What has happened to my baby girls??

Oh my, oh my! A few weeks ago my darling monkey, Elizabeth, climbed out of her crib and into her sister's. Since then Kent has been rarin' to put up their "big girl beds." I haven't been too anxious, especially since they haven't been climbing out. Kent insisted it's time, so when we go on vacation they will be used to it, and they will be able to sleep where ever we are. All right, it makes sense, but it's going to be rough! He is in town this week so I finally agreed! Just getting the beds put together with three little helpers was challenging enough. We pretty much had to BOLT the door closed and scream through it. Brayden screamed in every few seconds to report about something that was happening. Finally through sweat and frustration Kent said, "Are you bleeding? Then I don't want to hear it, go away and we'll tell you when we're finished!" (This made me feel so good, Kent normally has an endless supply of patience, but this was enough to send him over the edge. I thought, 'this is why I can never complete a task/project there is always someone needing/reporting/fighting/hurting'.....) Back to the project:
Bed #1 being assembled.

Bed #2 being "converted" from a crib to a toddler bed.

The final products! (I know, it would be nice if they were at least the same color, but we got the toddler bed at a twins sale for a good price. Now they have their "own" styles of beds. Although, so far, they have switched back and forth twice).

Everyone was very excited and had to test them out! The first thing they did was jump on them! Kent put a ka-bosh on that right a way, we'll see how long that holds!

They were so proud to graduate to a "new big girl bed."

Brayden had to show everyone how he is almost too big for this one, and he needs his full bed because he is such a big boy!

The first hurdle was nap time yesterday. We were able to use Ally's party (see previous post) as a bribe to stay in bed and go to sleep. They did great!

Last night was a different story. Ellie fell out of her bed and was shrieking, I think it really scared her. Then it took her a long time to settle back down. Then today at nap time she did the same thing, except she woke Dani up and it was all over. No more nap. EERRR, not so happy about that. I think we will have to go out and buy another guard rail. By the time Brayden was big enough to get rid of his, it was trashed. The saga continues......

Parties, parties everywhere!

We had a busy weekend full of parties! First off, on Friday night Kent and I went on a date! He flew in at 2:30 and the baby-sitter was here at 4. I was ready to go! We went and saw "My Sister's Keeper," which is my favorite book of all time! Just as expected, I cried throughout most of the movie. I thought it was really well done, but they changed the end, which ticked me off a bit. I would recommend it to anyone.

On Saturday I went to my friend, Leigh's, baby shower, then we all went to Auntie Helen's retirement party! We had such a good time. The weather was perfect and the kids could just run and run in her HUGE backyard. They actually cried when it was time for us to go! Dani running and running.

Part of the fam.

Ellie pausing for a piece of chocolate cake!

A quick family pic. before we left. This is just about as good as it gets folks.

On to Sunday! It was my niece, Ally's, third birthday party. Holy smokes, it was crazy fun for the kids. THREE bounce houses, one of which was a water one. The kids just ran and played for hours. I don't think anyone saw Ally open presents, and a few stopped to watch her blow the candles out on her cake. Too fun!

Cool as can be; Dani Claire.

Ellie was one of the first ones in the water!

Keegan, Brayden and Ellie.

Takin' a cruise past all the peeps.

Auntie Helen, Grandma Phillips (aren't they so cute, they match perfectly, they claim it wasn't planned. We still had to make fun of them though). :)

Dani, Ellie and Ally

Ally and Auntie Sarah with the yummy cake! Ally's Grandma Weatherhead made those awesome "cake pops." They were incredible. Little balls of cake covered in chocolate, white chocolate or peanut butter. I skipped the chocolate cake and devoured a few of those! I am going to have to get the recipe and I will post it. It was perfect for the kids, they just couldn't walk around with them. :)

Blowing out the candles.

Catching up....again!

EERRR! In my hurry to get a post up, I uploaded all the pics. backward! I guess that's what I get for trying to rush! Bear with me, while we go in reverse....Kent was out of town all last week, so I made a big effort to go out and have lots of fun with the kids, in between my work schedule. It was a long week, but we all survived! One evening it was really nice out, so I put all the kids in their swim suits and loaded up a picnic dinner and headed to Liberty Lake Park. They were thrilled! After playing in the water, on the slides, and eating dinner, there happened to be a concert in the park. It was a kids recital from the local music lessons place. I ran into a friend from my book club and we were able to catch up and chat a bit. She has an older son and twin daughters too! They are 11 and 9 though. It's nice to see someone who has survived these years! (Besides my MIL of course)! Chillin' and listening to the music!

Trying to get a good shot of all three of them, still on my list of things to do.

Dani and I finishing up dinner. (I never realize that I actually LOOK as tired as I feel)! I need to start making a conscious effort of putting make-up on. That is kind of embarrassing!

Nutritious picnic dinner of cold pizza, doritos, pasta salad and grapes!

Grandma Phillips stopped by to play before she met some friends for Chinese food. Hhmmm, chinese food, or cold pizza on the grass???

My fearless monkey girl! Ellie keeps up with the big kids. It drives me crazy! She just goes for it. She leaps out and grabs the pole and slides down without a second thought! She is so coordinated and strong. I want to get her into gymnastics when she's old enough.

Dani tries to follow her, but she's not quite there yet. At least she waits until I can get there to help her (most of the time).

By the end of the night Ellie had huge red owies on the insides of her legs from sliding down the pole. Note to self: Never a good idea to slide down poles in a swimsuit. Those strippers must use lots of oil, I'm not really sure how that works. But Ellie was hurting for a few days. I guess next time I will just bring a bottle of baby oil and lather up the pole!

Brayden showing her how it's done.

YAY! Last week I got to go on a date with my boy, all by ourselves! We had such a great time. We had to go to a few stores and then we headed to the free movie at Regal cinemas. It was great! We had to watch Vegie-tales (not my first choice, I struggled sitting through it) but Brayden LOVED it! He was such a good, sweet boy. I always feel so bad after we have these times together, because I sometimes forget what a good boy he is!

Father's Day! We had a BBQ at our house with family, and we celebrated Auntie Helen's (family friend) retirement! It was a fun day, but rainy, so we were all inside.

The girls with Great-Grandpa Petrousek.

My parent's were also here for that weekend, but I have no pics. of them. It was great having them here and the kids LOVED it! Each morning they woke up asking, "Grandma go? Grandpa go?" (As in, where are they sleeping?)

Dani gets kisses from Dad.

Brayden made a wonderful card for Kent. He is amazing, he can sit and write for hours now. He just finds things and copies words off of the boxes, or pictures. He loves it, maybe he will be a journalist or a writer someday.

We had a wonderful Father's day, thanks to Kent. Somehow Kent ended up doing most of the work that day....he cooked everyone breakfast, cleaned the house for the BBQ, and grilled in the rain! I love you Kent, thanks for all that you do everyday of the year!

Summer to dos........

YAY for Summer! Brayden has been out of school for a few weeks now, but I have just started my Summer work schedule....do you think it will feel more like Summer now? It would be nice to be able to play outside.... I think it's going to get sunnier soon though, I won't complain. :) Like I said, my new work schedule starts this week. I'm working T, W and Th, I have 28 clients now! My practice has exploded, which is wonderful, but stressful at the same time. I am adjusting to all the hours I have to put in on top of just the therapy time. Once all of the initial assessments are finished I am hoping things will become more routine for me.....anyway, my list of summer things to do:

1. Have fun at the parks! I want to take the kids to lots of different parks around the city, tons of them have splash pads now, which the kids love! It has been nice so far this year, the kids are alot easier to take to the park. I have only had one mishap, which was last week, where I lost Dani for a few minutes (which seemed like forever). We were at a twins group playdate (just imagine the huge amounts of kids) and I was cleaning up our picnic mess when I looked up and Dani was just gone! I wandered and looked and wandered and looked, then I started circling and panicking. I yelled to a group of moms, "I lost my daughter." One mom asked, "What does she look like? Who is she?" I forgot that no one knew her because when we go to the monthly meetings, no kids are allowed! We found her soon after that, thank goodness. That had my heart pumping, talk about a panic attack, she was just playing cluelessly in a different section of the park. I tell ya, that girl is going to owe me so big!

2. Oregon Coast: YAY! We get to go to the beach! We are going to stay at a house we rented with my parents for a few days at the beach. 'Couve girls, this means I will be in town on Sunday, July 19th. Reserve that day for a girls get together!

3. Riverfront Park: We want to take the kids downtown to go on the rides and feed the ducks.

4. Silverwood: More fun at the theme park with the kids.

5. Six Flags: Kent and I are tossing around the idea of taking a short trip with my brother and sister to LA and hitting some parks down there. Now it will just be a matter of coordinating all of our schedules!

6. Parties: We have had lots of parties lately, with a few more to go. Birthday parties (Ally's and Brayden's), retirement parties (Helen) and baby showers (Leigh).

7. Exercise/dieting: Kent and I have a goal to lose more weight by the time we take our vacation to.....

8. Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Yay us! Kent and I are taking an eight day cruise in September all by ourselves! Thanks for watching the kids Kalin!

9. Work: I have to say, I love what I do and I am very excited for my business to be growing. I think I will treasure my time more with the kids, now that it is a little more limited, maybe I won't be so impatient. (One can always hope and wish)!

YAY for Summer! What's on your list?

"It's party time baby!"

One of my favorite people in the world has to be James Frye! He is a guy I have worked with since I moved to Spokane, before I had my masters degree. When I met him he was pretty much non-verbal, he had a few words, but not entirely intelligible. My how eight years can change a person. He is now 15, and well over 6 feet tall. It amazes me! Today I went to work with him and on my way there I decided, we are going to play hooky! He answered the door and I said, "Let's get out of here, it's time to party and celebrate your last day of school! What do you want to do?"





James: "Let's go get ice cream." My kind of guy. That's just what we did. We headed to DQ and he proceeded to order.





James: "I would like a medium, no a LARGE ice cream cone PUULLLEEASSEE, and a medium drink."





Christy: "What are you talking about? I said I would buy you an ice cream, you think you're getting a drink too?" :)





James: "Yeah, it's party time BABY!"





You gotta love this guy. Just for that I did buy him his soda (of course). Next he chose to go to Barnes and Noble and look at books. Love it! He looked in the Humor section, and we passed a book that said, "Play, Drink and F*#k."





James: "Hmmm, Play, Drink and Fork??" We moved along quickly. (I didn't go into that Wendy.)





Other favorite quotes from James over the years:





"I HATE speech therapists!" (this was a grumpy day).





Christy: "Good thinkin' Lincoln"


James: "I"m not Lincoln, I'm James Frye!"





James: "Got a zit? All you have to do is sssqueeeze it like this, (demonstrates) and it will pop!"





James: "What happened to your hair?" (This was after I dyed it red).





James: "I'm not going to tell you what I've been doing. Those are my private thoughts." Fair enough.





Talking about movies, James: "Is it a sexy movie? Is it nasty?"





Thanks for a fun party and lots of laughs James!

Kids for sale......3, 4, 5, or 6! (The list cont'd)

First off, I can't say for sure that kids 4, 5, and 6 are for sale for sure, but if I get the right price I'm sure Sarah would be willing to part with them. :)

I have to say, this wasn't one of my brightest mornings. My SIL, Sarah, brought my niece and nephew over for speech this morning. She said she was going to go to the Victoria's Secret Sale when we were finished. I thought, I want to do that too, and Kent is out of town so I will HAVE to take the kids. When we finished I told Sarah to go and I would bring Keegan with me, that way she would have a head start (I had to shower, I was planning on going for a walk and then showering, but the sale was calling to me). I figured she could try her stuff on, then we could switch, so all six kids wouldn't have to be in the store/fitting room with us. Good plan, eh? So, I got ready and loaded the four kids into the van (mini bus). As we were driving the boys asked where we were going.

I told them, "We're going to meet Auntie at the underwear store."

I could NOT have said anything that was more funny! When did they get old enough to think this was funny?

The five of us traipsed into the mall, two girls in the stroller and two boys following close behind. (After I negotiated with Brayden that he should leave his shirt untucked and pull his shorts down so they weren't hiked up to his pits). He insisted that his shirt was too big and it needed to be tucked in. I actually told my son that he looked like a big nerd and he could NOT do that.

Keegan said, "My dad does that."

I responded, "Yes, I know, but he doesn't hike his shorts that far up." (That's a whole different story).

Back to the mall.....we walked into Victoria's Secret with the boys shouting, "The underwear store, the underwear store!" I immediately called Sarah thinking she is already done, and she can take the kids off my hands and go to the play place. Not so much. I turned the corner and she was still standing in line for the fitting room. Ok, I will just browse while I wait for her to finish. I am looking at a table and the boys proceed to crawl under, around and through the table, knocking bins of underwear all over the floor. Seriously, we had just gotten there! I made them sit on the floor against the wall and busted out the fruit snacks. That lasted about 2 seconds, I had to split one package b/n four kids. Poor planning on my part. I frantically looked through all the different tables and grabbed a few of each style. This is a whole other issue and probably TMI, but after babies and dieting, who knows what size you are. I swear depending on the style, and lining and padding of brassieres, I could be three different sizes! Apparently Sarah was having the same issue because she took FOREVER! I got in line for the fitting room (which wrapped around the store) and grabbed Ally from her so she could try her stuff on with just one baby screaming. I am now standing in line with FIVE kids, all of which aren't on the best behavior. Everyone is staring at me like I am some crazy, white trash lady. Which I am, because frankly how desperate can one be for bras to actually go through this? Ok, I'm tired of writing about this craziness, in a nutshell, I think we were ALL in the store for an hour. I don't think the sales people cared how much we were going to buy, they just wanted us out!

This is a pic. of five of the six kids, (Owen screamed bloody murder when I tried to take him) waiting for Auntie to finish her purchase. They are pretty dang cute sitting there so nicely, it was the before and after that was so rough! All right, I guess I won't sell any of them, good thing I love them all so dang much!

Side note: Victoria's Secrets need more than three measly fitting rooms!

The list....

I know all of you moms out there have similar stories to these, but I have decided to keep a running list. This way when the kids grow up I can show them how much they owe me and when they have kids they will understand why payback is such a B****! :)

1. Today Dani shoved about $4.00 worth of quarters into my tape deck in the van. I had a roll of quarters that I have been using to tip my barista. I looked down and there was one sticking out of the deck thingy. Dani (from the back seat) yells proudly, "My do that Mommy!" I guess I will no longer send them downstairs while I quickly gather everything we need for the outing! Good thing we don't listen to tapes!

2. Ellie was screaming 25 minutes after I put them into their cribs at nap time. I went in there and she was IN Dani's crib with her! Apparently she scaled the ends of the cribs and wound up in her sister's bed. This wasn't the problem though, she left her "nai nai" blanket in her bed. I guess it is most definitely time for the big girl beds! Of course this happens when Kent is out of town for two weeks!

3. During nap time I was reading in my room, trying to regain some sanity (is that even possible?) when Brayden starts SCREAMING from the bathroom (which is right next to the girls room where they are napping)! Great, I get up and race into the bathroom. He is sitting on the toilet and he said, "Mommy I have owie poops." Seriously, I calmly say, "I'm sorry, what would you like me to do?" He says, "I don't know, but it really hurts!" I say, "Ok, well just sit there and hopefully it will feel better soon." Come on, what are you supposed to say/do? I also added, "Do it quietly, your sisters are sleeping and I don't want them to wake up yet!"


what will be next.....?