Summer Wrap up Part 2 (July)

The first few days of July were tough. My due date was July 4th and I was hoping to have the baby well before then. But of course she did not arrive until 2 days later. So instead of putting life on hold for those couple of days I tried to keep myself and the kids busy in hopes that it would make me go into labor. 

On Monday July 2nd, Charles birthday. We met up with my sister-n-law and her kids for lunch and then headed to SeaScape to play. The kids LOVED it!!!!

 This was the best photo I could get of the 3 of them with my camera on my phone!

Then we went to Red Robin for dinner with my family. 

On the 4th of July we hosted dinner at our house. Complete with 4th of July, Red, White, and Blue drinks. The kids LOVED them and they tasted pretty good too! 

 Grandpa brought sparklers for us to play with. The kids always enjoy them.

 (This is me and my prego belly 2 days before I delivered.)

Katelyn was born
July 6th

The rest of the month we spent A LOT of time at home.

 We played with Bubbles!

We watched a LOT of Tangled. One of Claudia's favorite movies. 

 We went to Chick-fil-A for Cow Appreciation day! A tradition of ours.

(This is our first and only family photo with all 6 of us. I guess I need to get a new one taken soon! This one probably won't look so good on our wall.)

 

Charles got this great little pool for his birthday and the kids just LOVED playing in it. It sure beats playing in two buckets.

 Charles likes to do silly poses these days! He's always making us laugh!

 (I love the photo above, that is a REAL smile. Not too often you get on of those in a photo.)

Claudia loves holding Katelyn, but as you can see Katelyn wasn't really feelin it and Claudia did not care that she was screaming her head off.

 Just hangin out at home!

We took the kids to Irvine park to play for the day. They had a great time at the Zoo!

 Claudia loved the petting zoo! She kept wanting the goats to lick her. She LOVES animals!

 Madison on the other hand was very hesitant about brushing the goats, but finally got the courage to do it and enjoyed it.

Charles was TOO COOL for the petting zoo. 

 But he did enjoy feeding the ducks!

It was easier for John to have her on his shoulders tan to chase her!

Katelyn enjoys being held AT ALL TIMES!!!!

 Claudia just checking her out!

 Madison is our little Mommy. Any time Katelyn cries she rushes over to pick her up and tries to calm her down. Most of the time it works! 
She also has been asking me when she is going to be a mommy.  
She gives Katelyn hugs and kisses ALL day LONG!!!!

July was also the month Charles started Rookie Ball. 

It was a pretty busy month! But we enjoyed EVERY DAY!!!!!

Summer Wrap up Part 1 (June)

I tried my best to prepare for the summer knowing that a new baby would require a LOT of attention but yet I would still have 3 other kids that needed some attention as well. So one day while browsing through Pinterest I found a clever idea. I can't find where I originally found it or if this was the name they called it. But we call it "Pick a Stick." This cute little jar has sticks full of ideas. Each stick has an activity or craft or game that the kids can play on their own. I gathered ALL the supplies that we would need so that at any time when the kids were bored and I could not help them or we just wanted NO more T.V. on, then the kids would pick a stick and do what was on it. They really liked it at first. But as the summer wore on they started getting selective about which stick they would pull. I often found them searching for the stick they wanted. Silly kids!

The girls enjoyed taking a bath in the dark with glow sticks! Not as fun as I would have thought, but they liked something different.

 Charles and Madison had a Great time playing in shaving cream. (This was one of the "pick a stick" activities.)

 The kids played in the water in their Pjs. At this time I was ready to Pop and not feeling up to taking them to the pool. So instead they filled up these two buckets and had a BLAST!!!!

The kids were very patient with me at the end of my pregnancy. They let me rest which was really nice. Most of our days we spent in the house just hanging out! And they didn't seem to mind it one bit!

SLACKER

I really should be blogging instead of browsing through Amazon (my new addiction) or surfing Pinterst. But I feel kinda like I have writers block. A lot has happened this summer but I just don't feel like writing it. Or maybe it's the fact that most of the day I only have one free hand. And when I do happen to have two free hands to type I'd rather be catching up on laundry or cleaning. I know it's probably me being lazy more than anything but oh well. I'll try to catch up.

We celebrated Charles birthday the beginning of July. I can NOT believe he is 7. Wow I am getting old. Speaking of old, we celebrated John's birthday the end of July. We didn't do anything too exciting this year for birthdays. Just dinner and dessert.

 Charles played Rookie ball this summer and LOVED it! He did NOT love it at first, but as the season went on he grew to enjoy it more and more. He's even asked us if he could play winter ball. It was the perfect way for him to start out. They did not keep score or play to nine innings. Each team got to bat 5 times and every kid got to hit and run the bases. Once each team went through all their players than it was the other teams turn. And the coaches pitched to the kids. If they could not hit it after 4 pitches then they got to use a tee. Charles is learning how to play the game and is getting better and better at it. The Rookie ball league is sponsored by the Anaheim Angels so all the kids got Angels shirts and hats. What a great deal!!!!!

We decided to sign Madison up for The Little Gym. She took a class with her cousin Megan and LOVED it! Madison is our little Monkey she climbs on everything and has great cordination. (She thinks my treadmill is a tree that she climbs up on. Often times I find her just sitting on the hand rail watching T.V.)We are hoping to continue gym classes for Madison, we are just waiting to see what their fall schedule will be like.

Claudia is starting the TERRIBLE 2's already! She is so FUNNY and FUN but a nightmare at the same time. About a month or two ago she started pulling poop out of her diaper at nap times and any time she was not constantly supervised. It has NOT been fun. I think I'm going to attempt potty training with her when the big kids go to school. But for now she has to wear onesies and capri's or long pants at ALL TIMES! And it's been 100 degrees here almost every day. Poor thing! But it keeps me from having to clean up Poop ALL the time. Other than that she is learning and growing like crazy. She does the funniest things and is very LOUD. She likes to yell a lot. I'm not quite sure why but that is how she talks. Going anywhere with her and a newborn is nearly impossible. She is too independent to want to be in a stroller or shopping cart but not quite independent enough to just walk around with me. She occasionally does okay walking with me but from time to time she does take off running or thinks its funny to hide from me. Luckily I've had the two bigger kids to chase her down for me but I'm not sure what we are going to do once they go back to school. Maybe we'll just stay at home and do ALL our shopping on-line.! Haha!

Katelyn is growing every day and getting more and more alert. She gave us her first smile on John's birthday while we were at church. It was really cute and nice to be able to share that moment with John. She now smiles and lot and the kids still get excited each time they see her with a big grin on her face. She is getting better at sleeping in her bed during the day and is finally starting to enjoy sitting in the swing or stretching out on the floor instead of being held by mom 24/7. It's been a little bit of a relief. She is now just over 6 weeks and we can NOT get enough of her.

John's still enjoying his new job which is great and we really LOVE the commute. He's home in 25 minutes which is really nice. We even meet up with him for lunch occasionally. He keeps busy on Sunday's with his calling which makes sacrament meeting for me a bit CRAZY! But we know that we are being blessed for his service.

Me, well I'm adjusting to having 4 kids. It's still crazy to say that. I really am the mom of 4 kids! Wow!!! Life is crazy everyday but I LOVE it!!!

Katelyn Michelle Garthe

Katelyn joined our family on Friday July 6th at 6:38 AM.

Weighing in at 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long

 

We are so BLESSED to have a beautiful healthy baby!

Birth story and more pictures coming soon!

Tin Man

Every year in June our stake puts together a Tin Man Triathlon. It consists of 3 events. A 150 meter swim, a 3.1 mile walk/run, and a 10 mile bike ride. You can pick and choose to do as many or as few events as you want. John really wanted to be able to do all three events but just couldn't get enough time in the pool to prepare for the swim. So this year he did the 3 mile run and the 10 mile bike. He did such a great job! I wish I could have been doing it along side him but at 35 1/2 weeks pregnant my body said NO WAY! But next year we'll do it together as a family. Charles has already told us that he wants to participate in the running event next year. That makes me so HAPPY!!!

Sleeping

The other night John and I went to check in on the kids before we went to bed and we found Claudia like this...

 All I can think is maybe she was trying to get in bed with Madison but couldn't make it all the way up the stairs. She has her blanket as a pillow and her baby doll in her other hand.

Big Girl Bed

Since the new baby is coming soon and I use a crib for my babies from day 1 we decided it was time to transfer Claudia into her big bed. Madison was very excited for Claudia to start sleeping in her room. Since Madison normally goes to bed with the light on (she needs time to herself to look at books and wind down before she goes to sleep) we had to get her a reading lamp that we could put on her bed so that she did not keep Claudia awake or wake her up. The transition to a big bed has been relatively smooth! We put her to bed about an hour before the other kids (which she needs because she is now only taking one nap.) She gets her blankets and her music and off she goes. It's nice that she is still too small to attempt to open the door and she doesn't even bang on it to come out. It's great! Then when it is time for Madison to go to bed Claudia is asleep and Madison just uses her little reading light that is clamped to her bed and she's happy as can be.

Now naps have been a bit more difficult! She's not totally excited about the idea but has been doing okay. There have only been 2 days over the past 2 weeks when she did not take a nap at all and of course those were Sundays when I did not have a choice but to get her up and feed her so we could be on time to church. Other days her nap was only 30 minutes. But we are slowly working towards longer naps. And now she is starting to fall asleep in her bed instead of on the floor. I did have to take out ALL Madison's toys so that she would not have any distractions! It seems to be helping. 

The only problem that I am having is that EVERY day without fail she poops about 15 minutes after I put her in bed. It does not matter if I put her down at 10 or 11:30. She still poops. I've been mastering the art of changing her diaper while she is sleeping. It seems to work most of the time! Silly girl!!!!