Potty Training

We ran out of diapers on Tuesday so I told Brandon I had to go to Sam's Club to buy more. When I came home from the gym, Brandon was installing our little toilet. (We have this miniature toilet that we bought when we were potty training Jordan because she would only go #2 in the toilet when she was at church. We decided it was because they had a kid toilet so we bought one to try it out and it worked perfectly!) "So I guess today is the big day huh?" I said to him. "Yup." And so it began.

Tegan has reacted very differently than my other two. She is the same age as they were when we started them but she doesn't care too much. She doesn't tell us when she needs to go and is perfectly fine with going in her pants. But she also doesn't mind if you put her on the toilet. So you just have to make sure to do it before it starts flowing. I figured she was ready because she absolutely hated me changing her diaper and would throw a fit every time I tried. And she is my only one that would go hide when she had to go #2.

I know this is a long process. At least it was for my others. We don't go anywhere. (Not that we really did before with the new baby and all.) And we spend lots of time on the potty. Which, as you can see, is quite versatile =D (She hasn't gone #2 since day one so we are fine with letting her camp out here.)
Hopefully she will start to want to relieve herself in the toilet cause I'll tell you what, it is not easy taking a toddler to the bathroom every 20 minutes and feeding a baby every hour!

Call Me Crazy

Alright, so all I've been able to think about the last couple of weeks is having another baby! No, I don't want one right now but once you finally decide to have another baby, it usually takes a month or so to get pregnant (at least) and then you have to wait the 9 months. I don't know if it's because I feel so great right now or because I think I've finally caught on to the whole mommy thing that adding another one doesn't seem too bad? I just want to getting the other one started you know? It's been so much fun having Parley! And I really don't even feel like I had a baby 4 weeks ago! Definite thumbs up on the ab exercises during pregnancy too cause although I gained a little more with this one than with Tegan, my stomach is a whole lot tighter than it was after having her. Everything has just gone so perfectly, I guess I must be in lala land or something haha! So besides the fact that I feel like my house is plenty big for a couple more, or that I really can't wait to see what another baby would look like, I really did want to have all my kids by the time I was 30. That only gives me 3 more years! I know what you're all thinking....if I get pregnant this year I would have the baby in 2011 which would ruin my even year pattern. Well believe it or not, I'm totally willing to do that! I know, crazy! And I'm not even on any happy pills! =O

Well don't worry, Brandon's not on board. He wants to wait till all the debt is paid off. (which won't be anytime soon.) But I'll definitely be good to go whenever he changes his mind! =D

Tegan's #2!

My baby girl turned 2 on the 24th! I can't believe how old she is....She still seems so little to me. She has always been very independent but is finally starting to say a lot more words. It can be tough sometimes to get a smile out of her especially since she's not really ticklish. Which has been a big frustration for Brandon since he loves to tickle the kids! But she is very expressive and makes the silliest faces! :)

I had to get this picture in here cause I thought it was so funny....Brandon is trying to show her how to blow out her candles haha! And of course she just stands there and stares at it....so Tegan

Here's her pile of presents. We weren't able to get the traditional balloons because her birthday was on Sunday and Brandon worked till 5;30 AM! Which was unexpected of course, he is on call on Saturdays. So luckily my parents brought over a few, cause a birthday just wouldn't be the same without balloons, right?
She got some bath toys and bubble bath
a book and some cute clothes from 'white' Nana and Papa
Here's one of them.... My father-in-law finds the cutest shirts haha!
She got the Dr. Seuss Foot Book with the matching character from 'brown' Nana and Papa, so cute! I love Dr. Seuss!

She also got a comforter for her bed (finally :) )
And a dress up that's only a tad too big :)
She was definitely happy to see her new baby! :)
Such a good mommy! (and so serious :[ )
Happy Birthday Teeger Weegers! We love you!

Bunch of Sillys!!

With Brandon's new job he gets to be home during the day sometimes which is super fun for the kids. They come up with the silliest ways to entertain themselves though haha!

Here are a couple pictures of my 4 burritos! (They all wanted to be wrapped up like Parley) Then of course they had to have a contest to see who could get out of their "burrito" the fastest (and Brandon can wrap them up pretty darn tight!)

Since having Parley, Brandon and I watch movies together quite often since I'm up nursing a lot anyway. Well, this is what we found the other night as we finished our movie and were about to head upstairs to bed....
And here is Cinderella, Batman/Spiderman, and the Clown :)

They LOVE to dress up!

First Week With 4

The past week has sure had it's crazy time. I think the hardest thing to get done is baths. Parley doesn't want to be set down for longer than 5 minutes which makes it very difficult to bathe 3 kids and get them dressed. I'm so lucky to have such good kids though. For the most part they keep each other entertained quite well. Tegan bugs Jordan and Brigham sometimes but they do pretty good with including her.

I'm feeling great, can't wait to go back to the gym. I know that will make me feel even better. We'll have to see when that will happen though because I can't take Parley to the kids club until he is 6 months old so I have to find someone to watch him. Any takers??

I also have to say how appreciative I am of all the people who have brought me dinners! I didn't have to make dinner for like a whole week! It was awesome and they were all soo good!

So yes, we have definitely enjoyed having him home and I REALLY enjoy not being pregnant anymore. I am feeling quite a bit of cabin fever though. I have gotten out for a couple quick trips to Wal-Mart which is awesome, but I can't wait till Parley's a little older and I can take him out more.

My sister Stephanie came over with her baby Isabelle who is 2 1/2 months older than Parley! We had to take some pictures to compare their size. Pretty funny =]

And Parley had his first bath which he absolutely loved! Until I started washing him that is....then he decided he was done.
I guess I'm not doing a very good job of entertaining my kids....this is what happens when they get bored..
One thing is for sure though, Brigham sure loves his baby brother. For family night we talked about using kind words and making people happy and I used the analogy of Brigham knocking Parley down on accident. I asked him what he would say and he got a huge grin on his face and said he would tell him to watch out, haha! Then he would help him up of course :)
I don't know why baths make babies so tired but he was passed out like that whole day! I didn't even have him wrapped in a blanket most of the time!

Parley Alma

Parley Alma Randall FINALLY decided to make his appearance on Sunday 01/10/10 (which is also his Uncle Bryan's birthday :-D )

I had my last doctor appointment Friday the 8th and was really hoping I was dilated more so he would start me that day. But no, I wasn't any different than the week before. Still only 3 cm and about 70% effaced. Well by that point I was already 4 days over (going by the original due date he gave me of January 4th). He said I absolutely had to have this baby by the next week so he told me to pick a day to be induced. I was so frustrated! I really wanted to experience going into labor on my own and I had already endured so much I wanted to see it through. So I picked Thursday the 14th because it gave me the most time to do it on my own. I also asked him to strip my membranes hoping it would get things moving along..

So I came home very disappointed but somewhat hopeful because I was feeling quite a bit of cramping due to him stripping my membranes. I was sure it would happen that night! But of course, about 2 PM, all the cramping and contractions stop! I was so upset I started to cry. An hour later, still nothing, so I got on the treadmill again. When I tried this last week I started having some pretty good contractions so I was hoping to start things back up. After 20 minutes the only thing hurting was my feet!

That night Brandon didn't get home from work till around 10 and he was on call that night so we decided to hang out and watch some tv together before we went to bed. About 1 Am Brandon got another call out in Cedar Hills. I figured it would be awhile since that's like 45 minutes away so I went to bed. An hour later I was woken up by contractions. This wasn't the first time this had happened so I simply ignored them and tried to go back to sleep. After about an hour of trying to sleep and failing, I decided to start timing them. They were coming every 2-3 minutes! So I finally decided to send Brandon a text around 3:30 to see how much longer he would be. He said he was just cleaning up and that he would be heading home. I figured maybe an hour but he didn't get home until 5 and then he wanted to shower! I guess that was ok because my mother-in-law wasn't there yet so I just sat down and breathed.....

We got to the hospital at about 6 and the contractions were so intense I couldn't even walk (now I know why they get the women wheelchairs in movies!). The lady at the counter had a million questions for me and just stared at me when I didn't answer right away. (Not that I was in active labor or anything.) So they finally get me into a room and I find out I'm already at a 7 so I'm pretty much begging for them to get me my epidural.

Well a couple hours later my parents show up and we start joking about how Parley is going to be born on 1-10-10 at 10:10 AM weighing 10 lbs 10 oz. Haha, that one made me laugh. No way was a 10 pound baby going to come out of me! Well, we just missed the 10:10 time (only due to the fact that we were waiting on the doctor and nurse to come back into the room.) He was born at 10:25 and weighing in at a whopping 10 lbs 12 oz! I was completely blown away! So THAT'S why my body has been hurting so bad!

This is me a week before I had him....I was in too much pain to stand for another picture before I went into the hospital :D
And here's my big boy! Boy does he have a healthy set of lungs on him!
(Keep in mind I was in labor since 2 AM) I guess they started to do this new thing where they get the baby all cleaned up and weighed and stuff and then hand them back to you for some skin to skin time. He loved it!
And here's his first bath. Holding Daddy's hand for comfort....
Parley with his Grandpa Randall..
And Grandma Randall..
Such a stud!
I came home from the hospital the next day. My kids were SO excited! Brigham had to be the first to hold his new baby brother!
Tegan thought it was pretty fun too.
And here's my new little mommy. She's such a good helper!

We are so excited to have little Parley join our family!

Playing Catch-up..

So it's been awhile. What can I say, I'm pregnant. I know, not much of an excuse but to say the least, I've been pretty overwhelmed with a lot of stuff. So anyway, I debated on just skipping over things but decided to just do a quick overview of the last couple months....

For Halloween Brigham was a black ninja. It took some convincing to get him to be that instead of the usual spiderman that he always wants to be but he eventually gave in :)

Jordan was a beautiful witch. Thank you to her Aunt Keri who lent her her wonderful witch hat.

Tegan was a dragon. Yes, the same one Brigham wore 2 years ago....Girls can be dragons too, right?
And Brandon was a pirate :) So we started off the night at the neighborhood trunk-or-treat over at the park. Then Brandon took Brigham and Jordan around to a few houses while Tegan and I stayed home with Uncle Spencer. After they got back, they were soon off to bed and Brandon, Spencer and I stayed up playing Risk. (Which is around the time our addiction came about..)
I don't even remember when this was but when I finally decided to do something about all the leaves covering our front lawn, Steph's kids came home from school and couldn't resist joining in the fun! They loved it..

And here I am at about 37 weeks. Yes, ready to pop! I haven't taken many pictures of me pregnant. Mostly because I feel kind of stupid asking someone to take a picture. ("Hey, you want to take a picture of me?") Yeah, pretty dumb. Well, I do wish I had more. It's always fun to look back on those pictures and say to yourself, "was I really that big?!" I do think the pregnant belly is pretty cute, too. It's just all the other added weight that I could do without :)
Jordan had her Christmas program for preschool today so I put her and Tegan's hair in curlers last night. They looked so darn cute! Tegan wasn't real happy about me trying to take her picture all the time. That and we were getting ready to head out the door to the gym....Awe my grumpy kids in the morning.... :)
And here are a couple pictures of Jordan at her Christmas program. She was so excited. Her teacher is awesome!

And I completely forgot to take pictures the other day on Jordan's birthday! I know, I'm so lame! Well, we didn't do anything too special. That morning she woke up to the traditional balloon presents scattered all over the basement. Brandon bought her doughnuts and chocolate milk for her birthday breakfast, and we were off to the gym. She was so excited to tell everyone at the gym that it was her birthday haha! We came home and had her cousins over for a couple hours and then sat around for awhile playing with her new toys. When Brandon got home, we decided to take her out for dinner by herself. In the past, we always took the whole family but we thought it would be fun to have some one on one time with her. So we took her to Chuck A Rama. I hadn't been there since I was a kid so I was pretty excited :) Well, to say the least Jordan turned into an absolute nut job! I don't know if it was because we were alone with her and giving all our attention to her or what but she was so crazy! Brandon and I couldn't stop laughing haha! Well, she was pretty excited to finally be 5! Happy birthday Jordan!!