The one with Taegen's update

Taegen:
-5 yrs old
-Loves school
-Loves his new friends in school and our neighborhood
-Favorite color is red
-Still loves super heroes: batman, ironman, spiderman, captain america, thor, hulk etc)
-Is kind of sensitive. I think school is toughening him up a bit.
-Still a picky eater. He now likes alfredo sauce and lasagna, but ketchup, spaghetti, mustard, fry sauce etc are still a no go.
-He loves his sisters
-Hates homework. Haha
-loves being outside.
-loves his dad and wants to do everything he does.
-got his first real black eye from falling on his face in P.E.

The one where Jons finally home

Jon has been gone a lot lately. He was home for maybe a week and a half in August and that is about it. He left at the end of July and was gone for almost 3 weeks. Then he left again for another week at the end of August. And of course this is all for Army stuff. The first time was for his annual training in Cali. the second time was to finish the annual training but he was in Utah not in California. While he's gone the kids really miss him, especially Taegen. Everytime Jon leaves Taegen gets so sad and just cries that he misses his dad. So when he finally got home Taegs was stuck to him like glue. It was pretty cute. Luckily he is home now and should be home 4 a while. Only leaving for the one weekend a month for drill.

The one with pics of Raelee around 3 months old

Random pics of Raelee at about 3 months old

The one where Raelee is 4 months

I can't believe I have slacked on doing her updates. She is a pretty good baby, but that wasn't always the case. She was a rather fussy and ornerybaby for the first 7 weeks. She was very constipated and would only poop once every 3 days or so. And for a newborn that is not near enough. After a lot of frustration I was reminded about going to the chiropractor. I had taken both Taegen and Ellie when they were newborns but had forgotten since I had moved away from my favorite chiropractor. But I found one out here that works on newborns and brought her in at about 7 weeks old. He adjusted her and told me that her back and her hips were out. After just one adjustment she was lot happier. She even fell asleep on the floor by herself, which had never happened before. It took a couple chiropractic adjustments but she is now no longer constipated and is a completely new baby. She is happier and no longer just fussy or colicky. I would recommend the chiropractor too everyone that has a new baby.

Raelee is now 4 month old and is super cute. She has a lot of personality and is becoming fun instead of just a little baby blob. Haha she has started teething and is slobbering and drooling like crazy. I have to keep a bib on her at all times or her clothes get drenched.

She is still super sensitive to everything that I eat. I can't have chocolate, peanut butter, any gassy vegetables (onions, cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers etc), beans, any dairy and up until just recently I couldn't have wheat or any tomato based food either. She is definitely my most sensitive baby and it has been hard.

She wakes up at around 7, stays awake for an hour and a half takes an hour longthen, stays awake for another hour to an hour and half, takes another hour nap then wakes up, then takes a long nap in the afternoon. When she wakes up from that nap normally around 4 or 5, she will not take another nap for the rest of the day. She gets really angry because she is tired which makes bedtime really difficult. If I'm lucky she'll fall asleep in the car if we go somewhere or every once in awhile I can get her to nap if I'm holding her, but most days she's awake from 5 until 8. At 8 o'clock I start nursing her and it takes me about an hour to get her to go to bed. Normally she only wakes up one time a night around 3 or 4 a.m. But lately since she's been teething she has been waking up twice. Hopefully the teething won't last too long.

She is rolling over from her back to her stomach but only rolling towards the right. She won't roll to the left yet. So now she's stuck in the dilemma of rolling over to her stomach and getting stuck, and then getting upset that she can't roll back over. Therefore, she doesn't like laying on the floor anymore. She is also grabbing things. She found her hands and realized she enjoys playing with the toys on her floor mat.

The one with Raelee's blessing

We blessed Raelee on July 16. We were unable to find a date where both of our families could make it out here, so we just decided to do it with just us. We didn't mean to offend anyone by not inviting them (we apologize if it did), but living so far away made it difficult this time. But it turned out great! We were able to do it at our house with just us and the bishop here. It was so personal and we were able to focus on what matters, Raelee and her blessing. Jon gave such a sweet blessing. Raelee is also wearing the dress I was blessed in.

The one with Taegens first day of school

Taegen had his first day of kindergarten on Aug 13. Its all day kindergarten, so he's gone from 730-345. He's really enjoying it. He's making so many new friends and learning a lot. He likes his teacher, Ms. Corbin. He rides the bus to and from school and I was really worried at first, but he prefers to ride the bus with his friends than have me drive him. There was a scare with some kids being mean, (on the way home some kids wouldnt let him sit on the back of the bus)but he learned to avoid them and now sits with his friends in the front on the way home and in the back on the way to school. ☺ I'm glad he was able to figure it out himself.
I told him that next Monday he won't have school (its Labor day) and he got so sad. He really loves school.

The one with the potty training update

Ellie is doing great with potty training. She has minimal accidents and has been waking up from her naps and at night, dry. We only have a couple more pull ups, then she'll be 100% in underwear all the time!
She has caught on much faster than Taegen did. Its been nice. She did have a couple weeks where she was being lazy and wouldn't go in the toilet bc she didnt want to walk to the bathroom. That was pretty frustrating, but luckily that didn't last long.
Silly girl leans over when she's sitting on the toilet.
Pic below of her painting is her reward for going poop in the toilet enough times to fill up her chart.

The one with potty training day 3

I think she's got it! She had 2 accidents, but she's holding her pee in a lot longer. She woke up from her nap dry. She didn't poop at all, not in toilet, underwear, or pull up. Not bad, but not good either. She's telling me when she needs to go 99% of the time. I'm still nervous to go anywhere in fear of an accident, but I think thats more my fear and that she'd actually do just fine. I need to go grocery shopping so I guess I'll find out soon enough. The tv was on today and she didn't have an accident while watching it (which I was afraid she would since her mind was distracted). I know random accidents are normal for the first while after potty training, I just hate having to deal with them in public.
Update: she woke up dry this morning! If she stays dry for a week then no more pull ups :)

The one with potty training day 2

Day 2
Ellie has done great! She had 2 accidents. One was right in the bathroom, she just couldn't get up on the toilet in time. She woke up from her nap dry again :) Although she was wet when she woke up this morning. Last night she came out of her room to tell me she was poopy. She had pooped in the toilet earlier, just not very much. Today she has gone twice. So I'm hoping she won't poop in her pull up tonight. She's loving her reward system. Most of today she told me when she had to go. I did still have to ask or remind her, but half of the time when I did that she would sit on the toilet but not go. So she's recognizing when she has to go most times on her own. She filled up another sticker chart today too. Becky bought Ellie a play kitchen play set with play food. That came in the mail today, so the pic is her in her big girl underwear, with that after I set it up (which took FOREVER!)
Overall, another big success!

The one with the second potty training attempt

We started potty training  (for the 2nd time) today and Ellie has done great! We talked about it for a couple days before to get her prepped. This time around I bought her a minnie mouse seat for the toilet and she likes that much better. So far today (its 7 pm and she goes to bed at 8) shes had 20 successful trips to the potty and 4 accidents, 2 of which were partially  my fault. The first one I had to go take out the trash so I wasnt able to watch her. The 2nd I stopped her as she was running to the bathroom (I didnt realize thats where she was going) to talk to her. She's now telling me when she needs to go potty, not every time but thats still awesome for it being day 1. I'm super proud of how well she's doing this time.
Every time she goes she gets to put a sticker (we have princess and frozen ones) on her chart and gets 2 m&ms. Once she gets 5 stickers, which is one full row, she gets a big treat. Big  treats are miniature candy bars, dum dum suckers or scooby snacks (gram crackers). She has a seperate chart for going poop, which earns her a sticker and a big treat. Once she completes that whole chart, which is 22 spaces shes going to get a really big undetermined  prize. Probably a special ice cream outting or something to that extent. So far she's gone poop on the potty once. So it might take her a while to fill the whole chart, but at least by then she'll be a pro :) Today she woke up dry from her 3 hour nap so I'm hoping that's a good sign for bedtime too.
I'm hoping tomorrow goes just as well and she doesn't regress much. I'm not night training yet. She was still waking up wet, and I'm still waking up with Raelee a couple times a night so I'm not up to changing and cleaning a mattress on top of that. Once she's waking up dry (or close to it) then I'll tackle that one. For now, pull ups are our friend.