Such a Girly girl

The other day,this was how Hailey looked all day. When I got her dressed she insisted on wearing her gold sparkly shoes, which must go with everything because she wants to wear them everyday. Then later she came downstairs carrying her baby, her purse hanging off her other arm, wearing her sunglasses, and talking on her pink cell phone.

I worried she wouldn't really know what to do with girl toys, growing up with three older brothers, but obviously she has figured it out. Although, she did have two cars in her purse, so they must have some influence on her.

She also must be trying to maintain her girlish figure because when I took her to her check-up today(I found out her ears are still infected,yuck, but that is another story) she still is only in the bottom 3rd percentile for her weight. She is a whopping 21.2 pounds. But her height is in the 75-90th percentile. At least she is consistent, because that is exactly where she has been at every checkup. Tall and skinny, it is a curse!

Who Needs Toys?!

Really, I mean when it is so much more fun to dump all the toys out and just sit in the toy bucket!

Apparently, Brendan also thought that looked like a lot of fun and decided to try it out for himself.

Of course, he also thinks that this is a great hiding place.

It is also so much fun to empty out the cupboards of the entertainment center, load all the toys you can possibly fit inside , crawl in, and shut the doors. Nobody bothers you and you get all your toys to yourself. What more could you want?

A Week Of Grandparents

My kids love to have their grandparents come and visit. If they know they are coming ,they literally count down the days. This week we were lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents come and visit.

On Monday, Corey's parents came to make a delivery and spent the night at our house- unfortunately they arrived so late they had to make the delivery early the next morning. So they really only got to see the two little kids. But they were thrilled and hopefully the next time they visit they can stay a little longer.

On Friday my parents came to visit for the weekend. They had been in St. George doing a trade show all week and were able to be here by Friday morning. Brendan and Hailey were waiting at the window watching for them to arrive. And they got to spend all day with them before Kayden and Carter came home from school. Hailey was glued to my Dad all weekend. Every two seconds she was asking where "papa" was. Although sometimes it is hard to tell who she is talking about because she calls all of them "papa".

Hailey even convinced him to get on the trampoline- I'm sure this was the highlight of his weekend, but it probably was one of hers. The kids also convinced him to take them to the park twice and play computer games. We always think that we are going to go and do a lot of things while they are here, but we never do. My kids are just so excited to have them come they don't really care about going anywhere. Although they do think we need to go out to a restaraunt with them. We usually go to Olive Garden, but this time it was really crowded so we opted for Lone Star Steakhouse and it was really good. They had to leave early on Sunday morning much to my kids dismay. Carter said he wished they could leave cardboard cutouts of themselves behind, but hopefully we will get to see them again soon and maybe next time we will go somewhere ( maybe even to the Bellagio for my mom- we've had it in the plans, but like I said we just never seem to make it). The time just always seems to go to quick.

It is true!

Brendan absolutely loves Carter. He really does live and breathe him. He will play anything Carter wants and is pretty much lost without him.

I often find them cuddled up together- I really always wonder how they can stand to be so squished together, but it never seems to bother them. So this leads me to my last post. On Thursday afternoon they were playing spiderman and Carter tells Brendan that if he puts on his spiderman underwear and goes to the bathroom on the toilet then he will have super powers. So ,of course, Brendan came running down to me,underwear in hand, and asked me to put them on. I really doubted that this time would be any different than all the other times he has wanted to put them on and just peed in them. But I humored him ,and to my total amazement, he goes on the toilet. I really thought that would be the end of it ,with Carter going to school the next day, and not being able to tell him which super power he earned each time he went. I was wrong again, he just made me count each time he went so that Carter would know how many powers he had to tell him he earned. I was so shocked.

So here we are 5 days later and not one accident. He acts as if he has been doing it for months. I really was beginning to think that Hailey might potty train before Brendan, he really had absolutely no desire to even try. I had tried bribing with all sorts of things and he just wasn't having any of it. So I give all the credit to Carter for making it happen. Who would of thought we would just have to give him super powers. On Monday, since he had done so well, we went to target to pick out a toy( he picked a Ben 10 action figure)because after all that he certainly deserved it. Good job Brendan and way to go Carter!

Could it be true?!

Rumor has it that Brendan is wearing underwear and going to the bathroom in the toilet. Not sure if all the reports are true-we will just have to see how it plays out. But one day down that's certainly progress right?

Hailey's Two!!

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Even though we have been sick ( Carter is now sick also) we managed to celebrate a little yesterday for Hailey. And thanks to Corey and his fabulous shopping skills she even had presents to open.

Corey and I gave her a little purse with pretend keys, make-up, phone, money, and she absolutely loves it. It was with her everywhere all day including whenever we left the house to take and pick-up Kayden from school. The boys gave her a doll kit with bottles,sippy cups,diapers, and all kinds of good stuff. Carter was particulary helpful with teaching Hailey how to use it all- really you can't get much better than superman changing a diaper. Later in the day the UPS man came with more stuff from Grandpa and Grandma Barlow. They gave her own chair and some other fun stuff, bur her favorite thing was the sunglasses which she also put in her purse. When we all are feeling better I will take her ( and possibly her purse) shopping to spend her birthday loot. All in all, I think she had a pretty good day even being sick.

Yucky!!

That's the best word to describe the way things have been around here the last few days. When I got up on Thursday, I didn't feel quite right and as the day went on I just got worse. By that night I down flat and could hardly function. I was really achy, feverish, chilling, and all that good stuff. I figured that it must be the flu and just hoped it would be short lived. On Friday morning I felt even worse-thank goodness Corey stuck around long enough to feed and dress the boys before he left for work- but when I got up to finish getting Kayden and Carter ready for school I nearly passed out a couple of times. I had been taking ibprofen, but it wasn't doing much so I decided to take excedrin and went to lay back down for 30 minutes before I had to take to boys to school. Luckily, that really helped and I was a least able to get up for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and function to some capacity. But by the late afternoon I developed a really sore throat and by that night it was so bad that even breathing hurt. That night was the longest night. On Saturday, Corey had to go to work since he had come home early and left late for the past two days and he is right in the middle of his busy season. He was able to be home by 12 or so and I took myself the the urgent care because I knew I had to get some medicine. Turns out I have tonsilitis and started on antibiotic and the swelling in my throat was so bad I also have to take a steriod for that,but at least I am finally starting to feel better. But yesterday Brendan starting acting funny and saying that his mouth hurt and Hailey who has been teething ( which has been an absolutely eternal process) had gone from just having a runny nose to oozing green sludge. So this morning we made another trip clear across town the doctor and sure enough Brendan has strep throat and Hailey had double ear infections. Sad for Hailey since it is her birthday tommorow and with all this I have not been able to get anything for her. It really is the worst being sick and trying to take care of sick kids at the same time. Thank goodness for good medicine and a good husband who can take over in managing kids and fix meals while his wife lays useless on the couch.

On a little happier note, my brother and sister-in-law had a baby girl on Friday and we are very excited for them ( girls are a little harder to come by in the Barlow family) She was born a little early and was only 5lbs 11oz., but both mom and baby seem to be doing well. So welcome to the world sweet little Sydney. And congrats to Jeremy and Angela.

I just can't stay awake...

Right after I put up my last post ,I remembered these other funny pictures I had of Brendan falling asleep

This picture was taken by my Dad when they were visting for the weekend and my Mom and I were out shopping- I try to convince Brendan on a daily basis that a little nap would be a lot of fun, but he doesn't ever buy it.

LIfe is too hard!

The other day we had to run some errands and since Brendan never takes a nap anymore there is always a day that he just can't hold on anymore and falls asleep in the car. When we got home he woke up when I got him out of the carseat so I set him down on the stairs to take his shoes off. A few minutes later this is how I found him. He slept that way for about 45 minutes and I didn't dare move him because as many of you know Brendan is not a child who wakes up happy. But the sad thing about it was that when he did wake up he rolled down the stairs and was not happy anyway.

Shout out to myself!

Okay to most of you I know this is not a big deal, but in this late hour I am giving myself a little pat on the back. Many of you know I'm not really the most computer savvy person, but I have done all this completely on my own. For me this is a big feat. I even went out and found this blog template and figured out how to put it on (yes, also all by myself). So tonight I go to bed proud.

Just Funny

I'm not really sure what this was all about, but Hailey sure seems to know what she is trying to say. I just thought it was so funny.

My Lifesaver

Our trampoline has provided many hours of entertainment. It's the best for burning off a lot of energy and it keeps the boys out of my hair. I really has been one of the best things we ever bought. The past three weeks Kayden and Carter have been on track break and the weather has been fabulous, so they have spent a lot of time jumping. Although Hailey has now discovered how much fun the trampoline is and won't stay off even the boys are already on. I am constantly reminding them to be gentle when she is on, but it doesn't help when she giggles everytime they bounce her. I know she is going to end up with a broken arm or something. But until then I guess we will just keep jumping.

Innocent?!

Hailey really looks so sweet and innocent so I really never expect her to do anything wrong, but on Saturday she proved me wrong. It was one of those mornings that I just could not get anything done. Finally at about 10:30 all the kids were all dressed and fed and the boys went back downstairs to watch cartoons. Hailey was just playing so I decided to finally take a shower. While I was showering I heard her come into the bathroom and start playing with all the stuff under my sink. But just as I'm getting out she starts fussing and I can tell she has something all over her- once I get my contacts in and can see- I realize that it is vaseline. It's all over her face, arms, clothes, and big blobs all over in her hair. I just stood there wondering how I was going to get it off of her. I did my best to wash it off, but it just would not come out of her hair- she looked like a grease monkey all day. Then to top it all off when she went out to play in the backyard that night she dumped dirt over the top of her head-combined with the vaseline it was this lovely paste. I scrubbed her hair repeatedly in the bath that night, but her hair is just now back to normal.