Our Weekend

This weekend was so busy and so much fun. On Friday night all of my sister in laws and I went out to dinner with my mother-in-law to celebrate her birthday. We went to eat at a place called Bajios, it was pretty good mexican food and then afterwards we all went to see a movie. The movie we saw was 'Get Smart' with Steve Carell, it was so funny, I definitely recommend it. Here we are at dinner. Here are all five of the sister-in-laws. Me, Allison, Jadie, Jessi and Dawn Yesterday was a busy day around the house. David changed the oil in my car and did some work on my car and I got to mow the lawn. And yes I said "got to". I love to mow the lawn. I know that sounds so strange to hear, but I love going outside to mow the lawn and work up a good sweat and do something hard and physically demanding. David enjoys mowing but sometimes he gets to busy, so the way I see it is... why should I complain at him to do something that I am perfectly capable of doing myself. The first couple of times I mowed I didn't love it so much. But the more I have done it the more I really enjoy it. Although sometimes it's hard for me to find the time to mow with kids but since David was home on Saturday, I let him watch the kids so that I could go and enjoy myself while I mowed the yard. I haven't figured out how to weed wack, yet. So I need David to show me how to do that and then I can take care of the whole yard all by myself. Our yard..... Saturday night my sister-in-law Dawn had her son Aiden blessed. They did it on a Saturday night at David's parents house because they are lucky enough to have eight o'clock church and their building is way up North past Anthem, so they figured if they wanted all the family to come it would be easier to do it at home, plus we were able to have a pool party afterwards. So it worked out great. I love getting together with Davids family. I really enjoy visiting with his cousins. And there are so many little kids now that Dutch really enjoys himself. We always have a lot of fun with all the family together. Maylee and I at the pool party. David, Maylee and I. Dutch swinging after he was all done swimming.

• Here are some random pictures from through out the weekend.....

I figured Maylee is probably big enough for some of Dutch's old toys now that her head is pretty stable. So I got this one set up and she loves it, well only for about the first two minutes and then she is done, but I figure she'll last longer and longer in it with each time. Maylee and Daddy snoozing on the couch. Maylee and Mommy. Dutch wanted in the picture. Our two babies after having baths.

P90X

I just finished the exercise program p90X yesterday. I am so excited to have completed it. I started the program when Maylee was four weeks old. It is actually a 13 week program but I added an extra week in the middle of it because of Dutch being in the hospital I had to miss two days. But I am now done with it and I am so happy with my results. I have before and after pictures but I am in a sports bra and panties, so I figure I will save those for just David and I. But I lost 5 pounds, I didn't have much to lose, so I am happy with having lost even 5 pounds, and I lost an 1 1/2 inches off my waist, 1 1/2 inches off my butt, and 3/4 inches off of my thighs. So I am very excited. I am actually going to start the program over again tomorrow. I can't hike camelback mountain anymore because gas is so high, so I am home bound and it is the perfect workout routine, so I will just stick to it until I can hopefully hike again one day. But for those of you out there who want to see awesome results, you should give P90X a try, it is so awesome.

4 Months

Maylee was four months old yesterday. They grow up so fast. I can't believe how big she is getting. Today was her well check visit. At Dutch's four month well check was when we found out that he had a giant head, so I have been anticipating this visit with Maylee. Her stats are...

• Height 241/2 inches, 61 percentile

• Weight 12.8 pounds, 25 percentile

• Head 42 centimeters, 78 percentile

Which means, her head is what grew the most since her two month well check, so her head is on the bigger side. I was bummed, I was hoping to hear that it was still in the 40 percentile, that is what it was at at two months. Oh well, I guess all my kids will be big headed. However hers isn't nearly as big as Dutch's at four months. Dutch's head was 46 centimeters at four months and it was off the charts. So her head is 4 centimeters smaller than his was at the same age. That seems crazy to me that his head was that big. Here is Maylee playing outside....

Shower time

Dutch has pretty much always taken a shower with David and I. Once he was able to sit up really good and hold his head up, we have put him in the shower with us. We always put him in the shower with us and then when we get out, we turn the bath on and he plays in the bath while we get ready for the day. This has been his routine for so long that it got to the point the Dutch hated to take a bath without showering with us first. Well lately Dutch has decided that he needs to have his cars everywhere he goes. So every morning when it is time to take a shower I always tell Dutch, "Go get a car and lets take a shower". He usually gets 2 or 3 of his little match box cars and we shower. Well the other morning I told Dutch to go get his cars so we can take a shower and then I realized that I needed to nurse Maylee before we got in. So I sat down in the recliner to nurse her and meanwhile Dutch did as I asked and got his cars to take a shower. Here is what I found in the bottom of my bathtub... He definitely did as asked and got his cars to take a shower, only problem was he gathered up all most all of his cars. There wasn't a whole lot of room for the two of us and all of his cars in there but somehow we managed. Here he is playing with his cars in the tub after I got out.

The Harkins Theater by our house does a summer special for the kids. For ten weeks they play a different kid movie every week at 9:45 in the morning and for seven dollars you can see all ten movies. I found out about it a little late but I still decided to go ahead and pay the seven dollars and take Dutch to the movies. A friend of mine and I met there with our kids today for our first movie. This week was Shrek 3, which isn't a great little kid movie, it scared Dutch so we only ended up being there for about an hour but it was still a lot of fun. Next week is the Bee Movie so I think he will enjoy that one a lot more. It's nice to being able to get out of the house and do something fun and stay cool. And it is so close to home that it works out perfectly. Then this afternoon my same friend, Bethany and her two kids and my other friend Stacy and her daughter came over to play. We let the kids play in the pool. Dutch does not play very well with other kids unless it is Maxx and Jace, so I try to let him be around different kids so he can start to get use to playing with kids besides Maxx and Jace. The kids played well together for the first 20 minutes and then they just fought over toys but it is still so nice to get together with friends and have some adult conversation, even if it feels like we are just referring the kids the whole time. And since we were all out side playing I had Maylee out there with us. She is on medication for being colic and one of the side effects is high fever or heat stroke, so they say to keep the babies cool while they are on this medicine. Which is hard to do in Arizona, so I striped her down to her diaper and filled up her little bathtub thing and let her play in her own little pool. And she actually surprised me because she loved it. She just sat in there for a long time and was so content. She is such a good baby. Here are the kids playing in the pool... Here is Maylee in her own little pool...

Summertime

Summertime is always my favorite time of the year. As a teenager I would spend my summers in the sun. I love to lay out. To lay there under the sun and just feel it baking my skin, there is nothing better, I think it might be better than a massage. However, since I have married David, he really hates for me to lay out. He always thinks of skin cancer and such, so I haven't done a lot of laying out since we've been married and adding kids really puts a damper on it. But summer is still my favorite time of the year. Unfortunately we don't have a pool and we don't live close to anyone who does, so we haven't been swimming very much yet. But the other day my wonderful mom, got Dutch a very adorable blow up pool and he just loves it. So we have been spending a lot of time in the backyard, under the wonderful sun, swimming. Well I guess I should say that Dutch plays in the water and I stand there and get splashed and help him go down his little slide, there really isn't room for the two of us. My mother in law has a pool and I had planned on spending at least two days a week over there swimming but she lives about 30 minutes away and gas is just so high. Is it just David and I or has gas prices been affecting everyone else's life too. I feel like I can't just go everywhere when ever I want. So needless to say this summer is not turning out how I expected it to. But yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to baby sit my two nephews, Maxx and Jace while their parents were in church meetings. I love having Maxx and Jace come over and play with Dutch. Dutch just adores Maxx and he plays so well with them. And Dutch has the personality that he needs someone to show him fun things and to play with him. When the boys were over they were all playing in the pool and Maxx and Jace romp and play so hard and they show Dutch fun things to do. Dutch really should have been a twin or the second child. He really has the kind of personality that he needs a big brother to show him want to do. So I love every opportunity Dutch has to play with his cousins. Here is Dutch playing in his new pool. Maxx, Dutch and Jace after they came inside from playing in the pool.

Bumbo

Maylee can sit up alright if she is supported. So I got my bumbo back from Tara and we have been putting Maylee in it. She is still so little that she kind of drowns in it, but she looks so cute. And it is great to have the bumbo because now we just stick Maylee in it and she can sit at the table with us when we are eating dinner. However, Dutch tends to think that it is his chair and he doesn't like when Maylee sits in "his" chair. Dutch pushes the bumbo all over the house and he justs love to sit in it. David has been working a lot lately and putting in a lot of volunteer hours at the hospital for a summer extern class that he is taking. So needless to say we don't see very much of him. So the times that he does happen to be home, he tries to spend it all with Dutch. David is always coming up with weird things to keep Dutch entertained. This is what I found them doing yesterday in the backyard. As you can see, he tied a sheet to the swing set and was letting Dutch play inside. Dutch thought that it was the greatest thing ever. The things that dads think of, I would never think to do something like that. That is why all kids need cool dads.

She's Laughing...

Maylee is laughing now and it is so stinking cute. She laughed for the first time a couple of weeks ago but we couldn't get her to do it again. Then on Sunday, David was tickling her with his facial hair and she just started laughing. It was so cute and now we can get her to laugh a lot. I just love it. She is really starting to show personality. Dutch just loves her now, a little to much. He loves to hold her, he holds his arms out for her, so I have him sit on the couch and then he will hold her in front of him. The only scary thing is once he is done he just tosses her to the side. So I have to make sure he doesn't toss her to hard. And he loves to lay next to her when she is laying on the floor, the only problem is that Dutch feels like he can't get close enough. Being right next to her just isn't enough, so he is constantly laying on her. I have to drag him off of her all the time. But at least he is doing it out of love, I guess. The cutest thing is when she is crying, he tries to comfort her. He will grab her pacifier and try to put it in her mouth and then he sits there and says... "shhhh, shhhh". It is so cute. The other day I put her down for a nap and shut the door. When she started fussing, Dutch stood outside the door and kept saying, "shhhh" it was so adorable. And she loves Dutch. When he is running around the room she just watches him and when he is near her and actually being still she just watches him and smiles. He is starting to share his sippy cups and snacks with her, so I have to be really careful of the things that he is trying to put into her mouth, but at least he is sharing. She is starting to roll as well. She doesn't make it all the way over. But she rolls from side to side and that seems to be enough to get her far. Dutch use to really hate the camera, I could never, ever get him to look at the camera when I was taking a picture, let alone smile. But all of the sudden he likes the camera and he will even smile for me. It makes snapping pictures of him a lot more enjoyable. The other day when I was doing my workout video, I had Maylee laying on the ground looking at her toys and when I looked over at her, she and rolled onto her side and fell asleep. It was so cute.

• Bubble Bath

So we gave Dutch his first bubble bath last week and he hated it. We were so excited to go buy bubbles and put him in the bath. We really thought that he was going to like it. Nope, once those bubbles were put in the bath he just started crying. We even tried once more to see if we could get a different reaction. Oh no, he will have nothing to do with bubbles in his bath. He demands to be taken out right away and then he cries forever. It is the strangest thing. I thought all little kids loved bubble baths.

It's Over!

Finally!!! After a lot of studying and hard classes it is finally over. David took the MCAT yesterday. YAY!!! We won't get the results back for 30 days, which seems like a ridiculously long wait but at least it is over. No more stressing for the test, no more locking himself away night after night to study. I am so glad. I almost don't know who is more relieved, David or me. I am just so glad to have it over. Now we just have to wait to get the results back and in the mean time we will start the process of filling out applications to medical schools. So wish us luck.