Lotsa fun!

We have been having such a fun holiday season so far!! I LOVE this time of year! And kids make everything 150% better! For Thanksgiving, we went to Shane's parent's house in the afternoon on Thursday, then my dad's house later that day, then my mom's house on Friday and last but definitely not least we went to a friend's house on Sunday. 4 Thanksgivings?! Heck YES! I only took pictures at our friend's house......

Here Kaden is checking out the Christmas tree Stephanie was decorating.

Here is Maggie! She is Danny's parent's dog, but since they were out of town, they were dog-sitting. I know she's a Jack Russell, but seriously guys, she is the MOST calm, sweet dog I have ever met. She is a major cuddler and totally adorable. Kaden and Lexi absolutely love her.

(These next few pics Kaden took...)

Shane playing with our new camera (more on that later...) :D

Lexi looking so cute

With Kaden taking the pictures, we had a lot of these butt shots of Maggie since she was all he really wanted to take pictures of. haha

Kaden got a nice closeup tree pic. :) I was surprised because I was sure that he would turn the ornaments into bouncy balls and see how far he could throw them...but he didn't! He loved putting them on the tree and "helping" and didn't once even look like he was about to chuck any of them. :)

In other news, at the beginning of the month we potty trained Kaden! We used this ebook called 3 Day Potty Training. It took Kaden about 1 1/2 days before he was potty trained. :) It was awesome!! I totally recommend it to everyone! Part of it is having the kid run around the house in a t-shirt and underwear, which Kaden enjoyed. ;)

I, of course, put him to work sweeping. That is his favorite chore. :)

Kaden made sure that Elmo sat on the waterproof-potty-square-thing so that he (Elmo) didn't ruin our couches. :)

Kaden always has to make sure that his puppy and whatever other toy he has with him are all tucked under the blanket, too. He is so stinkin' cute. :)
It has been a little over 3 weeks since we potty trained him and he has been doing fantastic! I was extremely worried about hauling him all around for Thankgiving, but he did great and we took a potty seat everywhere we went to make life easier all around.

As for Lexi, she has just been being her adorable little self. She eats TONS which is such a nice switch from Kaden. For example, one day for lunch she ate two entire hot dogs (one was Kaden's that he didn't want), a container of mixed fruit, 6 ounces of formula, and was still snacking on Cheerio's afterwards. hahaha I think Kaden ate 3 crackers and some milk.

For those of you wondering about her helmet progress.....she is doing well. She is used to it and really doesn't mind wearing it at all. Her next appointment is on Dec. 10th and the doctor said that he wants there to be at least 1/8th of an inch of movement from when she first put the helmet on. So we will see what happens.... :)

My little T.V. junkie has claimed this body pillow as her own little chair. She is so cute!

She is happy 99% of the time. And entertains herself 98% of the time, too. What a great little baby! Kaden LOVES his sister and watches out for her. He also makes sure that he gives her her teddy bear before she goes to bed and gives her hugs and blows her kisses. :) I have the best kids in the world.

New family pics

We had family pictures done at the beginning of October and (slacker that I am), now you all get to see them! I will try not to post all 176 of them. ;) My friend Livia did them and (as always) I love her work and how they turned out. It was absolutely freezing (plus wind) and the kids were not happy. I was really glad that Livia was able to get some shots of them actually smiling! :) I LOVE fall and the gorgeous colors! Enjoy!

Maybe Kaden needs a helmet, too.

On my last post, I promised to explain about Lexi's newest accessory: her helmet. Everyone asks me why she has it, so I thought I would clear it up. :) Lexi had torticollis when she was born due to the fact that her head was always in the same position in the womb. (In easy English, it just means that she had a very tight muscle in one side of her neck so her head was always tilted.) Kaden actually had the same thing, but it fixed itself.

Apparently I have a very comfortable uterus. :D Way TMI...I know, I know.
So, when we realized that her head wouldn't fix itself the way that Kaden's did, we got her started in physical therapy at about six months old. It took a couple of months, but her neck is completely fine now. However, she still had Plagiocephaly (again, for those of you who skipped medical school, it just means flat head syndrome. The right side of her head was totally flat because of the torticollis.) Both of these are pretty common in infants. Anyway, she needed to get a helmet to fix her flat head before she turned 1. By then their heads don't grow enough to fix the problem.

Another question I get a lot (especially from our Primary kids) is whether or not the helmet is actually squeezing her head. No, it's not. It simply provides a barrier so that her head grows into the open space left on the right side of the helmet. It doesn't hurt her whatsoever. :) She wears it 23 hours a day. I always feel horrible putting it back on after nighttime bath time, but she really couldn't care less. The part that I miss the most?......

*big sigh* I absolutely LOVE her curly hair. I miss being able to style it soooooooooo much! Especially now that it's getting longer. She has to wear the helmet for 3-4 months (depending on how fast her head grows into it....since she is "older" than most 4-6 month olds who get the helmet, it could take up to 6 months......but I am hoping for 3). :)

I love my big girl!

Friday night we went up to Brigham City and ate at Maddox (YUMMMMMMMY) with Shane's grandparents and parents. We don't get to see them enough, so it was good to catch up. As we were leaving, Shane's mom noticed that we had 4 generations there. So, of course, I had to take a pic of the occasion. :)

Kaden is doing the sign for stars. It's his favorite. :)

Speaking of Kaden.......I was putting laundry away today and Kaden was playing on our bed. He decided he wanted something on the dresser...that he had to reach really, really far for. I heard his foot slip. I turned just in time to see his arm slip out from under him, his face bang against the very corner of the dresser, then fall face first to the ground. Yeah. It was horrible. There was blood coming from his mouth and I was horrified that he might have lost a tooth and would need stitches in his lip. Shane came running in when I yelled for him. We took Kaden to the front room and got him calmed down enough to see that all his teeth were still there (although, he would have adult teeth grow in eventually.....), but there was still a good amount of blood. We very seriously considered taking him to the E.R. His bottom lip swelled up quickly. His gums on the top were bloody and totally swollen. After the bleeding stopped, we saw it wasn't serious enough to go to the E.R. They wouldn't really have been able to do anything anyway. I ran to the store and got some popsicles (since he wouldn't let us put ice to his lips and gums) and chocolate milk (the perfect cure).

So sad. See the huge bottom lip and blood? :( My poor baby.

Later today, after the popsicle and chocolate milk therapy. A totally spoiled Kaden is feeling better. :) Still a bit swollen, though. (I also gave him some Motrin to help with the pain. It hurt him so bad when he tried to eat a cracker on that side of his mouth.)

This is what his lips normally look like. Happy boy! :D

Halloween 2009!!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Our original plans were canceled due to a friend who got the swine flu the day before Halloween, so we had to improvise. :) Shane's work has a trick-or-treat every year where all the families come and go desk to desk, and office to office. It is always fun to show off the kiddos. ;) I tried SO HARD to come up with coordinating costumes for Kaden and Lexi this year, but so much of what I thought of were romantically coordinating....uh, yeah...soooo not happening. Part of the problem was that Kaden needed a costume that didn't involve anything on his head. Remember last year?

Yeah. The only way we could get Kaden to keep the stupid head part on was to stick the binky in and distract him while we feverishly took pictures trying to make it look like he wore it the whole time.

This is last year trick-or-treating. You can see that the head piece didn't last long and (you can't see, but) Kaden refused to wear shoes.

After searching for weeks I still couldn't find anything that would be un-romantically coordinated PLUS not have a head part for Kaden. I gave up and decided Kaden would need to learn to deal with it when I found the CUTEST Piglet and Tigger costumes for way cheap online. :)

Lexi looking adorable as Piglet. (She is wearing her new helmet, which I will post about later this week.)

And for Kaden.....
Yup. Off to the usual screaming start for him. I was sooo not looking forward to this. Since Kaden is one year older (and wiser, too), we tried reasoning with him. We told him if he put the head piece on, he would get LOTS of candy! He wasn't happy about it, but he trusts us to follow through.

Ahh!! Doesn't he just look so stinkin' cute!! Even though he is doing his best mad face. haha

"Um...mom, dad? This is still empty."

Going around at Shane's work. Kaden LOVED it!! :D

Yup, his bucket was totally full. It got too heavy for him after about 45 minutes of trick-or-treating. :)

Lexi was loving life, too. :) She is SO adorable!

Family picture! Kaden loves looking at this and naming everyone. haha ;)

On Halloween, we went up to Shane's parent's neighborhood and went around the huge homes there. We surprised his parents by showing up, then spent a little while chatting.

Kaden looking for more candy while Lexi (of course) eats something she shouldn't: playdough. *sigh* what am I going to do with her?

Lexi digging for more contraband. :) Only 6 more weeks until she turns 1!! Then she can have chocolate! Woo! She's gonna love Christmas this year.