Zion is growing up

Last night Zion Slept in his big boy bed!!! Now without his crib they can have more room for toys!! Hopefully he will continue to sleep and not get out of his bed like last time we tried switching beds;)


Mel

Christmas fun

We've had a lot of fun leading up to Christmas. It was fun to watch Gene and Zion really enjoy the season. Here are some pictures of us setting up the tree. Gene asked us every day if it was time to put the Christmas tree up.( more on the Christmas tree hunt later.)

Elijah update!!

Elijah went to the doctor today for his 4 month check up, although he is almost 5 months now. He was 15.6 pounds and 26.5 inches long. everything looks great and he is such a cute little boy.

no I didn't pose him like that. He loves sleeping with his thumb.

They are so silly when they are all together. Gene is always wanting to hold Elijah it is so cute. The look in their eyes when they are all together makes my heart swell because I know they will be the best of friends. 

Zion is always wanting into Elijah's crib while I'm getting them ready for bed. This is generally what Zion does. He is always giving him hugs and kisses and loves showing him things.

I love this picture for some reason. 

Birthday Boy!!

Gene turned 4 years old on Thursday. I can't believe he is getting so old. He wanted to have a superhero themed birthday party this year, and so they all (Meah, Ella, Gene, Zion) dressed up like superhero's and went through an opstical course that John set up in the house. They had a blast. After cake and ice cream we headed out to the YMCA for some swimming and fun. Gene really enjoyed his cake and all the fun things he received for his birthday. He also really enjoyed listening/seeing the messages people left for him. He especially liked sharing his birthday with Grandma.

I have to give John most of the credit for this cake he made all the symbols for me. This was our second attempt at using fondant to decorate. It was a really yummy fondant recipe too.

Gene also enjoyed celebrating his birthday with his friends in Preschool (they had spider-man cupcakes that were black, red and blue.)

Halloween Fun!!!

So a lot has happened in the past month but I'm just going to start fresh. Halloween was fun we went to a pumpkin patch and the kids got to pick the one that they wanted. They also had hayrides and corn mazes and animals for them to feed and pet. Zion had a really fun time with picking out his pumpkin, he kept wanting to pick them all up because he thought that they were balls. 

This year we let Gene pick out his costume. He wanted to be a dragon. Zion was a little more difficult because he didn't want anything on his head or that was to bulky that he couldn't walk so he was a Ninja. Elijah was a lion but I didn't take a picture because he was sleeping the whole time opps.  Both boys had a blast trick or treating Zion by the end of the night was saying thank you's to all the people that gave him candy. We also had a party at the church and a trunk or treat. 

and finally the grand finale

DAYCARE OPENING!!

Yeah finally the Daycare opened its doors to children today. We had one preschooler and Gene lol, but we have 6 more starting on Monday and hopefully more after that. It has been a long hard road and couldn't have done it with out my parents, Greg and Karen, and Gary coming out to help.

Sorry for the picture if you want to see more go to our website at thesmartstartacademy.com

Elijah update.

Well today Elijah had his 2 month check up. Everything looks great except he has a dimple on his rear. The doctor is going to check with the surgeon to see if it's something to worry about. He might order an ultra sound. The concern is that his spinal cord is attached (causing a dimple) which will make him not be able to hold his bowels and have a hard time walking. He said if they catch it early then it wouldn't have any lasting effect on him. He was 24 inches and 13.1 pounds. He is my fattest kid yet. Lol. I love chunky babies.


I'll post pictures later. . .

update

Just a quick update on Elijah. At his appointment last Thursday he was already above his birth weight at 6.14 instead of 6.10 which was good. The doctor wanted his bilirubin levels checked because he was looking quite yellow. He made it up to 18 but then he started to go back down which was good. He is a good sleeper and we are all starting to get into a rhythm here at home. Gene and Zion are both still really good with the baby. Zion still loves to hug and kiss him. Gene always says that he will watch Elijah and make sure he doesn't cry, or he will take care of the baby. It is really cute and sweet how the boys are with their brother. I have actually ventured out of the house with all 3 kids. Its a bit of a challenge but everything went fine. Of course at Wal-mart I didn't have any room in the cart because it was full of boys lol.

Elijah John Whitacre

So I decided to be induced this past Friday. Everything went well and 7 hours after arriving at the hospital we had another addition to our little family. Later John told me he got a little squeamish when he watched them to the epidural (last time he was in front of me). He told me what they did and it now makes me not want one anymore. lol j/k they are heaven in a tube for labor.  Elijah John Whitacre arrived at 1:13pm on June 25, 2010. He was 20 1/2 long and 6.10 ounces.  He has the same coloring as Gene when he was born and a full head of red hair. He was having trouble regulating his own body temperature so they checked his blood sugar and found it critically low, so once again another one of my children gets taken away back to the nursery for further investigation. They ended up giving him glucose water and some formula. After that he was fine. Grandma and Aunt Misty came to the hospital with Gene and Zion to see Elijah. Gene was very sweet and timid. I don't think he realized how small a newborn baby is lol. He was happy to hold him though and also brought me some schulers cookies, which were heaven. Zion didn't know what to think of Elijah and just wanted to climb up and sit by me and give me hugs and kisses. I am lucky to have such sweet boys, and a supporting family. John just loves having 3 boys now. 

Also after one night at the hospital we decided again to go home after 24 hours. I know some of you think I'm crazy for not wanting to stay longer but NOTHING compares to my bed. (thanks dad) We all slept great last night excluding the hour long nursing sessions.

First family picture

Proud dad

just look at that face.

Elijah's first hug and kiss from Zion. It always hits me when I bring a new baby home how much my kids have grown. There is such a difference in changing Zion and Elijah's diapers. lol

p.s. sorry it has taken so long to update but well you know :)

Zoning....Daycare update

Yeah we are now officially zoned for a Daycare Center. This was a HUGE hurtle to jump which we cleared with a 3 to 2 vote. A little scary. There were 3 people who showed up to oppose us but most of their complaints were not logical. I still don't understand why the vote was even so close but it doesn't matter now. YEAH

ahhh Peace and Quiet

One of the quiet and peaceful moments at the Sissies house.

36 2/7 weeks

Here is my lol first prego picture. I figured I better take one before it was too late. 

Lowe's Workshop Fun

We have just recently been going to the Lowe's here in town for their Saturday workshop for kids. It was really fun and all the kids had a blast. They get to hit real nail and use mini hammers. Pictures are of the catapult that they made and then this past Saturday they made race cars. Gene is always playing with his tools and trying to build stuff so these workshops are great. If you haven't been to one with your kids yet it is a really fun experience for all ages. They also give them a work apron and also with every thing you build you get a patch to put on your apron. You also get safety goggles. And its all free!!!

Youngs Fun

We have been enjoying the summer. Of our favorite things to do is to go to Youngs and get ice cream and feed the goats. The last time we went there we saw that they had a big area where you pay $3 and they have slides and a blow up jumper and a huge corn box. lol Zion thought it was really fun. All the kids loved the slides and the jumper. But they spent the longest time in the corn box. Zion also got his first actual ice cream cone. He loved it.

John's 5k

Last week John competed in his first 5k this year. He did ok but was sick with sinus 2 weeks leading up to the event. I took the kids and we watched him finish. He was behind this girl and at the end sped up to pass her. It was really funny because she was looking back at him the whole last 100 yards and finally he sprinted i in to beat her. I couldn't stop laughing it was so funny. Later when the results came in we found out that it was a 12 year old girl that he edged out at the end. granted she looked more like 16 but still funny. lol. his time was 26:32. last year he ran it in 23:12.

Gene goes to the Dentist

Last week Gene got to go to the Dentist for his first visit. I was really hoping he would do OK but you never know how kids will react to different situations. Needless to say he did AWESOME. He did everything the hygienist said and at the end got to pick out a toy which he was really excited about. She said that its very unusual to have a 3 year old do so well at the dentist.  Gene was just happy he got his teeth cleaned with chocolate tooth paste lol. 

Fishing

John and I took both the kids fishing at our Bishops pond. Gene has gone a couple times before this but mostly those were last year. He really enjoyed fishing and wanted to bait his own hook but he is still a little young for that lol. He really loved picking up the worms and handing them to John. He would get so excited about every fish he caught. We ended up staying for almost 4 hours. Zion loved walking around and rolling on the soft grass. I was surprised how good Zion was considering it was 4 hours of the same thing. He even wanted to tough the fish whenever Gene would get them out of the water. We went back with the cousins Meah and Ella and Gene was so cute telling them what to do and how to fish like he was an expert. He must have caught 15 or so fish by the end of the day. He would also try to put them back in the water but the fish always jumped out of his hands. 

CHECK THE YOUTUBE VIDEO OUT OF GENE FISHING, make sure the sound is on!!

More.....

We really did have a fun time while Mom, Beth, Whitney, and Brooke were here. Gene got to go to Ikea and pick out a big boy bed(twin) so that Zion can have the toddler bed when the new baby comes. We also decorated the boys room with with airplanes which is really cute. Gene also loved playing with Whitney. They would chase each other and run around the house acting crazy. Zion also got into that part of the fun. All the kids did great and were well behaved during our outings.  We also went to a fun museum that had some pretty cool stuff the kids really enjoyed that day. 

Mom and Beth Visit

Mom, Beth, Whitney, and Brooke came to visit us from wed to wed. it was so much fun. We went inside to pick them up from the airport and Gene was so cute he and Whitney became quick friends and held hands the whole way back to the car. Gene's chest was puffed out the whole time. More to come later.

Cleaning up the Church

For our joint YM YW activity this month we decided to do a full scale Church clean up. We had 47 people there helping us mulch edge and clean up. Everyone worked for 2 hours and we completed the whole thing. It has been long before John and I got married (almost 8 years) since the church grounds have been mulched and cleaned up on this large of a scale.  Gene really enjoyed the work. He loved to dig the holes and to put the plants into the holes. If you were doing something that he thought he could do he would say "let me help" and if you didn't let him help or ignored him he would say "your not letting me help", or "mom your not listening to me". He is such a cutie. BUT I think his (John's too) favorite part was driving the tractor delivering mulch with his daddy. This project wouldn't have happened if not for John and his willingness to serve in my calling lol.

Young's Jersey Dairy.

We finally made it back to Young's. The kids love going there because they get to feed all different kind of animals. Zion even got into it a little. The goats would eat the food pellets off his hands and then he would look at them in disgust, it was pretty fun to watch. The best part about Young's (at least for me) is the ice cream they make using their Jersey Cow's which is really good.