4 months

I am a little bit late but wanted to post 4 months stats on my little sweetie.

* 16lbs 8oz

* 25 3/4 inches long

* still wearing 3-6 month clothes though I did move her to 6-9 month jammies

* sleeping in her crib at night, no longer in her bassinet

* no longer sleeping through the night, up around 2am to eat

* going to bed earlier...around 9:30pm

* still napping in her swing

* has this funny little fake cough

* going to Grandma Peterson's 2 times a week while momma goes to the gym

* likes playing in the exersaucer

* is grabbing at everything!! she loves grabbing her sibling's faces and hair :)

* wakes up happy and singing or blowing raspberries

* likes it when we sing to her, also likes when we read her books

* is happy in her carseat now :)

*loves it when sister and brothers interact with her...she will laugh and giggle at them and with them

* wants to eat the remote, cell phone, telephone etc...

* scoots around when on her back under her activity gym

* is taking a pacifier more than she ever did, but still not too often

* hardly spits up at all, her siblings were all HUGE spitters! she drools like there is no tomorrow though

* can grab her toes now(and pull her socks off)

* always has her hands in her mouth

* is very ticklish

I have to add for my own information as well that her 4 month shots were hard on her. She was so distraught by them. Hours after they were done, she was still wimpering and sad about it. She even woke up the next day wimpering. Poor baby!

She doesn't like to do any one thing for very long. I sometimes struggle with knowing exactly how to entertain her. I feel silly about that b/c I have 3 other kids, you would think I should know by now.

She is such a joy and a blessing in my life and I am so grateful to have her.

I was tagged....(my first one)

10 Years Ago...
I was living in Chicago with an almost 6 month old baby girl. I was just trying to figure out the parenting thing.

5 Things on my To-Do list today
* Change baby, feed baby,
* go to the gym
* Change baby, feed baby,entertain baby
* keep Ethan entertained while I change baby, feed baby, etc..
* get some things picked up


Snacks I enjoy... I rarely eat snacks anymore so this was hard to come up with.
* cheese with pretzels or triangle triscuts
* chips with queso (I don't eat this very often)
* cereal
* roasted almonds or peanuts
* celery with peanut butter

Things I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire...
* Get out of debt
* find some land and build our dream house (see previous post about wrap around porch houses)
* go to Hawaii with my family
* pay for college educations, missions and weddings
* have a housekeeper/cook

3 of my bad habits...
* Disorganized
* surf the net too much (ebay!)
* Don't read my scriptures like I should

Jobs I've had...
* I was a bagger at a grocery store...I can't remember the name of it(Mom or Kristi do you remember?)
* McDonalds
* Nanny in New York
* La Petite Academy..I worked in the Infant room
* Building Blocks Daycare..same as above and also had a preschool class

5 Things people don't know about me...
* When I was pregnant last year, Mark made me a malt every Tuesday night. We ate them while watching Biggest Loser...how is that for irony!
* I took piano lessons for 12 years and I can't really play
* I don't really like meat that much. It started when I was pregnant with Hannah. I still can't cook or touch raw hamburger
* I want to be a professional photographer someday.
* I lettered in High School for being a swim team manager. 2 years in a row.

I don't really have anyone to tag, so if you see this on my blog and want to play. Please do!!

7 random facts about me.

Kristi posted on her blog about doing 7 random things about me. I have been thinking about it for awhile. I don't even know if I know 7 random things about me. I am going to give it a try though.

1. I can't ever eat my fruit by just biting into it. It has to be sliced. Especially bananas. I also have to slice my oranges rather than peel them and eat the sections.

2. I have only had 3 cavities in my life. One after each baby. I am curious to know if I have one now after having another baby. The ironic thing is, I was horrible at taking care of my teeth as a child. I am guessing that those sealants did their job!

3. I am losing clumps of hair each day. This always happens to me 12 weeks after I have a baby. With Ethan and now Ashlyn it is really bad. I am finding my hair everywhere. It is grossing me out. I read that a normal person loses 100 hairs a day and that after having a baby it can be about 500 hairs a day. Ugh!

4. I am very anal about having clean hands. My hands have to be clean or I go a little crazy. My hands get pretty dry and I can't bother putting lotion on them after I wash them b/c I will just be washing them again in a few minutes. (I do try to put lotion on at night though) I also can't stand when people want to hold my baby and don't wash their hands first.

5. I cannot start a conversation with someone to save my life. It can make for some very awkward moments.

6. I have this dream about having a house with a wrap around porch. I am lucky that my husband shares this dream with me. This house is really cool looking. Unfortunately where we live wrap around porches aren't very popular. Maybe we need to move to the south?

7. We had a park right behind our backyard when I was a little girl. There were some swing sets back there and I remember going out to swing with my favorite doll. ( I would never let me kids do something like that now by themselves) When my mom called me for lunch, for some reason I left my doll there. She was gone when I came back out. I was heartbroken. I still think about that doll today.

Spring?

We have been having very spring like weather this past week. The kids are on spring break and have really been enjoying it. They have enjoyed being able to get back on our trampoline as well. Hannah told me today that it was too hot. Silly girl!
Ethan has been so happy to have the "kids" home to play with him. Everyday that they are in school he says to me, " Let's go pick up the kids now." He just loves his brother and sisters!
Zach got a tether ball set for Christmas and has been happy for warm weather so he can go out and play with it. As you can tell, the sun was pretty bright when I took these pictures. Poor Zach is pretty sensitive to the brightness.

In it for the long haul.....

Most of you know that last May, Hannah had a really bad accident that messed up her teeth. While it was emotional and scary, the blessing of it all is that she got to keep her teeth. For a long time Hannah wouldn't smile with her mouth open because she was so worried about the way that her teeth looked. She would ask us each week when she would be able to get braces. We just weren't sure and felt bad that we couldn't give her an answer. We had to make sure her teeth were strong enough to start the work of correcting them. Last December 20 she was finally give the okay from the endodontist to start orthodontics. After getting teeth extracted, having spacers, getting bands put in, on February 26, she was finally able to get her palate expander. Every day and night she had to have it turned with a little key. The picture above is the result of doing that for 2 weeks. Can you believe how far apart it made her 2 front teeth go? The orthodontist said that after we stopped turning it her teeth would start going back together. I have to say that I am so proud of my little girl. It has not been easy. Eating has been hard for her and it does take her a lot longer to eat now. She doesn't complain. She knows that one day she will have nice straight teeth. She is in it for the long haul.

A new family fav.

I don't have a lot to say this week...haven't been feeling too well. So, I thought I would post our new favorite recipe. I first made this last year for Mark's birthday and the kids all really liked it. In fact Hannah asks for it quite often. It was her idea to have it to eat for Valentine's day.

Crunchy Parmesan Chicken

4 boneless chicken breasts
10 TB butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup bread crumbs(I use plain and add Italian seasoning)
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese(I ususally just use the kind in a can)
salt and pepper to taste
8-12 small red potatoes sliced

Cook the potatoes in the microwave for a litle bit, 3-5 minutes. Slice them pretty thin and set aside to cool. Mince garlic and saute in butter. Divide butter in half. Put half in a bowl that you can dip the chicken in. Mix parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, salt and pepper together and divide in half. Put half in a bowl for dipping chicken in. Take chicken breasts and cut it into thirds and then dip in butter and then dip into bread crumbs and then lay it in a 9x13 pan. If there is butter left I pour it over the chicken in the pan. Take potatoes and put them into a big ziplock bag and pour butter in and shake. Pour in bread crumbs and shake again. The original recipe has you put the potatoes in the same pan with the chicken but I cook it seperately in my deep dish baker stone. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Enjoy!