February Fotos

We went to a ward game night at the beginning of February and I made some sprinkle cupcakes for a cake walk. We decided to eat the left overs for breakfast. I snapped these stinking cute pics (please note that Brooke is looking at the camera and has her hand around Jason. Also note that Tori has her hair in pig tails!)

The Dingers came to visit twice this month! I remembered to take pictures only the second time! Auntie Marie came too! We needed to get some pictures with Katelyn and her grandparents.

When there are free babysitters there are crazy date nights! Holla! Jason and I went to a fabulous Valentine party with a thrift store flair. All participants were to come dressed in clothes that we bought from a thrift store with a Valentine/Couple Theme. Jason and I went for the Valentine theme. We found most of our outfits at DI and I found my fabulous Valentine PJ pants at Goodwill. Jason found my amazing sweater in the racks (please note that there are feathers around the neck and sleeves!) I also couldn't pass up these hot pink stilettos! H.O.T.! Our professional pictures will follow soon...maybe with a blog devoted just to the party!

TORI: still loves to pose for the camera. I love the hot chocolate mustache. I pulled my hot pink shoes out of my shopping bag and they were immediately snatched by little hands. They walked around the whole house in them.The 4 bottom shots are Tori in a princess photo shoot. 1 is a over the shoulder look, 2 is the classic fist under the chin, 3 is the up doo, and 4 is the hands under the chin look. My favorite is the sitting princess that I took yesterday...she is getting so BIG!

BROOKE: is our comedian and I feel lucky if I get a shot of her! She was sporting the bunny ears on Monday and I just had to take a few pictures. She is constantly getting into things...she is a very curious girl. She also LOVES to wear my shoes around the house. She just keeps getting more beautiful.

KATELYN: aka Scooter (we are pretty sure that this is going to be her nickname) is growing like a weed. Her new trick is too scoot (hence the nickname) all over the house on her back in the back bend push leg form! It is pretty funny. she is our first to do this and it makes her quite mobile. One day we found her under the trampoline in our living room. She pushed her way under and then back out again! Check out her form...she is waving to you all!

Auntie Marie couldn't resist dressing up our little Scooter...she is quite the doll!

Last, but not least, Tori is learning to draw and write. She can now spell her name and LOVES to draw various animals. As you can see by the label, the left animals are frogs. The animal to your right is a dog. So stinking cute!

We have enjoyed our February thus far and I cannot believe that February is almost at an end! YIKES! But...Scooter will be turning 6 months soon, so I will post her stats and another photo soon! Check out my new food and fun blog: That Is A HumDINGER!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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It's February!

Well, this set of pictures was taken at the end of January, but don't judge! :) We got these marvelous building magnets from Grandma Frann for Christmas and the girls LOVE them! While I was giving Brooke (the child who is not pictures in this post because she will not sit still or pose for the camera) a bath, Tori constructed this little doosie all by herself...it is a train! What a happy little architect!

Katelyn can now sit by her self for a few seconds. She can roll over too...but I can still count how many times she has rolled over on one hand. These pictures were taken this morning in the outfit that I bought for her when I found out that I was having another little girl! I love that color combo: pink and orange!

Grandma and Grandpa Dinger were here last week and it was a blast. They are seriously lifesavers. As I have mentioned before I really need a vacation and at least when they come I can get out of the house a little without the kids! In fact one day I scored at the Good Will and found 4 new pairs of shoes at $3.99 & a cute sweater and blazer! Nothing like new shoes and clothes to soothe my frazzled nerves! On Friday we got a babysitter and we all went to dinner kid-less! It was great to get away and have some good sea food! Mmmmm.... crab! That is about all...I cannot wait until the Dinger grandparents come again! (By the way they will be here again next week! This trend is caused by a combination of the joys of retirement, itchy feet and irresistibly cute grandkids!) Auntie Marie is coming too! Cross your fingers because Jason is also taking his really big LCSW exam on Thursday...he has been working for this for 2 1/2 years (say a little prayer for him)!

My Little Girls

Can you believe that this little face is 5 months old? Katelyn keeps getting bigger! She just recently started scooting herself back with her feet to get off her play mat (which she loves). It is hilarious. I will leave her in one spot and she is half way to another location in a few seconds. She still hasn't mastered rolling over yet from front to back (she has done it a few times by accident, but those don't count), but she is playing with her feet and can almost roll from her back to her front. She is doing things a little backwards! I just recently took out the swing and she thinks it is pretty cool, but she is already to tall for the first setting and I have to change it so she can actually jump and not just stand there and play with the toys. The booties are from an older sister in our ward. They are so cute and they actually stay on her feet because there is a tie on the ankle. Too bad they are just a little too small (she is busting out the toe)...Katelyn only wore them once.

Me and my girls. Tori and I were practicing taking pictures with my camera in different settings...thanks to a photography mutual night with the Mia Maids. The setting is made to take pictures with one person holding the camera. It turned out ok...except for the fact that I looked disheveled...maybe because it was Saturday and there is always so much to do?! I tried doing the one hand pictures with the baby...but it wasn't functioning. So Jason took the pictures for me, but put his hand in front of the flash in the pictures...oh well. I think Katelyn looks a lot like Liv in these photos!The picture with Brooke and I is from Sunday (hence the reason I look a little more presentable)...look at Brooke's BLUE eyes! She went to the doctor today for a well check and she is 35 1/2 inches tall (75%) and 27 pounds (40%). She is talking up a storm and is still a major comedian. She loves to sing and has a lot of Christmas, Nursery Rhyme and Primary songs memorized. She also can count to 10 and can say all of her ABC's and knows some of her letter sounds (which I attribute to the fact that she loves to watch "Super Why", "Sesame Street" and play on Starfall.com with her sister. Her favorite letter is "W" and her favorite numbers are "5" and "8" (she constantly points these out when we are in public). She loves chicken nuggets, Doritos (she is definitely like her father here), cheese, burrito meat with black beans and chocolate.

Here is little miss Katelyn in her cute little Sunday dress (except for the one on the bottom left...that is her outfit yesterday.). This one is a Katelyn original, meaning that she got this dress from someone just for her and it is not a hand- me- down. I LOVE it. The colors are just perfect for her. She is such a fun little baby! So I included the picture with Tori, because I think that Tori looks like a 3 year old going on 23! I also think that she looks a little like Oscar or maybe Livy in this picture!

January BUTs

 I am not so much a fan of January in these last years. It really is the longest, boring, most miserable month. It is not a very fun month and is usually filled with bad weather and a whole bunch of emotional junk that I don't like to bring up every year. There are no real holidays and no breaks. I have SEVERE cabin fever and want to give it all up and live next door to my sister in California.  I hate putting away Christmas decorations because that means that Christmas time is a whole other year away. I hate that the holiday season is over and that I will probably have to wait a long time to see my family again ( I miss my sister so much that it HURTS!).  It makes me miss my little boy (who would be 5 this year) and it makes me want to stay inside and wait until it is all over with and gone!   

BUT... this year it hasn't been as bad as usual. The cabin fever is probably the worst out of all of my complaints, since we haven't had a vacation since last June (have I mentioned that I miss my sister)? I wish that I had enough money to fly away, alas I do not. 

BUT The weather this year has been fabulous. We have had some amazing days that were so Spring like that the girls went out to play. Jason even raked up some leaves while I took pictures of the girls gallivanting. We did get about 5 inches of snow all in one day, but yesterday it all melted and has been raining like crazy (that is the kind of snow I like...here one day, gone the next). I even ventured to the library for reading time with all 3 girls (after 4 months of not going to the library because I was afraid of going with all 3 girls). And I survived the library 3 weeks in a row! I even went back to playing volleyball with my friends every Thursday night (which is always a blast)! So all in all, this January isn't dragging too long, it isn't as bad as usual. BUT I do wish it were spring!

One day Tori announced to me that we needed to celebrate Cami's birthday. She had no idea that Cami's birthday was January 11 (Cami turned 5), but she insisted on making a pink cake with two layers with sprinkles and candles. Ha ha ha. So we baked a cake, and after family home evening, celebrated Cami's birthday, complete with candles. We even let Cami eat some cake too (she licked a bit of frosting and looked at us like...um, can I have some tuna?) BUT the girls were happy and we had fun!

Cabin fever can be lessened when you have friends over. Tori's little friend came over to play for a whole day. My house looked like a hurricane had hit, BUT the girls were in heaven, which made me happy. I have also noticed that even though you may add a child (or 2, or 4), there is usually less clingy behavior, less whining, more playing in rooms, more imagination, more fun to be had...which means that I can get things done (like reading my book! ha ha ha!). All in all, this month isn't too bad, BUT I still hope it is over soon!

The End of December...I know...I'm Behind!

Silly girls! One of Tori's favorite pastimes is having me take pictures of her while she is doing funny things! She also LOVES to get her picture taken with Katelyn. Oh, and there is Brooke, trying to still fit in the Bumbo!

Ode to Sesame Street. Tori brought the camera to me and said, "Mom, I want to do near and far like on Sesame Street." She then proceeded to position me with the camera and told me exactly when to snap her picture. The result: Near and Far...like on Sesame Street. Silly girl!

We had a birthday shout hurray! Jason turned the BIG 30! My husband has now made it to the thirties with me (I have already been here for 3 1/2 years...thought he should catch up with me!) Jason really isn't too big about hoopla when it comes to birthdays especially since his falls on New Years Eve. So we just had ice cream sundaes in our cool sundae cups. While I was taking the picture I realized that all 3 girls were wearing turquoise! Ha ha ha! One day they will all look at the camera at the same time (Katelyn was way too interested in the fire!)! Happy Birthday Babe!

Katelyn: a 4 month Old

I cannot believe that she is 4 months old (well, really, 4 1/2 months old...this post is a bit late)! Katelyn is a GREAT baby! She sleeps well, she nurses like a champ, and LOVES her sisters. No one can make Katelyn laugh as much as Tori and no one loves Katelyn as much as Brooke. she just had her first cold and decided to fight it off by having a fever of 101* for about 3 days! She now is over the worst of it and I think that after that she will be switching to full time in her crib. She loves to play with toys now and put things in her mouth. She likes to play on her play mat and take naps in her swing. She continues to have really crazy hair that is still dark brown. Her eyes still have not picked a color. She has only rolled over once from her front to her back, but she doesn't like to spend much time on her stomach. when she is on the floor playing she uses her legs to scoot all over the floor, especially when she is on her play mat. She has the cutest smile and a sweet disposition. She also can blow bubbles with her mouth and quite frequently talks to her dad in bubbles! We love our little Katelyn girl! Stats: 11 pounds 15 ounces (30%) and 23 1/2 inches (50%). She is skinny and tall and if you go back and look at Tori's pictures at this age they are a mostly indecipherable...except Tori has blonde hair! (All of these pictures were taken yesterday except for the argyle sweater picture which was taken today...so this is what she looks like at this moment...except that she is now in her swing sleeping!)

Christmas day and a little after...

Christmas morning was fun for us this year. Tori is getting what Christmas is a little bit. She understood Santa a little, but didn't really get that he would leave presents under the tree. So when she got up and found presents under the tree she was quite impressed! Tori & Brooke both got Princess dolls with outfits to change them into and a Strawberry Shortcake house complete with accessories from Santa (and some of his helpers...wink wink). Tori & Brooke loved opening all of their presents, but frequently got side tracked with all of the fun new things to play with. Among their gifts were coloring books, crayons, markers, Thomas the train, hot wheel cars, puzzles and a flashlight (that do amazingly cool things like light up like light sabers) for each of them ! Thanks to all of the various Aunties, Uncles and cousins for the plenteous gifts! They will be put to good use!

Needless to say, we need to downsize our toy collection! I am not kidding, I think that I could single handedly run a daycare for 12 children with all of these toys! So I let the girls play while I decided on an organization method and wished for a play room. Maybe when all the girls are out of their cribs/toddler beds, I will cram them all into one room and then they will have a play room. We LOVE the animal masks...and we had to try them all on...I think that I am quite the striking zebra. On to Jason and I...well...I got some amazing slipper boot sock deals from my sister that are super comfy and stylish, a kindle cover from Jason and a purple scarf from the girls. Jason got some games from me, a sweater hand picked by the girls from the girls and some money (with which he purchased two new Wii games: Mario vs Sonic Winter Olympics and Mario Galaxy). All in all...we were spoiled.

Katelyn decided to sleep in... so she was late with all of the opening presents thing, and only two presents lasted her sisters' wrath... she got two new play things to go on her various hanging toy holders...one is this fantastically pink pig that plays music (picked out by Livy) and this vibrating frog (picked out by Oscar). Both are beloved and slobbered on. With some Christmas money from Aunt Michelle she got 2 rattles, 2 pairs of PJs and a warm hat and mittens.

Well, if you couldn't tell from the pictures above, I am still trying to work out the kinks in my new camera. I am slowly getting how to tone down the flash with the exposure... it is a work in progress. And my dang florescent light bulbs... good for the energy bill, bad for lighting. Look at us enjoying our Christmas morning cinnamon rolls! Yummy!

Since Christmas was on Sunday this year the girls got to wear their actual Christmas dresses on Christmas day! Aren't they so dang cute! They all have the same dress!

I tried to take a million and a half pictures of Katelyn with my new camera, and I just wasn't getting it, and it doesn't help that she moves and jerks a whole lot, so most of them came out blurry (also the fault of Tori, I found out later, because she put her cute little fingers all over my camera lens!) and I then turned most of them to black and whites! Oh well!

Our Christmas program at church was wonderful. We enjoyed the music and spoken narration. So here is a funny story: while I was feeding Katelyn after sacrament, the Primary kids got up to sing two songs. After the first song, there was a silent pause while they waited for the next song. Well, Brooke took it upon herself to fill that silent pause with applause and a loud "YEA"! The Primary kids giggled and so did the audience. I missed it all because they turned off the microphone while the kids sang. Apparently after the second song she also applauded and said "Good Job!"

More of the Dinger gang! We went with a black and red theme! Just so you all know...getting pictures with these girls is crazy! But we do it for remembrance sake!

Well...another Christmas has come and gone! I cannot believe it! We really hope to spend next Christmas with family! We sure missed you all this year, but we found out that having Christmas wasn't all too bad with just our own little family (except for the one minor breakdown while listening to Amy Grant's Christmas CD....it made me miss my mom, dad and sister BIG time and there were a lot of tears spilt all over the dishes I was putting away...) maybe next year I won't break it out or I will be celebrating Christmas with them and there will be no need for tears!! Here's to dreaming!

 

Have a Happy New Year!