2 Months Old

My babe is getting big and I just don't know how I feel about it. I feel like she's not a newborn anymore and it makes me sad. She still has the newborn cry and unfortunately the newborn sleep and eat schedule, but I feel like she looks old. She's definitely filled out quite a bit and I think she has a lot more chub on her than I remember Kylie having. Her little double chin is to die for and I love the pinchy-ness of her legs. She has turned into one smiley little girl which makes it so fun to interact with her. When she gets really excited she gets those little legs kicking and you would think she was training to run a marathon.

She still struggles a little bit with sleeping at night. It's always hard to predict how well she will do. Some nights she goes to sleep like a champ and will sleep several hours in a row, wake up once to eat and then go back down for a few more hours. Other nights it takes several tries to get her to sleep and she seems pretty restless the whole night. I haven't quite figured out what causes a good night vs. a bad night, but maybe it's because we've been on the go so much since she has been born. I am hoping we can slow things down a bit and especially once school starts we can get in a really good routine. She's a great napper during the day and she's becoming much more of an eater rather than just a snacker. We're grateful she doesn't seem to have the projectile reflux that both Kylie and Jase had and we're keeping our fingers crossed that that continues. 

 We've noticed that she has a tendency to be really jumpy. She gets really nervous if she feel like she's being laid on an unstable bed or if she's being held funny and feeling like she is not being supported properly so night we wrapper her really tight in a swaddle blanket that has velcro that my mom bought and it seem to make her comfortable. During the day we wrap her tight in swaddling blankets for naps. One day I went in to check on her and found the blanket over her head so moved it back and made sure she was ok. Well, TWO more times I go in to check on her and found the blanket back over her face. I am assuming for some reason she wanted that blanket over her face and somehow she was making it happen. It's a good things those blankets are thin and she woke up soon after that. 

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The girl loves to swim! Actually she loved the bath water temperature hot tub we hung out in in Park City and she looked dang cute that swimming suit. At first she wasn't quite sure what to think, but I think soon realized it was a lot like a bath, which she loves and she settled in quite nicely.  I'm digging those baby blues and I think the jury is still out on her hair color. My guess is it's red, but it's coming in on the darker side so it leaves us wondering.

I love this girl more than I can say. It been an adjustment getting back into the baby routine and somedays I am sure three kids is going to do me in, but to be honest it's her older brother and sister that might be doing it to me. For the most part she's a very content baby that just seem to go with the flow and I couldn't ask for anything more. 

The 6th Birthday Celebration

Being the absolutely crazy mom that I am I let Kylie invite every girl friend she knows in the neighborhood to a party the night before her  6th birthday. She is extremely social and LOVES to be with her friends! Our neighborhood is overloaded with kids to play with and she seems to make the rounds. When it came down to making the list for her party we ended up with 16 girls to invite. I have a huge issue with leaving anyone out so I wanted to make sure everyone was invited. 

We decided a spa pajama party would be fun and I would teach them all how to do manicures. It seemed like a good idea, but when you have girls ranging from 4 to about 7 it gets crazy. Their attention spans aren't very long and most were just excited to paint. 

 We started out with some pizza and watermelon

 and then moved on to a little dance party while I was setting everything up.

 Then we got down to business with the manicures.  I had everyone get a partner and most loved the idea of giving them to each other. The painting got a little chaotic and I was feeling a little bit bad sending girls home with crazy paint jobs, (Hopefully their mom's understood and didn't mind too much) but the girls seemed to really enjoy it.

Not all of them loved the idea of a mask on their faces and really I don't blame them because it smelled awful, but the ones who did thought I was pretty fun. A few even refused to take them off until they went home to show their families. 

Next were the presents and Kylie has got some really great friends!! She was a spoiled little girl even before she was done opening all of them. 

I tried to get pictures of her with each of her friends, but some didn't want theirs taken and some hardly sat still long enough to watch her open them. :) Notice she still had some of the mask on her face.

Time was going fast so we quickly sang Happy Birthday and handed out cup cakes and their treat bag before it was time to go. 

I wish I could have got a picture of the whole group and even though I was pretty exhausted by the end I was so fun to watch Kylie with all her friends. She was having a blast and right in her element with friend entertaining.  I love that we live in a neighborhood where there is never a lack of someone to play with. Hopefully it's a party she will remember and hopefully next year I will be smart enough to have a party that's not quite so structured if I plan on inviting so many kids! Live and learn!!

Kylie Turns 6

I've got myself a 6 year old, but to be honest I feel like she has been six for a long time. It seems like that with most birthdays. I feel like my kids seems older than they are and their birthday is just confirming what I already feel.

We got up this morning and promptly opened the presents from Jeremy and I .

Kylie's been dying for a new bike. A few of her friends have been giving her a hard time because her bike wasn't as big as theirs. It hurt her feels and ever since she has hoped she could get a new one. She wasn't too picky about what it looked like as long as it had a kickstand then she was going to be one happy girl. Grandma and Grandpa Hansen pitched in to make sure she got one she really loved and would last her a long time. 

Grandma and Grandpa Felix came down to visit and brought her a few more gifts.  She loved the beads and bracelet kit they brought and has made just about everyone she knows one. 

 They even treated us to dinner for her birthday complete with ice cream and all.

 Kylie is an amazing girl. She's so full of energy and LOVES to be with her friends. She cares so much about people and hates to be away from the people she loves. She can't wait to go to 1st grade so she can have three recess. She is a great older sister. She's great at making sure Jase is taken care of and if Addley cries you can bet she will be right there trying to make her happy.  Kylie loves to dress up. If she has the choice she will pick to wear a skirt or dress every time. She also  loves shoes and jewelry, especially earrings and you'll also usually find her with a bag and sunglasses in hand. She loves her long blonde hair except for when it's time to brush it. She wants to be very independent and trying everything on her own first. She loves to help me and very willing to do most anything I ask.  I love this little girl more than I can even say. She is so much fun and truly someone I love to hang out with. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for her!! 

She's always loved the camera and certainly knows how to ham it up...

It Wasn't all Bad

 A little surgery isn't going to stop us from a good time. We did manage to enjoy ourselves a little bit while we were in AZ.

Some of the highlights include:

*My sister Ashley graduating from Nursing School. Jase threw up in the middle of it and him and I spent most of the time in the bathroom, but luckily we managed to sneak back in just in time to hear them read her name. What an amazing accomplishment to graduate nursing school. I know it's been a long, stressful road for her at times (as it would be for anybody!!), but she is amazing and graduated with honors!

By the way, do you see Kylie in that picture?:)

My Grandma Hansen had always been a big part of my life. I had the opportunity to live near her and with her while I was going to school in Cedar, not to mention the many, many family vacations we took growing up as a family to see my Hansen grandparents. She has always been a source of inspiration and love for me. She has since moved to AZ and now lives in an assisted living place. We had the opportunity to visit her a few times while we were there. We even participated in a little sacrament meeting with her which was really special. I am so grateful that my kids know Grannie Annie. Not all of her great grandkids have that opportunity and I feel blessed they have had the chance to associate with her and know of her goodness. Not to mention it's pretty much guaranteed she'll have a tootsie roll or two or ten to share with the kids!!

My dad decided he needed a little grandpa time with the kids so he took them to a fun little indoor amusement park called Amazing Jakes for the day along with their cousin Alex and my brother Adam. It was a couple days after Jase got out of the hospital and just what he needed. They enjoyed roller coaster rides, pizza, arcades and came home with a slew of prizes.

Of course there is always swimming involved when we visit. With temperatures reaching record heights, we decided that night swimming is the only way to go. Jase was restricted from swimming for a whole week after his surgery so Monday night when he could swim again we had a big family swim party complete with glow sticks. It was a blast! Kylie is a serious fish. She was diving off the rock in the deep and doing back flips in the water. Jase was a happy camper as long as he had his floaties. He was content to swim around, squirt people in the face with his squirt gun and occasionly jump off the water fall. 

I got my first real smile out of Addley while we were there! She was such a trooper during such a crazy time. The poor girl was passed from one person to the next all the time with probably little clue of who her mom was. I was so grateful for all the help. I could never have had a newborn and little boy in the hospital if it wouldn't have been for such willing help. 

We decided to stay a few extra days to give Jase a little bit more time to heal which also meant we could be there for my sister Amanda's missionary setting apart. It was such a neat experience to sit in the Stake President's office with my all my siblings to share this moment with her. Living far away means I often miss things like this so it was a neat experience for me. 

The day after we left was the day she left for the MTC. I was wishing SO much I could be there! It was really hard saying good-bye. She will be an amazing missionary. I'm excited for her letters and so grateful for her example and dedication.

It was nice to finally be home, but I wasn't all that excited to be back to reality. We're finally on our own for the first time with three kids and were doing our best to find our new normal. Hopefully we can get into a good routine and start to feel productive. We always, always enjoy our time in AZ and even though it wasn't all fun and games we did managed to pull off a great time!!

One Month Old

What a CRAZY first month this little chickadee has had!! I hope she doesn't think life is always going to be this exciting. Time has absolutely flown. I honestly can't believe she has been with us for a whole month. Why can't pregnancy months go this fast?! 

I'm not going to lie, there has definitely taken some adjusting, getting used to a family of five. I think there had been just enough time to forget what it's like to have a new baby around. Luckily she makes it pretty easy on us.  She loves to eat...actually maybe snacking is a better word for it. She's good at eating small amount very frequently. I'm lucky if I can get  2 1/2 hours inbetween feedings, but a lot of times it seems to be every hour and half to two. Thankfully at night she'll go a little bit longer.

With all the family we have had around she has become one spoiled little stinker. She loves to be held and definitely sleeps better in someone's arms. I'm afraid there have been way too many nights where I have been too exhausted to care if I am teaching her bad habits and have let her sleep in my mine. She's also an extremely light sleeper and the littlest of noises wake her up...not the most ideal when there is a loud brother and sister around. 

Jeremy is sure she has a look all her own, but I can definitely see my other kids in her. She's full of different facial expressions and quite entertaining to watch! It seems as though we finally have ourselves a blue eyed red head, but I think the poor girl also has my fair skin. I am sure she won't think it's fair the first time she tries to get a tan, but I love having a little variety among our kids. My family is sure she looks just like I did as a baby and I definitely think she has more Hansen in her than Kylie and Jase do.

It's been an adventure so far, that's for sure, but I am so grateful to have a healthy little girl that is growing and happy. Her little smiles melt my heart and I am excited to watch as she continues to grow and develop. There is nothing like a brand new baby in the home with their amazing spirits and I LOVE being a mom and being able to enjoy every milestone.