Our week

Daddy daughter time.

This is Train Town. We took Cohen there on Saturday for his 2nd birthday. The train is miniature as well as the rest of the town. The train takes you for a twenty minute ride through tunnels, around water falls, bridges and to a petting zoo. Everything is child size and absolutely adorable. The kids had a blast. After the train ride Ammon went on the carousel, Ferris wheel and a few roller coasters.

All aboard! Cohen was saying that the rest of the day.

Two months old and as sweet as ever. Rylee is an amazing baby. If she isn't sleeping she just hangs out. She is really starting to smile and coo at us. She is still sleeping great at night. Waking up only once. Last night she went to bed at 10:30 and woke at 5:30 and again at 8:30. She is the best! I finally got rid of her baby rash/acne. A friend suggested Cortaid and it worked miracles on her skin.

Cohen being silly!

Mommy Madison. She wanted to hold Rylee all of the time. I'm pretty confidant that she could babysit her and Rylee would be just fine.

The kids were out back playing and we decided to give them a bath before putting on p.j.'s. Good thing because the bath was disgusting when they were finished!

Cohen and Kyle eating watermelon together.

The company is gone but I have still been super busy. We haven't even had birthday cake or presents for Cohen yet, luckily he is only two and doesn't understand the birthday thing. But I will be having a belated party for him, just so I can have some pictures .

Master Yoda

I heart sisters

The other day Alex asked whether I would like a boy or girl for my next child. I said I didn't really care. My mom was in the room and said, "Of course you do. You want a girl. Rylee needs a sister." Duh of course! Rylee totally needs a sister. I love my sisters! They are my best friends, confidants, therapists and SO much more. Alex and I drove back from McKinleyville yesterday and I look forward to spending the week with her.

Alex is very into music and knows every band and every song on the radio. We are polar opposites when it comes to this. I was telling her that I don't remember the last time I switched the c.d. playing in my car and even rarely turn it on. Well we started talking about how great the music was in the nineties. She started naming songs like Torn by Natalie Imbruglia and then Stay by Lisa Loeb. I loved Stay and remember playing it over and over. Well we couldn't remember the tune and it was killing us. So we called Kasey. When in doubt call Kasey. She is my go to girl. Before we knew it she googled the lyrics and we were all three singing Stay, in the car, with Kasey on speaker phone. It was off tune and totally out of sync but a memory I will never forget. It also made me miss Lindsey. I can't wait for the day when we can leave our kids at home and go on a trips together. Sisters are priceless.

Enjoy!

Here are some more pictures from the last few weeks. The one above is our first family picture of all five. The other top pics are from Six Flags. Ammon and Alexa got soaked running through water fountains but they loved it. Aunt Alex was great to have around that day because she was able to take Cohen on a few rides while I watched Rylee and Sienna.

Before most of our company came Alex went swimming with us at a local community pool. Ammon basically taught himself how to swim that day and Cohen wanted to be in the water the whole time. Doesn't Rylee look sexy in her skimpy bikini?

Jody bought Ammon a tent for his birthday and they are suppose to start a tradition of sleeping in it every Friday night, in the backyard. I have a feeling that Cohen will be joining them soon.

My sweet baby girl finally has her eyes open! She still sleeps most of the day but when she is awake she just looks around and checks us all out. She is the best baby! I feel like she is growing up way too quickly. She is already starting to grow out of some of her clothes. I already miss her first days of life. I guess I will definitely be having more children! I couldn't imagine not doing this again. She has started to smile more in the last few days. Poor thing has been suffering from a rash on her face. I think it's from the heat. Hopefully it will go away before we go to Humboldt. Sometimes she looks just like Ammon and other times Cohen. I think she's a mix of the two. But I am pretty sure she is going to have blue eyes.

These boys are hilarious. Ammon has been watching Star Wars again and is Yoda half the day and Underdog the other half. Underdog, the movie, doesn't come out until Friday but he has his costume already. Yesterday Cohen was walking around with this black hat on that my parents brought back from London. I asked him why he was wearing it and he said, "I'm Darth Vader mom." Pretty smart kid because it is similar to Vader's helmet. I assumed Ammon had thought of it for him but nope he said he didn't! Just one of the many ways that Cohen is trying to be just like his big brother. They are so cute together. I was talking on the phone to Lindsey this morning and changing Cohen's diaper at the same time. I mentioned something about Target and Cohen got all excited and said, "I want to go to Target." Then he yelled to Ammon who was in the bathtub, "Hey Ammon do you want to go to Target?" Both of my boys love Target. I wonder who they get that from?

July

We had such a great time visiting with our family who came to visit this month! We were sad to see everyone go.

It was so nice to have Jody's family around. Jen helped out a lot with the kids. She watched the kids while I went to a doctor's and dentist appointment last week. She also helped with Rylee by holding her and changing her diapers. Don't worry Jen, you didn't spoil her too much, she is still a wonderful baby. Cindy and Larry bought the boys all kinds of books, toys, games, and movies. It was like Christmas all over again! Cindy also helped me clean up my house before my sisters came on Thursday and Larry kept the boys entertained. We loved having you here and were sad to see you go.

Kasey, her kids and Alex came Thursday afternoon. I took them to the Farmer's Market that evening and we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on Friday. Jami met us there with her gorgeous baby, Keal. Lani, Donnell, Rona, Rich, Jami and Keal came here on Saturday. We ate lunch, relaxed and then walked around Windsor. The kids had a great time together and it was so good to be with my family! I love it when they come to visit me.

So things should start calming down now. I have been trying to keep up with all of your blogs but haven't had enough time to comment! I will be better. I personally love comments.

We are heading to McKinleyville again this weekend to see Kalie and Chris who are coming for her high school reunion. I can't wait to see them and their kids!

busy, busy

Still loving her carseat!

Yes, they both have bruises on their foreheads.

I am going to take five minutes and at least put some pictures on the blog. We have had visitors the last few weeks and I keep meaning to blog but haven't gotten a chance. This week Jody's mom, dad, sister and grandmother have been here. It's so much fun to have them here. Yesterday we went to San Francisco. We walked down by the wharf, ate lunch and went on a ferry ride. On the way home we stopped by my favorite shopping area in Corte Madera to eat dinner at my favorite restaurant the Cheesecake Factory.

Kasey will be back this weekend and I look forward to spending time with her, Lani and Jami. I just love my family! I had the best childhood growing up with my cousins.

More pics and details to come!

we made it!

Or should I say, "I made it!" I took care of my three kids by myself this week and it went great. Rylee is such a good baby and sleeps much of the time which makes it seem like I only have two kids. We had a busy week and I even ventured out with them by myself.

Monday we just hung out at home. Jody had a meeting in San Francisco and was gone from 7:00 in the morning until 7:30 and night. It was a long boring day but we survived.

Tuesday Tasha and Janelle came down from McKinleyville. We went to dinner at Olive Garden and stopped by Cost Plus and Cold Stone on the way home. The next day we woke up and went shopping to a few downtown stores, one called Cupcake is pricey but adorable. Then we went to Old Navy and Chevy's for lunch. Between the three of us we had five kids but they all did pretty good. Luckily Tasha only had Lex so she helped me. It was fun having them stay with us and I hope they will come again soon.

On Wednesday night we went to Walmart and finally got some birthday presents for Ammon. He was struggling with his decision on what to spend his money on. We got him a fish tank and three fish which he named Anikan, Yoda, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is really into Star Wars right now and calls himself Yoda, has a cane and tries to talk like him. Cohen and Ammon have spent lots of time just staring at the fish. I think they are waiting to play with them. Jody was teasing Ammon on the way home from the store about being hungry and that he was going to eat his fish for dinner. Then he started talking like Bruce from the movie Nemo. Ammon got upset and said, "Don't eat them Dad. They're my new friends!"

Yesterday I took the kids to the farmer's market they have in Windsor every Thursday. Talk about crazy I have never seen so many people so involved in the community. We couldn't find anywhere to park for about 15 minutes. I am so glad we went and plan on going every Thursday. They had big jumpy houses and slides for the kids, face painting, balloons, and all kinds of food. A lot of local restaurants and bakeries set up booths and sold food. They also show a movie once it gets dark. I was proud of myself for taking the kids alone and actually enjoying it.

Today I had some girls from the ward over for lunch. I made BBQ sandwiches from a recipe I got off of one of Lindsey's friends blogs and a yummy salad that Kasey gave me the recipe for. One of the girls is really cute and just had a baby girl in May the other has two boys and is super nice. It was fun to have people over and I realized that I need to do it more often.

My mom and Alex should be on their way here and Kasey and her fam will be here tomorrow night. I can't wait to be with everyone. Next week I am heading up to McKinleyville for the week while Jody goes to Anaheim for work.

I painted Rylee's toenails the other day, an idea I got from my friend Tiffany. Rylee slept the other night from 11:00 until 6:00 in the morning. Last night she slept from 11:00 to 4:00 and then 4:30 to 8! I felt so good today and didn't even need an afternoon nap! I don't know how this is possible but Rylee is one month old! I feel like I had her last week.

I love putting these cute summer dresses on her!

Cohen and "Algixs", that's how he pronounces her name.

You can't see Ammon very well but he is on the board with Jody.

We had a great time at the lake this last week. Some of you thought I was crazy and brave to take three kids to the lake especially because one is only 3 weeks old. But the kids were great. Rylee slept almost the whole time in the boat and did great at night as well. She had one bad night and was up with gas for a few hours. My sweet mother got up after a while and rocked her while I slept. Other than that incident she was perfect! I can't believe how quickly she is changing. She is so much more alert now. She also has beautiful olive colored skin. What a change from Ammon who we all called white boy as an infant.

It got pretty hot the later part of the week which made the trip a little more uncomfortable for me, because I'm not suppose to get in the water. I ended up jumping in a few times to cool off and it wasn't too bad.

Jody mastered landing a back flip on his wake board, see below, which made things more entertaining. Cohen and Ammon loved swimming in the water and even went on the tube with Jody and I.

It was so much fun seeing the boys after being away from them for a week. Cohen just kept hugging me and saying over and over, "mommy, mommy, mommy!" Ammon acted like he missed us a lot, but from what I hear he didn't talk about us much. He loved being back in McKinleyville and even told us today that he wants to live there again. Unfortunately for him, I don't think that will happen.

This month is already going by quickly. We have lots of visitors this month! I am excited for Jody's family and my sister Kasey to see Rylee when they come visit us in a few weeks.

Monday will be my first day alone with all three kids. I think I'm ready. I've had three weeks of help to get me prepared. Wish me luck!