April 11

Today--
Ellie woke me up at 5:00.  She went back to sleep on her own, but I got up.  My alarm was set for 5:25 anyway.  I got dressed and went grocery shopping and was home by 6:10.  Crazy right?  I needed to go and didn't make it on Saturday.  Ellie had a doctor check up today and I didn't want to take a grumpy baby and 2 other kids shopping with me.  It ended up working great.  We now have food and Ellie was able to stay home and nap and be happy/grumpy all day.

Ellie--
This was her 4 month check up.  She is now 26.5 inches long (97th percentile), weighs 15 lb 9 oz (80th).  She is getting big!  She loves to laugh, wiggle all over and play in the jumperoo.  She has been sleeping great at night (about 12 hours, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.).  She takes 3-4 naps a day.  Usually one is 2 hours and on lucky days we get 2 long ones.  She loves to watch what is going on.  She is starting to grab objects.  She tries really hard to roll from back to front, but has only done it a few times.  She still hates being on her tummy though.

Last week--
We had general conference last weekend.  We skipped part of the Saturday morning session and hiked up badger mountain.  It is the only real "hike" around here and gets a lot of use.  Cami made it the whole 3.2 miles round trip and only started crying at the very end coming down.  I think it was mostly because she had to go potty so badly.  Both kids did great and Ellie even got a little nap in.  We got to watch a lot of conference the rest of the weekend, but I didn't hear much at all.  I look forward to re-reading and watching them.  At one point Kirk looked at me and asked "Does he [Cade] ever shut up?"  Cade likes to narrate what he is doing and is constantly talking and singing.

The week was fun too.  Cade didn't have preschool because of spring break.  We had some friends come play on Tuesday.  We met friends at Goethals park on Thursday and at another park Friday morning.  Kirk was off Wednesday.  He went golfing and to work in the morning.  We took a picnic dinner and went fishing with the kids that evening.  It was great weather and a nice night, but no fish to be seen.  We went on a few walks/bike rides, played in the sprinklers, cleaned up the house, used our grill a lot, had the missionaries over for Sunday dinner and watched the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens.  Cade was super excited about that last one!

We [Kirk and I] have been trying to catch up on life.  It seems like we are constantly behind and trying to figure out how to do the next thing.  Ellie has been taking longer naps the last 4-5 days and it is amazing how much more time I have.  I try to take time to play with my kids and not get bogged down with everything else.  I was able to help Kirk and mow the lawn on Friday.  We'll get there.  If you would have told me 3 years ago that I would be grocery shopping at 5:30 am and doing dinner dishes at 8 pm while Kirk was heading back to work I wouldn't have believed you.  But this is making it work.  He was able to be home for dinner after a crazy day.  He went running and told the kids good night and then headed off again.  We have some things we want to get done around the house, inside and out before summer hits.  We'll see what happens.

I'm not sure what the rest of this week holds, but I'm sure it will be a full one.  Somehow, the days are long but the weeks fly by.  My sweet kiddos are growing up fast and I start tearing up every time I think about them going to school or growing up at all.