Funny Video of Alayna

I'm thinking about uploading THIS VIDEO to America's Funniest Home Videos - aka The Fall-Down Show. :)

Potty-Training #3

"Clean and dry! Clean and dry!" - our new favorite song since Alayna's in princess panties. Day one of potty training was absolutely exhausting for both of us. She wanted to stand up like her brothers and sitting was traumatic for some reason. Once she figured out that sitting wasn't so bad, she did great. No accidents on day two and this is the morning of day three. She woke up dry ... at 6 am. As hard as day one was, she's been the easiest to train so far. She still gets a little panicky with public potty chairs. I may need to carry around the small-bottom potty chair lid for the Y and church and other people's houses. :)

I really hadn't planned on potty-training until after the baby came. Don't know why I thought that would be easier!? But Alayna's been asking to go potty for a while now, so I thought we'd give it a shot. In case anyone is interested, I use Potty Training 123 by the Ezzo's for all three kids and they've all three potty-trained within 1 to 3 days. There's nothing magical about it except that the kids are ready and the mommy is ready for the ride. The first day is intense as far as staying on top of it and dealing patiently with accidents. The second and third days are progressively easier and less messy. So, I have a bunch of size 4 diapers at my house if anybody needs that size. :)

Hudson has finished his 15 day challenge so we're headed to Old McDonald's today. Our town has a newly built MD, but the boys like the old playground better. Hudson drew a sign for Pierce with both of them jumping up and down that said, "Let's go to McDonalds!" He's pretty pumped. And AUNT SHANNON IS IN TOWN!!! We're SO excited to spend Easter weekend with my little sister.

Went to the doctor Monday. All is well with Adelle. She measures right at 35 weeks even if mommy feels about to pop. She's head down and ready to go ... in a month. I told my doctor about all the aerobic classes I'm still doing thinking maybe she would say I should take it easy or something. No. She was so pleased with me. So I'll be going to Zumba this morning. I have a tiny little umbilical hernia (looks like an outie, which I never have with babies). Supposedly I should limit my lifting. I quit lifting weights a while back, except for laundry baskets and children. I guess the giant baby will have to get used to being the big sister sooner rather than later. It's always a little bit sad.

I'll close this post with the official name agreed upon by BOTH PARENTS. I thought we'd never get to this point. Naming kids is hard! Among the ranks of Hudson Alexander, Pierce Maxwell, and Alayna Serene, we will add Adelle Sofia Frederick.

Video of Alayna singing and the boys playing

This is for you, Aunt Epsie - nothing fancy or too terribly entertaining, but I think they're pretty cute :) Well, the video wouldn't upload so copy the link below to your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jBh7EjD6pk

And here's a shot of baby #4. 16 weeks and KICKING! I like this part. I haven't thrown up in a few days. I THINK I'm out of the woods.

My Baby

"Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens;

Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,

Your justice like the oceans depths...

How precious is Your unfailing love, O God!  

All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.

You feed them from the abundance of Your own house,

Letting them drink from the rivers of Your delight.

For You are the fountain of life, 

the Light by which we see."  Psalm 36:5-9

Isn't it incredible that when we see clouds, God's faithfulness reaches beyond them?  Isn't it amazing that when I don't know where I'm going to put another child or how we're going to feed another mouth or what in the world God was thinking when, through all our efforts to keep from this, the Fountain of Life granted us yet another life and gives us shelter in the shadow of His wings, and feeds us from the abundance of His own house, and lets us drink from the rivers of His delight?!  I am in awe of the unfailing love of my God.

I must say, I was initially in shock.  Not devastated, at the deepest level, but definitely reeling.  Another baby?  Are you serious?  Long ago, I thought it was a great plan to have all of my children before I turned 30 (I'll be 29 the end of this month).  Now, I realize, not only does that require extreme amounts of energy and who knows how many pots of coffee, but it will also require us to do something permanent after this baby comes to avoid our own reality TV show when I'm 42 and pregnant with our 19th child!  That's another big decision - not really thinking about that yet.  However, Suzanna Wesley and Mrs. Duggar are in a category of their own.  Not planning on joining them. :)  Beyond that crazy stream of thought, God is so good to grant us this baby, whom my sons are determined to name Deuteronomy, aka Dude.

In other news, Alayna is 15 months  old and so much fun.  She says new words every day, loves shoes and wants all 7 of her blankeys at the same time.  She loves talking on the phone and playing with her babies, and building spaceships and playing cars - we call that well-balanced.

She loves sitting in this chair.  She usually gets as many toys as she can hold in her arms and then sits down.  She's a hoarder.  :)  Now that she's walking she likes to kick the ball.  Hudson is playing soccer this year, so she's learning a lot from her big brother.  

The poor thing has been blessed with my cheeks, but we love them.  She may not love them so much when she's 14.  ;)

And this is the little guy we found playing on our playground in the back yard.  He makes a great science lesson/craft for this week!  We watched him for a really long time.  One of our favorite babysitters gave the boys bug-eye masks.  As soon as we saw the praying mantis outside they went and got their masks on.  More pictures to come!

Alayna On the Move

One minute you see her, the next she's gone.  I was making coffee.  How did she sneak past me?  I found Alayna in the office this morning wading through a bag of trash she had dumped all over the floor.  She was gnawing on an empty cereal box.  Thankfully this is the sack we put the recycle stuff in - no rotten left-overs!   Yesterday she pulled up to her knees on the couch ... then fell over and SCREAMED.  I love this stage (sarcasm).  

Well, I stretched our groceries out over two weeks and unless we want to eat salted rice tonight (I'm even out of sugar) I need to go to the store.  My stash of coupons and sale flyers looks pretty good though.

The giant baby is destroying the bookshelf now.  Guess I should go.

A picture post

Crazy playing in the play room.

Boys being silly - they dressed themselves - it's about 40 degrees outside when this was taken, so of course they're in muscle shirts.

I had to get this shot because Hudson dressed himself in black cords "because they're black and they look awesome."

I told the boys that I wanted to take a "nice" picture, so they held hands - ha!

This is what bedtime looks like.  Daddy usually does this part.  Tonight he was the photographer.

The boys are into setting up their plastic super heroes and having me take a picture.  Seriously, I have 40 of these.  The boys are way into Planet Heroes.  Every planet has a hero and, for a price, you can collect them all.  They want the big $40 HQ.  We haven't given in on that one yet.  So right now the kitchen is called "Solar Quarters" and all of their guys are space heroes defending the universe from space monsters.  Any time Alayna gets hold of one of their guys she growls.  Think there's any chance of keeping her girly?

Notice my husband's handy work around the fire place.  Love it.

Hudson and I had a discussion today about limiting computer/TV time.  He'd been on the computer for about 30 minutes and I told him his time was up.  He came into the kitchen with shoulders slumped and sighing and said, "Mom, my imagination is telling me that I should throw a fit, but I prayed to God to help me obey and not throw a fit."  He's said this kind of thing on several occasions now.  It's great to see a little conscience becoming aware.  We've been praying for a few of his friends and family in different situations.   One of his friends had a scary visit to the hospital recently.  We prayed together for him and Hudson prayed that he would remember Daniel and the Lions Den and that he would be brave and know that God is with him.  I love hearing lessons we're teaching come alive in sincere little prayers.  It's amazing and so rewarding.

My Angel

My sweet  baby girl.

Her granny grin

Who would've thought that a bald head and no teeth would be so precious?!