Sleeping: 3 naps a day. Sleeps 7-7ish at night, but wakes up once a night for a bottle. I'm sure I could do more to get rid of the night time feeding, but I figure with her weight gain troubles I want her to get all the calories she can. She only takes her binky when she is going to sleep. She still sleeps on her back.
Eating: She eats 4 ounces of formula every 3ish hours during the day, and has a bottle when she wakes up at night. We haven't given her any sort of solids yet. Mostly because I forget to buy any, and I don't have the time to make them
Milestones: Rolls belly to back. She scoots backwards when trying to get to something in front of her while on her belly. Rolls across the room. She's all over the place these days, and to be honest I'm not exactly sure how she gets where she does. Found her feet. Planks in an effort to move. First Thanksgiving. She is starting to hold her own bottle. She doesn't last a whole feeding before she drops it, but she can go a few minutes holding it.
Oaklee is still a long ways from sitting up on her own which is kind of new for us. She continues to be slower in her gross motor skills than any of the other kids were.
Likes: Grape teether. Jumparoo, Being held. Play mat.
Dislikes: baths still aren't her favorite thing, but she didn't totally dislike being washed in the shower the other day.
He was super excited for his first day of school! They don't run buses the first week of school so we got to see him go into school that first day. After a quick hug goodbye, he lined up with his class without hesitation.
It broke my heart to watch him and his whole class standing in a line with masks on.
I think it bothered me a lot more than him. He throws out the random "I hate wearing a mask" every now and then, but he really doesn't complain about having to wear a mask at school. The most I heard him complain was when we couldn't find his mask strap one day right before the bus was coming, and he told me in the sincerest sassiest tone, "how am I supposed to do the monkey bars at recess if I have to hold onto my mask?" (They don't have to wear masks at recess) He takes monkey bars very seriously.
Over Labor Day weekend we went camping with my family. It was so much fun!
My parents and my sister and her family stayed over night. Matt came during the days, and Lehi and his boys were there for a few hours on Saturday.
Hudson absolutely loved that he got to stay up late.
The only things we had to complain about was the heat with temperatures reaching 90 degrees and the flies. SO many flies buzzing around us and touching us and everything else.
Unfortunately, all of pictures from this trip somehow got deleted so I don't have much to show.
We went swimming, played corn hole, ate and ate and ate, and enjoyed each other's company as cheesy as that sounds.
We celebrated Avery's birthday while we were camping.
We had cheesecake and she opened her present from my parents and one from us.
Avery was a big fan of playing in the dirt.
Avery turned two!
She's sassy, fun, and independent. She loves to explore, and she loves the outdoors.
She absolutely loves Minnie Mouse and Elsa.
The day we came home from camping blew in a nasty windstorm. We woke up the next morning to find our patio furniture blown all over the yard, but thankfully there wasn't any major damage to any of our property.
Ella started preschool!
She was super excited to have the same teacher Hudson had.
The excitement wore off after a couple of weeks and there were quite a few days I had to hand her to her teacher crying, but overall she really does love preschool.
Thankfully, Ella's preschool teacher is not requiring the kids to wear masks.
Oaklee turned 3 months old
I spent the most random day with my friends.
We hung out during most of the day, ended up ordering pizza together and having a mini pizza party, and after all of the kids got put to bed us girls ran to Target together. It was a fill your cup kind of day for sure.
Ella started dance class again which meant Hudson and Ella got to play at Kidstown during her class.
It was everyone's favorite day of the week.
Hudson whacked himself in the head with a shovel. Sad but also hilarious.
I had to take a quick picture of this girl gang hanging out together.
And Buzz Lightyear accompanied me to Winco one day while Hudson was at school.
Clothes: She still wears0-3 months/3 months clothes. I pulled out the 3-6/6 month tote the other day. I just haven't gotten around to washing the clothes yet.
Sleeping: This last month has been the month of transitions for Oaklee. She has been sleeping in her own room for a few months now, but she is now out of the Moses basket and in the crib. It wasn't all that big of a change for her but nice to have it over with. The biggest change is that she is no longer swaddled. She transitioned out of the swaddle easier than I expected her to, so I'm very grateful for that.
She sleeps 7-7:30ish. She is usually up once a night for a bottle, and then she immediately goes back to sleep. Which is just fine with me considering the 4 month regression last month had her up way more than that. She takes 3 naps a day. Her first nap of the day is always the shortest. We always wake her up from her last nap at 6 so she goes to bed with the rest of the kids.
Eating: She eats 4 ounces of formula every 3ish hours during the day, and has a bottle when she wakes up at night. We are still supposed to be fortifying her bottles to help with weight gain. We wait until closer to 6 months to start solids, so she hasn't had any yet.
Milestones: First Halloween. Rolls back to belly. She has taken the longest out of all our kids to roll over. She still hasn't rolled belly to back. She's getting better at keeping a binky in her mouth. She really likes binkies but has been the absolute worst at keeping them in. She is never where I leave her anymore. If I'm being honest, I don't exactly understand how she moves herself, but she is always flipped the other direction and sometimes a little ways away from where I laid her down.
Likes: Sitting up- she prefers it to laying down for sure these days. We still have a ways to go before she can sit up on her own. Playing with toys. The jumparoo.
Dislikes: baths
We can't get enough of this sweet girl. Most of the time she is simply content and happy as can be to be along for the journey. She loves to look at everyone and any eye contact immediately makes her smile.
She was the cutest tiger for Halloween this year.
That first picture is the worst quality, but that happy face is my favorite,
Summer evenings have a special way of capturing your heart.
On this particular evening the primary presidency was driving around the neighborhood passing out ice cream to all the primary kids. The kids were so excited, and they loved that they got to stay up later than normal for it.
We had ourselves a little family work day to prepare for Oaklee's blessing.
We finished the rocks/landscaping area that needed to be done in our backyard.
After the bed of the truck was clear of rocks, Taylor cleaned out all of the construction garbage from the basement and took a trip to the dump.
Family started to trickle in for Oaklee's blessing
green teeth from a "Poppy treat" My dad always comes with candy for the grandchildren. His grandpa went by Poppy, and he wanted to continue that tradition so all of the grandkids call him Poppy. Hence why the candy he brings are called Poppy treats.
And my mom fixed Elsa doll's broken wrist. Ella was extremely thankful to finally get her doll fixed.
The kids' favorite game when everyone gets together is beat up Uncle Matt. It's a fairly simple game that almost always ends up with at least one child crying from Matt getting the tiniest bit of retalliation.
I couldn't help but laugh at Monkey Ella trying to fight him.
Oaklee was given a blessing by Taylor.
Our ward still was not meeting because of covid, so she was blessed in our home.
It was actually loved blessing her at home more than I thought I would.
We all gathered in the living room for the blessing and then grabbed some brunch and split up around the house and yard.
Oaklee wore the same dress as Ella and Avery.
After the blessing the grown ups chatted while the kids played.
Thankfully, the weather was absolutely beautiful that day.
My mom stayed with us the night after the blessing so she could help me drive the kids down to Utah the next day to go on an adventure for a few days. We stayed at my parents townhouse.
The favorite activity was swimming at my sister's apartment complex's pool.
We invited some of their cousins to come with us on of the afternoons and all of the kids had a blast.
We were quite a sight to see trying to get to the pool with 5 kids who could walk (and wander), 3 babies who had to be carried or toted there somehow, pool floaties, and all of our other swim gear.
Hudson turned into quite the little fish while we were there. He spent most of his time jumping into the pool over and over and over again. Ella didn't get quite as comfortable with the water, but comfortable enough to think she could get in the pool without her floaties on. Shout out to Aunt Bekah for literally saving her life.
I gave Avery her first french braids!
We were sad to leave all of the fun in Utah, but I was ready to get back home to Taylor and get the kids back into their normal routine and sleeping habits.
We built a barn door for the hallway closet in the basement!
It was a really fun project to work on and was the first time we had ever made something like that.
We finished up the bedroom in the basement and carpet was installed.
We worked our butt's off getting the room done, and Hudson and Ella were super excited to get a new room.
Backyard baseball was a frequent evening activity.
Grandpa and Linda surprised us with a little visit one afternoon.
They got to meet Oaklee and see our house for the first time.
The kids and I went on one last summer hoorah to Rigby Lake.
Taylor and I got a smidge crazy and took the kids on a hike.
Overall, they had a good time, but there was definitely a fair share of complaining as one can always count on when doing anything with kids. One complaint from both Hudson and Ella was that we didn't go to the top of the mountain. They complained enough about being tired, so I was glad the trail didn't go to the top of the mountain.
Tana was kind enough to take Hudson to crossfit with them. Hudson LOVED it!
I put together a video of random short clips from our summer. These family videos are one of the kids' favorite things. I absolutely love watching them watch it for the first time.
Thank you for being so crazy and wild and weird and good to us Summer 2020
