January 23

Saturday afternoon.  Cade is at a birthday party, Ellie is sleeping and Cami is in her bedroom playing for her quiet time.  Kirk is in Minnesota visiting Grandma Morris, Grandpa Morris and the rest of the family and will see Grandma Maxson tomorrow.  I have some peace and quiet.

This week involved a lot of staying home. . .again.  Cade did not have preschool Monday and ended up with a fever on Tuesday so he stayed home Wednesday too.  The only time I left the house those 3 days was to do a visiting teaching visit and pick up a movie from Redbox.  We have played with lots of duplos, lightsabers, princesses and cars.  We played pizza race, Candy land and chutes and ladders lots of times.  We have watched Return of the Jedi and Hotel Transylvania and Stuart Little and a few other movies.

Thursday Kirk was off work.  I took Cade out in the morning and did a few errands.  One of them was returning some curtains to Kohls.  Cade had fun walking around and seeing all of the Star Wars stuff.  He likes looking at the books and toys and even clothes.  We walked through the clearance section and found a Christmas ornament for Ellie.  Cade spotted an Elsa dress and thought Cami would really like it.  It was a good price and so we bought it so he could give it to her for her birthday.  She has been wanting an Elsa dress for a long time.  Kirk went golfing in the afternoon and I watched a movie with the kids.  Ellie had a hard afternoon and only slept about 45 minutes in 5 hours.  I was frustrated and didn't know what to do.  I knew that she was tired and not hungry.  She was laying in her bed awake and would cry for a few minutes every 10-15 minutes.  Finally she fell asleep and slept for a while.  I ended up holding her through a show after I got the other kids in bed for the night.

Friday morning Kirk left for Minnesota.  It would have been fun to go with him, but a lot of work and money with 3 little kids.  His Grandma Morris is going to die in the next week or so and he wanted to go visit.  I took Cade to preschool and then Ellie, Cami and I went grocery shopping.  Ellie was worn out from Thursday and slept through the whole thing.  We took Cade to speech and then came home and had some quiet time.  It was a nice day and we played in the backyard until our friends came over.  Lauren brought her kids.  She was just going to stay for a little bit, but then her husband got sick and so they ended up staying for over 2 hours and having grilled cheese with us for dinner.  It was really fun to talk with her and we hardly saw the kids; they were having a lot of fun playing.  It is nice to have a house big enough to have people over and spread out a bit.

Ellie gave me a nice gift last night and slept from 9-3, about 2 hours longer than she has ever slept before.  She is super cute right now.  She likes to smile and talk and still loves to be held.  She will cuddle right up to my chest and just relax.  She is getting much stronger and can hold her head up and look around.  It is still a challenge to get her to fall asleep, but we will get there.  Nights have been easier this week because she has been eating and then falling asleep again quickly.  Hopefully another month or so and she will be getting up 0-1 times a night instead of 2+.

Kirk comes home tomorrow and then it is off to the races again.  He has Wednesday off next week but is working on Saturday at the family expo.  We have preschool, visiting teaching and a few other things going on.  My dad turns 53 this week.  Here we go!