Summer plans

Summer is here! Last summer was such a hard summer filled with nausea, vomiting, intense Texas heat, no rain, and not many trips and adventures as summer should have. This summer, we are trying to change that. We can't do anything about the heat except keep the girls as wet as possible. So far we have gone downtown to Discovery Green which is a huge park and event center. They have a splash-pad and misting fountain which the girls loved. We have watched Chloe learn to roll over and the girls love trying to roll her back to her starting position. We have given Chloe her first taste of solid food which she doesn't seem to be a fan of. Dave and I have started training for a 5k which we will run in late July or early August. Dave has managed to find the worlds biggest wasp nest in one of our broken garage vents and he is working on trying to kill all of them. He replaced the broken vent and now all the wasps come and hang out in front of it waiting for it to open back up. I think he has killed over a dozen wasps and there seem to be new ones coming by everyday.
We have a few other plans for the rest of the summer as well. We are going to attempt an Astros game, we will be driving to Michigan to visit family, we will be going to the beach a couple of times, the girls and I will be doing Vacation Bible School as well as a playgroup through our church which meets weekly and goes to the zoo or childrens museum or parks throughout Houston.
At the end of the summer we will be celebrating Emily and Ally's birthdays and then Emily will be off to kindergarten! I just found out I have been accepted to the University of Houston, so I will be starting school in the fall!
I have added pictures following this post!

May Pictures

Can you believe it is May already?!!

Chloe is already 16 weeks old! She is growing so fast and she is losing her baby hair. It looks like we are going to have another blond hair, blue eye girl! Right now, Chloe is learning to use her voice. She is making all sort of funny sounds. She is trying to roll over and she is so close. She is such a mellow baby. I can put her down after I feed her, and she will play on her little mat for hours. It is so easy to forget she is even there because she is so content. We went to the beach for mother's day weekend and everyone couldn't believe how chilled out she is. After having 2 crazy girls, I think we deserve an easy baby! Chloe is sleeping through the night and she is in her own room now. She has her 4 month check-up so hopefully I will have more to update then.

Ally is our crazy child! She is as close to a boy as we are going to get! She is talking up a storm and she is so funny. I could listen to her talk all day. She is very stubborn though. She has not had any more public tantrums but she gives us plenty of trouble at home. If she is off by herself being quiet, she is 95% of the time doing no good. The other 5% of the time she is laying in bed, sucking her thumb and holding her silky. Our neighbors just gave us all of their living room furniture, including a leather recliner, and Ally has somehow managed to completely scrape up the seat. She is constantly trying to jump off high pieces of furniture, including the kitchen table, couches, and the coffee table. She is trouble!!!

Emily is growing up too fast. The fact that she is starting Kindergarten still blows my mind. She is already on her way to reading. She knows all of her letters and she can sound out words. She still hates sharing her toys with Ally and we still have to enforce the 2 toy rule with her. She loves to draw on her drawing pad and it is getting easier to identify her drawings. She loves anything pink or princess. She and Ally have daily arguments over who gets the pink forks and spoons at meal times.

Dave and I love having 3 girls! We are really enjoying each of the girls at their different stages of life. Here are some pics of the girls!

Chloe trying to roll over.




Can you guess what the drawing is?


Dorcas, this one is for you.


Trying to get a cooperative picture of the girls is impossible!!!

Spring Time!

Being a mom of three sure does make the time fly by! I can't believe Chloe is 11 weeks old today. She is becoming very social. She now looks directly at you and smiles. It is an awesome feeling to receive a big smile from her. Last night Chloe slept through the entire night! I couldn't believe it! I woke up at around 3am, the time she normally wakes up to eat, and she was still sound asleep. I was shocked when I woke up because she was fussing, and it was 6am! If she continues to sleep through the night, I will be moving her into her own room!
Potty training update: Ally started out so good with potty training. She did all of her business on the potty and she even went in public bathrooms! Unfortunately she started having more accidents in her training diaper and every time I would take her to the bathroom, she would need a new diaper. Then she stopped pooping for days and we finally let her go in her diaper because it had been a couple of days. Then she started telling me after she peed in her diaper that she had to go to the potty and she would sit and play for several minutes and as soon as I put a clean diaper on, she would go in it. I was getting really frustrated and tired of dealing with it, so we decided it would be better to wait until I could focus more attention on her. Plus it was costing a fortune for training diapers! So now Ally is back in regular diapers. It is really hard to put her back in regular diapers after she did so well at the beginning, but she will get it when she is ready.
Next week I will be going to the local elementary school to sign Emily up for Kindergarten! It is such a bittersweet feeling. I know sending her to Kindergarten is the best decision because of how well she did in Pre-K. She loves being around other kids and she is really smart and needs to be challenged. I don't feel like I can give her those things. I am not sure what I am going to do with her being gone all week! She is my big helper and she gives Ally someone to follow around.
Here are the latest happenings around the house:

Chloe is not my best sleeper. Emily and Ally slept a lot more during the day. Chloe sleeps usually and hour or less in between feedings. But I have finally stretched her feedings to every 3 hours! What freedom!


One of Chloe's big smiles!


Ally is always trying to play with Chloe's toys. It is a big issue in this house.




Dave showing the girls how to have a tea party. They loved it!



Easter pics. Emily is already hates taking pictures! I thought I had a few more years before that started!

2 month check-up and Potty training

Chloe had her two month check-up today. She is 12 pounds 12 ounces (90th percentile) and 24 inches long (97th percentile). Everything checked out great and the best news is that the doctor could not hear a murmur at all! She thinks Chloe's hole has probably closed up! Being the concerned mom, I asked if it could have gotten bigger and the doctor said Chloe would not be gaining weight and she would be struggling to nurse if she was getting worse. Great news to hear!!!


More exciting news is that Ally is potty training! Since we moved into this house, we have put her little potty in the bathroom and whenever we catch her sneaking off to do her business, we ask if she wants to try and go on her potty. She has made a few successful attempts and this past weekend I decided she was more than ready to start training. I bought the pull-ups and we started last Saturday. Ally is doing way better than I expected! She is pooing and peeing on her potty! She is so excited about doing it as well! Today she even went in her first public bathroom (gross but still exciting)! She loves picking what color M&M she will get. I could not have dreamed her doing any better! I kept putting it off because I thought it would be too difficult with feeding Chloe. It actually works out great because I get her to go right before I start feeding Chloe. Yay Ally!!!

Rodeo Time!

Yesterday, Dave took the afternoon off and we headed down to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The weather was perfect, it wasn't crowded at all, and we had a blast.

Everyone has their cowboy boots on, ready to go!


Making silly faces in the car.




Riding the rides!








Notice both girls in time-out.









Ally trying cotton candy for the first time. Emily is in time-out.




Ally getting ready to watch the pig races!


Everyone cheering on the racing pigs!

6 Weeks!

Chloe turned 6 weeks old this week. The time has flown by! She has been much more awake and alert the last couple of weeks. She is even smiling now! She is doing really well at night. She will usually go down around 11pm, wake up at 3am to nurse, and then depending on how long she ate, she will usually sleep until 6 or 7am. Emily and Ally love their baby sister. They are great helpers especially when I am nursing. They have taken to carrying around baby dolls and dressing them in Chloe's clothes and pretending to nurse them. Getting out of the house is a huge chore for me, so we haven't been going many places. We did get to go to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo yesterday and we all had a great time getting out of the house for that.
We were unable to find our camera and so we had to buy a new one. We didn't get anything super fancy, just something to capture the girls with.




(These pictures look pink because I took them in Emily and Ally's room and they have a pink curtain.)

Latest News

We seem to have misplaced our camera during the move and we can't find it! That is the reason for the lack of pictures. Sorry guys! I have been taking a lot of pictures on my iphone but I can't figure out how to upload them to the computer and loading pics on facebook takes a long time. There are a few boxes in the garage that we have not unpacked so I am hoping the camera will show up in one of those. If not, I guess you will just have to come visit us to see the kids!! We are beginning to feel settled in the new house. I unpacked the last of the boxes in the house this morning. It feels so good to have that done!
Life with Chloe in the family is great! We went to church for the first time with her on Sunday. It went well, but I spent the entire sermon in the nursery nursing her. Fortunately I could listen to the message on an intercom. Emily and Ally were really excited to get out of the house and be around their friends.
I was supposed to take the girls up to the school today to visit with their classes and teachers, but Dave's car is having some issues and he had to take mine. Hopefully we will get up there soon.
Thursday Chloe has her cardiologist appointment. I am not sure what they will be doing but hopefully we can get our questions about her condition answered.

Moving Nightmare!!!

I do not ever ever ever want to move again! They are going to have to bury me in this house! Ok, so we are just renting and will eventually have to move out, but I do not even want to think about that for a couple of years. This has by far been the worst move we have ever had. It seems like just when we think everything is going smoothly, something else goes wrong. Here is what happened-
Friday my mom came back to help us with the move. We had been promised the keys to the new house all week, and we did not get them until the last minute on Friday. Friday night we had not gotten a call to confirm the Uhaul, so Dave called them first thing Saturday morning. They were not going to have the Uhaul ready by the time we requested, thanks for the call guys! Dave called the movers to let them know we needed them a couple of hours later than we requested. We all headed over to the new house to see what we could get done before the movers came. We had scheduled the gas (heat, hot water, stove) to be set up on Friday so Dave went to turn on the heat. After about an hour of trying to get the house warm, we figured out the gas had not been turned on. Dave called the gas company and they said they couldn't come until Monday. Lame! We decided to use a couple of space heaters and still go through with staying at the new house. Dave went to pick up the Uhaul and meet the movers. When he got to the Uhaul place, they did not have the size truck we reserved and gave us a much smaller truck. Dave went back to the old house to wait for the movers and they didn't arrive until 5:30 pm, the original meet time was 1pm. More lame! Dave had already filled the truck and so they came to the new house to unload the first load. My mom, the girls and I had been at the new house all day trying to stay out of the way. We were freezing! We also learned that the new house had no water pressure and that the master bathroom shower faucet doesn't work. Sunday we had to go back to old house to clean and check out with the landlord. We decided to all take showers at the old house since we didn't know when we would get hot water at the new place. When the landlord came by, he told us we would not get our deposit back since we were leaving a month early. Kinda lame, but at least he let us go a month early. Sunday night Dave tried to move boxes around so we could unpack while he was gone (he went out of town on Monday and comes back today). Monday the water guy came and gave us water pressure. The gas guy came late Monday and hooked up the gas but he couldn't figure out how to get the heater started. After a moment of panic, my mom messed around with it and got it started. Monday afternoon we realized that under the kitchen sink there was a major leak. Tuesday didn't bring any new excitement but this morning I woke up thinking it was raining because I heard water hitting the ground outside my window. I couldn't figure out why the hot water heater seemed to be running for no reason and when I looked out the window I realized it wasn't raining. I went out into the backyard and found a huge amount of water pouring out of the side of the house. The backyard was flooding. I called the landlord and he immediately sent a plumber who is now working on all of the problems. Hopefully we don't find any new quirks with the new house. Dave comes home today and I can't wait. Did I mention I am never moving again!

Chloe's First Week

Chloe has been with us for a little over a week now and what a week it has been! We came home from the hospital on Wednesday last week. My mom was here taking care of the girls. Friday we had to go to the doctor to get Chloe's bilirubin level checked because she was slightly jaundice. Chloe had lost about a pound since leaving the hospital, which is normal. Her bilirubin level was going up so they wanted to see us back on Sunday. My mom left Saturday so that she could come back this weekend and help us move. Sunday we went back to the doctor and her bilirubin was still going up so they wanted us back on Tuesday. Dave went back to work on Monday and I was really nervous about how everything was going to go with the three girls. So far, it has been great! Chloe sleeps most of the day and the girls do a somewhat good job of trying not to fall or hit her. In between feedings and trying to catch up on sleep, I have even found time to pack most of the house. Dave comes home in the evenings and takes the girls outside to let them burn off some energy. Tuesday we went back to the doctor and Chloe had regained the weight she lost. Her bilirubin level is going down so we don't have to go back until next Tuesday for her two week check-up. We are so thankful to have Chloe in our lives. She is a very relaxed baby and rarely cries. She likes to sleep most of the day and stay up late at night, but I am working on trying to break that habit. Emily and Ally have adjusted very well to their new sister. There hasn't been any tantrums or acting out yet. They both compete to get me a clean diaper or to throw away a dirty diaper. They like to "pet" her and sing songs to her. They are such great big sisters already, So far the move is going smoothly. We should get the keys to the new house today and we will officially move Saturday. My mom is coming back tomorrow to help and she is going to stay until Dave gets back from his business trip to Dallas. He leaves on Monday. Great timing, I know!
When we were in the hospital, the neonatologist who examined Chloe and told us about her heart problem recommended we see a cardiologist. Chloe's pediatrician referred us to one and she will have her first appointment at the end of February. It will be good to get all of our questions answered about Chloe's condition. Dave and I are amazed at how many people we know who have a hole in their heart or who know someone who does. It is apparently a very common condition.

Chloe Faith

Chloe Faith was born Tuesday January 19, 2010 at 1:55 pm. I went in to the hospital at 7 am, was induced at about 8:30 am, and by 1:30, she was ready to come out. I pushed for about 2 minutes and she was out and ready to meet everyone. I could not have asked for a smoother delivery and all of the nurses kept commenting on the fact that I was smiling while delivering Chloe. I owe it all to a great epidural!
We have had an amazing week getting to know Chloe. Before we left the hospital, we found out Chloe had a murmur in her heart. They did an echocardiogram and found a hole in her heart. Today we found out she has a small VSD which is the most ideal heart problem you can have. It should heal itself with time.


This picture was taken right before they checked me and told me I was ready to push.


Beautiful baby girl!