3 months old

Well time keeps passing as now little Reese is 3 months old! Yikes!

Having this little guy around is refreshing. He is always happy. He will fuss in his crib after waking up, but as soon as he sees you, he is all smiles. He loves to watch his older siblings, and continues to add to his chubbiness. I estimate his weight around 17 pounds now. His hair is still really dark, and it sticks up on top, even if I brush it down while wet. Its amazing to me how much he likes me. My older children all liked Daddy best, but Reese smiles the most for me. Am I bragging? Perhaps a little. But it makes me happy. He will smile at me when I have on no makeup, my scraggly ponytail and my standard uniform t-shirt. He makes me feel beautiful, like I am his hero. Its humbling, and Reese is a blessing.

Ramsey

Many, many things have been happening in our household. (and I am a total slacker in updating!)
So here goes...

Ramsey turned 8. Oh my gosh. EIGHT! She is tall and skinny now, when she began life so small. I don't have any pictures from when she was tiny on the computer, and I'm still working on getting a scanner. She is a great big sister and helper. Since her birthday is Nov 2, she got to have a party on Halloween, complete with costumes, pizza, cake, and some friends.

Then the next weekend she was baptized by her daddy. What a neat day. Rob and I had talked extensively about what we wanted for the program and we both agreed that the normal way seemed too long for a child. Rob talked with our bishop to see what was absolutely necessary and we went from there. Rob said that he wanted that day to be a great experience for her. Both Rob and I don't remember much from our own baptisms, except for some of the people there, so we had her grandmothers share experiences/testimonies from their own baptisms and confirmations, and the family sang a song. Ramsey just about glowed the entire time. Now she is telling me she needs this, and that, and more this, and I'm thinking "you've got plenty of time....no need to rush". However, time just keeps passing way too quickly. It seems like yesterday that we blessed her....

Reese-2 months

Well on Oct 18 Reese was two months old. The time is flying by. To me he is still so little, but the charts say otherwise. When I took him for his 2 months checkup, he weighed 14 lbs 7 oz, and was 23 in long. Yikes! He is my biggest baby. The others weren't anywhere close to 14 lbs. He is smiling all the time now and cooing like crazy. He even laughs and it is so cute. I am totally in love with this boy (and my biceps get a good workout too!) and he still likes me. The older kids all prefer Rob, but so far Reese still likes me. I'll enjoy it.

In other news, Regan is now "mostly" potty trained. He's doing really well. Its like it finally clicked, and I cannot be happier. He's even sleeping better at night again. Now if we can just get him to like Nursery again......

Now we just have to gear up for the holidays. Ack! I'm so not ready.

Potty Training...

So, we are trying to Regan potty-trained, and it just isn't happening as fast as I want it to. I mean, it shouldn't be that hard, right? When we went through this with Riley, it was pretty easy. Then again, I didn't have an infant to tend to either. He does really well during the day, but when the others get home from school its like all the good work just flew out the window. Sheesh. The good news??.....by the end of 2012 I should stop changing diapers for good! That means I will have changed diapers for 11 years straight. Crazy!

Happy Birthday Riley (Sept 28)!!!

Six years ago Riley came barreling into our lives at a whopping 6 lbs 11 oz. (You can tell from the above photo just how tiny he was.) But that did not last long. He grew fast and big! From the very beginning he has made our lives interesting. He started walking/running at 9 months and has not slowed down since. He still likes to cuddle, look at animals (he's not big on getting close to them) and play with Sissy.

Look at how small Ramsey is!!!


Having birthday cake at Abuelos house...

Getting ready to blow out candles...
This was his 3rd birthday...I fell in love with that face from the first moment!!!

Riley is the best! Happy Birthday buddy!

Reese is One Month!

The past month has flown! Reese is now one month old, and growing like a weed. All of my boys tend to grow quickly, and Reese is following that trend. He is beginning to watch Ramsey and Riley, but I think he starts to cringe when he sees Regan. Regan is famous for poking eyes, nose, and putting his finger in Reese's mouth. So not sanitary. He is also starting to smile (as seen in one of the pictures below) and coos at the trees out the window. Enjoy the pics!

Where is my brain?

So they so that when you have a baby you lose brain cells, and after having four I knew I lost a bunch. But I didn't think I had lost THAT many. I mean, how could I forget that Rob always parks his car in the driveway, behind and slightly to the right of the van? Don't I always have to reverse around the Honda to go somewhere if I'm driving the van? Don't I always check for cars when driving? Well I guess I lost my brain last Saturday. Admittedly, getting in the van and actually going somewhere is usually a ten minute process. Between getting Regan and Reese in their carseats, reminding Ramsey and Riley we don't need to bring toys/books/crayons/etc with us, and making sure I have the keys, it gets chaotic. So I finally get in the van and start out of the garage when I feel like I'm not going anywhere and hear a grinding sound. I'm thinking one of the rugrats left out their bikes and it got crunched. When I finally looked in the rear view mirror and see Rob's car.....well I freaked. This is what I saw...

and this....
Now, the van isn't real pretty anyway, but Rob's car was really dented. He already went and got the parts and now it is repaired. (Now if it were my car that was damaged, it would still be that way, and will stay that way for a lot longer. Thats a totally new post for another time.)
But is this something you claim with the insurance company? or just hope no one notices? I guess putting it on a blog eliminates that chance. I need to build up the brain cells I have left to work better, hmm?

The First Day of School...a little late

August 24th Ramsey and Riley started school! Ramsey is now is 2nd grade, and thinks she is almost a grownup. But Riley...well lets just say he has been waiting for this day for 2 years now. He has been super excited to start Kindergarten, get his own homework, etc. Here he is in his classroom. I thought since this was his first foray away from home (he was never in preschool) that he would be a little scared. But NO! He walked right in, sat down and started playing. He did have his "I'm-a-little-worried-but-I-think-I-can-handle-it" face on, so I said goodbye (and a prayer) and then took Ramsey to class. I didn't get a picture of her in class, cause she's like a pro at all this school stuff now.



Here they are getting ready to go to school. See the excited look on Riley's face? Not to mention the pride of having a Transformers lunch box.



Can you tell that Riley likes Transformers? He picked out both the backpack and lunch box.


I remember when Ramsey started Kindergarten, the first couple of weeks she came home from school extremely tired. So I kind of figured that Riley would do the same. Not so. He comes home from school so hyper! He's like a Mexican Jumping bean. One day it was so bad that we made him run around the block to burn off some energy. and that was after he rode his bike around the block a couple of times first. Fortunately he will start soccer again soon, and that will give him another outlet. I still think I will need better vitamins to keep up with these boys!

Baby Reese's Arrival

So, on August 18, Reese Nixon finally made his appearance. Monday the 17th the contractions really started! Rob came home from work, got dinner for the Rugrats, and we called in reinforcements so we could go to the hospital. Rob took this picture on the way into the ER.



I won't post the pictures of the labor. Rob always gets some, and I hate it. Anyway, I was admitted to L&D around midnight, and Reese was born at 2:57 am. See the look of utter exhaustion/elation? I was tired.



Reese Nixon was 8 lbs 8 oz, and 20 in long. He was out in 4 pushes!

Isn't he cute? an you can't even see all the black hair.




Here is the whole brood. The Rugrats are in love with Reese.



Here is Riley holding Reese.



Getting sugars from big sis...



I love this picture!

So after spending 2 nights in the hospital, we came home. I know its been almost three weeks since all this happened, but I'm finally getting adjusted. Stay tuned for more!

Regan's Sleeping Adventures

As with all people, given a chance, they will sleep anywhere. This is even truer for kids! Over the past 2.5 years, I've collected quite a few pictures of Regan sleeping in various places. Rob thinks I'm strange for taking so many pics of the kids sleeping, but when you look back they are cute or funny. Plus, you can look at them and remind yourself that they do sleep, especially on those never-ending nights for illness, bad dreams, etc. Enjoy the pics!




This was the only way he would take a nap the first couple months!


Good thing these were clean clothes! He wasn't even a year old yet.



The kids were playing Hide and Seek. Regan turned it into Hide and Sleep! He is under my bed.

Yeah, he is in between the toilet and tub. I took the picture then moved him quickly!
Sleeping while sitting up!



Yes, this was underneath his crib!

Us

So here we are. I finally got this blog going. Too many folks have been asking about it, and now its started. There will probable be many changes, but its the beginning.

We are a family of 5, about to be 6 in about 4 weeks. (Hopefully!) There is Rob, myself, Ramsey, Riley, and Regan. We live in Houston, and trying to survive the summer. Ramsey is 7, Riley is 5, and Regan is 2.5, and we have dubbed him 'the Terrorist'. Another little boy will be coming soon. Will I be sane with 3 boys? I'll let you know.

Stay tuned for more info!