Colton's 6th Birthday

I still find it hard to believe my boy is 6! He is getting too old! Before we left for Oregon, we planned his birthday party, at his insistence, up at the Column. (For those who don't know, the Astor Column is in Astoria. Oregon... a tall lookout. Very cool) And despite his *injury from the night before, it went off without a hitch.   
The cake looked and tasted fantastic, the burgers were yummy, and all the sides were yummy that people brought. Colton enjoyed opening up his presents, and heading up to the top of the column to release some planes.
Thanks everyone for making it a great day for my wonderful boy.

*His injury happened at bedtime out at Grammy's house. He was running after Shelby, the dog, and tripped (?) and fell on a jagged rock (of course!) and sliced his brow open. Tyler and Grammy took him to the ER for 9 stitches! He was so brave!

Camping, Texas style, Part 1

Happy baby's first camping trip

T-R-O-U--B-L-E!!

 

The woes of the oldest child:: helping out.

This was Soren's resting spot... he played content there for awhile!

The A&W Rootbeer ad... I LOVE this sequence!

Going to the Lake... Kellen didn't want to leave.

.... mostly because he couldn't get enough of throwing rocks in the lake!

Aren't they adorable?!

And the truck parked at the campsite...

We had such a fun time camping this Saturday. We are campers, but last year, we didn't camp once because of the move and being pregnant all summer. But we vowed to camp, even though we were in Texas this year. So we decided to try it out at Coleman Lake, which is about 45 minutes south of Abilene. We headed out of town at 2pm, thinking we'd be there by 3! Little did we know that we actually couldn't trust the map we had! We ended up on a county road (we knew where we were, we just couldn't get to the lake!) and finally we flagged down a car (because at the two gas stations we asked, the cashier's had no clue, and no one that we knew that would know answered their cells!), and he told us the way. After he shook his head, and said "How'd you get way out here?" Ha ha!

So we made it to the lake by 530! ha.... we joked that we should have driven to Austin! Anyways, we knew camping was going to be different in Texas... and it is. The beauty we had come to know and love in Montana was not replicated, that is for sure! But we made due.

We set up camp (Tyler set up camp, and I held a baby), we ate dinner, we made smores, had a talent show (so cute, and a definite tradition was started!), looked at some stars and headed to bed. It was great.

And then in the middle of the night, Ayla, who had been coughing a lot, needed more water, so Tyler went to the truck to get more. He comes back and says, "Looks like we had visitors."

More tomorrow or the next day. I hope to put up pics of all the kids first camping trips this week too!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and Earth day. PLEASE tell me that you did something good for our wonderful planet!

Kellen's Birthday Party

Kellen did have an actual birthday party on St. Patty's day. We originally had everyone plan to meet us at the park... but we got there, and it started raining and then the thunder and lightening came! Of course! So we headed for the house (which was a MESS since we weren't having company!_) 

But it was fun. Tyler decorated the cake so cute, and Kellen absolutely LOVED it! He is the first of my kids who actually digs the whole getting sang too... it was cute. He is such a wonderfully rascally little boy, and I don't think I could love him any more. 

But I do have a feeling he will be trouble as he grows :) 

One of many firsts...

 

My baby boy started eating solids! This is a little later than I remember starting the others, and I just am giving him a taste... I am not ready for full on solid feeding yet! But he is 6 MONTHS OLD! I cannot believe that much time has passed since I had this little bundle of smiles.
He really is the sweetest little babe. He has been eyeing food for some time now, so I figured he could try some avocados and bananas. He really liked the avocados, but wasn't too keen on bananas! Oh, well. Kellen ate those right up.
I cannot believe he is six months old.

Sleep interrupted

Sleep.
Something everyone needs.
Something that tends to elude me at every corner.
First off, having four kids means you get less sleep. I know that. There is always one with... something; sickness, nightmares, thirst, hunger, you name it. But for the last six months I have been woken every 2 hours by a sweet little babe who INSISTS he's starving! Every two hours, which means after feeding him and getting myself back to sleep, I might get an hour or hour and a half. Might.
Well, we moved him to his crib recently because we were waking him up with every move (I'm talking just lifting the blankets). But he hates his crib and hasn't learned that he can fall asleep on his own without my boob in his mouth! And he still wakes up every two hours on average. The other night I went to bed at 10pm, got up at 7am. Between those NINE precious hours, I got roughly 4.5 hrs of sleep that was interrupted exactly 7 times (unless I was dreaming!!). This seems like a nightly occurrence for us. Sadly.
You would think we had experience. Turns out; no. But I do have a lot of excuses and books on the subject. Ha! Oh, sleep. I dream about you constantly. My eyes ache I'm so tired.

UPDATE::
After reading two different parenting/sleep books, I made up my mind and decided to teach Soren a very valuable lesson: How to sleep on his own.
First book, Bringing Home BeBe. This is my new favorite parenting book. Not that I don't already know a little something about parenting, but one thing I have always had is a bit of guilt. Guilt over not being good enough as a mama to my four crazy kids. For some reason this book helped with that. It has some great advice, no matter what country you live in :)
Second book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. At first, this book just confused me, which I think was because my lack of sleep altered state. I couldn't figure out WHAT the plan of action was. Then I read just the section I needed to, and voila, I got it! We have used this method the last two nights, and there is a DRASTIC change in the way the night goes... he goes to bed between 7 and 8pm, (cries minimally) wakes up between 12=1am to nurse, back to sleep until 4 or 5am, nurses and sleeps until 7 or 8am. FANTASTIC!!
Anyways, I am on the mend... our whole house is. Sleep is an amazing thing.

New wheels

The kids got some new bikes in the last few weeks... Ayla a birthday present from Grammie, and Colton used his birthday money to buy his (since he couldn't have a smaller bike than his sister!) They LOVE them! We go on bike rides every day, and then at night they ride around the neighborhood with the neighbor kids. Really cute, and I can't believe how easy they adjusted to the new bikes!
Kellen has a few bikes that he rides... yes, that is a pink one, but I am working on painting it!

Another Ayla one

My sweet girl. Here were her birthday presents from us. We tried to keep it simple this year, and I made her a cape (that will double as a Halloween prop for her) and I bought her a pair of Livie and Luca shoes, that I am absolutely in love with! Seriously these shoes are so cute. Kellen has a cute pair of them also. Today she received her bike from Grammy, and she is love with that also! It is a 16" bike as opposed to her 12" one, so it fits her a bit better. It is a mini cruiser, and oh, so, cute! I will post pictures later of that. Thanks Grammy! :)

Ayla's butterfly birthday party

Ayla decided on a butterfly birthday party... I admit I was trying to get her away from PRINCESS!

But we thought we would invite some of the little girls that we know over for a little butterfly fun... Coincidentally we had just done "B" in our homeschool curriculum, and had a fun little butterfly craft, so I bought extra stuff so the girls could make one too.
That was fun. It is super hard to keep 5 little girls, between the ages of 3 and 6, all doing the same thing... very hard.
But it was only for an hour and a half :)
We planned on the craft, playing dress up, and getting to know each other. That lasted all of about 10 minutes.... we managed to get them excited about the pinata that Tyler built (again, a great job!!) They had fun beating that and getting the candy.
Then it was open presents time... Ayla was very happy.
Then cake and ice cream... well DQ ice cream cake and some cupcakes that I had made that morning. We do miss our Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, but this one will do :)
It was a great birthday party, and now we have a big 4 year old. Now let's see if we can convince her that she can wipe herself!