. Our time with them was much too short, try like an hour with each family. My girls were pretty tired by the end of the day.
Baby C. Isn't he adorable?

Cousins S and T. (Baby C's big sisters).

Playing with cousin L in the cubby under the stairs.
Our first time meeting Baby R. What a handsome boy! Aurora and R were instant friends. They had a great time hanging out at the high chair together. And Baby R even liked me (I was feeding him). Baby R and Aurora are only 2 weeks apart in age.

10 kids

While in Las Vegas we had the chance to visit our awesome friends, the Patty's and the Bledsoe's. Between the three families we have 10 kids! The Patty's have 3 boys (their baby boy is missing in the picture), and the Bledsoe's have 4 girls. Dustin and I are trying to catch up with them! But aren't are kids so cute? (And goofy)? They all have the best time together, and so do all of the parents!
From Left to Right: Amy, O, P, A, Adelynne, Aurora, E, E, and B in the back. Sorry to not use names, but I want to respect my friend's security. The oldest is 9 and the youngest is Aurora (6 months in this picture). Oh, and the Patty's are expecting number 4, so we'll see if they add to the girls or the boys.

Aurora at 6 months

We were in Cold Creek, Nevada when Aurora turned 6 months old on March 2nd. The big event of the day was that she cut her very first tooth! And the next day, she cut her 2nd tooth. She has two adorable little teeth now that may or may not be something that I like. She was pretty fussy the day before, and I wasn't sure why until I felt that tooth. Adelynne did the painting for Aurora.

Big sisters getting in on the action:

Dear Life, We still exist.

Amy got sick last Thursday, the 10th. She was sick for 5 loooong days. Then I got a little sick, and Dustin and Aurora. Adelynne has been the only one, so far, that has escaped this awful virus. I have not taken Aurora out of my apartment since the 10th because my worst fear is that she would get more sick with something like RSV or pneumonia. Most likely she has them already. She is miserable and the only reason I haven't taken her back to the doctor is because she is still eating and eating well, so she is well hydrated. But eating is her only comfort. You can see how miserable she is, just look at the pictures.

Her eyes are weepy and goopy, her nose runs like a bad leaky faucet, and she coughs so hard she gags. Could there be anything more pitiful? (Imagine all this on a grown man with a beard). I'd show his picture too, but he's just not as sweet looking as my poor baby.

She is fevering constantly, just like Amy did. But she can only take Tylenol every 6 hours, she's not old enough for ibuprofen yet. Her sleeping is not going well, she wants to be held a lot and then she cries in her sleep.

So it has been 11 days since this virus came to stay with us. What are we doing to keep boredom at bay? Here are a few pictures to show you:

Artwork. The girls will often pull out paper, scissors, and tape and go to town.

eating snacks and watching the reliable ol' tube;

Amy in action: (for 10 extra points, guess that movie)

Thank goodness for free video rentals from our local library. Amy has LOVED this video:

We have watched endless hours of television. I dare you to quiz us on the barbie movies.

And this is Adelynne showing off her artwork. She made a haunted house! Isn't she so cute?

Valentine's Day Happenings

Today I woke up and my apartment was freezing. Socks were a necessary requirement because the floors were like ice. At one point this morning I was walking into the bathroom thinking it will be warm in there (because the heater can actually heat that little room that has no windows). I walked in the bathroom and was a little surprised to find that it wasn't so warm. And it wasn't until my bottom touched the toilet seat that I realized it really wasn't warm in the bathroom. (I might be investing in heated toilet seats some day). So then I touched the heater and it was cold. Hmmm. No heat. Then I went around the rest of the apartment touching the heaters, they all were cold. No wonder it was so cold in my apartment!! Since I can't control the thermostat to my apartment, but I can turn on the oven and run it for as long as I want without it changing my monthly rent, I decided to bake. I baked some valentine cupcakes. They turned out really cute. I think I was inspired from my late night watching of "Cupcake Wars." (I find Food Network to be fascinating, now that we get it with our free cable package).
(This is a picture from my phone and the lighting is not so good. The frosting is pink).
They were quite tasty even though they came from a packaged mix. Although I sure would love to eat a cupcake from one of those fancy cupcake stores.

Amy has been very sick since Thursday. She started having fevers at 4am on Thursday morning and I decided to take her to the doctor since all three of my girls have had a cold for a couple of weeks. At the doctor's office, Amy's temperature was at 104.3, she was on fire. They ran a couple of tests and she came back positive for "Influenza B." (This is apparently the strain of flu that people have been vaccinated for this year, but only about 75% of people are being protected against this strain of the flu virus regardless of being vaccinated. Never mind the fact that Dustin and I decided not to do the flu vaccine for our family this year). So Amy was sent home with a prescription for Tamiflu. She's been on it for 5 days, today is her last day, and as I sit here typing, I can hear all too well, Amy and Adelynne playing so happily in their room when they should be going to bed. Finally! Amy has been so pathetic and dramatic these 5 days. She's had constant fevers that have made her eyes permanently puffy. I know her body must ache and hurt so badly. This morning when she was starting to fever I told her I would get her some medicine, and she just started wailing, "You always give me medicine!" Since she has this terrible cough her voice is raspy and sad so when she's crying (or screaming) it is hard to understand her. When I ask her to repeat what she says she just screams at me louder. She has been excessively emotional as well. Even the smallest bumps and stubs have made her bawl. I've held her as much as I could and reassured her over and over that she would get better soon. Today was the hardest day for her because she couldn't go to her preschool Valentine's Day party. Her little lip just stuck out and her eyes got all big and watery, and the tears just started streaming down her cheeks. It was even worse when she couldn't go to her dance class this evening. It is so awful to see her suffering. But I think tomorrow she will be feeling so much better. Aurora on the other hand.... has a fever.... right now.

Aurora Faye at 5 months

She just gets cuter and cuter, all the while I just fall more and more in love with her, who wouldn't?! In honor of being 5 months today, Rori got to put on a new outfit (9 month size).

If you look closely at her mouth, you will see that Rori is turning her tongue over. She is often playing with her tongue or sticking it out.

She is so precious!

Soon she'll be bigger than the blanket!

At 4 months Aurora's stats were: Height 25 inches (75%). Weight 15 lbs 8.6 oz (90%). Head Circumference 42 cm (75-90%).

At 5 months:

- Aurora laughs and smiles readily. She has recently been finding the humor in her big sisters, especially in Amy. If Amy laughs, Rori does too. Its adorable. Rori just lights up when her sisters walk into the room.

- She drools, maybe because she is teething?

- She still has a clogged tear duct, and her eye is constantly weeping and/or goopy. I'm starting to worry a little about her eye.

- She's getting to big for her car seat.

- She is wearing 12 month size clothes, some 9 month sizes, and a few 6 month sizes. Definitely not the 3-6 month size.

- She usually wakes once during the night.

- When we eat she will watch us very intently and start moving her tongue around in her mouth likes she is eating something.

- We still swaddle her for naps and bedtime. In fact we now double swaddle her to make sure she is strapped down good.

- If we lay her down on her back, she will move herself around doing a 180. She did it tonight to move herself around to look at the TV.

- She likes the TV. Uh-oh. Hopefully she doesn't have slower development as a result.

-Aurora is a doll and I absolutely adore every moment I have with her. She still makes me want to have more babies. I'm not shy about telling people that I definitely want more babies!!