Bye Bye Money

So Monday night we came home from shopping to find we had no hot water. So we called the plumber and he came out to take a look and our water heater had ruptured. So we would need a totally new one. So we got that taken care of yesterday along with a few other pieces that needed replacing, there goes $1500. We got estimates on some other things we knew we'd need fixed as well which will be $900 (luckily that stuff can wait.)

So after dinner last night I get the dishwasher all loaded which was really full because I hadn't been able to run it the night before and guess what it doesn't work. So I had to take everything out and wash it by hand. The plumber came back today and fixed that, luckily it was something very simple.

And best of all this morning we wake up to Phoebe crying at 6am and it is COLD. Her poor little hand are like ice. I thought it seemed especially cold but tried to brush it off. Finally I told Corey to go turn the heat up and he comes back to inform me that it's 50 degrees in the house and the heat is not turning on. I will admit I panicked for a minute. Seems the plumber turned off our furnace yesterday and didn't turn it back on or tell us it was turned off. I'm just so glad it wasn't broken too.

All this just a week after dropping another several hundred dollars on the van. I used to think van problems were awful but I gotta say now they're better than house problems especially in the winter.

It's times like this that I feel we'll never drag ourselves out of debt. As soon as we get something payed off something bigger comes along. Not to mention between my pregnancy, Bella's epilepsy and Phoebe's surgery we have $8500 in medical bills from this year. And that is with good health insurance.

Here's to hoping 2009 will be a cheaper year!

Bananas

Feet!

Phoebe found her feet. She's been becoming more aware of them lately but now she can actually grab them and pull her socks off. I can't wait for her to stick them in her mouth, I think it's so cute when babies do that.

Lots of snow

So we woke up Christmas morning to lots of snow, and we woke up on the 26th to even more. It snowed all day and night. I think the weather guy said we got like 15 inches here that day. Had to shovel the driveway 3 times. I love it though. Corey just worked from home Friday because of the weather, which turned out lucky for me because John woke up throwing up and dealing with that and a baby is a lot of work. He's feeling better though and so far no one else is sick. Although Bella did have a seizure today, her last was in September though so she's been doing really well.

Oh and Phoebe has been sleeping great in her crib. Once or twice a week she has a bad night but most of the time she sleeps really well.





And this last picture is for Nana :)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a fun relaxed day here at home. Woke up to a ton of snow, which is what I wanted for Christmas. Then we opened presents and played with toys all day. We spread out our gift opening through the day so it lasts (in fact there's still some presents left under the tree that we'll open tomorrow.)

Bella got a new baby doll that she named Riley. I also got her a doll pack-n-play so now her dolls have a bed. I was able to get the Rose Petal Cottage onsale for $30 and she loves that, the pack-n-play fits great in it. Also the doll rocking chair from Nana goes along perfectly. Also some really great toy dishes and pots and pans from Ikea. Since we moved the crib out of the nursery I've turned that room into a temporary playroom, it works great especially since the basement (where our real playrooms are) is freezing cold in the winter.

John of course got some more cars, because a boy can never have too many. His favorite thing has actually turned out to be a toy van that I got Bella. He LOVES it. The doors open, it has carseats in it (which he put all his animals in) and the radio and horn work. He played with it all day.

This toy was for John but the helmet doesn't stay on his head well but Bella loves it.









And this is the light that goes on his hard hat but he thinks it is a camera (it really does look like one.)

Phoebe at 5 Months

Credit to these pictures goes to Corey, as he's the one that took them (I take credit for editing them though.) Anyway I was getting some pictures of Phoebe breastfeeding for a M.I.L.C. thing on facebook so I had to have him take them. Apparently facebook thinks breastfeeding pictures are obscene so I guess we'll see if they take mine down or not. The lighting was a little funky so I had to make them all black & white (which I prefer anyway but Corey doesn't.)

She's Rolling!

I set Phoebe down on the floor for a second so I could put the laundry in the dryer, looked over a second later and she was on her back. So I put her back on her tummy to see it for myself and sure enough she rolled over. She did it 6 times and now won't stay on her stomach at all. I'm so proud of her.

5 Months Old

My tiny little baby is 5 months old now. She's definitely not the 5 pound newborn she used to be. Anyway tonight will be her first night sleeping in her crib. I caved and it's now in our bedroom, right next to my bed. It's great because I can see her without getting up, even better than the pack-n-play was (wish I'd done this sooner.) So now I don't even have to move when the paranoid part of me checks to make sure she's breathing ten times before I go to sleep. If she was in the nursery I'd have to walk down the hall to do that (and yes I would still do it, I can't help myself.)

Also her muscles are getting stronger, I'm excited because I can't wait for her to be able to sit up on her own but I also hate this stage. She's starting to use her torso muscles so she's actually less stable now than she was before, since she attempts to put those muscles to work and ends up throwing her whole body forward. We've definitely had some close call the last few days in terms of falling so holding her now is a lot more work than before.

Eating, it's hard work

John's Alphabet

"A, B, C, D, E, F, G, K, K, K, K, N, N, N, O, P, Q, R, S, Y and Z. Now I know my A B C D C's, next time won't you sing with me."

Then repeat, over and over and over.

More Christmas Lights

I guess I'm on a posting spree tonight or something (if I don't post now while thinking of it I never will.) Anyway last night we went to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. I've been wanting to go every year but we never have before. Anyway really nice Christmas lights, very pretty but not worth it with three little kids. It was very very cold out and we only had our single stroller. John and Bella both wanted to ride in it so we made them take turns and they cried when it wasn't their turn. And Corey and I switched turns between carrying Phoebe and one of the other (we each had a kid in one arm and then our other hand pushing the stroller together.) I have got to get new tires for my Phil and Ted's stroller especially since Phoebe will be able to ride in the toddler seat for it soon.

Then for more chaos this morning we get up for church, get everyone fed and dressed and finally out the door in the cold. But as we drive the van to the church we quickly realize that our van is once again not working properly. I would have just taken the kids into church and had Corey take the van in but there was no way I was going to walk home in the snow afterwards, so we all went back home. Kids now crying because they thought we were going to church. $80 later our van is now half fixed.

Baby John

This picture just popped up in my slideshow on my sidebar while I was posting the last post. I thought I'd add it since I posted one of Phoebe in the same sweater last week. I actually thought it was Phoebe at first (since the pictures are so small in the slideshow.) I guess it's a good thing my pictures are well organized or I'm sure I'd mix the kids up eventually.

Crying It Out

Crying it out, it can be a hot topic amongst moms. I personally am a big believer in it. I did it with Bella and John and they are both great sleepers and we've never had any bedtime issues. And I think it's important to teach your kids to fall asleep on their own. I will admit though that I don't enjoy the actually crying part. But Phoebe will be 5 months old tomorrow and the time has come. Up until now I haven't even thought of it as she has been waking because she's actually hungry and sleeping all night when she's not. Friday night however she ate at 11pm before bed and then woke up at 1am, 3am, 6am ect. And not only that but when Corey gave her a bottle at 3am she sucked on it for 10 minutes but didn't actually drink any of it and then fell asleep in his arms. So last night when she woke at 3am I didn't get up to feed her, much to my delight it went well and within 20 minutes she was asleep again (with little crying) and slept until 6am. I'm really hoping tonight will go as well. I need to get her transitioned to her crib too but I really don't want to move her out of our room, I'm fighting the desire to just move her crib into our room. Her nursery is only like 20 feet from our room but it still feels so far. I wish she'd stop growing so fast.

Breaking the swaddle

I've been swaddling Phoebe since day 1. I'm a big believer in swaddling babies and have done so with all my kids but Phoebe the longest. We bought a Miracle Blanket with her and I only wish I had known about it with the others. It has got to be the best baby product ever. So anyway as Phoebe grows she's slowly been outgrowing her blanket and I knew we'd soon have to stop, but she slept so great I didn't want to mess with a good thing. This past weekend I put her to bed unwrapped and much to my delight she slept great. In fact longer than usual, I think because she now knows how to get her hands into her mouth and can soothe herself. So I guess we are officially done with that, with the rare exception of her being extremely fussy.

And speaking of outgrowing things I had to pack up all of her 0-3 month clothes yesterday as she is now wearing 3-6 month stuff. It's kind of sad, seems like just yesterday she only fit into tiny preemie clothes. The 0-3 month pants still fit her but I don't have many pants in that size, I was happy to discover plenty 3-6 month pants left over from John though. I love getting as much use out of clothes as I can, more than half of her stuff has been worn by all three of them.

And developmentally Phoebe is doing well. She seems to fall between where Bella and John were. Bella did everything exactly at the "average" age and John was severely delayed. Phoebe's slow but not enough to really make me worry. She still hasn't rolled over yet and can only hold her head up in the exersaucer for a minute but I can tell she's getting much stronger. We've also noticed a difference in her vision as she now smiles at people across the room.

Snow

We've gotten lots of snow, it started this weekend and it's still going. The kids are loving it and I have to admit I am too. It's only really annoying when it's time to go shopping and we have three kids in carseats to deal with in the cold. We've also been making Christmas cookies and decorating them so it's really feeling like Christmas now.

The Christmas Nativity Meets Noah's Ark

The kids are convinced all the animals belong in the Nativity.

Exersaucer

I'm thinking perhaps I should go back to daily blogging. I've had tons of ideas on things to post but haven't posted any. Anyway we had a great trip out of town this weekend. The kids all did really well with the drive (John slept a solid 5 hours on the way down.) Phoebe had a little trouble napping away from home but still did great overall. Yesterday Corey and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. And I think winter is officially here now, we got a little snow on Monday (very little really) but it's all still out there on the grass today.

We got Phoebe an exersaucer yesterday, it was her big Christmas gift but I decided to just put it together as she seemed to be in need of more toy activity and I really didn't have room to hide it in my closet anyway. She seems to be enjoying it, she only lasts a couple minutes but it's perfect for when I have to run into the kitchen for a minute to grab a snack for the kids. And John and Bella enjoy pushing all the button too and helping Phoebe play.

Phoebe is taking her first nap in her nursery right now. She's still sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room at night and had just been napping in the swing during the day. But lately she's gotten quite fussy about napping down stairs so I started putting her up in our room to nap and she did great. I figure naps are a good start to transitioning her to the crib anyway. Right now I'm listening to her on the baby monitor making all kinds of cute baby noises. I'll be pretty sad when we have to move her to the crib at night, I like having her in our room. Plus when we take the pack-n-play down there's going to be a big empty spot in our room and I can't figure out what to put there to fill it up.

Road Trip

So we're heading out of town for the weekend. Our first road trip with three kids. Hopefully it goes well. It's only a 4 hour drive so we should survive. I'm doing my best to get the house all clean before we leave so we don't have to come home to a messy house. And my tip for traveling with kids, ziplock bags! Sort everything and stick stuff in the bags and it's so much easier to find stuff while traveling. Snacks in one, diapers/wipes in another, toys in one. Plus they always seem to come in handy for something along the trip.

4 month doctor appointment

Phoebe went to the doctor today for her 4 month appointment. She weighs 11 pounds 11 ounces now and is 23.5 inches long. She's doing great and growing well, we couldn't be happier.

And John now has croup, poor thing. Is cold season over yet?

Christmas Lights

I love Christmas lights, there's just something magical about the colorful glow they have. I remember as a kid we'd drive around just to look at people's Christmas lights on their houses, some were simple and others more extravagent like the Griswold's. It seems however that people here in Utah (or in our neighborhood at least) just don't understand what it's about. There aren't that many lights up really but 99% of those that are up are just plain BAD. I'm serious it looks like people went out with a strand of lights and threw it like a lasso at the trees, and wherever they landed is where they stayed. A lot of lights in trees but none that even come close to being wrapped evenly in a tree so in the dark it's just like floating lights. And while I don't at all enjoy flashing lights I know some people do, but Santa's reindeers should never blink on and off. I guess it's just a big pet peeve of mine.