She is here!

My sister Shelly finally had her little girl yesterday afternoon! Baby Hannah Michelle Mckibben was born weighing 7lbs, 2oz., 19 1/2 inches long! Both Shelly and Hannah are doing great! She is just perfect and we are so thrilled to have a cousin on my side of the family! I will post pictures of her soon! We love you Shelly and Hannah!

Where to begin...

Summer 2009 recap

My one accomplishment this summer! I made dresses for the girls for the fourth of July! I made one for all of my little nieces there age as well!

Fourth of July party at the Barratt's

It has been so long since I have had a chance to post on this blog! I don't even know where to begin! So I am going to sum up some of the things that have happened this summer in pictures! And of course I am now recommitting myself to updating this blog more frequently!

Summer 2009

Highlights:

- Fourth of July trip to Logan, Utah! Thank you Jensen family for a fabulous time! And Barratt's for the fourth of July party at your house in Park City!

-Quick trip to Idaho to visit family and spend one last summer at the cabin in McCall, Idaho. This trip involved three flat tires, three babies, and just two people to take care of all of that! Thank you Aunt Melanie!

-Labor Day weekend with the Finlinson clan! Bear Lake was a blast!

- Melanie's wedding!

- Shelly's baby shower!

- Mariah's volleyball games! The girls are really good at yelling, "Go Bulldogs" and we are working on "Go Cougars!"

- A quick girls trip to St. George to see the musical "Footloose" at Tuacahn!

I am missing so much! But here are a few pictures!

Melanie's wedding! Mariah, mel, me, and shelly

Melanie's wedding! The girls were very bad flower girls, but they looked beautiful!

Emma twirled all night saying she was a princess!

Mel and I, after Shelly's baby shower, at Mariah's volleyball tournament

The twins at Bear Lake! I can never get both of them standing and looking at the camera!

We have spent many days and nights helping my parents get the house ready for the wedding! The girls helped Grandma spread dirt everywhere and plant flowers! It was really sweet!

This is a random picture of Camden showing me how to properly wear a bra!

This was taken at Bear Lake! We were packing to go home and all of our nieces and nephews were in the car watching a movie with the girls! There were kids in every open spot of that car, and Emma was sleeping through the whole thing!

The twins on there first tube ride with Sarah

Sarah and Abby

We had a very busy, but great summer and the fall is turning out even better! I will post more soon! I can't wait to get the pictures from Sophie's first birthday, and more from Melanie's wedding!

Sophie

The Challenge

My good friend Trish accepted the challenge this week of taking pictures of the girls. It is an almost impossible task! I am really surprised that we got a few good pictures! Trish and I went to the park with all of our children and the help of my sister Shelly. I was running around saving children from the wild peacocks and ducks at the pond, while Trish snapped pictures! Thank you Trish! Here are a few of the pictures:

Double Trouble!

Trish also took some pictures of Sophie at her house, I will post some of those soon! Can you believe Sophie is already six months old? My little angel baby is growing up!

Will I survive?

I pray for many things each day, but the following three things come up every morning...

1. That no one will be seriously injured due to the fact that I am simply out numbered and can never be holding all three at once

2. That I will be patient.

3. That I will have time to teach each one of them the things they need to learn to be successful!

With that being said, here are a few stories from this week!

On Thursday's we go to the park with our friends! Every week something happens that makes me think I should never go to the park again. A few weeks ago, Camden and Emma were swinging together like normal, when all of sudden Emma did not want to be near Camden anymore. In a moment of anger, she attacked her sister like a wild animal! When Camden came to me, I thought she had smeared strawberries on her cheek, but it was actually blood. Her sister left the Mark of Zorro in her cheek, a giant Z! On this same day at the park, Camden tried to walk down the slide. She made it half way down, before gravity took over and she flipped off the side of the slide and landed on her back on the ground. Meanwhile, her sister Emma fell threw the crack between the bridge and the railing. It was not a good moment. I was torn, who do I run to first, Emma seemed ok, so I ran to Camden to check her limbs for a break. She didn't even cry, jumped up and ran to go down the slide again, frustrated that I am holding her back to check her! I then freed Emma from where she was pinned, only to send her on her way up the stairs again! I left the park completely exhausted, emotionally and physically!


Not two hours later...I had everyone in their cribs for a nap! I was finally going to eat lunch and relax! When all of a sudden I can hear Camden screaming upstairs. Now normally I would let her scream herself to sleep, but something about her scream made me want to check on her. When I come into their room I looked to her crib, only to realize that I need to look up. Camden was standing on top of the crib rails, one foot on her crib and one foot on Emma's crib, holding onto the wall like a rock climber. She was scared to death! Thank heavens! She has not tried this since. Good thing I checked on her, who knows how long she would stand their before deciding to jump.



This week, Camden climbed over the side rails into Emma's crib. I could hear giggling from their room so I didn't go in for awhile, when I finally decided to get them up, they were both smiling at me from Emma's crib. The most interesting part of Camden's climbing is that she never climbs to get out of her room and the crib, she is just trying to get to Emma. She climbed into Emma's crib again the next day, and Emma bit her, so I finally separated the cribs!



A few days later, I went upstairs to put Sophie in her crib for a nap. When I came back downstairs Camden and Emma were both on top of the kitchen table throwing Easter basket confetti on the ground.



Sophie eating food for the first time! Oh bananas!

Just a sampling of my life lately...will I survive this?

San Francisco Trip

My parents decided to take a trip to Monterrey and San Francisco, CA for Spring Break, and at the last minute we decided to go! It was quite the adventure, traveling with three babies, on a plane, to CA! We had some fun moments, and then a lot of not so fun moments. I will not be in a hurry to ride on an airplane with three babies again anytime soon! We visited the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, Muir Woods, San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf, took a ferry out around the bay, Union Square, and Ghiradelli Square. We ate lots of food, and made lots of funny memories!

Some funny moments include:

- Riding on the trolley car with two strollers

- Emma throwing up in the airport right before we board the plane

-Sleeping with Camden for two nights

- trying to entertain the twins in the airport when our flight was delayed an hour

-fitting three car seats in the back of a rental car! (Good job Rob!)

-Swimming at the hotel

-Rob pushing the handicap door bell on my parents hotel room, the button getting stuck and making a loud noise for an hour! He door bell ditched so nobody knew he rang the door! (Of course not telling anyone about it until breakfast the next morning!)

-China town swindling! I got two cute little Chinese baby dresses for the twins for an unbeatable price!

-the beautiful, peaceful, car rides when all three girls were sleeping!

Here a few of the many pictures from the trip!

Little Sophie!

Me, Camden, and Shelly, sitting on the ferry boat! Camden was running everywhere! That was probably the only time I smiled while on the boat!

Grandma and Grandpa Gough with the twins

Emma

We drove from Monterrey, CA to San Francisco, along the coast! We stopped and took pictures by this beautiful lighthouse! Camden and Sophie are sleeping in the car!

The girls exploring at the Aquarium

Emma trying to be patient for her dinner!

The whole family at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium!

Sophie and Amanda- Ghiradelli Square

On the plane to Monterrey! So happy to finally be going! Camden would not sit still!

Easter 2009

Emma! So sweet!

We were all posing for a cute family picture together, when the camera snapped I am the only one looking! Typical!

Camden counting her eggs!(right after she stole some of Emma's)



We had a very calm and beautiful Easter! The girls decorated Easter eggs on Saturday in preparation for a big egg hunt on Sunday after lunch. They started in the house with plastic eggs and then moved onto the real dyed eggs outside! I could not believe how much they enjoyed looking for eggs! The joy on their faces when they found a new egg was worth the pain of washing the dye off their hands from Saturday's festivities. They were darling in their Easter outfits and were almost good in church. My mom prepared a beautiful meal and we all had a great day!

Caution: Funny stories, and bragging below

4 month old Sophie!

It is almost impossible these days to update this blog, but I do think there are a few things recently that need to be recorded!
First, my brother Jared has been home for a few weeks now doing painting projects for my family and friends. He is amazing! He finally had time to stain the bench in my house a nice walnut color to match my dinning room table, and he painted our master bedroom. Everything looks fabulous! While I love that these projects are done, the best part is having him around during the day to stop and play with the twins and Sophie. Emma is quite a chatter box, and she likes to stand at the bottom of Jared's step stool and talk to him. While talking she has found opportunities to stick her hands in the paint bucket, and put her fingers in the electrical socket! Jared finally had to kick Emma out of the room! For good reason! You should have seen how fast Emma ran down the hall after being electrocuted! I think she learned her lesson! By the way this outlet is usually behind a dresser so it didn't have socket protectors in it. Usually our house is quite safe.

Now on to the adventurer of the family, Camden. She has mastered climbing into her highchair and jumping from her highchair onto the kitchen table. It is by far the scariest thing for a mother to watch. She loves to do it, and will not stop no matter what her mother says to her about safety. The kitchen is almost always gated off from her and her sisters. Camden is also the most amazing 1 year old soccer player. She kicks the ball all across the backyard, giggling as she goes. I took the girls to watch the state championship high school (Centennial vs. Coronado) soccer game on Wednesday, and Camden was running up and down the fields behind the game chasing some little boys that were playing soccer. She wanted to play with them so bad, and finally stole their ball and ran down the field. It was crazy! The boys did not love her.

Oh sweet Sophie! What an angel baby! I can't help but brag about her! She rarely cries, and is quite content to just watch her older sisters and her mom buzz around the house. She takes naps beautifully, and has been sleeping through the night since January. She does like to suck her thumb, which she refuses to stop doing. She is not rolling over yet, but she is getting very close! She laughs and smiles all day long, and is just such a joy. I feel bad that I do not have all the time in the world to play with her, but she seems content to take whatever extra time that I have. Oh and she could not be more beautiful! I know this is totally bragging! Please don't hate me, and I will be the first to admit that my children are really not perfect, but every once in awhile it is nice to sit down and brag about the girls!

Rob, our super Dad, turned 28 this week! Poor guy it was not the best birthday! He has been out of town most of the year in AZ for work, and had to be away from his family on the big day! We sure missed him and can't wait until the end of the month when we have time to really celebrate him! He is the most amazing man, and I am just so grateful that he has chosen to spend his life and eternity with us! We love you Rob! Thanks for all you do for our family!

A few other stories that I need to write down so that I don't forget tomorrow...

Camden loves to clean. She looks for the broom everyday and wants to sweep the kitchen floor. A few times I have let her, and it is so funny! Although she has also hit me in the head with the broom handle more than once and it really hurts! She has been a little sick this week, and wants to snuggle. I love her hugs around my neck, it just melts my heart!

Emma is struggling with being a twin this week. The girl wants her space, and her sister refuses to leave her alone. I find Emma looking for safe places in the house to play, and retreating quickly when her sister is drawing near. Poor thing, there is nothing I can do about it, she will always be a twin! They really love each other, but Emma really is sick of her toy being stolen, and tackled from behind when Camden wants to wrestle. Although, Emma is learning to defend herself. She head butted Camden the other day, I think she learned that from watching the soccer game.
When Emma is doing something wrong, she says "no" over and over. She does not stop what she is doing, just keeps repeating "no" as she is doing the bad behavior. For example, I have asked her several times not to empty Sophie's drawers full of hair ribbons, hats, and shoes. Instead of stopping, she just says "no" with each item as she removes it from the drawer. Thanks Emma! She even smiles while she is saying "no!" And she will not help me put them back in, she simply waits until I am done putting them back, and starts all over again!

Camden and Emma both clap when they figure something out that was challenging them. When they figured out how to put the basketball in the basketball hoop they clapped for a long time. When Camden discovered how easy it was to stand on top of her activity table, she stood there and clapped for a minute straight! Apparently I am not giving them enough compliments for good behavior, so they do it themselves.

Camden is seriously in love with shoes! Can't get enough them! Wants to take them on and off all day, and carries them around everywhere. Steals her parents shoes and hides them for later! I am worried about what this is going to cost me in the future...

When I take the girls to the park, they have to swing in the same swing! I hate to take up all the swings, especially if there is only two baby swings available. It is pretty cute, and efficient!

Cookies for dinner! YUM!When I asked Camden to show me her arms where there were smeared with chocolate chips, she thought I was saying "fold your arms" for prayers! IT was really sweet!

OK that is enough for today! Sorry if these stories are a total bore and too much bragging!

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Valentine's Day Retreat

For Valentine's Day, Rob and I escaped from the babies and everyday life and spent the night down on the Las Vegas strip! We really wanted to get out of vegas, but did not have the time to travel. So we decided to stay downtown and explore Las Vegas. It was wonderful!!! I sometimes forget that we live in such a fun place, where there is endless shopping and amazing restaurants!

The weekend included:

A spa treatment at THE bathhouse at THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay. I have to say this place is absolutely wonderful! I don't think my two hours there was nearly enough! I plan on going back really soon! (Locals get a discount, and they have lots of cool pools and steam rooms)


After the spa treatment, Rob and I met at our hotel room, where we changed for dinner at Maggiano's. I made reservations ahead of time so that we could have a great view of the strip. The highlight of dinner was the music...there was a funny man playing the accordion! He played the song from Disney's "Lady and the Tramp." If only we had ordered spaghetti with meatballs!

We spent the night at THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Our room was perfect!

I don't have a picture for the Wynn, but we had breakfast/lunch at the Terrance Cafe in the Wynn Hotel. This was the first time I had been to the Wynn, it was totally different than what I expected. I really recommend this cafe! It was reasonably priced and the food was delicious!

After eating at the Wynn, we headed to Town Square for shopping and movie!

We saw the movie "Push!" It was an interesting movie, and I suggest you rent it when it comes out on DVD!

After the movie we had to head home to our three little valentines! The weekend was perfect! Thank you Rob for such a wonderful escape! I love you!