Checkups

 

Sweet little Katy is always surrounded by lots of loving siblings. Diana likes to point out her eyes, ears and nose. I have to remind her a lot to not touch Katy's eyes. Jacob can't figure out why Katy cries and I can tell he feels bad for her and wants her to be happy every single second. Michael is this amazing peacemaker and natural caregiver. He will gently pick Katy up, sing to her, tell her that she doesn't have to worry or cry because she'll be able to walk someday and play with him, and just generally is the sweetest boy to her. Nicole is more like Jake who just wants Katy to be happy and tries doing everything to help her not cry.

 

Sweet little Katy does cry a lot- at her dr appointment this week the dr told me her symptoms means she has reflux. It affects how much food she can keep down and I think it hurts her to be spitting up so much. The doctor encouraged me to try keeping her inclined instead of laying flat during the day and to feed her formula if her eating needs outpace me. So we're giving that a try and I really hope it works. I've had some bad headaches from just the noise level of it all (it's not like I have four other quiet kids lol). Apparently this resolves by around 6 months so we'll just hang in there and my sweet kids are so nice about all of the crying.

 

Nicole's Sunday hairdo. She really wanted me to take a picture. She is my no-frills girl and has always just wanted a simple ponytail, side ponytail, half ponytail (getting the picture?). So this was a big step! Of course she played so energetically it fell out later but it was nice to see her enjoying a fun hairdo.

 

Katy's been growing, we had her two month checkup last week and she got a lot of shots poor thing. She weighs 9lbs 4oz (10th%), is 23in long (68%) and her head is 14.5in (5th%). So tall and slender!

 

I've been at the dr office a lot between these well child visits and Diana's forehead trouble. Diana pulled off the top layer of superglue in her cut so we went to the ER- and all they did was put some steristrips on since it was too late for stitches. Of course Diana pulled the steristrips and any other bandaid off whenever we didn't watch her for a split second. The waterproof ones stayed on but hurt her after a while. I had her stay in the house for a week and now we're using mederma 3x a day to help heal it. She is all engines go all day! We also had her 2 year visit: she is 24lbs1oz (17th%), is 35in long (81st%) with a bmi of 13.8 (1%). Tall and strong is my little D!

 

Jake also had a dr appointment for his 3yr visit. We found out this month that he is SUPER allergic to poison ivy. 2 weeks of itchy suffering, especially at nights, poor kiddo! His dr visit was in April but I just found the paper. He is 31lbs (9th%), 39.5in long (28th%), with a BMI of 14 (4th%). A wiry, energetic 4 year old!

Diana's bday and other summer fun

 

Diana turned two yesterday! We had a bbq with friends on Saturday and celebrated her bday that night so Sunday we could celebrate Fathers Day with Jim. We'll always remember the sweet Father's Day gift Diana was to Jim.

 

I have a summer incentive program for the kids and they've been reading and doing chores cheerfully for the most part. My favorite? They get extra points for reading to a sibling, so Nicole was chasing Jacob down trying to read to him and the poor guy just wanted to go play. It was pretty funny.

 

My life in a picture. Painting my toenails is a sign of how relaxed I feel, of how I'm able to take care of myself. I tried painting my toenails two days ago. ha. I keep looking down and laughing at the true story of my life as shown in a halfway done pedicure.

 

Bubble toy party!

 

Katy getting lots of love from D.

 

Katy's first selfie. Just kidding, I was taking a pic and she reached out to grab the camera.

 

My little fairy Diana. She is such a beautiful smiling girl, the absolute most cheerful little sweetheart there is.

 

The boys stole some masking tape and randomly made these and wore them all day. They are hilarious!

 

Nicole got the awesome artist award for her class, she loves to draw, paint, and create!

Katy's Blessing, School End, and the FENCE!

 

Katy was blessed on Sunday and Dad flew out for the weekend. We had a wonderful, sweet, fun visit with him for the last time before he goes to the Philippines.

 

The morning after Dad arrived we went to a bday party at a new park that opened nearby. It is incredibly fun and the kids had a blast! I enjoyed getting to see friends and chat for the first time really since I had Katy.

 

On Sunday after church we walked the temple grounds. I love the peaceful spirit there and how the kids feel that too.

 

It's hard to believe we have five kids! They all love their Grandpa- the first thing they wanted to do was play tag!

D helping Grandpa shuck corn for our Saturday bbq

 

They were all discussing what could be in this stump as they got different tools to break through the bark. Nicole was pretty sure she found some Indian carvings and they all loved seeing the millipede that one of the boys uncovered. My favorite part was the times we got to sit on the back porch in the warm weather and cool breeze while the kids played out back.

 

Can you tell she is loving the yard? She is also covered heat to toe in red Carolina clay dirt after she and the boys had a dirt party/war. That's not tint from the camera, she really is that covered.

 

They were all orange and when I bathed them it was amazing how many layers of dirt there were as well as little rocks in their hair. I guess the backyard adventures have begun!

 

Adventures such as D falling while out back before it was even 8am this morning and getting superglued back together at urgent care. Thank goodness Jim was able to drive home from work and take her, it would have been crazy if I had to! I was able to keep my cool when it happened, and perhaps so much so that Nicole asked "So does this mean I don't have piano practice?" D is turning two in a few weeks- Mike had a similar trip around this age for stitches, it seems like he and D are really peas in a pod.

 

This is Katy's "I'm digesting a lot of milk while sleeping" pose. I love this all-out-relaxed sleep.

 

Me and Katy

 

Her sweet smiles are just icing on the cake. She practices her future opera singing plenty, but is really a good baby and we all adore her.

 

Backyard bliss.

 

 

Nicole is about to wrap up first grade. Here she is with her teacher. We have loved the switch to this new school and being on a traditional schedule.

 

 

The class had a family day where we could come in an look around Nicole's class, see her writing portfolio, play games and eat snacks. Mike was very curious and can't wait to be in Kindergarten. Jake- well, he's definitely still a preschooler- kept trying to reach the stuffed animals she had up around the room.

 

 

Diana was in the stroller the whole time, but she just acted like it was a wheelchair and used her feet to propel her around the class until I locked the wheels. Even then she was stretching, reaching and trying to get into everything she could- especially the snacks the boys were sharing with her.

 Little Katy was perfect and slept in my arms the whole time. It was such a blessing! I was juggling complimenting Nicole and giving her the time she needed, making sure the boys were busy and not making a mess with snacks, keeping D out of reach of the teacher's stuff- and Katy slept through it all. It was a lot of fun, but I did come home feeling like I'd run a race!

 

Jake's mustache after drinking a smoothie.

 

The fence is done! I love that wood! The day it was finished we let the kids out and they scouted out the boundaries like hamsters or something it was hilarious. What was really funny was how they figured out how to open the locked gate. Yes, the gate was locked with a padlock and they opened it while the padlock was still on there. It made me laugh to think we had just spent all of that money on a fence and they figured out an easy escape so fast! Fortunately Jim was able to figure out how to drill a hold in the lock and add a pin to make it so they couldn't pop the lock the way they were doing.

 

So now I can sit on the back porch and watch the kids play together. They don't have to constantly get tempted by the sound of construction, open forest or neighbor's toys. It's just our backyard. Whew.