Lord of the Dance starring Master William

 

So, we have always come up with songs that fit the behavior or looks of our kids.  It all started with Addy in her huge cloth diapers when we would sing the Rocky theme song and swing her little fists to the beat.  It was always when she was wearing the green diaper with white lining.  Those ones look just like boxing shorts.  We always laughed that we should make videos of it but we never did. 

 

Tonight I was getting ready to change William's diaper and he was kicking his feet all over the place and making a racket because his cloth cover is in the laundry because yesterday I got distracted emptying the diaper pail while his diaper was off.  Really?  When I finally got back to him he had peed all over and was grinning like crazy.  :)  Anyway, while I've never seen more than clips of Irish dancing or Riverdance, he seems to have it in his blood.  Maybe he's trying to tell us he does want us to call him Master William or Liam.  Anyway, here's his debut.  I think we're a little tired tonight because this was really funny to us.  I hope you enjoy it too. 



 

We did have professional photos taken of our family right after William was born.  Since we've been so busy (and our photographer is about to have her 4th baby) it's taken a bit of time to get them back.  But since I'm in such a goofy mood I'll share this one with you.  Seriously, why did we pay so much money for a picture with William cross-eyed in it?!  :)  Maybe our photographer was in a goofy mood too when she included this one in our CD.  She did get the exact same shot without his eyes crossed and was nice enough to give us that one too. 

William has been busy sleeping, eating, and you know. . . He's also been busy getting out of his swaddle.  We've tried the miracle blanket, we've tried the swaddleme, we've tried both of them together.  It doesn't matter.  If he wants to get his hands out, he gets them out and wakes himself up during his nap by eating his hands.  He won't go back to sleep unless he's re-swaddled.  Good grief!  I'm ready for him to grow out of needing to be swaddled to sleep.  Check out the serious look he has.  He's already got quite the expressive face. 

And just so you know he isn't always so serious, here's his whole body grin.  :) 



 

Ok, off to bed.  Happy Memorial Day!

Spring Update

Since the last time I posted, we've been busy!  I've attached a slide show of pictures but here's the run down. . .

My sister, Jenny, was able to spend a few days with us on her way to California.  She spent Easter with us at our Pastor's house where the girls enjoyed an Easter egg hunt (they got more eggs than the big kids . . . they had a little help!). 

Then, Brad traveled to N. Carolina for a week and since Dad had a business trip scheduled to SLC, Mom came along and stayed to help.  We celebrated Elsie's 2nd birthday while they were in town. 

Elsie is a piece of work!  She's so funny with her faces and silly things she says and does.  Her vocabulary is exploding (to include things like 'no way!' 'Baby Lilliam cying' 'silly me!' among many other things)  We took her to the Dr for her 2 year check up and while she feels like a tank to me, she's still only 24 lbs (20%) and 34" tall (70%).  She is enjoying riding her strider, playing at the park and imagining going anywhere.  She often packs a bag or bucket and tells me she's going to the jump house.  She continues to be a good eater (with avocados and cookies being her favorites) and she loves to read books and sing songs.  Our most recent adventure with her is that she learned to crawl out of her crib.  It was a pretty funny event, actually, because we were all confused as to how Elsie came to be playing in her room when she was supposed to be in play time in her crib.  She was happy to show us how she got out.  It became not so funny when I was working in the garage during her playtime a few days later and came in to check on the girls.  She was sitting on the floor by the door eating a dove chocolate piece she fished out of my bag.  She was wearing her rain boots and had pretty much had a hay day in the house.  She hasn't done it in almost a week so I think she figured out her consequences were going to be consistent and it wasn't worth it.  :)

Addy is a funny kid.  She loves to perform whether that is reading, singing or dancing.  She talks in New King James English when she 'reads' out of her Bible and the conglomeration of stories she puts together are pretty funny.  She loves her baby brother and does a really good job with him.  She's so gentle, plays peek-a-boo with him and shhh-es him when he cries.  Addy's imagination is unbelievable and if she's allowed to, she'll take over the dinnertime conversation to tell us about what she and 'her girls' did that day.  She makes the whole thing up!  She also has an amazing memory.  She refers to things that happened over a year ago that haven't been mentioned since.  She blows us away.

William is now 10 weeks old and is in the middle of Baby Bootcamp.  Actually, that sounds worse that it's turned out to be.  He started sleeping about 5 or so hours in a stretch at night pretty early on and then sort of hovered there, not really stretching out.  He was often waking up after only a 45 minute nap in the day and I just couldn't figure out how to regulate his schedule.  This weekend I cracked and Brad ordered me out of the house (on Mother's Day!) so he could work it out with William.  It worked.  Somehow I got used to jumping up to get William whenever he cried during a nap instead of letting him work it out.  Since then he's gone 8+ hours at night and is on a very regular 3 hour routine during the day.  He does wake up and fuss occasionally but he goes back to sleep pretty easily.  I feel like a whole new person.  I'm even blogging during nap time instead of sleeping!  :) 

At William's 2 mo. check up we actually ended up doing an ER follow up visit - that's a whole other story- too.  He was 23.3" (65%) and 12.2 lbs (75%).  We got him reflux medicine even though he's growing well because it is suspected the reflux is why we ended up in the ER.  One night William turned pale, dazed and floppy and I called 911 while Brad was at work.  He stayed that way for 40 min even though his vitals were normal.  Children's Hospital called it an Acute Life Threatening Event - which meant they had no idea why it happened to an otherwise healthy baby so we stayed overnight and they did some tests.  The conclusion was that it was likely caused by the reflux but that we probably wouldn't see him do that again.  What a scary ordeal!

William is very smiley now (more so since the reflux meds and getting 8+ hours of sleep!) and squalks and kicks his legs a lot.  He really watches people and he has some pretty pensive expressions already.  He does, however, have to take frequent breaks from the high energy his sisters put out and he doesn't last long around both of them at the same time.  :)  I suppose that won't change much over the years.

Our most recent adventure commenced this weekend when we hosted the 2nd Annual MOPS Yard sale fundraiser at our house.  For the last month we've been gathering donations (enough to fill our 3 car garage!) and other moms and I worked all last week getting everything sorted and priced.  Saturday we were up bright and early to run the sale and we make over $1300!  Wow!  We even had  a TON of clothes left over and some other items that we were able to donate.  What a success.  Then, that night we had a babysitter for the first time so Brad and I could see Les Miserables at the Pioneer Theater Company.  It was a very good show and a very late night.  But, William cooperated and never even woke up while Kristen was here.  I'm sure the exhaustion of the week contributed to my break down on Mother's Day that made Brad kick me out of the house so he could get our son in line.  :)

Yeah, so don't ask about Mother's Day.  I'm taking a rain check on the whole thing so I can enjoy it instead of just being an exhausted mess all day. 

Brad has been busy at work learning to manage 2 new liability teams on top of his auto team.  He's been enjoying the warmer weather by taking the girls on lots of walks to the park and getting the yard in better shape after winter.  He sure does a great job running the show when I'm busy with William.  What a great dad! 

I'm done with all my year's activities for the summer so I'm creating a new routine for me and the kids.  We're starting weekly walks at the park with some other MOPS moms followed by playing at the playground and a picnic.  We're getting good exercise and the kids are getting worn out playing outside.  It's been really refreshing but pushing 2 and carrying 1 is a lot of work!  I'm figuring out how to keep everyone cared for during the day when Brad's gone but I have yet to actually cook a real dinner.  I've defrosted and reheated previously prepared meals and dished out left overs but cooking. . . not yet and William is 10 weeks!  Oh well, no one has gone hungry yet. 

Life is busy around here with 3 littles 3 and under.  Maybe now that I don't need a nap every day I can start to get some things done. . . if I could only find my To Do List.  :)

William Dean Slease

Well, William is almost a month old already so we thought it was about time we introduce him to you all.  :)  Life with 3 littles is busy even with an extra adult around (which I've had almost every day since he was born) and yet I still can't seem to get much done.

I also thought I should tell the real story of his birth so that all of you that wagged your finger at me about 'barely making it to the hospital' would know what really happened. 

Friday night, March 1, I had random contractions throughout the night (which I had been having for a while and even went to the hospital the week before on the 'first contraction' like everyone advised me so I wouldn't have a baby at home again).  Anyway, in the morning they continued and about 9:30 I decided to lay down to be able to pay attention to them.  We called my midwife and upon telling her they were 10-20 minutes apart she said we should wait to come in until they were closer together and stronger.  So wait 3 hours we did and then all of a sudden, they went crazy.  It was just like with Elsie's birth.  Brad started freaking out (and so did Mom & Dad) that I get in the car right away.  But you know if you've ever been in transition in labor, you don't really feel like moving much. 

I did make my way into the car and Brad drove like heck to get us to the hospital.  Less than 30 minutes after we pulled up to the hospital, William was born.  My midwife was great.  She met us there, they had a room ready and the nurses just let me do what I needed to do.  They skipped all the procedures and just let me do my thing.  My water broke and out he came.  Crazy.  But, we made it this time.  We were glad too because William was a little blue because I had been breathing too fast and his oxygen levels were off so they were able to pink him up a bit.  And, that first night in the hospital he aspirated some spit up and they had to give him oxygen and suction his stomach because he stopped breathing.  That was so scary and we were glad we were not at home for that.

Since March 2, we've been blessed with help, meals and lots of gifts for our little guy.  (I'm still working on thank you cards!)  We were especially blessed when I came down with Mastitis and Brad had to finish a certification class for work.  A friend watched the girls for me and neighbors brought us dinner.  Brad goes back to work on Wednesday so we'll see if the house remains standing at that point. 

Here's a slide show of the first couple weeks.  Actually, it may only be the first week.  I haven't seen my camera since.  :)

On other news, Elsie is about to turn 2 and she's decided the birth of her baby brother "Yilliam" is a perfect time to start potty training.  Whew!  I don't want to discourage her but seriously?!  She talks a blue streak and is very active.  She loves to ride her strider, play at the park and just run, run, run!  She's in the 'I do it!' phase for sure and she keeps us on our toes with her passion. 

Addy, who is 3 1/2 (and she'll tell you she's not 3!), is a great big, big sister.  She's very helpful with William.  She's getting into playing board games and she is really growing in her independence.  Addy loves to write in her nursing notebook (just like Mommy) and she loves to have one on one play time with anyone who is around.

Brad and I are trying to adjust to being outnumbered.  We're seeing we've entered a season of quick prep meals, not much down time and lots of energy (not ours!).  I'm sure we'll settle into a routine but right now everything feels pretty chaotic.  Three is a LOT more than two!  At least, that's how it feels right now.  But you know, William is such a sweet little blessing and we experienced so many answers to prayer with his birth and since we've been home.  It may be tricky for a while but we are blessed.

Recap :)

I decided to update the blog today and I had to laugh that the last post I did announced that we were going to have a boy.  That in itself probably recaps the last 4 months for you.  :)  Here's a quick run-down and a slide show of what we've been up to. . .

We hosted Thanksgiving for my parents and sister and it turned into quite a family gathering!  We had to move the dining room table to the living room to fit everyone.  It was great fun!

We've had a LOT of snow this winter and I'm happy to say that the snow that's hung around since before Christmas is finally (almost!) gone.  Whew!  Today the sun is shining and giving us hope that spring is coming.

We remodeled our basement to make a bedroom for our little guy and so we spent 2 months covered in dust, sleeping in the guest bed in the family room and unable to find anything.  We also were sick most of that time with ear infections and coughs from lingering colds.  That was a long 2 months but the remodel turned out great and we now have 4 bedrooms instead of 3.  We haven't exactly moved everything back in from the garage yet. . . maybe someday.   

Elsie finally got tubes in her ears in January after going through 6 ear infections since September and it has really helped!  No more crying in the night from ear pain or trips to the Dr twice a week.  Whew!

We spent Christmas in Houston this year with some of Brad's family and it was a blast!  There were so many little cousins for the girls to play with and we got the royal treatment since I was pregnant.  Actually, we've yet to go to TX not pregnant.  Maybe next time.  :)

In preparation for our new addition, Addy got a real big girl bed and we moved her crib/toddler bed to the basement.  She loves her new bed and loves that it's purple!  :)

This pregnancy was especially hard on my back and at the end of January I was finding it really hard to put any weight on my left leg.  Naturally, that made taking care of a 3 yr old and a 1 1/2 year old a bit tricky so at the beginning of February my Mom (and then my Dad) came out to help.  Their plan was to try to stay in town until our little guy was born so we'd have someone to watch the girls when we were in the hospital.  The plan worked but since little man lingered in the womb, they were here waiting, waiting, waiting, longer than they thought they would be.  What a blessing!  I couldn't have finished out the pregnancy with their help.

So, that's all I can remember of the last four months.  Enjoy the pictures!

It's a . . .

So, the story goes a little something like this:

I've been going back and forth on finding out the sex of this baby.  Since the pregnancy was a surprise, I thought maybe knowing the gender would help me adjust and prepare (mentally and physically) for the baby.  I also know that I liked NOT knowing before and so I wasn't sure what to do.  Brad on the other hand continued to stick to not finding out ahead of time.

The night before the ultrasound . . .
Me:  So, you're pinned to the wall and you have to decide right now, for good, whether to find out the sex or not.  What do you do?
Brad:  I wouldn't find out.
Me:  Why?
Brad:  There are so few surprises left in life and I really liked being surprised at the girls' births.
Me:  Ok, then we won't find out.  (I'm planning to be a submissive wife and go with him on this.  Plus, I just want someone else to make the decision for me.  ;)

In the ultrasound. . .
Bethany (the ultrasound tech):  Do you guys want to know the gender of the baby?
Me:  Nope, we want to keep it a surprise.
Bethany:  Ok, I'm about to measure the legs and umbilical cord so if you don't want to know, you'd better look away.

As I looked away, I looked at Brad.  What was he doing?  LOOKING at the TV monitor!!!  I jumped on his case about how he wanted it to be a surprise . . .
Brad:  Well, now I want to know. 
Me:  What do you mean?  You told me yesterday you didn't!
Brad:  Well, now I'm interested.
Me:  NOW you're interested?!
Brad:  Relax, I can't tell what I'm looking at anyway.
Me:  You know what that means, don't you?  If you don't seen anything then it's a girl!
Bethany:  Ok, you guys decide what you want to do and give me the final word.  I'm not saying a thing until then!

I got on his case for a while for changing his mind and when Bethany was going to do some measuring of the feet she asked us what our final decision was. . .
Brad:  We want to know.
Bethany (looking at me!):  What's the final word?
Me:  Oh good grief, go ahead and tell us!  (look at what a flexible person I'm becoming!)
Bethany:  IT'S A BOY!!!
Us:  What?!

So there you have it.  We would never pass as ultrasound technicians because even when Bethany showed us how she could tell it was a boy. . . we were pretty much taking her word for it.  But she said, 100% for sure a BOY!

Crazy.  We're adjusting to the idea of our family changing drastically and Brad's considering what it means to raise a boy into a man.  :)  Here we go. . .

A bit of catch up. . .

It has been quite a while since my last update and we've been busy!  I've attached a slide show of pictures but to summarize, here's what we've been up to. . .

In August we headed up the canyons to camp as a family.  We have not camped since Addy was 13 months old so we were a little unsure of how it would all go.  We had grand plans of practicing sleeping in the tent in the back yard and, well, we didn't get that far.  We had a great time hiking in the mountains together and having a picnic dinner followed by a walk around the campground and s'mores after dinner.  Everything came flying apart sometime around 8pm when we decided to put the girls to bed.  Talk about disaster. . . about 10pm we gave up and decided to pack everything up and head home (only 20 minutes away!).  The girls were crying, screaming and just plain falling apart.  We buckled them in the car and tossed everything in the back only to discover that they were both asleep before we pulled out of the campsite.  Grrr!  Oh well. 

I do have a picture included in the slideshow of some produce from our garden.  Let's just say we lost interest in the garden somewhere around mid-August.  The tomatoes stopped producing well and I couldn't stomach eating veggies so we gave nearly everything away.  We did enjoy some tomatillo enchiladas last week and a couple of winter squash (and I'm excited about our 4 pumpkins still on the vine) but beyond that. . . we've decided gardening isn't our thing.  At least not while we have littles and I'm pregnant.

We were able to spend a week in Gunnison in early September and we really enjoyed the fall weather, being outside and getting to do some small adventures.  We had Addy's birthday celebration (she was sick for it though) and the girls traveled really well.  I think we made it home in record time.

We did celebrate Addy's birthday again on her actual birthday with breakfast for dinner and lots of cupcake treats throughout the day along with meeting friends at the aquarium on her special day.  The birthday theme was ballerinas and tutus (a lot of the gifts followed that theme, I didn't plan it!) and so ever since we've been in constant dress-up mode. 

We just had Brad's mom, Lynn, at our house for a week long visit and we stayed very busy exploring many things in the Salt Lake area we haven't seen before.  We took a train ride through the Provo Canyon, had high tea at the Grand America hotel, had lots of great conversation and played outside quite a bit.  As a family we also went to Oktoberfest at Snowbird and ate crazy food and dance to wild polka music.  What a great visit.

As far as family news. . . I'm 20 weeks pregnant and although we have our big ultrasound next Tuesday, we're still not sure if we're going to find out the gender of the baby yet. . . we'll let you know.  I look mighty pregnant and I'm trying to prepare for this baby by getting a little exercise, re-reading some helpful books and resting.  We're also looking to remodel our house to add another bedroom and so we've been doing a lot of prep work for that.  I've been serving on leadership for MOPS at our old church and attending a women's Bible study at our new church so that we have some interaction with live outside our home.  :)

Elsie is 17 1/2 months now and is busy, busy, busy.  She's changing so fast.  She loves to dance, pet dogs and cats, and go for walks.  She's quite expressive and emotional (both high and low) and is really opinionated.  She is SO different than Addy was at this age!  She also just got over her first ear infection of the season so we're waiting for the bomb to drop because if she gets one more we're likely moving toward tubes for her ears. 

Addy has stepped into age 3 with lots of flare.  :)  She's in the 'I want to do it' phase and we're really working on different strategies to help her reign in her 3-ness.  Addy loves to make up songs and sings constantly and she also loves to live in the land of make-believe.  We're doing home school stuff with her and while she's loving it, it's quite a challenge to do it with Elsie on the loose.  Elsie wants to do everything Addy's doing but ends up eating whatever we're doing.  This too shall pass.  :)

Brad has been busy with work and has gotten some good opportunities to learn more about different parts of Farmers.  He continues to host visitors from out of state to highlight the work the auto department has done here.  He's doing a great job!  Brad has also been able to get together with some of the pastors from our new church to get to know them better.  We are all really enjoying the sound Biblical teaching at our new church and it's been fun to get to know the families in the church.

So, no promises on when the next blog post will come. . . hopefully sooner than later but life seems to get away from me!  Enjoy what's left of fall!  God Bless!  

More travel. . .

We've had a few changes to our social life in the last few weeks.  My good friend, Beth, who moved here from CO the same month we did moved to DC and our next door neighbors moved to the mountains.  :(  Bummer stuff.

Here's Addy with her best friend Addy (Addison) at the zoo just a few days before they left for DC.











Here's me and Beth (and baby Gunner's head) on the kiddie train at the zoo before they left.



Well, we just got back from a visit to Kansas to see my great Aunt and Uncle Bursch, my cousin Jesse and my cousin Clint and his family.  Clint and Kayla have a daughter, Natalyn, who is 6 months older than Addy and a little new baby girl named Parker. 

It was a lot of driving but we had a great time with them.  My how our lives have changed since we last spent time in Kansas (4 years ago!).  Kayla and I spent a lot of time at the house with various nappers but we all did get out for the fair at night.  The girls all had a great time on the little rides.  Addy was very into her cousin Natalyn but Elsie was so fascinated by the bab-bab.  She kept wanted to touch Parker and swing her in her swing.  Too cute.  What a great visit.








Here's Addy and Natalyn (with Uncle Dick in the background) after riding the airplanes.








Here's Elsie in the mini cars (with Natalyn in the background).  Oh my goodness was she so proud of herself that she was big enough to ride a ride!  :)

Yeah for the carousel!  This was funny, they played A Tracks (I sort of had to guess that's what I saw and Brad confirmed it) and it went really fast.  I was getting light headed holding the girls on there!




The Slease Fam on the Farris wheel.  I was a little freaked we were going to loose the girls under the bar on one of the random crazy swings our car did so this picture just had to be good enough. 






The girls on the airplane together.  Elsie had a strange look on her face the whole time and all Brad, Dee and I could do was crack up and hope she didn't puke!  :)







The 3 cousins playing in Natalyn's playhouse.  Elsie loved wearing Natalyn's tutu. 








We went out to dinner with with Clint and Kayla and at this point Elsie had totally mastered Clint.  He was giving her whatever food she wanted off his plate.  :) 




I'm 11 weeks pregnant now and starting to feel a little better.  It's hard to believe that I'm almost in my second trimester.  Good grief, this is really going fast.  I did go for a bike ride with the girls in the trailer this morning (probably less than a mile but I'm tired!) and I even cleaned my kitchen floor yesterday.  I must be feeling a little better, huh? 

I just took Elsie in for her 15 month check up and I have to say, I felt like -other than wanting to know her growth, why in the heck am I here?  I don't have a thousand questions for the Dr. like I always did with Addy and Elsie is doing great.  Oh well, she did need a shot.  :)  So Elsie weighs 19.1 lbs (0% not even on the growth chart!) and she is 31 inch tall with is about 60%.  The Dr did want to make sure Elsie's eating well since she's a lightweight for her age but compared to her height, her weight is average.  Her growth chart is telling, though, because those months she was sick so much between 7 and 12 months her weight really dropped and fluctuated a lot.  Now she's growing again.  As for her head, she's still a pin head like her Mama.  She's 10% for head size.  :)  She is picking up words quickly now.  It's still Elsie speak but you can tell the words she's saying for things like down, ball, baby, banana and help.  What a cutie.  Oh goodness, and what a drama queen!  :)  We're working on not throwing tantrums and screaming right.  Already?!

Addy is getting so big and she is really starting to get huggie.  She isn't a cuddler but lately she wants and seems to need lots of hugs to be ok.  She is talking a blue streak and starting to ask good questions when we're talking or reading stories.  She still asks 'why?!' 30,000 a day but at least some of her questions are starting to have some thought behind them.  Yesterday she asked me what we were going to name the new baby.  :)   I said that I didn't know (gosh, we haven't even thought about it yet!) and she said maybe we should name the baby Elsie Mae.  :)  When I told her we already had an Elsie Mae she said, maybe Natalyn.  She was out of ideas when I told her that name was taken in our family already too.  She said, what will we do?  Too cute.

Ok, true to form, I'm off to take a nap.  Hope you all are enjoying the end of summer (that's what I'm telling myself it is because I'm sick of the heat!).  God bless!