The Mower Family: Now where were we…

It has been a while since I’ve blogged, or it least that’s how it seems to be.. Last year I thought that life couldn’t be better. This year, I proved that theory wrong. Life for us, just keeps getting better and better. Now for an update!

Matt: Matt still works for Digis as a call center supervisor. In a few days he hits the 4 year mark! :) He works very hard and has loved it.. Most of the time…

Last year, some issues started to arise changing the work atmosphere and it made it, for the first time in the history of working there, hard to go to work. And he was cranky when he’d get home. We decided it was time to move on. Matt was hired on at somewhere else, and we would have taken a slight pay cut. Luckily, over the years, Matt’s pay has increased dramatically, but we’ve made sure to keep our living conditions the same no matter how much money we have to spare. We did need to prepare ourselves for a few things such as cancelling the cable we’re paying $200 a month for.. I know.. Boo Hoo.. So we’re now a Netflix and Hulu Plus family again! Which I actually enjoy better than cable and I made sure all the shows I love are on Hulu. We’ve been able to save ourselves tons of money in preparation for the job switch. Then Matt’s boss talked to him. Matt opened up to him and told him what was happening and why he was leaving. 2 days later, another meeting. Only this one was to tell him that they have looked into what Matt had told them and told him that they had addressed the issue and things would change. They then asked him to please not leave. Matt came home and him and I prayed about it. It was a hard decision because on one hand, he already had another job lined up that had better benefits. On the other, Matt has loved Digis. And the only thing that made him want to leave had been addressed. And they promised him an office. :) We decided to stay. It’s been a great experience preparing for less money only to find out that your life will still be amazingly happy with the same amount and his annual raise coming in March. Now we’ll have to take all that money we’re saving and put it into savings or something. LOL The issue has been resolved and Matt is again happy to go to work, and happy when he comes home.

Alicia: I’m back to 100%! And let me tell you, days are busier than EVER! When I first got out of the hospital, the stomach flu hit our house THAT NIGHT! LOL It’s been an interesting journey. We’ve since, in the time I’ve been home have dealt with stomach bugs, and upper respiratory junk and now our family is on it’s next round of another stomach bug. (It’s not as bad though). So I’ve been trying to get everyone healthy and nursing Makayla to try and keep her healthy as well as keeping up with 3 kids in diapers (Now only 2 though, YAY! And the potty trained one isn’t the one you’d think it would be.. Ugh..). I do wake up exhausted. My whole days consist of changing diapers, nursing AND pumping, feeding the family, cleaning my house, I make sure I spend at least 30 minutes alone with each kid each day reading stories or playing a game with them one on one as well as playing with them all together for a majority of the day, potty training x2, getting Connor ready for Kindergarten (Again, I’ll explain later) and helping Thomas with about an hour of homework a night. at night I will spend time with Matt and watch TV shows that I like or movies while the kids are in bed. We usually make a treat after the kids have gone to sleep and just relax. It’s almost like every night is a date night, even if we’re not doing the same thing, we still talk and laugh if he’s on the computer and I’m watching a movie. It’s nice. He’s my therapy.. And my life.. I love that man. Anyways, after all that though and then waking up with Kaylee at night, even though she only wakes up once, I am still exhausted the next morning. Then it starts all over again. Matt lets me sleep in whenever he can though, and that helps TONS!

Thomas: Watch out world, this kid can READ! He’s actually getting the highest marks in his class for reading! I’m super proud of him! He reads anything and everything and it’s hard to sit with him and do his homework at night listening to him read to me. It makes me want to cry how grown up this kid is. He reads hard words too!! He checks out big long books about the moon or other scientific things at his school library and the other day he was reading me a book about the White House. He is good at Math as well, but it definitely isn’t his favorite. He seems to try to rush through it. Spelling he does great too as long as we do all of our practice during the week… It isn’t something that comes quite as naturally to him though. Yesterday I checked his spelling homework and we talked about a few errors. He started bawling and telling me “I’m not going to get good grades now!” It broke my heart. I had to tell him that the spelling activities we do during the week are just practice for the spelling tests on Fridays! I also told him that he tried his very best (he refuses to look at the spelling words for reference if he struggles during his homework. He thinks it’s cheating lol) And that nobody expects him to do more than just try his best! Not even his Heavenly Father! He felt a little better after our chat.

He lost another tooth yesterday at school!! He’s getting so big! He’s also such a great big brother! He likes to argue that he loves Makayla the most. He is also quite proud of the fact that he can lift her and hold her. I also let him try feeding her once in a while, although he can never finish since his arm gets tired. :)

I’m very proud of that kid. I hope his brothers follow his example and turn out like he is turning out.

Connor: *Sigh.. This poor kid. He has been sick this last month more than any of the rest of us. It’s so sad because he doesn’t complain at all, he’ll just go tuck himself into bed and fall asleep randomly. Other than trying to recover, Connor loves Toy Story 3 – The Playstation Game. He LOVES it! And he’s pretty good at it too! Sometimes for mine and Connor’s 30 mins of one on one time, he’ll ask me to play this with him. It’s funny because he doesn’t use the controllers like most people. He sets the controller down in front of him and then uses all 5 fingers on one hand to work one of the joysticks and then all 5 fingers on the other hand to toggle the other one. When he has to push the other buttons he’ll take his hand off the joystick and press the button. And he still kicks my trash… :) Connor is not yet potty trained. I’ve talked to his doctor and everything. He will go number 1 just fine and he will go days with ZERO accidents, until he can’t hold #2 anymore and it’s all downhill from there. He is scared to death to go #2 in the potty. Needless to say, I can’t send him to preschool not completely potty trained, so I work with him at home everyday so he learns the things he needs to before kindergarten. He has made some progress this last week since Riley finished potty training, so there is finally light at the end of our tunnel, but it’s still going to be a long road. Last week Connor went #2 in the potty for the first time. I drove down to Walmart after he went to bed that night and bought balloons and a cake and we had a surprise “Poop Party” (I know.. Gross, but hey!) He felt so special! And now he knows he can do it. Right now, I’m working at getting him into the bathroom whenever he needs to go potty. The next step is he has to be sitting down on the potty with the lid down. Then we’ll put the lid up. Then we’ll take away the diapers.. I’m interested in how this is going to turn out. Cross your fingers, because the next step, and the last straw, is cleaning up accidents in the tub with cold water. I cry when I think about it, but something has to be done. :( I’m very proud of this kid as well. He puts up with a lot from his younger brother. Riley looks up to this kid more than anything! He always has to know what Connor is doing and where he is. Of all my kids right now, Connor is at the stage where he makes me laugh the hardest with the adorable things he says and the cute games he plays. He is soaking everything in right now. He loves to do his “homework” with mommy and is so proud that he knows how to count to 20. I’ve noticed he plays games that help him make sense out of life. Right now he says his teddy bear is pregnant, and will have to stay a long time in the hospital.

Connor loves making up his own names for everything. For example: If you were to give Connor a pinwheel, he would reject the name “pinwheel” and make up his own name. He would declare that pinwheels are going to be forevermore known as “Spinners! Because it spins!” Well… A few weeks ago Connor was drinking out of one of those “Squeeze-its”. Remember those? The tall plastic bottle with the twist off cap? He finished it off and the plastic kind of popped. Connor declared:

“I’m going to call these knockers! They sound like they’re knocking!

…. Mmmm These Knockers are YUMMY!”

Knockers… Really Connor? I was HORRIFIED! What if he asks for some in public?!?! A) How do I explain to a 4 year old, that “knockers” might not be the best name for his drink. and B) I’M NURSING A BABY!!! If he did happen to ask for some in public, people will probably look sideways at me. He’s a little old to be nursing and WHY the heck would he call them knockers?!?! Ugh.. I’ve had to just cross my fingers and pray that he forgets his new name for them. Until then,we haven’t bought any more of them so hopefully he’ll forget about them all together.. Until we’re at Walmart during what is sure to be a super busy crowded noisy day and he’ll shout that he wants some on the top of his lungs. Please people, if you happen to hear him say anything about them, don’t judge.. It’s not how it sounds. :)

Riley: Sweet, sweet Riley.. No amount of attention is enough for this kid. I hear that’s pretty typical for any 2 year old though, especially one that just acquired a new baby sister. It’s still frustrating though. Right now if anyone else is trying to talk to me, Riley will start shouting on the top of his lungs so that it makes it difficult to hear them. I take him into his room at least 4 times a day and just sit with him reading books and singing songs and it does help. But he’s just having a tough time. He loves the baby though that’s for sure! He is always very quick to help mommy and loves to kiss baby’s head. Me being away for a week has scarred the poor kid. Whenever I leave he has a little 2 year old anxiety attack thinking I won’t be coming back. He’s getting better with it though. I was able to use his absolute love for attention to my advantage though and we were able to get Riley all potty trained!! He knew that if he told me he had to potty I would drop everything no matter what I was doing and I would sit in the bathroom with him while he went. He turned it into a game and soon, he started going without even telling me. And now, he is in pull ups at night time only and he potties like a pro! YAY!!!

The dog photo bombed him!!

(This is what happens when Daddy dresses Riley. LOL)

Ms. Makayla: Never, in my wildest dreams did I think it would be so much fun having a daughter. I was never very successful nursing my boys. But with this girl, whole different story!! I think it was because I missed the first week of her life. Everyone else was taking care of my little girl and being able to see her more than I was even able to. Yes, I still pumped while I was in the hospital, but I wasn’t able to feed her. As soon as I got out, I did nothing but nurse. It was something only I could give her. It made me feel like I was finally her mommy. And I have no plans of stopping any time soon. I do pump a lot so that I have quite a store of milk built up for after I stop nursing though so it means that Matt and the boys can help out when I need a break.

For Kaylee’s 2 week appointment she was weighing 10 lbs even! So she was past her birth weight which is great! All of her tests are normal so we have nothing to worry about there either! Last week at 1 month we weighed her again and she was at 9 lbs 14 oz. So she actually lost a little bit in 2 weeks. The doctor isn’t concerned though. If you study that girl, you can tell she isn’t meant to be big. She has teeny tiny little feet it will actually probably be a couple months before she even fits into newborn sized shoes, her legs and head always measured small and she looks healthy. She’s having enough messy and wet diapers and she’s happy, so there’s nothing to worry about. It must just be her body evening out to the way she would have been if her mommy didn’t have gestational diabetes. :)

While all of my boys were out of newborn clothes within the first month, but this little missy still needs them. The newborn clothes are slightly small, but not bad at all, while the 0-3 month clothes drown her!

She has 4 boys wrapped around her little finger already. All she has to do is whimper and they all go running to cater to her every need. Yes, even Riley. He has only tried to pick her up once while she was crying, but we put a stop to that pretty darn quick.