Thomas the Train

This last weekend we went up to Durango to ride Thomas the Train. All of the kids were so excited, and we had a great time!

We started with a picnic at the park when we got into town.

We took a little walk down to the river that runs through town and watched some river rafters float down the river.

And our happy boy at the train station waiting for Thomas to arrive. He was pretty excited!

We got to meet Sir Topham Hatt. Rylan wanted nothing to do with him! But Hannah was friendly and shook his hand, with Bethany following her.

Then we got to see Thomas. Rylan was just in awe when he saw him and just stared and stared. The girls thought it was cool that Thomas was "real".

On the train. We had a fun little ride through town and along the river. And towards the end little Rylan feel asleep. I guess too much excited along with no nap, that's what we get. But at least he got to see Thomas, that was the most important part. And he did wake up in time to tell Thomas bye too.

And we ended our day with a trip to the swimming pool...also the kids favorite part along with getting breakfast! We had a fun little trip, but after being gone only one night I was ready to be home, and dreading our Utah trip next week even more! I guess if I plan on not getting any sleep, and having grumpy kids, (between our girl who doesn't like to go to sleep, and our boy who likes to get up super early (between 4:30-5:30) and a baby who is up once)...I will be pleasantly surprised by the little bit of sleep I actually get! It should be fun!!

We love Brother...yes we do

So Rylan decided to decorate Dallen's face for us. Luckily I found him fairly quickly into the decorating so he didn't get so far. When I took the marker from him, he quickly picked up a pen he also had grabbed. So thank goodness Rylan started with the marker and not the pen, that could of jabbed him a little more. And with a little scrubbing the marker came off. And after that I decided it was time to 2 year old BOY proof our house. He is into so much more stuff than my girls were. The week before he cut Bethany's finger with scissors. That was exciting!!

Hannah has already started teaching Dallen. She calls it baby school. She does it every day and I love that she is wanting to spend that time with him.

Bethany looked way too cute the other night when we went to move her from our bed to hers. I think she is a snuggler like her daddy. Bethany is our wonderful sleeper! She goes to bed on time (unlike Hannah) and is the only one who will sleep till 7:00 or later. She has been bugging us to have her own room for awhile now. She is tired of Hannah keeper her up at night, and waking her up in the morning. At night we usually have to move Bethany to a different room and then we move her back when everyone is asleep...but she isn't so little anymore and moving her is getting more difficult. So we decided to move her mattress into Dallen's room for now. We may leave her in there even after we move Dallen over, or we may move her back we'll see. But she is loving having her own space and not being bugged by Hannah. Also, just this week she saying she is ready to go back to school. I thought it would be about a month and she would be ready to go back, and sure enough she is. She says she wants to go to school so she can get a break from Hannah and Rylan!

Stinky Feet...PU

A couple weeks ago we got to see Mr. Stinky Feet at the library! We first saw him last year and the girls just love him. We listen to his CD's in the car ALL the time, and they ask every so often we do we get to see him again? I tell them in the summer. He plays at the different libraries here, so we actually saw him twice at different libraries. They had just as much fun at the 2nd performance as they did at the first. I love that the libraries have such fun things for the kids during the summer!

The girls got to play in his band. They had so much fun!

Doesn't Rylan look thrilled. I guess that is what getting up at 5:00 does to you. He just sat on my lap the whole time asking for a snack that I didn't pack because I thought were going to be inside the library where you can't have food. He wasn't too happy with me.
And Mr. Stinky Feet himself, with his daughter Lyda. They can't wait to see him again next year at the library!

5 minute Chocolate Cake

So this is the coolest chocolate cake recipe! Want to know why...it is super easy, you have all the ingredients in your house, and it really only takes 5 minutes including cooking time. Which makes it also very dangerous!! So beware!! It really tastes quite good! Give it a try and let me know what you think!!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT !

He rolls...

right off the couch! So last night while I was doing dishes, I had layed Dallen down on the couch. Then I heard him crying his hurt cry. My first thought was what did Rylan do now...but then I realized that all the other kids were sound asleep in bed. Then I noticed the bundled up Dallen was not on the couch but the floor. He is able to roll onto his sides from his back, and was able to roll just enough to get to the edge of the couch and then onto the floor. I felt so bad!! So no it wasn't Rylan this time, but mommy. I will have to be a little more careful of where I put him! Sorry little Dallen!!

1 Month Old

Can he seriously be a month old already?! I can't believe how fast these babies grow!! Dallen is still holding out to be an excellent baby. He is still waking up just once at night. He has started to be awake for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours at night, and still sleeps during most of the day! He is able to focus more on things, and will follow your voice when you talk to him. He was just pooping once every couple days. That once would mean about 4 dirty diapers in an hour, but then he was done for awhile. Just the last couple days he has changed that and is now pooping at least 10 times a day! Hopefully it will calm back down. He has also turned into a little spitter. All of my kids were, it just started at different times. Hopefully since he is already a spitter he will get over it quicker! At least that is my hope! I am still amazed at how much I love him already, it really is love at first sight. Plus I guess we had 9 months of fun bonding:)

This is the outfit that Dallen came home from the hospital in. It is the only newborn pj's I have and I think they are the only newborn clothing I have ever had and I just love them! It has been nice having something that fit him during the first month. (You would think I would of figured that secret out before my 4th kid, but oh well. Kind of like the secret of the gowns, I LOVE them, but didn't discover them until Rylan. They make diaper changes so much easier!!) Dallen sure feels these pj's out much more than a month ago, funny how a pound can make such a difference! They will probably be put in his baby box in the next couple weeks.

Dallen is not a big fan of bathtime. He usually screams during them. Good thing they are fast. They must wear him out too, because he usually goes right to sleep once he is clothed and swaddled up.
I am still surprised at the amount of noise this little boy can sleep through. I suppose he is used to the noise from when he was still inside me. The other day he was in his swing, and Rylan was being a good big brother and was giving him pushes. Next thing I know Dallen is on the floor, (no he wasn't buckled him and yes I should know better) but he did not make a peep and slept through the whole thing. I was amazed! Told you he was a good sleeper:)

And yes Rylan really is a good big brother, he still loves "his baby" to pieces! He refuses to call Dallen by name, it is baby to him. Probably because that is what we referred to him so long before he joined us. He gives him kisses all day long, likes to climb on him to get close, and will sometimes get mad at his sister's when they try to be close to Dallen. Apparently he thinks it is just his baby. I am excited to see them play and interact more as Dallen grows.
Hannah's mommy mode as turned back on this week. She also loves to be with Dallen. She will come over and just look at him and say how cute he is. Then she will comment on how cute his eyes are, his hair, his clothes, she really loves him. Whenever I am not right next to him, she is and she informs me that she will take care of him for me. The other day he was fussing in his bouncer and she gave him his plug, turned on his music and then was so excited to tell me that she got Dallen to go to sleep and sure enough she did! It is nice to have helpers in the house.
The girls were so excited that I let them hold Dallen all my themselves. I usually will still hold onto his head. All three of them were fighting over who got to hold him. Bethany got the head since she is the oldest, Hannah the middle and Rylan got the toes. I guess he thought literally that he got to" hold his toes!" Silly boy.
This was the first time that I have gotten a picture with all 4 kids in it. It's hard when Dallen is so little. He started crying and this is the reaction he got! All of the kids just love him so much, and they enjoy fighting over who gets to hold him and who's baby it is:)

As for me I am doing pretty good. I am starting to get more energy back. Some days are great and I feel like I have things under control, and then the next I am so overwhelmed and wonder what have I gotten myself into. But over all life is good!

Family pictures

We finally got a new family picture taken. It had been over a year since our last family picture. I wanted to wait until Dallen was here, so it woudn't be outdated too fast. Thanks again Scharese!! And she snagged some of the girls while I took a break to feed Dallen.

Rylan did not want his picture taken, and this is the only way we could get him in the picture, by giving baby a kiss. And he wouldn't even kiss his head...little stinker!!

More pictures of Dallen...

It seems I can't ever get enough pictures of my little one. Our friend took some pictures for us, and I just love how they turned out. Thanks again!!

Daddy's summer break!

Last week was Ky's last week of his "summer break". That is what Bethany calls it, anyways. The other morning she asked him if he was off for the summer too. He let her know that he was just home to help mommy. Then she came over and told me that she would be my helper when daddy goes back to work so I won't have to do everything by myself. I have to remind her of that conversation quite often!! So last Monday we went on a hike to the volcano's. It was a lot of fun to be out and doing something again. It rained on us a little, which was fun too. The girls were a little nervous when we first told them we were going to hike to the volcano's, they didn't want the lava to get them. Once we told them there is no lava anymore, then they were fine!

Rylan loved finding and throwing rocks! This was at the top of one of the volcano's. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any sort of hole left in the middle, but we did have a nice view of the city.

The good hikers. Rylan and Hannah took turns being carried by daddy.

And we had to rest at a couple of the benches.

One of the other days we went over to the spray park while daddy went and got our tires rotated on the van. The kids really enjoyed playing in the water and playing with their friends!

Hannah was a little tired, from getting up too early!

We ventured out to the store with all the kids. The first one we went grocery shopping. Everyone needed to get out of the house. All the kids did great, they usually do. But when we got home from the store I asked Ky "why did you buy beats?" He gave me a weird look and said what, I didn't buy beats. Hannah pipes in, Rylan grabbed those. And I remember putting them up at checkout and they were in the back of the cart by Rylan. I just thought Ky wanted beats for some reason and wasn't going to question him. So we have a couple cans of beats, and we don't like beats. He also managed to grab a can of green beans that we paid a dollar for.

We also went to target one day, lack of something better to do. And Rylan wanted to walk. Whenever he found something he wanted he would just grab it and put in on the bottom of the cart. It took us a little bit to realize what he was doing, and he had quit the pile down there. I guess he enjoys shopping a little too much!!

Little Dallen enjoys sucking on either his thumb or pointer finger. Sometimes he prefers his fingers and other times the plug. I guess he likes to keep his options open!

We had a great time having daddy home. I'm convinced that it would be awesome to have someone to cook, clean and take care of the kids all the time!! He really did so much while he was home and I so appreciate it all!! I also appreciate his work for giving him so much sick time that he could take a couple weeks off!! Today is my first full day with all the kids, and they are all behaving good for me. I find that I just kind of miss having Ky here with me. I think he is glad to be back at work and to have a little peace and quite:)