Davin-My Middle Child

I cannot believe that it has only been a week since I last posted because we were so busy and so much happened, but I have really been wanting to do a post about Davin, so that's what we're doing today.  There will be a catch up post later this week.

Davin is such a cute, funny, sweet kid.  He also gets lost in the shuffle sometimes.  I underestimate him.  He is truly my middle child.  Weston is the oldest, Talia is the girl, and Beck is the baby.  Davin has carved out a little place somewhere in the middle.

The last couple of weeks I have all of the sudden realized how grown up my little almost 5 year old is becoming!  He has been doing so amazing at school and I just didn't see it before now.  I always knew Davin was bright, but he is not as verbally advanced as Weston was at this age, so I figured he would be more of a middle of the road kind of kid.  I'm not so sure about that.

At the beginning of the year Davin started working on sight words in preschool.  He brought home lists to practice and learn, then pass off.  There were 7 lists.  He has now passed them all off.  He was so enthusiastic about learning his words and practicing writing them.  Now that he has learned all of his sight words he gets new take home reading books.  He loves having homework like Weston and is doing really well with sounding out (and guessing based on the pictures) the words he doesn't know.  I'm very impressed.

He also loves playing Weston's math games.  For homework some weeks Weston will have a math game to play where you roll dice and subtract the smaller number from the bigger one or add them both together.  Davin is actually pretty good at these games and only needs a little help from me.  I had no idea he knew all of this stuff!  That probably makes me sound like a horrible parent, but Davin is such a creative, imaginative little soul that it's easy to assume he's just not paying attention or interested when we talk about numbers and letters.  I'm so glad that he is and I'm so proud of his enthusiasm for learning!

Davin really loves school.  Last week he got to bring home the letter bag.  The letter that week was "P" and he had a blast going around the house and finding items to take to show his class that started with the letter P.  He filled up his "P" bag and then got to present his things to his class during their pirate party.  It was a really fun day for him.

Here he is with all of his items that begin with P. (puzzle, plane, pirate puppet, Perry the Platypus, person, Power Ranger, pants, panda, puppy, picture, piece, Pez, and pom pom)

This was after school when he did his President's Day craft.  Too cute!

I also really really love his imagination.  He makes things up all day long and will often entertain himself for hours building with Legos or just plain old playing pretend.  He will pass up outings to stay home and play in the basement.

Davin is a tiny little thing, but he is truly growing all the time.  I hope that I will always remember to expect the best from him and not let him fall between the cracks as my attention is easily pulled toward the other kiddos.  I love my Dav!

Oscar Night 2013

It was a blast getting to watch the Oscars with Brad and Mel this year!  We put together quite the feast (and by "we" I mean mostly Mel).  I did the veggie tray, fruit, pizza rolls, brownies and M&M's.  Mel did taquitos with amazing Cafe Rio dressing, guacamole and chips, bacon wrapped little smokies, spinach artichoke dip, and rice krispie treats.  She is awesome.  It was all delicious and I was stuffed by the end of the night.

THE FASHION:
I loved . . .
-Jennifer Lawrence!  She looked amazing.  Great, classic dress in a beautiful pale pink color.  Gorgeous hair and she's just such a cool girl.  I was super excited about her Best Actress win!

-Jennifer Garner!  Holy fantastic color.  I adore that plum purple and she rocked it.  The ruffle in the back was fun and flirty, but not weird.  I loved her hair and jewelery too.  Plus she definitely wins best supporting wife.
-Reese Witherspoon looked fantastic post baby in her royal blue and black gown.  She made the most of her curves and I really liked her pretty blond hair long and curled.
-Sandra Bullock is just awesome.  I wish we were real life friends.  I loved her classy, sparkly (and MODEST) black gown.  Her hair accessory was a nice touch.  Oh and the hideous face she made while announcing the Film Editing award was hilarious.
-Zoe Saldana!  She isn't on the best dressed list but I really liked her gown.  The lavender was beautiful with her skin and the modern accents were cool looking without being over the top.
-Adele!  She just rocks.  She looked fantastic (and MODEST).  Her hair is seriously out of this world.  I couldn't get over it.  I would kill to have such thick, gorgeous hair.  Also she knocked her performance of Skyfall out of the park and won the Oscar for it!  Hooray!

Not so much . . .
-Naomi Watts.  I just wasn't digging the one boob cutout look.  It was weird and distracting.  I couldn't stop looking at the one boob, which was a shame because she is a very beautiful woman and I liked her hair a lot.
-Nicole Kidman.  The black and gold sequins were just too dramatic for me and I didn't like the weird swirlies at the bottom of her dress.  She did interview well on the red carpet though.
-Kristen Stewart.  Blah.  Blah hair, blah dress, blah announcing.
-Anyone else not mentioned above. :)

THE SHOW:
Seth MacFarlane.  Hmm . . . tricky.  Let's just say that he exceeded my expectations.  However, my expectations weren't very high.  Mostly he was an unknown.  I didn't know what to expect but I hoped he wouldn't be crass and horrible.  He wasn't.  He had some funny jokes, but seemed to fall flat with the audience.  Some of his jokes made me uncomfortable, but he didn't ruin the show, so I was glad about that.  He has a great voice and I enjoyed his singing.  Also he's more handsome than I thought he would be.

The opening monologue was only OK.  I liked the stars dancing.  I mean, any time I get to watch Joseph Gordon Leavitt in a suit dancing is fine by me.  What I really didn't like was William Shatner.  He looked like he had never acted before in his life and I really just didn't like the whole Star Trek future thing.

The "We Saw Your Boobs" song.  Maybe I'm childish but I thought it was hilarious.

The music!  It was fantastic and fun!  I loved all the live performances.  Especially Adele and the cast of Les Mis.  Oh and even though I thought the song at the end about the losers was kind of tacky, I still loved seeing Kristin Chenoweth perform.

The Sound of Music joke.  I laughed so hard.  And Christopher Plummer was pretty witty as a presenter too.

Jennifer Lawrence tripping on her dress as she climbed the steps to accept her Best Actress award was too funny.  She handled it well, of course.  She was so breathless and excited about her win.  I was happy for her.

I was SO excited that Argo won best picture.  It was a really really good movie.  The best I had seen in a long time.  And I was excited for Ben Affleck's success.  He gave a touching, heartfelt acceptance speech.  I really think that he and his family are a good Hollywood role model.

Other awards . . . I totally called Ang Lee's Best Director win.  Life of Pi was also a good film and I thought he was deserving.  Anne Hathaway's Best Supporting Actress win was predictable but well earned.  And, as I mentioned, I was so happy about Adele's Best Song win.  She gave a sweet speech too.

Overall, I thought it was a good Oscar show.  Not the best, but certainly not the worst.  I had a fun night with my sister and good food.  The kids were pretty good about being quiet during the show or doing something else.  Beckett snuggled up with me and fell asleep on my lap around 8:30.  There are a few movies added to my "to watch" list after last night (all of the animated shorts, Searching for Sugar Man).  I'm a happy girl and ready to relax and watch fluff blockbusters all summer until next year's awards season rolls around.  Good Night!

5 Months

Time is just marching along and Beckett is 5 months old today!  He still seems like a newborn to me, but all of my first time mommy friends whose babies are about Beck's age are starting to try solids, are rolling around and doing other big baby things.  I guess I better start moving this boy along!  

At 5 months Beckett can roll from belly to back, but he doesn't always do it.  He sits up like a champ.  We just put together his exersaucer this week and he seems to really like it!  He also had his first ride sitting up in the shopping cart seat yesterday.  He loved it, but he was kind of slumped so he probably should wait a little longer.

Beckett is mellow as ever, but not as great of a sleeper as I thought he would be.  He's still up in the night.  He was getting into a routine of eating twice a night, but I got the green light from the pediatrician to drop one of those feedings.  Crying it out is sad, but he's doing a little better.  I'm ok with being up once, but twice is just annoying.

Beckett is a good eater.  He's moving to two bottles a day and doesn't seem to have a problem with it.  I'm not as anxious to be done breastfeeding as I thought I would be, but he is getting very easily distracted while nursing and I don't nurse in public, so I'm still going to get him weaned around 6 months.  We haven't tried solids yet.  Sometime in the next few weeks we will get there.

Beckett weighed in at 13 pounds at his 4 month check up (which was late and just a couple weeks ago), so I'm betting he's gained an ounce or two since then.  Definitely not my smallest child, but he has the smallest head of them all according to his percentiles.

Beckett is so fun at this age.  He smiles and laughs when we play with him and tickle him.  He gets really excited and kicks and breathes fast whenever I read books to him or sing to him.  I try to take advantage of his night time feedings for some snuggle time since he's not much of a cuddler when he's awake.  Love you Beckstar!

Me Time

There are always lots of posts about the kids and our happenings, but today this post is about me.  I apologize if you find it shallow and/or selfish.  Just skip it if you want.  No worries.

I have been working hard to get my pre-baby body back.  It has been kind of fun.  Not ha ha, having a blast kind of fun, but definitely feeling good about myself and not worrying that it's all going to be for nothing kind of fun.  It feels good to know that my body is done having babies and is soon to be all mine once more.

I have been exercising on my elliptical 3-4 times a week, tracking calories on My Fitness Pal, trying to eat more mindfully and nutritiously, and sometimes playing Wii Fit games and counting it as a workout.  :)  I have lost 15 pounds so far and am back to pre-Talia weight.  I have another 15 pounds to go to get back to pre-Weston weight.  My goal is to get there by June so I can look awesome for our 10 year anniversary cruise.

Anyway, besides feeling good about myself and (sort of) beating winter depression, the best part of having lost the weight is getting dressed!  I bought myself some new clothes and it's finally fun to put together outfits again!  Now getting dressed is really not my thing.  I'm definitely a stay-at-home-in-sweats-80%-of-the-time kind of girl, but now that I have cute clothes that fit I kind of wish I had somewhere to go!

Inspired by my fashionable friend over at The Trophy Wife in Training, who was participating in this What I Wore Wednesday blog link up, I am going to share with you some of my favorite outfits I've worn lately.

I'll start with one I actually wore on a Wednesday with no intentions of going anywhere except to drop off Davin at preschool.  I ended up taking the littles and meeting up with Ian and some of his co-workers for lunch, so I was glad I looked cute.

Pants: Target, Shirt: Macy's, Shoes: Payless

This was way back in December, but I still liked it.  

Pants: Loft, Sweater: Old Navy, Shoes: IZOD from DSW

 I found these super cute and comfy skinny color cords on clearance for $10 and couldn't pass them up. I actually like them better with a different shirt but this is the pic that I have.

Pants: Old Navy, Sweater: Old Navy (same one as above), Boots: Target

 This was a date night outfit.  Ian and I went to The Leonardo Museum to check out a cool exhibit about Da Vinci.  We ended up also eating out at our favorite fancy restaurant downtown.

Pants: Target, Shirt: Kohl's, Cardigan: Target, Boots: Target

Our First ER Trip

I was sure that our first trip to the ER would be with one of the boys because they had broken a bone or split open their head by messing around or falling or doing something stupid.  But, alas, our first ER trip was with little Miss Talia.  Here's the story.

Saturday morning Talia slept in until 10:20.  This is not normal.  When she finally woke up she was warm.  I didn't take her temperature but I know she was running a low fever.  Probably 99 or 100.  I gave her some ibuprofen and she ate breakfast.  She seemed fine.  Played and was happy.  We had friends over for lunch and games in the afternoon.  She started getting whiny, but I attributed that to the fact that she hadn't had a nap.

We put her to bed a little early that night, but she seemed fine.  No runny nose, no coughing, no fever.  Ian and I curled up to watch a movie.  We heard someone crying and thought it might be Beckett, but the monitor was quiet.  It sounded weird.  It was Talia and she was crying and coughing.  Poor thing was warm and had raspy breathing.  I got her calmed down, gave her a drink of water and laid her back in bed.

Half an hour later she was awake again.  We snuggled on the floor of the bathroom while the shower ran to help with her cough, but she still was breathing with difficulty.  She was also definitely running a fever.  I was mostly concerned about her breathing.  I called the on call pediatrician.  She listened to her symptoms then heard her cough (since Tal was lying next to me on the bed).  The doctor recommended taking her to the ER since her cough sounded like croup and it would only get worse unless it was treated.

I took her to IMC, which is kind of far away, but I know they take our insurance.  It was a pretty quiet night in the ER.  We didn't wait long.  Talia was clingy and fussy whenever they wanted to do anything to her, like take her temperature or blood pressure.  She was running a fever of 102.7 and her heart rate was fast.  They got us checked into a room and the doctor ordered a dose of ibuprofen for the fever, a dose of steroids for the inflammation in her lungs, and a chest x-ray to make sure she didn't have pneumonia.  Then we hung out in bed while they monitored Tal's heart rate for a little while.  The chest x-ray was clear and her heart rate was holding steady at a slightly elevated but normal rate.

They diagnosed her with viral bronchiolitis (inflammation of the upper airways) and we left with a prescription for another dose of steroids and advice to take her out into the cold air if her cough got bad.  I am glad that she doesn't have pneumonia.  I am sad that we are going to have to pay who knows how much for the ER visit/chest x-ray.

We got home around 2:30am and went to bed.  It was a long, tired Sunday.  Talia seemed to feel ok during the day.  I was fully expecting her to be up coughing last night since this condition tends to worsen at night, but she slept all night long.  Hooray!  I really needed the rest.  Now we are just waiting it out and trying to keep her away from Beckett.  

Story Telling

The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is an annual tradition in Utah County.  We have never attended, but had heard of it.  Weston's elementary school participates by sending children from each grade level to the festival.  They have a day for any kids who choose to share a prepared story with their grade, then they send one of those kids to the festival to audition to present at the actual event.  

When I got the flyer about this I read through it and asked Weston if he wanted to participate.  He kind of shrugged and ran off to play.  I didn't push it.  A few weeks later when we went to his parent-teacher conference, Mrs. Peterson asked if Weston was planning on participating.  I told her he wasn't.  She said she thought he would do really well and enjoy it.  We decided we would talk to him about it again.  

That was on a Thursday evening and the day for him to present to his class was the next Tuesday.  That didn't leave him much time, but after explaining what he could do, he wanted to prepare a story.  He practiced and practiced.  I made him pictures to hold up with the story on the back since he really didn't have time to memorize it before the presentation.  Then on Tuesday morning he got up in front of the first grade morning classes and told the story of Little Bunny's Sleepless Night by Carol Roth.  He did an awesome job!  

There were 5 or 6 other kids who told stories too.  They all did really well.  Some kids had their story memorized, some read from the book, some had pictures like Weston, and one told a personal story rather than a book by someone else.  I don't know how many afternoon kids presented, and I haven't heard anything else about him moving on to the festival, but I'm really proud of him for putting in the effort and participating!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know that true love is in the little things that happen all of the time, every day, but I still think it's ok to make extra efforts to let your loved ones know how you feel about them on a special holiday set aside for doing so.  Plus it's fun!  

This year was pretty low key.  I woke up this morning to flowers on the table along with some of my See's favorites and a sweet card from Ian.  I didn't do anything special for breakfast, just fed the kids and sent Weston off to school.  I did put a love note and a special heart brownie treat in his lunch.

The other kiddos had a slow morning.  We got a surprise little visit from Auntie Mel!  It was fun to get to see her today.  We went on an outing to the dinosaur museum.  We had the place to ourselves and Beckett and I enjoyed the maiden voyage of our new stroller.

Nothing says love like sugar!  I baked red velvet cupcakes and took some to the ladies I visit teach.  The kids took chocolate mold suckers to their neighbor friends.  We also decorated sugar cookies for FHE on Monday, but none of those made it out of the house.  I did share a few with Mel.  But only because she's family.  ;)

Ian ended up coming home a little early from work, so he had some time to hang out with the kids before dinner.  I set the table all fancy with a tablecloth and candles for our Valentine's dinner.  We had spaghetti and meatballs with salad, garlic toast, and Martinelli's.  It was delicious and the kids all loved eating by candlelight.

After dinner I handed out Valentines.  I got each of the kids a little box of chocolates and a See's heart.  They got the movie Peter Pan as a group Valentine gift from Ian and I.  We'll probably watch it tomorrow night.  Beckett didn't get any chocolate, but he did get a new little elephant toy which he seemed very pleased with.

I gave Ian a box of See's, a card, and a deck of cards that I like to call "You make stubble look good and 51 other reasons why I love you."  It was fun to think of all of the things I love about Ian.  He's such a great guy and I am so lucky to be his wife.

We had a little dance party in the living room before the kids had baths and went to bed.  Ian had to go back into work, so I ended the evening eating chocolate and catching up on Once Upon A Time.  That sounds kind of pathetic, but it wasn't so bad.

I had a lovely Valentine's Day.  I am so very thankful for my sweet little ones and my amazing, wonderful husband.  I felt so loved and was happy to serve and tell my family that I love them.  I just don't see how you can go wrong with a holiday that is all about treats and showing/receiving love.  

Happy Valentine's Day!