Jerry Susie Jerry Susie

I can't remember if I posted about this or not. If I did, here are the pictures. If not, here is the story along with the pictures ;) 

A few weeks ago we got a new pet. He showed up on our screen door for about 25 hours or so.  Paiton was absolutely fascinated with this praying mantis. She named him (her??) Jerry Susie Jerry Susie.

She just sat and stared at him for most of the time he was here.

 See the excitement on her sweet face!?

Unfortunately Jerry Susie Jerry Susie left us to go back to his family, which broke her tender little heart in two, but we enjoyed the time we had with him. ;)

Oh, and the kids!

I just realized I didn't even update on what the kids have been up to, except what we've actually been up to outside of the house. Whoops. 

So, here's and update on my awesome kids!

Paiton:

~As always Paiton keeps us laughing and in awe of her genius. She's so funny, has a great sense of humor, and is too smart for her (and our) own good. She's very concerned lately with where babies come from, how exactly they pulled Quinn out of my tummy, and how he got in there in the first place.

~She is very, very eager to start school and dance class again. School starts next week and dance starts the week after. It's been a fun summer off, but she misses her friends and Miss Carolanne. She also misses Miss Abby, her dance teacher, and wants to meet her new baby. (Sorry P, we are going to a new dance place, you'll probably never see Miss Abby again. {How to say that to a 3 year old!?}) 

~She is still very into singing and dancing. She makes up her own song - a talent she inherited from her mom - and is just always entertaining. 

~She has a digital camera that I got her that she loves taking pictures with. I love that she loves it and I promised her I would share some of her pictures on my blog, so that will be coming next :)

~She is growing up too quickly. Her current favorite movies and TV shows are: The Lorax, Strawberry Shortcake, Dora, Pound Puppies, Phineas and Ferb, Fairly Odd Parents, Jessie, Good Luck Charlie, and her usual movies - Tangled, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, etc.

~She loves to be a big girl and go play on her swing set while I wash dishes and watch her out the window. She loves playing fetch with Keilah while she's out there too.

~She LOVES our morning trips to the park and I love that they are so important to her. I look forward to them every morning that we get to go, and I hope to continue them well into the cold temps. :)

~She is still a little fish and although she won't dunk her head she swims and swims and swims with her floaties like an old pro! She would live at the water park if we'd let her and asks daily to go. 

~She is such a good helper with Quinn. She gets diapers, throws diapers away, finds binkies, cheers him up, gives him toys, etc. She's an amazing big sister and Quinn is very lucky to have her.

Quinn: 

~Oh little Quinn. Where to start. Quinn is so sweet and he melts my heart with every little expression he makes. He has big giant front teeth that I absolutely adore. They are gappy and he looks a lot like his cousin Ryan. Matt comments on that frequently. 

~He's doing so well crawling! The majority of the time he is doing his big boy crawl on all 4's - a huge step for him. He still sometimes army crawls, as it's faster for him, but mostly he is up on all 4's. The other day he veeeery carefully crawled all the way from the kitchen into the living room with a handful of pretzels. Each time he dropped one he'd sit up, put it back in his fistful, and continue crawling. Eventually he made it over to where Paiton was sitting and with a HUGE smile on his face he proudly handed her the handful of pretzels. I think I may have cried, it was the sweetest thing I think I've ever seen. Paiton, being the good sister she is, made a big deal about it and thanked him over and over. =)

~He is pulling up onto his knees like a mad man and is into everything. He is a destroyer and a total boy, for sure. It's so funny how different boys and girls are. However, we try not to let that be an excuse for him to be a total terror, which is hard at 15 months!

~He recently discovered wrestling. It's so funny. He will crawl over to us really fast and then tackle us and busy his face, roll all over, etc. If we aren't available, he'll pull down a pillow and wrestle with it! So funny!

~He also discovered biting, which is SO naughty and something I'm not willing to put up with! He does it when he's mad and he does it because he thinks it's funny! He bit Paiton so hard on the neck today. I am trying hard to figure out how to teach him it's naughty. We show him it hurts, tell him "no", I put him in time out, tap his mouth, put him down, etc. I think his bottom eye teeth are trying to come in and that's what prompted this. Hopefully they'll pop through and it will end!

~Some of Quinn's favorite things right now are: eating, he loves cartoons and giggles when Paiton giggles, playing with his sister, he loves to color and draw, he loves to play outside, go on walks, and swing. He loves to dance and dances to music all the time. His current words are: Dada, Mama, Nana, ow (which he says when something hurts - like when he bonks his head, or if he's trying to get you to stop doing something - like when I spray him with sunscreen he goes "Oww! Ow! Ow!" and acts like it's hurting hoping I'll stop! ;)), out - sounds a lot like "ow" but when he wants out of something - highchair, car seat, crib, etc., go, ga-ga (started when I was "baby talking" him one day saying goo-goo ga-ga!), sometimes he'll say MyMy to Maya, he still signs "more" and "please" and sometimes tries to say "more". He barks like a dog and makes monkey noises. He says "whoo whoo!" for all cars - he thinks they're all fire trucks, and he loves fire trucks! He says "uh-oh" a lot and it's so cute. I'm sure I'm forgetting some too! His little voice is just so cute! 

As for Matt and I, it's more of the same old :) Lots of tennis and photography. 

Don't forget to visit my website: www.lockephoto.net   and see what I've been up to!

Phone picture dump time! :)

What we have been up to? Oh boy. Where to start? For the most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We went on a play date with Paiton's friend Hadley from dance class. This is her little sister, a few months younger than Quinn.

 Paiton and Hadley

 Paiton taking a nakey-nap on the couch :)

 Someone loves veggie fries!

 Kotah, Quinn, and Paiton snuggling.

 One night I ran to Alberton's. Paiton was in her jammies but insisted on going with me. She put on her Cinderella crown and took her wand and told me oh so sweetly "All the people will say 'There goes Cinderella!' and they'll wave at me!" Well, needless to say, that didn't happen and Paiton kept asking "Why aren't the people waving at me? Don't they know who I am?" It made me sad! So then she saw the m&m guy and thought he looked very happy to see her, so she wanted a picture with him! ;) 

 We enjoyed watching the Olympics around here. Paiton loooved all the gymnastics and even joined in with the rhythmic gymnastics! 

 One night we had too much fun at Nannie's house and had to take a bath in the sink! 

 Paiton decided that she needed in on it too!

 Cadon, Paiton, Ryan, and Quinn having a drive in movie night at Nana and Papa's! Papa put the projector on the wall and they watched Rio together :) Quinn felt like such a big kid getting to do it too!

 What's a drive in movie without popcorn!?

 Paiton came with me on a photoshoot one night and apparently was very tired on the way home :)

 Right after she woke up one morning, showing me her "sleepy face"

 Poor Quinn was through the ringer the last week or so. It started last Thursday night. He woke up screaming and when I went to check on him he was burning up. I discovered our thermometer no longer worked when it kept telling me his temp was 96! Motrin didn't touch it and we spent the night sitting on the couch together. He was SO hot that I was sweating just holding him. I took him to the pediatrician on Friday thinking he had an ear infection, but his ears were fine. She said to watch him over the weekend and if he was still sick Monday she wanted to see him again. Friday I went and stocked up on Motrin and Tylenol and got a new thermometer. Then I waited. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights were more of the same. Every night he had a temp of 103* and higher and Motrin and Tylenol never brought it down. I started putting some cool patches on his forehead to help him cool down. The poor boy was miserable. He wouldn't eat at all. I think he went 3 days without eating solid food. Monday I took him back in to the doctor. His ears were still ok, so the doctor started getting worried he had the same kidney problem Paiton did when she was his age. SO - that led to him getting a catheter. :( It was so sad, but luckily it's much easier to do a catheter on a boy than on a girl. His urine came back negative. The doctor wasn't sure what was wrong with him at all, but at that time he had had a high fever for 5 days and she was kind of worried. She sent us home and told me to call her in the morning with an update of how he was. If he continued having a fever, he'd need to come back for blood work to see if he had a blood infection. Luckily we made it through that night with no wake ups and no fever. It was nice to finally sleep in my bed instead of sitting up all night on the couch with a sad baby. and I'm so glad he got some sleep too. He woke up a bit happier and seemed happier and fever free throughout the day. It continued and he finally seemed to be back on the mend! I felt so bad for him and we were happy to see him back to his cheerful self. Thursday night we thought we might be back to the illness - I took the kids to the water park with my parents, and Quinn was SO fussy the whole time - so unlike him since he's a little fish. Took him home, put him to bed, and headed out for a photoshoot. I came home and he woke up and started crying, I went in to discover he had thrown up all over his bed! :( Luckily that was it and he was fine the rest of the night and has been ok since! Whew!

Here he is as sick baby! :(

 Last week I watched my good friend Lisa's daughter, Koby, for three days. She and Paiton are close in age and she is smart like Paiton, so they get along well and have some AWESOME conversations to listen in on! ;)

 And this is Briella. She comes to our house on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while her mom goes to work. She's 6 months old and is taking awhile to warm up to us. She is very attached to me, and doesn't like for me to not be holding her during the day, but she is very sweet! Paiton just loves her and misses her on the days she isn't with us. Quinn also does great with her, I was a bit nervous about that as he's never even been around another baby! This day I walked all 4 kids to the park. She was very happy on the walk, but not happy when we stopped at the park for Paiton and Koby to play! Quinn spends a lot of time staring at her, patting her arm, kissing her leg, and trying to cheer her up. He is THE sweetest soul I've ever met. 

 The kids and I have made a new tradition of going out to Fuller Park early in the mornings as often as we can. As soon as the kids get up we load up the car and head to the park while it's still cool. There are usually a couple other moms and kids there. It's been really fun to do that consistently and it's been super nice weather early in the mornings! We have lots and lots of fun and I love that time with the babies!

P going down the slide

Me and my boyfriend!

 Paiton, Koby and Quinn

 Paiton and Koby

 Koby and Paiton (and Keilah with a tennis ball in her mouth)

 My mom and I went yard saling with the kids on Saturday morning. We scored this sweet tee-pee!! The kids loved playing in it, and I'm beyond excited to do some photoshoots of the kids with it!

 Saturday afternoon/evening we went to Matt's parents house for a BBQ and to swim!

 Paiton watering Quinn so he'd grow ;)

 In true boy form, Quinn loves to play with rocks!

 He decided he needed to move to a new spot, but didn't want to have to leave his corn behind!

After dinner and swimming the kids all had ice cream cones. After the melty disaster that ensued, all 4 kids got crammed into the bath together! ;) 

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of these kids. I will definitely be printing it!! What else can you possibly need in summer besides cousins and ice cream!?

I guess that's our update for now! I've been having tons of photoshoots lately, which is great and keeps me busy. Matt's been playing a lot of tennis, and I'll start back up in two weeks with my mixed team. We are really looking forward to next week when we get to go  on a short vacation! It will be super fun! Matt is playing in the Regionals tennis tournament in Salt Lake City, and my parents are coming with us! We are going to do lots of fun things and I can't wait!! 

Poor little forgotten Matty.

I think I mentioned before that one of his men's tennis teams was playing in Districts a couple weekends ago. (A huge thanks to my mom for keeping the kids while Matt played for 3 days and I took pictures of the whole thing.)

Anyway, his team won, which means that in two weeks we are headed to Salt Lake City for them to play in Regionals and try to get into Nationals. Good job Matt! Somewhere I have a picture of him holding his glass that he won, but it's on a memory card, and not the one that I can locate right now :) 

In other Matt News, two nights ago he was given an award at a dinner. There is a place here called Syringa House, that is a home for troubled girls. Matt ran a tennis program for them this year and they really enjoyed it. They had a dinner that was Kentucky Derby themed to honor a few people, and Matt was one of them. It was fun, it was catered and we never turn down free food. ;) They also had a live auction which was really fun to watch!

 I had to take a picture with this horse for Paiton :)

 One of Matt's coworkers had a camera with her so I stole a couple of her pictures! :)

 We look like we have a drinking problem in this picture!! It was sooooo hot that night, I think it got up to 107* or 109*, and the lawn was covered in umbrellas that just trapped the heat in. We were all dying, and what was not helpful at all was that they ran out of water until someone could go buy more cases!!!

 Good job Matt! You're a rockstar!

This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought this was a pretty picture of the sun I took with my phone last night at tennis. Mostly I like the rays of light at the top: 

I have become a horrible blogger. 

My bad. 

Things here are...crazy. To say the least. The very least.

More on that later.

Now, for a phone picture update.

Quinn is a naughty monster when he eats. He throws his food ALL over, and he has quite an arm. I started taking his tray off and making him eat at the table hoping it would cut down on that. It kind of does, depends on the day.

 July 30 was my 29th bday. Wah! My last birthday in my 20's. The day before my mom had taken me out to lunch and shopping. It was fun, thanks Mom!

The day of Matt had to work, but surprised me by coming home early and taking me and the kids out. First up - an ENT appointment for Quinn! Yay!! ;) It has been 6 months-ish since he got his tubes. He had an ear infection the week before his ENT appointment. His left tube is gone and that is the ear that was infected. The right tube is still in and fine. If he gets another infection he'll need to be re-tubed. 

After the ENT we went to Westside Drive In for birthday lunch/dinner.

Quinn loves to dip anything and everything into ranch dressing.

 Paiton and Quinn one morning playing tennis

 Quinn is SO big. Look at this!

 It has now been 3 months since he started physical therapy. He had a mini review and his physical therapist is super impressed. Today she said never before has she seen a baby make such quick progress in such a short amount of time. Since he started he's learned to get from laying to sitting up, army crawl, crawl on hands and knees, pull to kneeling, learn to crawl stairs, and is starting to pull to a stand. She said that is unbelievable and that the rest of the staff didn't believe her!

 I had to make a run to Flying M and get coffee beans one day, so of course we had to have a snack!

 Snuggling one morning

 If you look closely above Paiton's head you will see Jerry Susie Jerry Susie. That is the name that Paiton gave to a praying mantis that made our sliding screen door his home for about 28 hours. She was devastated when he moved on. She sure loved Jerry Susie Jerry Susie. (Not sure where the name came from, but hilarious non the less)

 Well hello cutest boy in the world.

 The other day the kids and I headed to the park and enjoyed our first snow cone of the year. Better late than never.

 Paiton was so brave and went down the swirly slide! Yay P!!

 Paiton had a very special night last Thursday night. We took her to see Cinderella at Starlight Mountain Theater up in Crouch. She was SO excited. She wore her beautiful pink flamingo dress, and stood like a flamingo. ;) (This wasn't intentional, but it does look creepy... and I'm talking about her missing leg, not my creeper sister in the background.)

 Paiton got to meet and hug Cinderella and Prince Charming! And she loved the Fairy Godmother!

 Oh my kid....she insisted having her picture taken "by this little guy"