Happy Halloween!

Despite the pouring rain last night, Sean and I (and my parents and Rosemary) took the kids to the ward's Trunk or Treat. We snapped a couple shots before we left.

Jillian is a butterfly, Chloe is a ladybug (and I did not get a good picture of her with the wings I made so I'll have to take a picture to post later), Sean is a bug catcher and I am a flower.

This is what it looked like last night. A sea of umbrellas and wet kids. Most kids were covered up so they wouldn't get wet which made it hard to tell what they were dressed up as.

The sun poked out for a minute (but it didn't stop raining!) and I got this beautiful double rainbow!

Jilly was soaked! She didn't seem to mind though. We all came home and had soup to warm ourselves up!

Talk to me?

Maybe Chloe will be a drummer instead of a public speaker.

Tutus

A little preview of the girls' Halloween costumes:

No, they're not Russian ballerinas. You'll have to wait until next week to find out what they are!

By the way, can you tell that I have a bunch of girls at my house?

Funny Girls

Playing

Jillian is pretty good about playing on her own. One day I caught her playing and had to look closer to what she was playing with.Star Wars toys? She must be her father's daughter! She even knew that the toys would be fighting and made appropriate sounds. Sean is so proud!

I LOVE Caller ID

Nothing like announcing your intentions in your Caller ID.

Poor Picked On Dad

Sometimes it is rough to be a Dad!

Those are some nice genes

Today we took Chloe to the geneticist. I was actually a little unsure why we were going but knew that Chloe's pediatrician really wanted us to see a genetic doctor. They took lots of pictures while we were there and did lots of measurements and asked lots of questions about our family tree (one of my favorites was, "Are the two of you related" [meaning Sean and me]). The doctor said he was hesitant to make a diagnosis because Chloe is cognitively on track so he said, "Come back in a year." This is something we hear from specialists a lot. He said he was going to research her a little more but that if she was developing normally there was no reason to get any genetics tests done (they do an MRI of the brain first and then chromosome testing which is pretty spendy). We said, "Sounds good," and off we went back to our normal lives. They did ask us to bring some pictures in of our families so if you are an immediate family member the doctor has your picture and he's planning on studying it!

Helmet Update

"Darth Vader wears a helmet just like Chloe!" Jillian said to me one morning. Where she comes up with this stuff, I have no idea.

Yesterday Chloe had another helmet scan and her head had only grown 2mm (last month her head had grown 15mm). The helmet guy said this is the age that head growth slows way down. Her head is looking so good that we get to take off the helmet during the day and only have to wear it for nap and bedtime!!! Wahoo! Chloe seems pretty excited to be helmet free a good chunk of the day and her eyes aren't as watery which I'm sure is related (I'm just not sure why). One more month of partial day wear and then we should be done with the helmet!

Just a Cheerio-eatin'-curler-wearing Sunday Morning.

Picture Catch Up

Just a few pictures I've had on my camera:

Whoa! A dangerous place to lay down, Jilly!

Birthday Party Weekend

Sean and I turned 30 last weekend. Here are some birthday party pictures. Sean got me this cute purse. Good Job Sean!

Jillian was so excited to open presents so I copied her face. Of course, Sean took a picture of me being crazy.

Jillian models my new bag.

Blowing out the candles on my cake (which was gluten free and delicious). Funny cake story: I was trying to make a torte (a layered cake with cream filling). The cake crumbled as I took it out of the pan but I figured I could make it work. So as I was layering it, the cake started sliding apart. I hurried and finished and got it frosted and decided it needed some stabilization. All that I had that would work were some straws. So I stuck the cake full of straws. It worked out ok and we decided to stick candles in the straws so they'd be even more useful!

The inside of the cake. Not the prettiest thing but very good. Also, Eric and Tami came to help me celebrate and you can see Tami holding Jillian (we didn't get any pictures of them unless you count the fuzzy ones Jillian tried to take but they were there).

Monday was Sean's birthday.

He got a Kindle eReader which he loves. He has all kinds of weird books on there but soon I will have to borrow it and put some good books on it. ;)

Jilly had to check out the Kindle. Look at how slim it is!

Sean is in love!

My mom sent me a card saying I was officially grown up now (not sure what I was the last 10 years or so). I don't feel more grown up but I do feel old!

Is it time to eat?

I have been a lazy blogger lately. That is because my day goes something like this:

• Somewhere between 2 and 6am- Jillian wakes up and comes into my room to crawl into bed with us. Sometimes I let her, sometimes I send her back to bed. It depends what time it is and how much fight I have in me.
• 7-8am Chloe gets up. I nurse her, take care of her tube, change her diaper, etc. Get Jillian breakfast.
• 8:30am Feed Chloe cereal and some fruit.
• 9am Wash Chloe's hair and helmet. Let helmet and hair dry. Get Chloe dressed
• 9:30am Realize I haven't had breakfast yet. Drink a green smoothie.
• 10:00am Put helmet back on Chloe, put her down for a nap. Take a shower. Get ready for the day, play with Jillian and get her dressed.
• 11:30am Chloe wakes up, nurse her. Get lunch ready.
• 12:30pm Feed Chloe baby food.
• 1pm Put Jillian down for a nap. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Play with Chloe
• 2:30 Put Chloe down for a nap, if I'm lucky both girls will sleep at the same same time for an hour or two. Most days I'm not so lucky.
• By 3-4pm both girls are awake. Have a snack. Pray for Sean to come home soon because by this time Jillian is driving me crazy.
• 4pm Nurse Chloe
• 4:30pm Start dinner
• 5:30-6pm Eat dinner, feed Chloe. Remember I have a spouse. Talk to him in between Jillian yelling, "Mom, talk to me!"
• 6pm Do dishes
• 6:30pm Make formula to go into the feeding pump for Chloe.
• 7-7:30pm Place tube. This can take 5 to 30 minutes. Chloe is sometimes cooperative, sometimes not.
• 7:30pm Nurse Chloe
• 8pm Put Chloe to bed. Attempt to put Jillian to bed. This usually fails. Give up and let her sit by me while I play on the computer for a few minutes.
• 8:30pm Attempt to put Jillian to bed. Success! At least for 5 minutes. She's up and down until 9-9:30.
• 10pm Pump
• 10:30-11pm Go to bed.
• 2am Start all over again.

Does it seem like I am always feeding someone? Because that's what it feels like to me. And this is why I don't get much blogging in these days. I will be happy when Miss Chloe can drink from a cup because then hopefully we can get rid of the tube! She refuses to drink formula (which I can't really blame her, that stuff is nasty compared to breast milk) and I can't pump enough to replace what she's getting at night. I know that the helmet and tube are just short term fixes but sometimes it feels like my day revolves around taking care of medical stuff. I'm not meaning to complain but I wanted to document what my days are like so when I'm done I can be thankful that this was just a short crazy time in my life!