Birthday/Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a big one for us.  My birthday was on Friday and Saturday and Sunday we celebrated Easter.  I have to say my family SPOILED me for my birthday.  But you do only turn 30 once right!  On Thursday night when I got home from a Relief Society activity Doug got the two older boys out of bed (they were nowhere close to asleep) to go to the store to (as Michael put it) "buy Mom a present.  Mom likes candy!"  So that is what I was expecting from my guys.  On Friday morning I woke up to Michael climbing in bed with us.  Doug asked him what the day was and he excitedly said "Easter!" when Doug asked what else it was he said "Mom's birthday!"  I was impressed he remembered.  Once James and Billy joined us they decided to give me the presents they picked out, and wrapped for me.  

I opened James' first, it was a little package of orange beads.  Then Michael give me his.  He had picked out these awesome (fake) yellow roses. He even had me smell them.

I look terrible in this picture but Michael's face is priceless!

Doug told me when he took the boys to the store they were allowed to pick anything out as long as they thought Mom would like it.  The first thing Michael picked was a sprinkler.  When Doug asked if it was something Mom would like he said no and put it back without a fight.  There were no more selfish choices after that.  I have to say this was the best part of the entire day.  How excited the boys were to make me happy!

Birthday kiss for Mom!

After a lazy morning we packed everyone up and ran some errands. Lastly stopping at my favorite sandwich place for lunch.  Once we got home my present from Doug (also using the money his parents and Granny and Grandpa sent) was waiting on the door step.  I was so excited I opened it right away.  A new sewing machine.  I didn't realize how much I really did need a new machine.  My old one worked, but didn't have any fancy options.  I can't even describe how much better this one works.  

I spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out my new machine and having fun with it.  After naps we had cake, the boys made a delicious cake for me, and I love listening to them sing to me.  Once they had dinner and went to bed Doug fixed me some dinner and we tried (unsuccessfully) to watch Lincoln.  Doug went and picked up Sushi from our favorite restaurant. And we had some crab legs which are my favorite.  Overall it was a great birthday!

Notice my nice necklace.  Thanks James!

On Saturday we woke up early and headed over to the city's Easter egg hunt.  James was so excited.  They had it at some baseball fields so each field was a different age group.  Billy got to go first.  He really gets this kind of stuff.  James and Michael never have until this year, they would always just pick up one egg and eat the candy then find another, but they would be just fine if they only got one or two.  Billy went and picked up eggs as fast as he could putting them in his basket.  He ended up with 17 eggs.  James and Michael were in the next group.  Parents were not supposed to go, but parents never follow the rules, it always ruins stuff like this for me.  Just let the kids do it.  James ran out so fast picking up eggs as fast as he could he ended up with over 20 I never got to count because Michael only got 4 (which he was really excited for) and James happily shared his with him.  

On Sunday morning the Easter Bunny came.  James and Michael were really excited to find their Easter Baskets, but Billy was still into the whole egg hunt thing.  He looked at his basket but was much more excited about finding the eggs. 

Brooke got all dressed up for Easter.  She looked so pretty in her new dress.  We were going to have a nice Easter dinner too but our stove decided we didn't really need it.  Part way through cooking the ham and just when we were going to put the potatoes in the oven one of the elements on the stove broke, blowing the breaker and burning up the switch and wires on the stove.  Every time we tried to turn the breaker back on there were sparks and a loud pop and the breaker was blown again.  So we decided the only possible solution would be to finish the dinner on the grill.  Never baked on a grill before so it was kind of interesting.  Turned out OK but the potatoes were a little crunchy.  

Happy Easter from Brooke!

Dad and Brooke enjoying a Sunday nap!

March

So my goal for this year was to blog more regularly...that hasn't happened.  Oh well I guess maybe 1 month at a time is good enough!  We have not really been doing too much lately.  I am still trying to get into a good routine now that we have four kids!  I have to say things are getting a little easier every day.  My piles of laundry aren't so big (except for right now of course), bedrooms are starting to get cleaned, floors vacuumed, and dinners are becoming more than pizza, hamburgers and spaghetti.  The boys this past month however have been amazing!  They are hitting an age where they are becoming such good friends. It is interesting to see how our family dynamic is changing.  James is becoming more interactive with his brothers.  Michael is taking on the leadership role.  He likes to be in charge of what his brothers are doing...but James doesn't always listen.  And Billy is still the little terrorist.  He often walks around the house with a baseball bat hitting everything (including all of us) as hard as he can with it.  James likes to say "You should not bam bam!" 

Michael and Billy building towers and knocking them down

All three boys playing 'rainbow playdough'

 The boys are still in love with their little sister.  Brooke is starting to become much more alert and interactive.  She smiles all the time and has a cute little dimple on her left cheek.  Some days she is really grumpy and hardly sleeps at all.  On these days she just wants to be held all the time and it is hard to do anything.  And somedays she is much more content and is ok spending time in her swing or bouncy chair.  She is also starting to sleep better at night and usually I only have to wake up once around 3:30 to feed her.

Michael holding Brooke, and Billy could not let someone
else have her without being there to make sure they did it right.
See that cute little smile!

3 cute kids!

 James' new obsession is Pacman.  This one has gotten a little crazy.  It has also gotten him in some trouble both at home and school.  Lucky for us it is starting to fade, but it got a little crazy for awhile.  Luckily for us he has a very understanding teacher who didn't suspend him when he was making guns at school and shooting all the other kids with them.  I had to explain that he was being pacman and the other kids were the ghosts.  One Saturday he made Doug make a pacman board on the kitchen floor with blue tape.

James adding the pellets to his pacman game

Mikey looking super cute in his church clothes
He will only wear them if he can wear "regular"
clothes underneath.

I often find Billy's stuffed toys on Brooke.  He is such a
loving big brother. 

 Michael says his best friend is "Dad".  He loves to do everything with his Dad.  Whenever Doug has to leave for work Michael runs outside to 'push' his truck out of the driveway, and the second he walks in the door at night he tackles him and the wrestle for awhile on the floor.  Doug loves having such a fun best friend.

Michael and Doug swing in their superhero capes.

 James is finally almost potty trained!  After about 3 years of active potty training we could not be happier. After trying everything, bribes, charts, rewards, punishments...we finally got to the point where we were having to give him an enema once a week to get him to go.  One day Doug said "James go poop in the toilet so we don't have to poke you" and he went!  Just like that.  So now in order to get him to go all we have to say is "James make sure you poop in the toilet today so we don't have to poke you." and he goes.  Love this!

Potty time is often a family event.

 Billy loves his baby.  I often see him taking care of him.  I have seen him sharing his food with it, hugging it, burping it, rocking it, putting it down for a nap, kissing it and more.  Today I was feeding Brooke and Billy came over with his baby.  He pushed Brooke's head out of the way so that his baby could have a turn nursing.

Billy and his baby.  He was feeding it oranges.

James and Michael have been really into Mario lately.  They both have angry bird hats, one red and one green and every night before they go to bed they put the hats on and become Mario and Luigi.  This week James decided he needed a castle made out of his bed so that he could say something about "Mario  please come to the castle I have made you a birthday cake.  Princess Peach."  Last night I found him asleep in his castle.

James' Mario castle 

Finally Brooke is now two-months-old.  She is such a sweet little girl and is so loved by everyone in her family!  The other day Doug mentioned that we needed to get her an easter dress.  So we looked a little but didn't find anything we loved.  The next day I decided to go through her 3-6 month clothes to see what we needed to get.  I discovered that she has 10 dresses in that size and just 2 or 3 shirts, no pants and a few jammies.  I guess she is going to be a pretty girly girl and wear dresses a lot!  If I only had her wear them on Sunday's she would only get to wear each 1 time before she out grew them!

Brooke's two month pictures

Billy wanted to help so much.  Finally I let him give her a kiss.

The First Month

We survived the first month of having four kids.  However it was probably the easiest month we will have with our four kids.  Now that my computer is fully functioning I hope to be able to update more often but since I haven't I will have to update on the entire past month in one post.

Brooke came home the evening of January 23rd.  The boys immediately gave her lots and lots of love.

Except for James who told me to go back to the hospital.  Mostly because he wanted to come visit the hospital again.  

All ready to come home.

 Billy has been the one to show the most excitement toward his sister and it has not changed.  He LOVES her, probably a little too much.

Billy looking at his little sister

Tired little girl

My mom was still in town and helped out a lot with the boys.  We all took turns taking and picking James up from school, but the two littler boys needed lots of distractions during the day while things were so crazy.  

Billy playing with Brooke

He was really excited about her hat

 James was most excited for the dresses he had been looking at in her closet and all the bows she had been given.  He couldn't wait for her to wear them.

James trying to put a bow on Brooke, they were a little too
big still

 This was by far my most difficult pregnancy, but also by far my easiest recovery.  So the second Sunday we had her home I was feeling great and could really see no reason not to go to church.  I probably should have stayed home.  The second I walked in the door a member of the bishopric met me at the door and asked he he could talk to me.  So that week the entire primary presidency and me got released.  I was super sad because I have loved doing the music in primary and had begged not to be released after the baby was born.
Brooke was all dressed up so cute, but never even got out of her seat since she slept the entire time.

All dressed up for church

After her belly button fell off she finally had her first bath.  She hated it!  Now she is getting more used to it, but still isn't a huge fan. 

First bath, get me out of here!

 That Wednesday my Mom left to go visit Brandon in Texas for a few days.  Doug's parents were coming on Thursday night, so technically that was our first 24 hours on our own.  Things went great, a friend picked James up for school Thursday morning and other than picking him up that afternoon we didn't leave the house!
Doug's parents got here Thursday night and got to meet their first granddaughter for the first time.  There are not many girls in that family so they were pretty excited.  My Dad flew in on Saturday and they came back with Brandon's family so we could have the baby blessing that Sunday.  Seems quick but probably the only way to have both our families there.
She looked beautiful in her white dress.  And James was so excited to see her wear it.

The bracelet Grandma Allen made for her

So pretty in her white dress

After church we offered for Michael and Billy to go back to Colorado with Grandpa and Grandma for the week.  They of course jumped on that opportunity.  I was so excited to have a relaxing week with just me and Brooke during the day.  I had dreams of all the things I was going to get done.  None of it happened.  I spent most of the days holding a fussy baby or feeding a hungry baby. Friday came way too soon, I didn't even really have a chance to start missing my two middle boys yet. 

Billy always asks to hold Brooke

 After a fun, but quick weekend in Colorado we headed home to be truly alone as a huge family of 6 for the first time.  It's funny because Doug and I both felt the same way.  The more we thought about having 4 kids, the more impossible it seemed.  Doug wondered if we should move back to Colorado where we could be closer to family and have help and I just kept wondering about all the things that seemed impossible.  After being on our own for a week I have to say things are not as impossible as they seemed, but by no means are they very easy.
We love having our little lady though and I am sure as time goes by, and she gets older things will get easier.  And until then we are grateful to live in such a great ward and have such great friends that help out when needed.

Introducing....

Brooke Elaine Allen

Our sweet little girl joined our family at 11:07 on January 22, 2013.  We could not be happier with our new addition.

Last week our family was SICK!  It started on Tuesday when a cough I have had for a long time moved into my head and made me feel terrible.  I was coughing so hard every night it was making me throw up which is the only time I have this whole pregnancy.  Mikey got it about the same time waking up in the middle of the night screaming for us to "fix his eyes" which were glued shut.  On Wednesday James got sent home from school with "pink eye", (I really didn't think he had it yet because he wasn't sick like the other boys) and sometime in there Billy got it too.  Doug even took Friday off of work to take care of us all. So with all this sickness in our house I was really praying Brooke would hold off a week to make her appearance so we were all feeling better.  

My mom made it in town Sunday night (we were all feeling almost better at this point) and it felt like we would just be waiting around for Brooke to decide to join us.  Monday was my official due date, but lets be honest how many babies are actually born then.  James didn't have school and we just kind of had a lazy day getting our house back in order.  Monday night I was having some contractions, but didn't think it would amount to anything since I had been having them almost every night for weeks.  But just after we went to bed, at 11:30 I woke up thinking, "Oh dang, my water just broke." (I was still wanting a few days to get better before we had to go to the hospital).  So after packing our hospital bag, waking up my mom and calling a friend to help give a blessing, we sat around for an hour or so debating when we should actually go to the hospital.  Finally at about 1am I decided we should just go and get it over with since I wasn't going to be doing any sleeping at home.  

We checked into the hospital, the nurse checked me I was already dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced which is somewhat of a miracle since I have NEVER actually gone into labor on my own.  About 4 am I asked for some drugs for the pain so I could sleep and slept until 6.  At 6:30 they made me get up and walk around the hospital.  That was the worst part.  I had so much pressure on my hips that walking was super painful and every time we got back to the waiting area I had to sit for a while. After walking for an hour I asked for the epidural.  I was only to a 4 at this point but in a lot of pain so I figured we might as well go ahead.  About 8:30 or 9 I had the epidural in, and it only worked on the right side of my body so I had to lay on my left side to try to get it to work on that side.  Finally at about 10:30 I was so tired of laying on my side I tried to move to a more comfortable position which made it wear off completely and I could feel every contraction.  I finally called the nurse in at 11 to tell her it just hurt too much and to see if there was anything we could do about it, thinking I still had 4 to 5 more hours of this.  She checked to see where we were and said, "well you are at a 10, that is why it hurts so much, lets start pushing and get this baby here."  They called in the midwife and about 5 minutes later I was holding our baby girl!

Billy meeting his sister

Once we got settled in a recovery room and I got more normal looking we had the boys come meet their new sister.  James immediately walked up to me and Brooke and said, "Did you get Brooke out of your tummy then you got fixed?"  Then he was done and off exploring the restrooms.  

Michael and Billy were much more interested.  Billy especially kept smiling at her and wanted to hold her and look at her.

Billy excited to hold Brooke

 Mikey was much more hesitant but eventually he took a turn with his sister.

Michael holding Brooke

 They spent the rest of the time playing with the bed.  I think the nurse was pretty happy to see them go.  

 My plan was to stay two days in the hospital and get plenty of rest before going home.  But after the first night of not sleeping because Brooke was up all night we decided I should just come home and rest because there would be more people to help in the middle of the night and I could get more rest.  So Brooke came home Wednesday evening and the boys have been loving having her around.  James however did tell me several times on Wednesday to go back to the hospital.  I think he wanted to go explore some more restrooms.

Michael

Mikey has been growing up pretty quickly lately, just not physically though.  It is fun to experience completely new stages that we never got to with James.  And he is talking just as much as ever.  Maybe more if it is possible.

Mikey loves to play with Billy.  When James started school he wasn't quite sure what to so with himself.  He seemed a little lonely, but he soon fixed that and discovered that Billy can be just as fun, if not more fun, as James.  Because Billy interacts back and he is smaller so Mikey can boss him around better, and there is nothing Mikey loves more than being the boss!  This video is Mikey trying to teach Billy how to play Ring Around the Rosie:

Michael is pretty much excited about everything in life.  It doesn't matter what it is he gets really enthusiastic about it.  I can't even think of a good example because basically if you name it he thinks it is the absolute greatest thing in the world.  

Every time a make a new towel (which is a ton
lately since everyone in the ward is having babies)
Mikey has to try them on and have a picture.
He always wants to use them too.

Since Mikey didn't get into preschool this year we have been working on stuff at home.  He loves it and never fights me when I tell him it is time to do school.  I think he wishes I was a little better at being consistent with it.  I love watching his little face when he is working.  He gets such a look of concentration it is fun!

Mikey doing "school work"

Mikey is learning a lot of new things lately.  He is becoming very independent and I often hear him say "I will do it all by myself!"  This means we have to plan on extra time to do everything and he wears some awesome outfits in public.  We are trying very hard to break the thumb sucking habit.  He does great, as long as we remember to "paint his nail" and never even tries to suck his thumb even during the night.  But if we forget and it wears off then he is like a drug addict and you will never see the thumb out of his mouth.  So it is funny because we know he doesn't need to, but if he can there is no stopping him!  He is also working VERY hard at potty training.  I think it is a lot harder for him because he has James as his example so something that isn't really scar y (pooping on the toilet) becomes scary because James thinks it is.  But in the past week we have made a ton of progress.  He hasn't worn a diaper in a long time, even asking to wear underwear at night.  And he has pooped in the toilet several times.  It is funny because we let the kids pick a reward for pooping in the toilet, and for some reason Mikey always chooses James' row boat, even though I know he would prefer something else.

Mikey and Billy in the row boat

He is super excited for the "baby in Mommy's belly"  although he is a little bitter that it isn't going to be a sister.  He is always asking me questions about the baby and pointing at my belly and telling me how the baby has to get bigger and then come out.  The other day I was buying a blanket sleeper for her and Mikey kept going on and on about how it was going to be too big for Brooke so he was going to have to wear it because it was big and Brooke is "way little".  When we got home James was trying to put it on and he said "No Jamesie, that's Brookie's!"
Michael says the funniest things.  I think about every day I want to post something funny he as said on facebook, but I don't want people to get annoyed with me posting too much stuff about my kids.  So now I have forgotten most of it.

He LOVES his Daddy Daddy!  He gets so excited for him to come home from work and always wants to stand on the sidewalk and wave good-bye when he is leaving. 

Yesterday he was making me put on his shoes so I asked "Are you being Cinderella?" He replied "No, I am being awesome!"

James

James has been doing so much lately that I decided to give him his own blog post to share all the fun things.  This will probably be closely followed by a post about Mikey, then Billy but I can't make any promises.  It isn't that I am too busy, it is that I am too tired.  Usually the times comes that I have a minute to do something like this and I am just ready to sit and do nothing.  So my list of projects to complete just keeps getting longer and longer.  Also I have been horrible at taking pictures, so I really have missed out on a lot.

Over a month ago James started Kindergarden.  He was pretty excited for his first day...and hasn't been excited about school since.  When I told him it was time to go to school he got his backpack that he picked out and his PECS book and loaded himself in the van.

James' first day of school

"Just take the picture Dad!"

Kindergarden here is full time.  That means 8 am to 3pm.  It is a long hard day for James and he hasn't quite adjusted.  I met with his teacher and special ed teacher before school started to tell them about James and what they could expect from him.  They both seemed very eager to do what was needed to help him adjust to Kindergarden and succeed.  But I don't think they really understood what that meant or how much help James would need.  I know the special ed teacher talked about putting James in the regular classroom most of the day (His IEP is for about 50%) and seeing how he did and then pulling him out more if needed.  I thought that sounded good, but knew it wouldn't happen.  So after about the first week he was being pulled out most of the day and all his teachers were kind of at a loss for what to do.   After the first week I met with the teacher and principal and district specialist to figure out a new behavioral plan for him.  He was really struggling with everything.  They had a lot of good ideas I felt and tried to stress to them that it was really going to take time and they had to just be patient.
At parent teacher conferences we learned James was struggling a lot more then we knew.  They had a long list of behaviors they were working on and said they hadn't really gotten to any academics yet because it was all behavior.  Things like, not tipping in his chair, leaving things alone that don't belong to him, staying in his seat, screaming, kicking, hitting, refusing to work, the list goes on.  It was pretty discouraging for us.  The general feeling between everyone was that he needed his own one-on-one aid, but the district wouldn't do it without more documentation.
Then things started to get better, at least at home.  I found out one morning in the middle of our "I will not go to school" meltdown.  I asked James if he liked PE.  He said no he liked music.  I looked on his schedule and saw that he did have music that day.  He immediately perked up after that.  Since then we have found out a few things about school.  He HATES PE.  He loves music.  He likes recess.  He hates computers.  Another big thing that happened is a few weeks ago we were getting ready for church and I realized it had been too quite for too long.  That usually means trouble.  But when I looked for James he was quietly sitting at the table "doing homework".  He sat there for probably 30 minutes just happily working.  He has NEVER done that.  He has been drawing a lot since then.

James doing homework

I found this picture that he drew and didn't know what it was.  So I asked him.  He confidently replied, "Leaving it on, falling down, and winter."  I immediately knew what he was talking about.  He had drawn trees in their seasons according to him.  Leaving it up (Spring/summer) Falling down (fall) and winter.

leaving it up, falling down and winter

Some other fun things he has been doing: 

One day he decided he wanted to ride a two-wheeler.  He had us take his training wheels off and was so excited.  He explained to us that now we have 3 2-wheelers and one 3-wheeler and no 4-wheelers anymore.  He really can't ride his 2-wheeler, but he thinks he can.  It is pretty annoying to me because I wont even try to balance he just likes crashing.

He is obsessed with wipeout.  And is constantly recreating it.  The couch cushions are constantly on the floor and he sometimes wears gloves and pretends he his the punching wall and tries to knock us all down.  

In primary the kids are learning their Articles of Faith.  The kids have to pass them off according to their age.  So James is a CTR 4 so he is learning 1-4.  He has already memorized the first 2 so he only has two to go!  He has also already learned his Primary Program part.  

I am sure there are a lot of other things I have forgotten.  I really need to be better about updating more often so I don't forget all the fun things the kids are doing.  I guess we will see if I can get Mikey and Billy done this week.

End of Summer

It has been pointed out to me that it has been awhile since I last posted.  Like almost 2 months.  Yes, I know I have been slacking, but we have been pretty busy here, although honestly that is not why  I have been slacking, I have just been tired, and haven't been taking very many pictures.  So even though we have been busy having fun, I really don't have a lot of proof and since most people just like looking at pictures anyway it just didn't seem worth it.  But I will just catch up and try to do better in the future.  

One big thing that has happened since I last posted was that Billy learned how to walk.  And I don't seem to have 1 single video of it.  I cannot believe it, that just seems crazy to me.  I could go and take a video now, but he is basically a pro now.  It is so cute as he walks around trying not to look too proud of himself, swinging his arms as he goes.  

Just look at this cute little man.  So much fun!

James has been really into YouTube videos about "water marble" fingernail painting and how to apply makeup.  Really weird, I think we are finally getting out of the phase but I have had to hide all fingernail polish and makeup.  And re-hide it once he finds the hiding spot.  So he has gotten pretty clever about what he uses to replace these two things.  

One day he decided to give me a manicure with play dough. 

 One day James came out of the bathroom looking like this:

Doug made a comment about how I needed to keep my makeup hidden.  I replied that it was hidden and there was no way it was makeup on his face.  So I went to investigate and found that he had used a sharpie to color his face.  Nice.

Mikey got really into the Olympics during July.  He still asks if we can watch the Olympics, he just doesn't understand that we can't just watch whatever we want whenever we want to.  His favorite things to watch were the gymnastics, swimming and diving.  He hated when volleyball was on.  This video was right after he saw men's gymnastics for the first time and he is doing the Pummel Horse.

Mikey "splashing".  Also known as diving. 

Mikey practicing his head stands

We have been trying to break Mikey of his naps so maybe he will sleep better at night.  I often find him asleep in our bed with the iPad in the late afternoons.  But it is nice to have the kids just go to bed at night instead of playing for hours.

In August we went to Flaming Gorge with Doug's family and I didn't take a single picture.  I think Doug and I were ready to pack up and leave after a few nights.  The first night our brand new air mattress had a hole in it so Doug had to sleep on the ground and I shared my sleeping bag and a twin mattress with Mikey.  James didn't sleep well.  The next night Billy hardly slept at all.  But we stuck it out and the boys got better.  James loved riding on Grandpa's boat almost immediately.  He was so excited about the whole thing.  It took us a while to get Mikey used to the idea and finally I just forced him on the boat and he loved it by the time we left.  Billy basically loved everything about camping (except sleeping), but that is pretty much his personality.  Doug loved water skiing and cliff diving with his brothers.  Overall it was a pretty fun time.