February/March

Where does the time go?? Our days go faster every day it seems. The weather is getting nice and all the kids love to be outside. I love to be outside too, I am sure going to have to take advantage of nap time this summer to get stuff in the house done!
Duncan: Duncan is still in preschool, a little over a month left and then summer break. He loves school and gets smarter each day. He just blows me away with what he knows and some of the stuff he says. He has started to roll his eyes, boy is it funny. It is hard for me not to laugh at him when he is in trouble and rolling his eyes at me. He is a big help with the babies still, he plays more and more with them everyday. They all love to play with him too. Duncan still loves to ride his bike, and play in the dirt.
Owen: Owen is walking better now. He is always up to something. Owen had also became the bully. He likes to sit on anyone, and the other day I caught him kicking Elliott. I scold him and he just gets this ornery grin on his face. He also likes to take toys from his brothers and sister. Owen can still throw a good fit, but it has calmed down a bit, thank goodness. When he was throwing alot of fits, he was always throwing his head on the floor.
Elliott: Elliott is finally walking on his feet! He still walks on his knees sometimes, but not nearly as much. Elliott is still Mr. Serious sometimes, but he jabbers more and laughs alot. He likes to blow raspberries on every one's tummies. It is very cute and they all laugh when he does it. Elliott loves ride on the little ride on toy we have.
Olivia: Miss Olivia is coming out her shell! She is jabbering more and more. She picks on the boys all of time. She is eating more. Olivia will actually stand on her feet when you stand her down now. She walks around stuff more and more.
Ethan: Ethan is starting to run. He loves to play with balls and can throw pretty well also. He went to the ophthalmologist because his left eye is turning inward. They told us that he is far sided and gave a script for glasses. We are going to wait a couple of weeks and have him get adjusted at the chiropractor a couple times a week and see if that helps first. The doctor contemplated if he would even wear the glasses, so waiting a couple weeks isn't a big deal.
For spring break the kids and I went to Wisconsin Dells with the Hawkins girls. It was a fun vacation. We didn't do alot, just hung out in the cabin, swam, and played at the park. It was lots of work to go swimming, but lots of fun too! It was hard work but relaxing at the same time. I could of not done it without the girls to help. They were awesome to help with everything and Duncan was good, and a very good listener the whole trip. The babies loved to roam the whole cabin! We made it 4 days and then Duncan locked the bathroom door and shut it, we had to call maintenance to come unlock it. Then later in the afternoon it got locked and shut again, the same lady came to unlock it and gave me a roll of duck tape to use over the lock. Problem solved, didn't happen again. We had a good trip up and back home. We only missed one turn each way. The way there it added a hour to the trip, on the way home it didn't make a difference. The kids were good riders. Duncan didn't sleep at all either way, and the babies only slept a couple of hours each way. I had to take the van to an auto shop because I set the emergency brake and it stuck, so they got it undone and told me not to use it. Also the running board broke so I had them take it off. We had a few injuries while we were gone. Hannah ran her toe into the door and it bled alot, also her toe nail will fall off eventually. She took it easy the rest of the day. Owen tried to climb out of the bathtub and fell. He had a bloody nose and a black eye. We have had several black eyes already in our house!  

The end of January and Duncan had a picnic at lunch

Elliott loves to talk on the phone

Duncan reading to the babies before naps!

Duncan at lunch

Lunch time Owen( L) and Ethan

Elliott and Olivia

Olivia Ann at dinner

PICTURES Janurary 2012

Ethan James

Owen Lee

Trying to get a picture of all 5 together. L to R Elliott, Owen, Olivia, Duncan, Ethan

Elliott Allen

Ethan James

Duncan Bruce

Monkey Owen

Nap time, Elliott, Duncan, Olivia

Buddies Duncan and Olivia 1-12

Ethan James 1-12

Our Biggest Monkey!! Owen Lee 1-12

Elliott (black) Olivia and Owen 1-12

All playing nice Etan (red) Elliott, Owen (brown) and Olivia 1-12

Duncan: Duncan turned 4 on February 18! He has became a big helper with everything, some times it is a good thing, and sometimes I don't really need help. I take it anyway. He is still enjoying school and would love to go everyday. We have started car pooling to school which is very nice, I only have to go to Altoona one time each school day.

Owen: Owen is walking now. He has also became very ornery. He does stuff and just looks at us and laughs. He knows he is being a little naughty. He uses silverware somewhat at the table, and it getting better about not throwing his cup on the floor when he is done with it. Owen weighs almost 20 pounds.

Elliott: He is walking, mostly on his knees but the last few days he has started to walk on his feet! Elliott also uses silverware at the table. He does the best out of everyone. He likes to eat his food, and usually doesn't mess around to much. Elliott is also a little on the ornery side. His favorite thing to do is bang on the window with toys so we take them away. Elliott weighs around 22 pounds.

Olivia: Our little peanut. She is very ornery and a monkey also. She is still crawling and walking around stuff, but if we stand her down on her feet, she goes to the ground! She will get there. Olivia likes to pick on the boys and does not like to nap well these days. She is a good eater, but takes her sweet time. Olivia weighs around 16.5 pounds.

Ethan: Ethan is jabbering all of the time. We don't know what he is saying most of the time, but he is always talking! He walks all around caring toys all the time. His favorite thing to do is carry something up the stairs. He tries every night to take something to bed. He is a good eater, and will sometimes use his silverware.

We went to the NICU for the babies 15 month follow up. The boys all graduated, but Miss Olivia has to go back in 4 months because of her weight and low muscle tone in arms and legs. I think the muscle tone is just from her being lazy! If she is not walking when we go back the nurse said we would have her do physical therapy. I am sure she will be walking by that time. Tyler went with us to help out. We made a quick stop at my work and visited for just a couple minutes.

All the babies are now sleeping THROUGH the night. They sleep from 6 pm to around 530am. It is early mornings, but not having to get up at night is wonderful.

We have had a wonderful winter, now I just pray it stays nice out. All of the kids love to be outside and we go on walks every chance we get. I am sure we will spend alot of time at the park this summer.

Not much going on lately.
Tracy went to New Orleans for a conference for 4 days. Mom took 3 days off and stayed with us. It was nice to have her here to help out. The kids always like having Grandma here! The babies don't ever sleep when she is here, they hear her, and know she won't let them cry at night! One night we were both up at 2am and one night Olivia slept with Grandma all night! But back to our normal routine now!!
Ethan is walking all over the place. Elliott has started to take a few steps here and there. He really likes to walk around on his knees!
That is all for now. Not much going on. To cold to go outside most days. We are waiting for spring, I am sure everyone will be walking by then. Should be interesting to have everyone out and about.

Trip to the grocery store

I decided the other day since it was nice that all 5 kids and myself were going to the grocery store. I thought about it for awhile and even thought about not going. But we did. We all loaded up, and went! We went to fareway, I thought, I will just buckle in kids in the front of each cart and pull one and push one. Well that worked for Owen and Olivia, but Elliott is to big and couldn't fit with Ethan. So I buckled Ethan in and Elliott and Duncan rode in the big part of the cart. Everyone did very well. Elliott and Duncan stayed sat down the whole time. Olivia did well too, other than she kept pulling off her socks, finally I just put them in my pocket. Owen did very well. Ethan did well also, but at the very end he decided to turn around and stand up. I sat him right back down. So we were in and out of the store in 40 minutes. I brought the kids home and put them in their chairs for lunch and while they ate, I unloaded and put away the groceries. We were all worn out after the trip!
Ethan is walking more and more every day. Elliott took a tiny step today and I think that Owen took one yesterday, but he was behind the chair so I couldn't really see for sure. Olivia is still just crawling and walking around everything. I am sure it won't be long and we will be chasing them everywhere!
Duncan is glad to be back in school after Christmas break. I am glad too, I am very ready to get back to our normal routine. We didn't get there last week, hopefully this week we will.
All of the babies are getting molars, so they have been a little cranky, and they don't like to nap. They are sleeping at night. We are in process of taking the bottle away. They do well with the sippy cup for the most part. Today is the first day without any bottle at all, it went well. We will see how they sleep tonight. I am sure it will be fine. I took out all of the bottles except 4, I now just need to get rid of those too, or we will just keep using them!
I decided to give everyone a bath at the same time tonight, in the tub. What a disaster. Owen does not like the bath tub and screamed the whole time. Duncan was trying to go from one end of the tub to the other. Olivia cried most of the time. Ethan kept standing up, and Elliott just played. It was just going to be the babies, but Duncan wanted to be with him so I said ok. We won't do that for awhile again, it is much easier in the kitchen sink, although they will get to big for that soon!
The weather has been so nice out lately, Duncan has been playing outside. We all went for a walk the other day, the beginning of January and it was 65 outside! All of the kids LOVE to be outside.

Dentist and out to eat

Today was the last day of Christmas break for the Hawkins. They were nice enough to help me get the babies to the dentist! It went very well. The dentist said start brushing teeth daily ( I know that, it just doesn't get done!). Get rid of the bottles, way harder for Dad than anyone! Sippy cups should be gone by 18months.. I think we can get this done. After the dentist we went to lunch. I asked the girls if they wanted set down or drive through??? Taylor and Sarah said they would help me feed the babies so we went for Mexican. It was very good, the food and having all 5 kids out to lunch. Everyone ate well and they were all well behaved! I was a little nevrous going in, but all in all it was a wonderful lunch! We are all tired after a big day out on the town.
Ethan is walking!! He has been taking steps, but he is really walking now. He can walk across the living room. Now I am sure the rest of them will decide to take off! I don't know what we'll do then. It will be an adventure that is for sure.