7 weeks of happenings

7 weeks. It has been 7 weeks since Addison joined the family. Where in the world has the last 7 weeks gone? Since Addison was born we have

spent 2 weeks in the hospital

been to 5 doctor appointments

ripped out our deck

added 4 feet of dirt to the side yard

layed sod

planted bushes

spread gravel and bark

dug a hold for cement

filled that hole back up

laid sprinklers

had a bridal shower

spent 6 hours in the dentist chair

spent a day at the pool

made 2 preemie baby outfits (hair bows down to leg warmers) starting from plain white onsies

done 4 photo sessions

had (extended) family pictures done

planned for a wedding

made 2 necklaces, 6 bracelets, 6 hair bows, and 4 headbands

switched antacid medicine for the babe 3 times

executed a very successful wedding day with my brother

attended approximately 7 different family parties

went to Lagoon

added a new baby girl to the extended family (yay for cousins!!)

and today we prepped for cement to be laid and dug out a planter box in the back yard...

oh so that is where the last 7 weeks have gone.

WHEW! We are tired around this house.

These kids are troopers and just hang on for the ride... actually some times it seems as if they are driving and we are the ones hanging on.

Addisons 2 month appointment is next week. WAAAA she is already 2 months?? The thought makes me want to hyperventilate, grab her and go hide in a closet to try and make time slow down. She is still so teeny tiny. We are still in preemie clothes and I am dying for her to get a little bigger so she can wear all the darling summer newborn clothing I have waiting in her drawer. I have a feeling that by the time it fits her we will be out of the warm summer months. However she is getting close. I put a newborn outfit on her yesterday and although it was extremely baggy it didn't fall off so that was an improvement. She sleeps like a champ and most nights lets us sleep 7 hours. Her acid reflux is better now that we have her on the right medicine and the proper dosage. The doctor had switched her to prevacid (sp?) and it was awful it made her tummy hurt and she spent 2 nights screaming. We went off that as soon as possible. We have decided she has Chris's big ears. They make me laugh, they stick out a bit and just look odd on her tiny head with her tiny features. But at the same time they are so stinkin cute.

Taycee is quite the busy body these days. She seems to make more messes than before Addison was born but other than that has adjusted to the attention shift quite well. She loves her baby sister and always asks to see her and kiss her. When she talks to her she uses a high pitched baby voice and calls her "sweetie" and "cutie" She has recently decided that saying "I am so so sorry mom" is the cure to all trouble. I found her in Addison's room spreading elmers glue all over her legs and arms and she immediately started saying " I am so so sorry mom, I am super super sorry." in this adorable voice. I hate to admit it but it does make is hard to be stern with her. I took me almost an hour to remove all the elmers glue from her body. The other day she also looked at me and said "Mom, you are the queen but I am the princess" haha where does she come up with these things. She also is in the the more, most mostest phase. Most of conversation endings with grandma on the phone go like this GMA: I love you TAYCEE: I love you more GMA: I love you the most TAYCEE: I love you the mostest mostest. It is pretty cute. I am convinced she will be my dancer. She walks around the house on her toes and is always saying "hey mommy watch this" as she spins or does what she thinks is a really cool dance move. She also loves to be beautiful or pretty. Tonight after dinner she said "mom let's go make my hair beautiful." Any time she thinks she looks really good she prances up to daddy and stands proudly before him until he tells her how pretty she looks. If he doesn't respond in a manner she finds suitable she will get closer and closer and tap her foot or shaker her hair til he meets her wants. She also loves to sing. She walks around the house singing different primary songs. When she actually gets into primary they will be so impressed that she knows the songs already. Whenever we are in the car and pass a temple she bursts into I love to see the temple. Chris and I always look at each other and smile. Proud parent moments. ... side note... isn't it so great that pretty much any way we drive we pass templeS within a matter of an hour. How blessed are we?

Kaden is still my little champ. He is such a tender boy. 90% of the time I am grateful for that, however this also means that his feelings are easily hurt. When I get after him he is a puddle of tears for at least 10 minutes as he says "I don't want to be naughty mom" He has also started throwing MAJOR fits when it is time to go to bed, take a nap, or when I won't let him watch TV. We are trying to find ways to nip this in the bud, but everything we have tried isn't working. Any ideas? For the most part he is my happy go lucky kid and I am always grateful to have him around. The morning time is the best. When he sees me for the first time in the morning he lights up runs to me squeezes my legs and says in the most sincere voice "MOM, I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU!" It never fails to make me grin ear to ear. Taycee has also picked up on this little tradition. I feel like the most important loved mommy ever each morning. I hope that phase never ends because I will miss it more than I can say.

Kaden is also so wonderful with Addison. He loves to hold her. The other day he asked to hold her and she started to fuss a little. He stated bouncing her a bit and said "Hey it's ok, it's me your brother. I will take care of you, don't cry." It melted my heart.

Kaden was drawing a picture of me and Heather on the white board and before he finished he started to draw little lines on my legs. I asked him what they were and he said "it's your leg beard".... hmmm guess I should shave more often.

Well that is the update from the last 7 weeks of Clayton life. We are truly truly blessed.. busy and blessed. Can't wait to tackle the next 7 weeks which will include a baby blessing, starting school for daddy and Kaden, finishing the backyard project (pictures to come) and I am sure much much more.

Baby Doll

The nice thing about 1 o'clock church is that I generally have time to snap a few pics of the kids all dressed up before we jump in the car. This was last Sunday.

If you thought Taycee was just holding her baby doll... that would be because Addison is in a baby doll dress. Grandma Clayton found a dress that came with a matching doll dress attached. Luckily Addison is still small enough that she fits into it. So this was the first of many many matching out fits. We made matching hair bows and bracelets to go with it.

I love my girls!

KaraLynn

Our very first cousin ever was born on August 6th. KaraLynn Peterson weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long. We are so so excited to have a cousin.

The cute baby girls together.

Kara Addison

She is so awake and alert. I think I saw more of her eyes in 15 minutes that I have seen of Addisons the last 7 weeks.

Beautiful baby girl

Taycee loved holding her new baby cousin.

Weddings

Weddings Weddings and more Weddings! Between Chris and my siblings we have had 3 weddings in the last 5 months! Sheesh. We are getting very skilled at the whole wedding thing. My brother Jason and his cute cute bride Katie were married on August 12th in the Bountiful temple. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony. We are so happy to have Katie in the family. I was able to do their engagements and bridals...I need to post some of them because they are just so cute together. I didn't do their wedding pics because there was just to much to do with 3 kids and everything else that needs to be done but I did snap a couple pics of the day.

These 2 cute girls had everyone's eye. One man asked Chris if he could take Taycee home with him. I think he was half serious.

Grandma Clayton saved our lives and came to the temple to watch the kids while we went to the sealing. She had been in Spanish Fork staying with Aunt Lisa who just had her baby. A million thanks to her for coming up to help out!

How handsome are these little men?

Looking at this you would never guess the work I put into her outfit. But this was all hand made top to bottom. I hand sewed the flowers and made a hair clip out of them. I dyed the onsie, attached the flowers, made the tutu and sewed it on, sewed the leggings, cut the flower on the leggings out of spool of ribbon glued the gems in the middle and attached them.

A little over the top?? Maybe. But they don't make cute wedding outfits in preemie size which is what she is still wearing. And I wanted her to be in the right colors for the wedding. :D

Don't let her fool you... she is not nearly as innocent as she appears. But her cuteness generally makes up for that.

Me and my groom :D Love him just as much today as I did when we said "I do"

Our family of 5! Wow... how did that happen?

OOOO.... He pretty much melts my heart daily.

Any guesses how this ended??

Congrats Katie and Jason! We are so so happy for you.

July Fun

(Left to Right: Doug, Cass, Lisa, Chris on the 24th of July)

July has been full of family and fun. We love summertime.

My Aunt and her kids ( who are the same age as my kids) flew in from Texas for a few weeks. It has been so fun to get together and play with them. They stopped on their way to grandmas from the airport and we had a little party. The kids had a blast with the slip n' slide.

Eden was all smiles as she crashed into the pool of water.

Max had no fear.

Cute cute kids.

The Claytons came up for the 24th of July weekend. We didn't have any fireworks but we did have some sparklers. Taycee was all dressed up in her princess clothes and she LOVED waving the sparklers around. ( If you look close you can see grandma and grandpa Clayton in the hammock with the babe)

We went to the Roy aquatic center while the Claytons were up. This is a pictures of Kaden and grandpa coming out of the slide.

He really was happy to be in the water with me... I am not sure what this face is all about.

While the Claytons were up we went bowling. I was paranoid of the germs so I wrapped the babe to my chest. She likes being snuggled and didn't mind one bit. I tried to bowl but couldn't quite find a rhythm with the baby on my chest, so I mostly sat and watched. But it was still fun.

Here is Lisa at 38 weeks pregnant. Our first cousin will be arriving shortly! I think she was bowling to try and cause some baby activity, but her efforts were fruitless.

We went to Lava Hot Springs up in Idaho for our family reunion this year. The kids were in St George with grandma and grandpa so it was just Chris me and the babe. This pic is of Chris and my cousin Landon jumping of the high tower ( 35 ft up) I also jumped off this high tower. I am convinced my tail bone will never recover.
This is my cousin Annie...does she not have the most beautiful eyes? I am dying to do a photo shoot with her! :D:D

Addison did this the entire time...

She didn't mind being outside one bit.

That wraps up our July. August holds family pics, Jason's wedding, and lots of play time.

Hope your enjoying your summer.

One Month

I can't believe this little angel is already one month old! Where does the time go? I feel like I want to freeze every second because it is all flying by so quickly.
She is growing... slowly. At one month she weighs 5lbs 9 oz. The doctor wants her to put on weight a little faster than that so we are back to fortifying every other feeding with Neosure til she starts to put some fat on.

She still sleeps like a champ. I get about 7 hours of sleep most nights. She is nursing much better and usually wakes up during the day by herself to eat. Mostly I just love on her all day long, which mean I am sadly behind in most of my housework/craft projects. Oh well, they are only this tiny and sweet for so long and I don't want to miss it because of dishes and hair bows.

Kaden and Taycee have been at grandma Claytons for the week. This has given me even more snuggle time with the baby and I am taking full advantage. I am not sure when they will be coming home, the Claytons are waiting for their car to be fixed (it is in a shop in Santaquin). I can tell it is summertime when they seem to spend as much time in St George as they do at home. I am so grateful the Claytons love having them so much. They love being down there and always come home with so many fun stories. Everyday is a party when they are at grandmas house. I am sure they will have a lifetime of fun summers at grandma and grandpas house.

The kids have been darling with Addison, they love her to pieces. We haven't had any jealousy problems, really the only problems we have is they tend to love her a little too much :D. They smother her and always want to be wherever she is, nursing, bathing, diaper changing... anywhere. Kaden has had many questions in the nursing department, we decided honestly was the best policy. He uses the word "nipples" a lot now. We are trying to remedy that. It is AMAZING to have a new spirit in your home. They have such a peace and closeness to the Lord they bring with them, sometimes it is almost tangible. It has been so incredible to watch Kaden with Addison. Remember all the stories while I was pregnant about Kaden seeming to almost KNOW Addison already? Well that has continued. One morning she was laying on the counter while breakfast was being cooked and Kaden walked up to her, they locked eyes ( she doesn't focus on anything or anyone yet) and there was such a strong feeling of recognition. It was almost like their spirits were saying "I am so glad to see you again" I just know they will be very close through this life. It has been awesome to watch the bond they seem to have already.

I will finish off with two funnies from the kids

Chris was trying to teach Kaden the fuzzy wuzzy poem. After he had left for work I overheard Kaden in his bedroom... this is how he said the poem

"Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no pants, Fuzzy Wuzzy had a very cold bum." hehe, I giggled while I fed the baby.

Taycee was in the car and Cassidie asked if she had farted she replied "no, I burped out my bum."

Hope you are all having a great summer :) We sure are.

Photo Shoot

I took Addisons newborn pictures a few weeks ago. I thought I would share a few favorites.