A Great Fall Carnival...

Somehow this week seemed to be pretty busy... but I'm not sure with what. We did a lot of errand running, playing and having fun. Here are just a few things from our week.

We decided to take an inpromptu visit up to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Clegg. Grandma and Aubrey have a very special relationship. Aubrey loves to be snuggled and Grandma loves to snuggle sleeping babies.

 On Friday night, our local elementary school had a fun fall carnival we decided to go to. The kids loved it. Brooklyn and Joshua -and Irene :)- got to go for a ride on the train.

 But I wonder who really enjoyed the ride more. The kids or Irene? haha. Thanks Irene for riding with Brookie since she was too small to go alone.

 Maddie even got her face painted like a princess.

 We also got to eat popcorn, snow cones and cotton candy. Seriously what more could you ask for?

 ...sometimes there are no words to explain this little lady. hehe

 It was a fun evening for all who attended. Thanks Michelle, Katie, Andrew, Irene and Joshua for coming along with us.

Now that it is once again fall, we were finally able to pull out the fall time dresses for church today. I didn't manage to get a picture of Maddie, but Brooklyn sure hammed it up for me.

I sure do love weeks filled with lots of family time. And this one, was one of those weeks.

Remembering a good man...

One year ago, this weekend, my dear cousin Shane passed away while running the DC Ragner Relay. Losing our cousin was a lot harder on all of us then I think any of us could have ever imagined. His wife Holly has returned to DC, along with the rest of their team, to finish the race they started last year. The Washington Post published this article (click here for article) about my cousin and his sweet wife. It makes me very emotional to read it but if you have a few minutes to spare, it is definitley worth reading. Holly is such a strong woman, who I admire. I could only hope I could be as strong as she is. We love you Holly and wish you luck as you finish your race tomorrow. Our thoughts and prayers are also with all of our family as you remember your dear brother/son this week. We love you all!

Something to blog after all...

As many of you know, I have been gathering our family favorite recipes to make the best ever family cookbook for the last few years.

The first cookbook I put together was back in 2006. I typed all of my recipes then printed them up and had them coil bound at the copy center. We printed probably about 10 books the first time around. After printing this book we found that there were many recipes we had left out (we tried making the book a surpsrise for my mom and so all those recipes that were just in her head never made it in the book.) So in 2009 we printed our second edition of the book. This time I printed the books with a company called Lulu. We worked really hard to include all of our recipes in this book but found we were still missing some recipes or had come up with some new recipes we wanted to add. We printed about 40 books this time around. After every copy of this book was given away, we found that many of our  friends and family wanted a copy of our book.

Now flashforward to 2010.

Last Christmas my aunt Linda's ward made these awesome cookbooks. I immediately fell in love. They were perfect. The binder was beautiful and it was proffesionally printed so it looked really nice. But the best part of all... is that it is a 3 ring binder! Meaning that, when we discover a whole slew of recipes we forgot to add right after having our books printed, we no longer have to completely reprint our books. In fact, now we can just print additional recipes on our own computer and throw them into the book.

These past couple of months I have been compiling recipes from all of you. I have worked really hard to come up with any and every recipe I know we all love. Our last book I printed had about 150 recipes. As of right now our new book will have 458 recipes!!!

I have been receiving so many yummy recipes I have already tried and love. And some that I would love to try. Here are just a few.

French Bread appetizers

Caramel and Toffee dip

Candy Bar Salad

Cornbread Casserole

Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast

Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta (just like Firehouse Pizza in Logan)

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel

Raspberry Bread

Caramel Rice Krispie Treats

I will be sending the book to the press by this weekend and will be receiving the books at the beginning of December, just in time for Christmas. Many of you have already reserved your copy of the book but I wanted to let all of you know that I will be ordering 200 books so please let me know if you are interested in getting a copy of the book. I will be selling them for $12 a piece. So let me know now if you are interested and how many books you would like as well. I do need your money as soon as possible since I have to pay for all of the books up front so please send me your money ASAP. Let me know if you need my address so you can send me a check.

These next few months I plan on making some of the recipes that will be in the book and writing about them on my blog- so check back soon for more yummy goodness.

NOTE: I do accept paypal payments but will charge an extra 60 cents to pay the paypal fee. I will just need an e-mail address to send you a request money form for $12.60.
my e-mail address is
dizzy_lizzie23 @ hotmail . com

blah...

This last week has been pretty busy, but not very eventful. Maybe? I don't know. I guess I just don't really have anything good to blog about so you get what you get.

 Our last visit with our Early Intervention nurse we were told we need to get Aubrey to actually look at and play with her toys rather than just hold them in her hands. This was the day after that visit... I think our little Aubrey follows directions really well. :)

 It's amazing how once she realizes she can do something, it's like all of a sudden she's a pro. She is also getting very strong and can now hold up her own body very well.

 Brooklyn learns a few things from our visits with the nurse as well. Her baby is getting really good at playing with her toys too.

 And this crazy little girl is just too funny. Ever since she officially potty trained herself... it has been a very common site to find her running around the house completely naked. Since she has a harder time getting her underware back up- taking them off is just more practical. The other day I found her standing IN her dresser draw... (for good reason, this picture will not be included)

 And here is a sneak peak at miss Brooklyn's halloween costume for this year. I'm pretty excited about this one.

And just for fun, here's one more of our littlest lady. This picture actually reminds me of Maddie as a baby...



These cheeks...

These cheeks are SOOOOO kissable. Ah, I love them.

That's all.

Gone and done it...

She's gone and done it again.

That's right, little miss independent, "I can do it myself,"

has done it again.

What's that you say? What did she go and do today?

Only the very thing that most mothers only dream of happening

(I know I always did)

Yup, that's right.

She totally potty trained herself.

In just a week's time.

Obviously we still have the occasional accident but all things considered... she's doing quite well.

I guess this is her way of making up for being a little stinker the last oh 22 and a half months. :) Just kidding. I love my little stink. Even if she STILL doesn't sleep all through the night... sigh.

School days, school days...

Good old golden rule days.

The day finally came for Madison to start preschool. And boy was she excited. She woke up this morning and was ready to go even though school didn't start for two more hours. She was so nervous, she could hardly eat breakfast. After what seemed like days it was finally 9:15 and we were ready to go.
Here she is seen bouncing with excitement...

 Haha, you love Brooklyn's disco pose?

 And here she is five minutes later with her teacher... completely terrified! When we walked up to the doors, she wrapped her arms around my legs and wouldn't let go. Usually she is the one trying to push me away so this was a little unexpected.

 She recovered quickly though and was completely back to normal before I had even left. The other thing that surprised me was that Brooklyn started crying too. Not because Maddie was leaving but I think she thought I was going to leave her there too. hehe.

When I came back to pick her up, she was still bouncing with excitement. Actually, she still hasn't stopped talking about it.
Her exact words were, "Mom, I love you so much for putting me in preschool!"

Oh and did you know that she learned to read today? Now that's what I call an efficient preschool if they can teach her to read in just 2 hours. :)
Yay for a successful first day of school!
The best part for me is that there are two little girls in our ward who are also in her class. We were able to arrange a carpool today so we each only have to drive 2 times a week instead of 6! Yay for me.

...Another story for another day

In my last post about little Aubrey I talked about how she isn't gaining much weight and told you it was another story for another day. Well, today's the day.

Note: This post will be a little bit personal  and long so if you don't care to hear the details, skip to the bottom for the size comparison picture. I just want to remember these little details.

When Aubrey was born she was 6 lbs 10 oz. So she was pretty little to start out, but definitely not tiny. But feeding in the beginning was quite the challenge. The first few days of life we could not really get her to eat a whole lot at all. Slowly we were starting to get her to eat a few more Mil's every time she would eat until before long she was eating a good amount. But she would not nurse. Like at all. Since she was in the NICU, the nurses were having me pump through out the day and then I would bring them the milk for them to feed her when I was not around. The nurses and doctors were all pleased with the amount of milk I was bringing in... it was double what she was eating.

...

Back to the nursing thing. I know that nursing is supposed to be the best thing for your baby- and I actually quite enjoy being able to nurse my sweet little babies. So this was quite the challenge. I wanted so badly for it to work. Once we found out that Aubrey for sure did have DS our doctor told me not to push her too hard and to just keep pumping for a while and see what happens. Feeding can be quite difficult for babies with DS for a number of reasons such as low muscle tone in the tongue (hence the reason they tend to stick their tongue out a lot). Another issue we were having with Aubrey was that her oxygen levels would drop drastically while eating because it would wear her out and she would forget to breathe. By the time we left the NICU she was doing so much better at eating but would still only take the bottle. Right before leaving the hospital, the lactation nurse suggested I try using a shield while nursing that made it feel more like eating from a bottle for the baby. And guess what? It worked! After about 10 days of only using a bottle, Aubrey would finally let me nurse her. Things got a lot better after that. She used the shield every time she ate for about the first 3 weeks and then finally we were able to lose the shield.  

Although Aubrey's weight gain was slow, it was consistent. Her doctor was not concerned at all, until one day we went in for a weight check just to find that her growth had slowed down. In three weeks she had only gained about 3 oz...

Anyway, to make a long story short ( I know it's already too late) I knew exactly when things changed. I could feel it. I tried everything I could think of to get her to eat more. Our doctor had me feed her a bottle after nursing her, which she usually wouldn't eat. So I figured this meant she was content with how much she had eaten. After about another 2 weeks of little weight gain, I decided it was probably best for us to cut back on nursing and start pushing the bottle harder. I went through 4 different types of bottles and many stressful attempts at getting her to eat from the bottle before we were finally successful.

Two weeks ago Aubrey weighed 8 lb 3 oz...

One week ago she finally started taking the bottle...

and today she weighs...

9 lb 4 oz!

I think this is one instance that nursing really wasn't the best thing for the baby... We know it wasn't that I didn't have a good milk supply. That wasn't the problem. I think the problem was that since it took so much energy for her to eat, she would just stop eating as soon as she felt content. Whether or not she was full. I have found that even with the bottle she usually eats about 2 ounces and then waits a bit before finally eating about 2 more ounces.

Anyway, my baby is finally starting to gain weight, and for that I am grateful. Here is a little size comparison picture for you.

Here she is at one month and at 3 months.

Perfection...

I know I just did a post about little Aubrey, but I just love this picture! I couldn't help it.

I guess you could say this is also a little glimpse at the progress of "the coolest playhouse known to mankind" since this picture was taken in front of the newly painted Grandma's Sweater blue door. The progress of our playhouse has sort of slowed down a bit with everything that has been going on lately but it is looking amazing! Just thinking about the many years of photo opportunities this playhouse has to offer makes me excited!