Our November trip to Utah

I should start out with how our plane ride went. In a nutshell: Miles was great. Caden was great. A sweet lady helped me with the girls. She held Avery the whole time for me and I dealt with Alexandra, who was tired and unreasonable. What I crazy to try and fly out with 4 kids all by myself? Probably. But I survived.

Part of the reason we went out to Utah was to attend my grandpa's 80th birthday party. The party was at the church where I was born and went to until I was 11 years old. This is a picture of my grandpa, when he was, well -- younger.At the party: Me, Alexandra, Grandma Redding holding Avery, Caden, Grandpa Redding (birthday boy) and Miles. It was good to see all of my family and extended family. I definitely don't get to see them often enough.
Sunday after church. Alexandra and Avery in their matching dresses.
Sisters!
Avery has these big blue eyes and long eyelashes. She is a beautiful baby. She looks a lot like me when I was a baby.
Sunday night we had dinner with my family. Alexandra was having a rough night. My niece, Mayley, who is 2 1/2, decided to read books to Alexandra to make her happy.Monday night I went out to dinner with some of my best friends who were also my college roommates. We went to Macaroni Grill and talked for hours. Avery came along for the evening. My parents took Miles, Caden & Alexandra to see Madagascar 2 & McDonalds while I was gone.
Cheers! Charlene, Me, Alisa & Ana.
Charlene (aka Chuck) and me:
Alisa & meTuesday: My sister came to my parents house and we made Tutu's for the girls. Here is how they turned out. They were cute AND easy to make.Tuesday evening we drove down to Mapleton. Tim's sister is the Coach of the 9th grade girls basketball team there. We watched Aunt Suzi coach and see her team win their game. That night I also drove to the airport to pick up Tim. We stopped to Target on the way home from the airport because Tim forgot to pack some PJ's. Wednesday my mom and I went grocery shopping and started cooking food for the feast for the following day.

Thanksgiving day!
Aunt Suzi & Avery

Tim & the boysMayley & Alexandra eating Thanksgiving dinner. I don't think they ate that much.
Alexandra enjoyed dessert!
We have a tradition in our family that the baby gets their picture taken next to a pecan pie. Here is Avery's. I think we will try again next Thanksgiving.
Redding family picture:
Friday morning Tim's brother Jeff and his family came down to visit. It was good to see them only if it was for a few hours.

Miles, Caden and cousin Dylan:
Aunt Melinda with Alexandra, cousin Alyssa and Avery:
Alexandra eating pizza and being cute before we left that night to go to the airport. It was a good trip. We never get everything done that we want to do.
I'm glad Tim was with me this time at the airport to fly home.

Caden said today ...

"Mom are you going to call the doctor for Avery? Her cryer is broken."

(Note: Avery has been a little sick this week and her voice is hoarse, so she has this sad qu8iet little cry right now.)

Smiles from Avery

Avery is 11 weeks today. Here are some pics of her smiling. Finally!

Avery Overload

Avery has had a few hard weeks. (That means mom too.) A lot of crying and spitting up. She is starting to get better but not sure what exactly is going on. She does like to be held, that's for sure!A binky makes her happier and quieter.

8 weeks old (10/24/08):
I took her for her check up. She weighed in at 9 lbs. 8 oz. (23%), was 21 3/4" long (33%) and her little head circumference was 14 1/4" (4%).

Caden is a good big brother. He will hold Avery and can get her to go to sleep.

He will tell her "Shhhhh, go to sleep baby."
Avery 9 1/2 Weeks old:
I love this hoodie outfit.
My favorite pictures is when they are sleeping.These are the best pictures we can get of her smiling. I think she cries a lot more than she smiles, unfortunately. She likes to stick out her tongue too. (10 weeks old)

(Note: I have been working on this post for a few weeks so I just decided to post it as-is.)

Do your kids have Halloween Meltdowns?

Mine do.
I have a picture of Caden when he was about Alexandra's age having a meltdown Halloween night.

Happy Halloween

Pumpkin Farm

Yesterday, I took the kids to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm, (sans Miles, he was at his piano lesson and piano Halloween party) along with some other friends. Alexandra wasn't sure about the bean pot. But she did like the bean bags and the balls to play with. She also liked the goats and the llama. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, so my good friend Janelle took these pictures for me. And bytheway, it was like 85 degrees that day.



These 2 pictures of me and Zani together look almost exactly the same, but they are 2 different pictures.

Sports Girl: Part 2

Tuesday night, Tim took Alexandra and Caden to a San Jose Sharks Hockey game. Lucky!

Sports girl

Last week, Alexandra had 2 firsts.

Tuesday night Tim took Caden and Alexandra to the Warriors pre-season basketball game. Tim said she was "money" or in other words really good during the game. She cheered and danced.

Then Saturday Tim took her to the CAL Bears football game vs. UCLA. They went with Jeremy and Zoe (who is a month younger than Alexandra.) Once again, she was really good and cheered. Jeremy put a CAL bear tattoo on her cheek (which is still partially on her face.) What a fun daddy-daughter date! Tim is so proud of his little sports loving girl.

A view from their seats.
She was tired as the were leaving the game. She fell asleep on Tim's shoulders. (Thanks J & J for the picture)

Jerry Seinfeld on Halloween

I love this! Enjoy!

Ward "Fall Festival"

We celebrated Fall/Halloween with our ward on Friday night. They had a chili cook-off, corn dogs for the kids. A parade for those who dressed up, Miles won the award for "Most out of this world costume" for dressing up as a Jedi Knight and running around the gym showing off his light saber skills. Then finally the trunk-or-treating. Alexandra enjoyed figuring out that "everyone we know is just giving out candy!" (see Jerry Seinfeld on Halloween post.) It was a pretty low key event but the kids still had fun.

Avery: Looking a little scaredAlexandra & Daddy
Alexandra (Minnie Mouse) and her friend Tyler (who happened to be Mickey!)

A great book

Alexandra was struggling a bit with Avery being born. Some days were better than others. Then we started reading this book to Alexandra. It is now one of her favorite books ... and it has helps out tremendously. A few of the pages say: "The baby is so little. Too little to walk. Too little to talk. Too little to play with toys. Too little to eat pizza or apples or ice cream. Babies like to drink milk They like to sleep. They like to be warm and cozy. Our baby likes to look at me. "Look at me, baby, I'm your big sister." Can I hold our baby? I must ask mommy first! I am gentle with the baby. I sing a little baby song. I'm a big sister - I can make our baby warm and cozy."

This is the result of reading this book (over & over & over ...)

Alexandra is loving having Avery around. She always wants to hold her and give her the binkie. When she is done holding her she says "done" and puts her hands up in the air. Then when you take Avery away she freaks out and wants to hold her more.

Piles O' Laundry

Laundry,
Family of 6,
Nothing washed in 5 days,
Better start before the boys run out of socks.

Date with Grandma

Today Alexandra and Grandma Doll went on a "date" aka shopping trip to the mall. Their goal was to buy a white long sleeved shirt, white tights and black church shoes to finish up Alexandra's Halloween costume. (She is going to be Minnie Mouse.) When they came home from their date this is what Alexandra looked like:

Little Miss ..

Climber ..
Get-into-everything ..
Mischievous ..
Terrible 2 already?

(But she is still cute)

Avery at 5 weeks

Caden and I did a little photo shoot this afternoon. Avery is now 5 weeks old. I am happy to report that she is starting to fill out. She is more alert. Tim and I are fighting over who is going to get the first smile. I am even happier to report that for the past few nights she has only been waking up once a night!!

Trick - or - Treat ??

Yes, Avery is still so small. She can fit into Miles' candy bucket. That's a good costume, right?