August! August was quite the month! At least the first week was. First we had Bentley's birthday party! He turned 4 this year and wanted a party with Uncle Brians bounce house. We are so lucky that they own one and let us borrow it. We just let the kids play outside, had cake and ice cream, and then opened presents. It was low-key but the kids had a ton of fun between the bounce house and the trampoline. Bentley wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirate cake and for whatever reason every store in Flagstaff, Holbrook, and Winslow decided to not stock up on Jake and the Neverland Pirate anything that month. Luckily I had Derek and Alison and my parents coming up from the valley that stopped and got a few supplies. Thank you!
The next day we blessed our new little Ella in church. Kyle gave a beautiful blessing and Ella cried. All went well :) Steven, Chris, and a few of their kids made the venture up as well as Kellie's family and Mike and Trish. We have such supportive and awesome families- we need to do better at that!
The following Wednesday was the kids first day of school! Macy is in 2nd with Ms. Alley, London is in Kindergarten with Mrs. Allison, and Bentley has moved on to 4 year old preschool with Mrs. Ceccareli.
London has been so excited to go to school and eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Macy despises it but is a great helper and will go with London in the mornings if London wants her to.
Now it's just me and this sweetie in the mornings. She has started her first smiles and she's so sweet! She's a fiesty thing and definitely knows exactly what she wants when she wants it- but she's sweet when she wants to be :)
Macy, London, and Bentley are constantly wanting to be involved with whatever Ella is doing- they love having a baby around!
August 6th we took quite the adventure. Kyle's brother Keith is staying near the Washington/Oregon border right now and Marie wanted someone to go up to visit him with her and asked us to tag along. We flew Allegiant airlines and they fly out on Thursday's so we arrived in Washington on Thursday, drove to Yakima, and then drove the rest of the way to Seattle on Friday. We spent quite the day walking around and seeing the sites. We hit the most touristy places like the Market Center (That had the most GORGEOUS flowers) and did the underground tour of the city. We had dinner at a fancy little restaurant that was way too expensive for the portions we got. I ordered crab legs and really just got a leg. Marie got a caesar salad and man was it fancy- they didn't even cut it up! It was just like 6 pieces of whole romaine lettuce. Then we hit the Space Needle and called it a day. The next day Marie and Kyle went and saw Keith while I got to hang out with one of my life long BFF's Whitney! We hung out at the hotel, took some beautiful pictures of Ella, and then went to eat and did some shopping. We hung out until Kyle and Marie got back and then Kyle and I went to a really yummy place for dinner while Marie stayed at the hotel. We ventured over to Whitney's house and spent the evening laughing and hanging out. On Sunday we drove around the country for way too many hours and then flew home. It was a great trip!
My Mom came up and watched the kids for us so they wouldn't miss the 2nd and 3rd day of school. She's awesome like that. Kyle got a super cute picture of London being the saddest/cutest little ladybug.
The next weekend (so like the teen something) we went back down to the valley for Ryan's homecoming! He just got home from Russia and gave a great talk. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Kyle's family.
And the big news of the month... Macy lost another tooth!! I think we are up to 4!
I just had to document this sweet baby's hair. Right after a bath- this mane is crazy! Check out that frow! Macy was a little concerned that Ella didn't have a favorite "stuffy" yet so she let her borrow the beanie baby that Barkley had given a nose job too. Oh the love.
The kids did great in school and are loving their teachers. Ella is doing good- but we did have to switch her up eating a little bit. She was a good nurser (well, she ate) for the first month of her life and then one day it just all went down hill. We probably went a week with her screaming during every feeding and things just weren't going well. She had a check-up coming up and I decided to talk to the doctor about it. He was a concerned because she was born in the 20th percentile, lost a little weight (normal!) and then got back up to the 20th percentile, but now was down to the 8th. He wanted me to give her some formula to see if that would help the screaming and weight gain. I thought a lot about it and decided I would just pump and see if that would help. Well, it did. She wasn't crying at feedings anymore and after 2 weeks was back up to the 20th percentile. If she were my only child, I would've totally kept up on pumping- but after a month, I was done. It was way too much work for this mom. She is gaining weight and eating MUCH better now. Everyone's happy :)
