They love their sister!

Hunter absolutely loves his little sis. He totally adores her. I'm not trying to leave Tate out, he loves her too, but Hunter is in total love with Callie. Tate has to know where Callie is as soon as he wakes up in the morning or from his nap. He goes all over the house saying "Baby!" until he sees her. Hunter says the cutest things to her, I have to record them before I forget. He's always talking to her in a higher pitched voice. Here are some of the things I've heard him say to her:

-"It's OK, I'm not a monster!"
-"Aren't you just the cutest little girl!"
-"Don't cry, I'm here."
-"Those are the cutest little toes I ever saw." (he then proceeds to do the "this little piggy" game with her.
-"Oh, aren't you just a little peanut."

I know there have been more, but those are the few I remember. He is so cute with her. I had no idea the boys would be so great with her. I was really worried about how they would respond to having her here, especially Tate, but they just love her and it makes me so happy.

We're off to the chiropractor today again. She seemed to fuss less the night I got her worked on, but still was up a lot in the night. Last night we had youth group, and one of the girls there held her the whole time and she was awake and being so good, so she slept from 10-3:30! That was awesome. She was awake from 3:30-5, and Brent was up with her most of that time. I was stuck in dreamworld and couldn't get out. I was burping her after feeding and had her propped up by her face with my hand, and she spit up and it went all down the sleeve of my robe. Not the greatest feeling that was:)

A couple more funny Hunter sayings: Last night at supper he kept saying to Brent and me, "Guys, laugh. Laugh!" So I laughed and he then asked me, "What's so funny??"
And yesterday morning Brent and I were kissing goodbye in the kitchen(again) and Hunter peers around the corner and says, "Oh, guys, that's enough!"

No rest for the weary...

Well, I sure am tired. Callie has been keeping us up lately. Her new routine is to fuss from 7-11, then sleep till 2 and be up anywhere from 2-5, then she sleeps till 6:30 or so, just as the boys are waking up. If I don't sleep from 11-2, I don't sleep at all. Last night she was awake from 2-5. I finally took her downstairs to let Brent get some sleep, and I sat there trying (unsuccessfully) to console her. It is extremely exhausting. She seemed tired, but she would thrash her legs out quiet a bit, so this morning I decided we'd try the chiropractor. We were able to get in this morning and he asked me quite a few questions about her, down to what her spit up looked like. He diagnosed her with colic, but said it probably wasn't gas that is causing her discomfort, but certain vertebrae are out around her tummy, making her stomach hurt. Unfortunately, those same vertebrae give me trouble all the time. Every time I go to the chiropractor the same bones are out, and they are all the stomach ones. I hope she hasn't inherited my terrible digestive system! He adjusted her and I will be bringing her back Thursday and twice next week. He hopes this will take care of her discomfort. I hope so b/c I would LOVE a more restful night. My super friend, Nikki, watched the boys while I took Callie to the chiro and then kept them for the afternoon and let me take a little snooze at her house. I really appreciated that. Brent is gone with the boys now at a dad's time at the library. I guess they will be having story time, gym time and a snack. When I left Nikki's Hunter had his orange pants on inside out and backwards, so I hope Brent was able to convince him to turn them around:)

The boys have been playing pretty well together lately. They've been super silly. Tate has been putting on every ones shoes and whatever clothes are laying around(which, unfortunately, has been a lot of clothes) He was wearing a stocking cap around last night with my flip flops on. He came into the room wearing one of my tank tops, and it was very funny. I didn't get a picture. I gave him a hair cut the other night before bath, and Brent had to hold down his arms. Every time I give the boys haircuts I always say after that I'm going to take them to a barber next time, just so I don't have to deal with it. Poor Brent was sitting there holding Tate's arms when Hunter poked him in the ear with the scissors that were in our haircutting kit. Brent handled it gracefully.

I had my 6 week checkup yesterday and my incision is healing nicely and I've been cleared to resume exercise. Mellow exercise, but exercise! I have been really excited about being able to exercise again. Not sure when I'm going to do it, but at least I can! I think I'm going to try to get Pilates in before the kids get home. My plan is to do Pilates after the kids are in bed, but Callie needs to cooperate with the plan. We still have thrush and I got another prescription from my doctor and one for Callie. I'm not going to let it get bad again.

I haven't had any funny Hunter sayings lately, but he said something funny the other day to Brent. He and Brent were putting together a puzzle and Brent told Hunter to go ahead and put a few pieces on, and Hunter tried and then said, "But dad, I can't do that yet. When I'm a dad, then I can do that!"

A few pictures:

First smiles!

I've been sitting here playing with Callie and she has been smiling tons! It is the cutest smile ever! She has a dimple on her left cheek. I have always loved dimples. It makes the sleepless nights a little easier to take when your child smiles at you.

Today has been interesting. We started out the morning giving the boys a bath. Tate was splashing so hard that I got him out and got him dressed but let Hunter play some more. I was trying to keep my eye on Tate so he wouldn't go in the bathroom, but I was also folding laundry. I had my back to Tate for a few seconds and the next thing I hear is Brent saying, "oh no." Tate, fully dressed, went and got back in the bathtub. So we had to get him out and start all over. We also had to laugh, he looked pretty funny.

Next I thought it would be fun to take the kids outside(minus Callie, who dozed in the bouncy seat in front of the big window) It isn't very warm, so I put on their snow pants. I made sure Hunter went potty before we went out. They played trucks for awhile and Tate laid face down in the snow eating it. Then Hunter says to me that I need to change his clothes b/c he pooped in his pants. That ended our outside time.

Inside I asked the boys to pick up their books while I made lunch. I hear crying from Tate in the living room and go in and ask what had happened. Hunter tells me he bit Tate on the back, so I check and sure enough Tate has teeth marks on the middle of his back and Hunter had broken the skin. I think I need to clone myself just to be able to get a task accomplished without anything happening. I disciplined Hunter for biting Tate and then held Hunter for 5 mins while he had a major temper tantrum. Needless to say he is currently napping.

It hasn't been overly bad today, though. The boys ate their lunch, which thrills me. Plus, Callie is smiling, so big yay!!!!! I was looking at a lady's blog who has three kids that look close in age, and they are older. The youngest is probably 3. She had some pictures of them up and they looked like they were having fun and getting along and I thought to myself, having three kids close in age is going to be a blast later on! I'm mostly stuck on the right now of, "good grief this is hard!" but I know that its just going to get easier. And I'm kind of excited for all the fun we'll have. There is never going to be a dull moment! Also, speaking of getting easier, Callie slept from 9:30-2 last night. She was up from 2-3 and then woke up again at 5:30. That has been the best she's slept so far, woohoo!!

To make things easier for myself I've decided to transfer all the kids to a doctor in the local clinic. Now, by the time I would have just been getting to the clinic I usually take them to, I'll be hopefully just getting done with the whole visit. Brent stopped by and signed a form requesting their records today, so I am so relieved. We were going to go local when Callie came, but then we had all the problems with her birth and I changed my mind, but she seems to be fine now.

Well, I better go, but I should say that I've typed this mostly one-handed while nursing. Go multi-taskers!

What happens when spring doesn't come soon enough...

...you go crazy. Haha, just kidding! My friend and I DID try something crazy today, though. We took our 6 kids under the age of 6 to McDonald's play land. And to Target. And to Cub food. It didn't go too bad, but it is definitely exhausting. I had to pick up a bday gift and some groceries. We left about 10:30 and just got back at 2:30. Both the boys were asleep before we got out of town to come home, but Tate only slept 15 mins of the ride back and is awake now, so it looks like a 15 min nap is all he'll be having. He's on prednizone right now, though, so that can make you unable to sleep. Hunter fell back asleep, fortunately. The kids really love to play on those play lands. I try not to think about how incredibly disgusting it might be up in the climb tunnels. Callie started screaming after I put her back in her car seat to get ready to go. She screamed and screamed and I thought I'd put her in the sling to go to Cub, even though it wouldn't take me long. I put the boys in one of those car carts, where they can drive them, and had Callie in the sling on me. I felt like I was a walking freak show. People stared and stared. I was a bit crabby and wanted to say to a few of them, "Take a picture!!" I know I must have looked a little frazzled. People always comment( I heard it twice today) "Oh my! You must have your hands full!" Yes, yes I do, thanks for noticing.

Tate was sick with croup last week. He woke up on Wednesday morning just wheezing like you wouldn't believe, so I called and got him right into the doctor. I took all three kids with, so it was interesting. We crowd the little room, that's for sure. The doctor put him on a couple different medicines, and they seem to be working great, b/c he stopped wheezing within a day. Plus, he didn't break out from this medicine like he normally does. I also got some medicine for my thrush. Funny how even though two doctors and a nurse said that Callie's tongue just had milk on it and not thrush, that once we got medicine her tongue is clear now. I've still got pain when I nurse, but it is getting a little better, thank the Lord!

My parents and sister and bro-in-law came for a visit over the weekend. It was great to see them all. We had a good time hunting for eggs. The Lester tradition is to have a grown up(that's us) egg hunt, but with jelly beans. Dad color codes them. This year was an all time intense one, though. Mom and dad even went so far as to offer $10 to the person that found a "stash" they'd hidden that was stumping us all. Brent was the lucky finder, so he got the cash.

We had a nice Easter lunch over at Brent's parents. It was a nice relaxing time. I came home and wanted to take a nice picture of all the kids in their Easter outfits, but it didn't go so well. For starters, Hunter has scratch marks on his face from Tate, and Tate has a black eye from Hunter, so they look rough right now anyway. Tate also totally destroyed his shirt with drooled jelly beans and chocolate. I'm going to invent a drool catcher for the kid. Here are some pictures I managed to take: (the orange shirts are from mom and dad, Tate's shirt says it all. The closest I got to an Easter pic of the kids is the sippy cup one)

Callie is one month!

Here is Callie at one month: (I can't believe its already been a month!)

Our weekend and a couple quick funnies...

Gma Debbie came to the rescue and took the boys overnight on Friday night! Some friends took us out for supper and then we hung out a little bit. It was nice. Then the best part: we slept in until 10:30 on Saturday morning!!!! I was thinking, that is the latest I have slept in over three years! We didn't actually sleep all that time, Callie woke us up every hour, but still it felt great! Brent and I are both very sore, and make a sad couple right now. I am calling the doctor first thing tomorrow, something IS NOT RIGHT with my nursing, I'm thinking it is thrush. I had that with Tate, too, and it is terrible. I'm seriuosly considering weaning her already b/c of it. Anyway, on to the funnies...

-Brent and I were stealing some kisses in the kitchen tonight(just innocent kisses) and Hunter walked around the corner and said, "Whoa, what are you two doing in here?" I said, "Kissing, is that alright with you?" and he said, "Yes its alright with me if you kiss in the kitchen."

-I made waffles for supper tonight and Tate was sitting at the table eating them. He left the table, came back with his cow flashlight that opens its mouth when you push a butten(the light is in there) He opened the cows mouth and started feeding it his waffles.

Callie is crying, so off to feed her.

Busy, Busy!

Well, I guess the blogging world will be getting less of my blogging, I find it is rather hard to get away anymore. This week has been a blur of feedings, diapers, laundry, feedings, laundry, diapers, appointments and a little spit up. A nurse came by the house this morning and gave me a few insights into the (still) painful nursing, so I am excited to try some of the ideas out. Callie is up to 7 pounds 10 oz and is doing very well. The nurse explained that babies typically go through growth spurts at 3 weeks, so that explains my never-ending nursing. Callie did, however, let me sleep from 2:30-5:15 last night. That is the biggest chunk of sleep I've gotten in the weeks she's been alive. Hunter and Tate, though, have been taking turns waking up in the middle of the night(usually while Callie is sleeping ironically) So I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead:) I feel good today, though. Alright, Callie's crying for food, here are the pictures: