Best Friends and Pumpkin Pie

Killian and Payton are best friends! They talk and sign to each other, help each other, hug and share, and play and dance together. It's awesome to see sibling love after 11+ years and counting of Jacey and Bryleigh not getting along at all!

Jacey has been lost in the Twilight books for the last few weeks. And she just recently got an awesome report card - she got 4 As and a B! She loves Middle School.

Payton is so attached to Bryleigh. She calls her "Bye-Lie", Chris says it sounds like she's saying Bud Light. When she wakes up, she calls for Bryleigh to come get her, she wants Bryleigh to get her out of her highchair, and she runs to her when she gets hurt. Bryleigh is a great big sister and a huge help with them. Hello built-in-babysitter!

Killian and Payton tell stories about the things they see and do. Bryleigh went to the dentist last week, the twins were there with me, and they talked about it for days. "Bye-Lie, man, dotor (doctor), tee (teeth), ouch, puw (pull)". They are little chatterboxes. They count, "1...2...1...2" and once in a while Killian will throw in a "tee". Payton calls Killian "KK" and Killian calls Payton "Pay-T".

Killian is putting 3 or more words together to make mini-sentences. He puts three signs together, too. He loves to tell me when I forget things, by signing "forgot" and milk, or water, or gate, or blanket - whatever it was that I forgot. He loves to act like a dinosaur or monster. He exercises with Papa; he does crunches and push-ups. It's hilarious. And he loves to draw, especially with a pen. He draws snakes and bugs mostly. He loves to help, he helps make his breakfast and lunch, and cleans up, pours his milk, throws his trash away. He is such a sweet boy.

Payton continues to be my very stubborn, most independent child. She is the youngest, but definitely the strongest. If there is mischief to be made, she will find it. When I unbuckle her from her highchair, she says "tricked you" and plays with the buckles for 20 minutes. She climbs out of her stroller when she gets bored. At home she will not leave her diaper on; she is constantly removing her clothes and diaper. She loves to test her limits...and ours! She loves her baby doll, Hannah. You can see Hannah in most of the pictures below. Lately, when she removes her diaper, it ends up on Hannah. :)

Killian is Payton's baby


Killian's "mean" face


He's so MEAN - or as he says it "MEEM"


Nice hugs


Best Friends




Our first bath together! This saves Mommy a lot of time at night.


Squishy faces




Eating waffles in the morning. Isn't it cute how they sit down next to each other?


THANKSGIVING
For Thanksgiving we went to my moms. She always cooks awesome food, and this year was no exception. Turkey and all the fixin's. Yummy! Killian and Payton didn't eat any of the dinner, they are picky eaters. I think maybe they had a bite of roll. But when it was dessert time, they pigged out. At least they probably got some vitamins from the pumpkin. :) And Uncle Scott was there; we haven't seen him since last Christmas!


Killian eating cranberries, he thinks it's soup.


If you need to find Payton, find Bryleigh, she'll be attached to her


Pumpkin pie is their FAVORITE!














This was so funny - she would have eaten the whole thing if we didn't take it away from her.








Killian says "me, cake"












Jacey, Bryleigh, Payton, Killian, me & Chris.






And, if you're still reading - I recently started my own business with The Body Shop at Home. Check out my website! www.thebodyshopathome.com/web/nicoleryan

Jacey's 13th Birthday Party

Jacey’s 13tth birthday isn’t for another 5 weeks (3 days before Christmas), but we had her birthday party today so as not to compete with Christmas schedules. Between the four kids – combined, this was my 26th birthday over the past 13 years – this was the easiest, no-stress, virtually effortless birthday party I’ve ever thrown.

We had it at the roller rink. I called, gave them my credit card number, and we showed up (sans Chris and the twins), had the party, and went home. I didn’t need to bring anything except the cake, we didn’t need to clean up (although I did) and we had fun! I invited our friends Teddy & Tanya to hang out with me while the group of teenage girls skated and avoided me at all costs because they probably think I’m an old dorky mom. Jacey had a really good time, and just in case you’re concerned, no, she didn’t have any physical withdrawals from not texting for 2 ½ hours while she was skating.

If you want to see pictures, email me (babycrazyx2 at gmail dot com) and I’ll send you the link to the album. Jacey wore a shirt with the name of her school on it, so I don’t want to post them online.

Halloween

Jacey the Vampire, Bryleigh the Pig, Killian the Fireman, and Payton the Halloween Spider Ballerina.

Click on the album to see pictures:

Halloween 2008

It's Potty Time! And the Triplets!

Within a week after ditching the last bottle, Payton is ready to be potty-trained. I've potty trained 2 kids before, but not at the same time, and never a boy. This is going to be interesting.

After a few days of using packing tape to keep Payton's diaper on, Chris and I went to the mall last week, where there is a Target, to get potty chairs. He convinced me that we don't need two potty chairs, but only one. Mind you, this is to save $18.00. I realized two days after having one potty, that this is just not going to work. They were both nude, fighting over a potty in the middle of the living room, Payton's bare butt sitting on top of Killian's thigh as the poor boy is trying to pee in a potty that's not equipped for him. So, even if he did manage to pee, he would either pee straight up in the air, or onto Payton. How's that for an encouraging first time on the pot? Not so much. So, needless to say, I'm going back to Target ASAP for a second potty.

On Tuesday, the twins and I met up with Cindy and her triplets for a walk. We had been trying to get together for months now for a walk or playdate, and it finally worked out! Cindy is a friend of mine, we went to high school together and were acquaintances after that, then we reconnected after I found out she was having multiples. Her babies are so adorable. It was so nice talking to someone who I can relate to and who "gets it". When all your free time becomes time that you do laundry or go grocery shopping, that a dinner out with your husband is as exciting as going on a vacation, that going to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks is either just not possible or takes an hour and must be planned at just the right time, and that your schedule is your sanity! You break that schedule you have perfected and you just may go insane for a day, well, at least I will.
Cindy has got it together! She and her husband have those babies sleeping 12 hours a night. Way to go guys - incredible job! And I just may start using their bathtime routine. Here are some pictures from our walk.





To update you on the no bottle and sleeping. It WORKED! Now that there is no morning bottle for them to wake up for, they are sleeping in until about 6:30. Not that I can sleep in that late because I have to get up for work or do my C25K program. Oh well, at least I can sleep until 7 on Saturdays. :)

Today we tried something brand new - story time at the library. I've never tried that before with them and we LOVED it. We sang songs, read 4 stories, and had a huge bucket of books to look at. I will definitely be going every week. And the time is perfect - 10:30 to 11:00, then we come home, have a snack, and it's nap time. And the best part - IT'S FREE!

Screaming!

Be careful of the volume on this one. I wouldn't want you to burst an eardrum.

Two videos of Killian

These were done after I updated the blog today. Payton did one too, but she was very crabby today, and pretty much whined through the whole thing, so hers didn't get uploaded. Notice their new haircuts, courtesy of ME! The first one is Killian singing and the second one is him signing his ABCs, up through "I".

Bye-Bye Ba-Ba

Okay, I'll jump right in. Lots of updates when you're only doing an update once a month. A link to current pictures is at the bottom of this post.

Killian is signing so many new words. I tried to add them all to the list (to the right --->) , but he signs more than I can remember. I don't know how he even learns some of them. He must pick up signs we don't when he watches Signing Time. Some of his new signs are friend, clouds, moon, work, boy, girl, backyard, black and white. Both Killian and Payton sign (and sing) "Happy Birthday". It's very cute and they learned it just in time to tell daddy Happy Birthday earlier this month. Not only are they signing new words every day, they are saying new words every day too. Their vocabulary consists of over 100 words, and they are making mini sentences, putting two words together.

I'm so excited to say this: We are a bottle-free house! For over two months I procrastinated dropping that last bottle, the morning bottle. But finally, I decided I had to do it. At 19 months they were still not sleeping through the night. They were waking up at all hours of the night wanting that morning bottle earlier and earlier. Many mornings I would end up on the couch at 3:30 am with Payton with that stupid bottle. I had enough! I talked to them about it for a week, telling them that they had X amount of days left with their bottles, and then the bottles were going Bye-Bye! All-Done! No More Ba-ba! I told them their baby cousin, Michael, needed the bottles and they were going to drink their milk out of their cups in the morning. On Sunday I gave them each two bottles and they threw them in the bag, we packed them up, and sent them "to Michael". And that was that. Today was Payton's 3rd day without it, and Killian's 2nd. No problems other than Killian forgot for a minute this morning and just about chucked his cup of milk through the window, but then I reminded him and he was fine. And, the best part - they don't seem to be waking up early any more. Now, it's only day 2, but they slept through until 6:20 this morning! That's exactly what I was hoping would happen!! Hopefully that keeps up.

Payton has been a biter since she was 11 months old. Killian was not a biter, but has become one after needing to defend himself against his sister. I have been putting them on time-outs as needed since they turned one. We started putting them in their highchairs and turning it around because I could keep them in one place. That never really worked. I think they just thought they were going to eat when put in the chair. So, a few weeks ago, I tried the "Naughty Corner". I know, some parents think that they are too young for time-outs and a naughty corner, but let me tell you it's working! They do not like going to the naughty corner, but when they are placed there (usually for biting), they get it. They cry, and beg, and sometimes have a conniption fit, but 99% of the time, they sit and take their one minute penalty, and that's that. There is a picture in this month's album of them playing in the naughty corner together, or as Payton calls it, "no-no".

Speaking of "no", that is Killian's favorite word. Especially when he can say it to Daddy. Chris gets so sick of it sometimes, but I just tell him to ignore Killian when he does it. So, Killian climbed up onto Chris one day, got right in his face, and said "no no no no" about 35 times (I'm not exaggerating!), and finally Chris had it and said, "Is that all you can say to Daddy? No No No?" and Killian said "Yep". Needless to say, we were busting up laughing after that.

I just started a fitness program called

Couch-to-5K Running Plan. You can read more about it at my new blog, Run, Mommy, Run. It's basically a program to get you from a non-runner to running 5k, or 3 miles, in about 9 weeks. This is one of the reasons for the push to get the twins off the bottle. I need to be able to get up 3 days a week before anyone else, go out and run, then get back home before anyone knows I'm gone. All while letting Chris sleep through until his alarm goes off. If anyone wants to do this program with me, I would LOVE to have a partner - not to physically run with as I don't think you want to meet me at my house at 5:15 AM, but to encourage each other and check-in on progress and stuff. Let me know if you would like to do it with me!

And, here is the most current album, the 19-month pictures. It's pretty much a Smörgåsbord (or as Chris says, Shmorgashborg) of pictures from the last month.

Click on the cutest picture ever below to go to the album:

Niki :)

slowly but surely

In the 6 weeks since my last big entry I'm like 10 times busier than I've been in a long time. Probably because the girls are back in school - homework every night and three (yes three) separate drop-offs in the morning before I get to work add hours every week to the already tight scheduled at home. And softball season hasn't even started yet! It's also a very busy time for me at work, too, so I'm doing a lot of work from home. Sitting and updating the blog is not quite a priority lately. But I know you all want pictures, and we have A LOT of updates, so I'll try to post those this week and get the most current pictures up too.

Killian and Payton turned 20 months old today, so I figure I'd better get the last of the 18-month-old pictures up here.

Click on Payton's picture below to see the pictures (posting each one takes way too long!).

First Day of School

Jacey and me on her first day of Kindergarden in 2001 vs. her first day of 7th grade in 2008:

Crazy Hair Day

The girls had Crazy Hair Day during the last week of summer camp back in August. Check out their hair! This was also Bryleigh's 11th birthday.

Visiting Papa

Here are some cute pictures from when we recently went to visit Papa Danny (my dad) and his wife, Lana. If you're familiar with Jacey's level of cooperation and goofiness when taking pictures, you will be pleasantly surprised to see that she is actually smiling in the last picture!

Me and Payton


Papa and Killian


Jacey and Bryleigh playing with RC cars


Payton kept getting her foot run over by a car.


Killian would not get off that bench while the cars were moving!


"Thumbs UP!"






Learning to ride a scooter.












The kids with Papa and Lana.