The Next Move

A little over a week after we moved Gracie into Bradley's room we moved Sammie into the nursery. She was SO crammed in her little bassinet. She was waking up quite a bit in her bassinet every night so I was hoping that having more room would make her more comfortable and maybe not as hot. She seemed to like it at first, she loved looking at the mobile and was stretching her arms out and rolling around, but I guess it was all too exciting because she couldn't get to sleep. I kept going up there and trying to feed her some more and making sure she had her paci, but it took a very long time for her to finally fall asleep. I was VERY close to putting her back in the bassinet in our room and trying again another day, but she did finally fall asleep. As soon as she did I went to bed because I figured it would be a long night of her waking up over and over - I was wrong. She finally got to sleep around 10 and slept until 5 - I would say it was very nice but it's not like I actually slept straight through. I kept getting up to go check on her to make sure she was ok, and then around 3 I had to go downstairs and pump because I was so used to feeding her multiple times by that time of night :) She's been doing wonderful every night and usually sleeps 9-5 or close to that. She will sleep on her belly a lot now and I LOVE walking in the room in the morning and seeing her on her belly holding herself up and looking at the door. I was pretty sad the first night without her by my bed and it still seems empty when I go in there to go to sleep, but the extra sleep and seeing how much she likes it makes me feel much better :)

Monster Trucks

One of Bradley's obsessions right now is Monster Trucks. The other morning Kevin was on his way back into town from a bid and saw a Monster Truck in Loveland at an opening of an auto parts store. So I rushed to get the kids ready so we could go see it. It was the famous Big Foot - the very same one Bradley has and loves! Can you tell the difference? :)

I don't think Bradley was as impressed as I imagined he would be, but I guess they aren't quite as exciting when they're not moving and you can't even touch them. The bounce house quickly became the center of their attention.

What an evil look! Watch out Gracie :)

The Sowbug Killer

One of Bradley's most favorite things to do outside is find sowbugs - otherwise known as roly polys. He is so very gentle and sweet with them, as he is with everything actually. Gracie on the other hand, bless her heart, is not. The other day Bradley found a little critter habitat that we actually got from a kids meal forever ago and he was so excited to go find a roly poly to make it their home. He went outside and quickly found one and introduced it to its temporary home. He would bring it inside to show me and then go back outside. Then Gracie started to notice all the excitement... I was in the kitchen and they were outside right next to the patio door. I heard Bradley gently talking to Gracie telling her to be very careful and saying it was his friend - then I hear a panicked "no no no NOOOO!" and then a blood curdeling scream and I run out there to find Bradley sobbing holding an open, empty critter habitat with Gracie standing next to him - holding PIECES of roly poly in her hand. Man was I mad! I grabbed Gracie and put her in time out (after a few spankings) yelling at her that she CAN'T kill roly polys like that. Bradley was such a sweet boy, he was so very sad and I told him how sorry I was. He quickly calmed down and even went over to Gracie in time out and, again very gently and calmy said, "You just can't kill roly polys, he was my friend, that hurt him". She was crying and crying and saying "sorry" over and over. Afterwards I went over and asked her if we're supposed to kill roly polys and she would say "yes, like this" and do this ripping and twisting motion with her fingers. We have had MANY MANY talks about this since then, but I still don't trust her around small, fragile bugs, animals, or... actually anything fragile :) It is crazy to me how different Bradley and Gracie are. He has ALWAYS been so gentle with everything, even when he was SO young. And Gracie is just SO not :) She is spunky, and tough, and ornery, and SO strong-willed. She just cracks me up. She will go out of her way to stomp on bugs outside and Bradley will run the other way if he finds any (other than roly polys). I am trying my very best to explain that we need to leave bugs alone and that they belong outside and that's their home and we shouldn't bother them. That girl is one tough cookie! :) (PS - The only reason I know roly polys are actually called sowbugs is because a couple weeks ago I found the nastiest looking spider in the middle of my house and looked it up online and it was called the Sowbug Killer Spider - needless to say Bradley was very mad at the spider, even more so than other spiders. Kevin said Gracie probably let it in :) )

Fridge

I just love how she opens the fridge - well, to be more specific - I just love the WAY she opens the fridge, NOT that she actually CAN now because I can't keep her out of it!!!

The Big Move

We spent several days getting Bradley's room all ready and as clean and organized as possible before we moved Gracie in there. Although it's pretty close to impossible to clean or organize with their 'help' because they follow me and undo everything that I just did, but I digress :) The beds turned out great I think, even though we changed plans about the pvc tent part for now. So we decided to make bed rails out of the pvc since we're too cheap to buy them :) They were very easy to put together and I made slip-covers for them. I was going to sew them on there making little tubes for the pvc, kind of like curtains and curtains rods, but I got lazy and wanted to hurry and get them in there together, so I made it more like a pillow case that just fit over them. I would actually like them to be tighter so I might go back soon and sew them just a little smaller, but for now it's working :) I just got the bins for under the beds, Bradley's are red and Gracie's are turquoise. I wish they were a little bigger than they are, but they are the biggest I could find without spending $12 a piece for nice baskets - again, I'm cheap :) My plan is to take pictures of the toys that should go in each bin and put them in label holders on the front of the bin so that HOPEFULLY they can start to realize that everything has its place and help me put away toys and keep them somewhat separated and organized, we'll see how that goes :)

I tried to make Gracie's part of the room as girly as possible seeing that everything in there used to be boy and pretty much everything in the nursery is neutral.

Yes, we still have the paci :( I figured I'd let her have it until she got all settled in the new bed, then move onto that battle. I am expecting the worst (which I seem to always do with change, then it's nice when I get pleasantly surprised, but this time I really do think it's going to be difficult, we'll see...)

Angel is so cute, she really does wait for Bradley to go to bed, then cuddles with him all night long. I wonder if that's going to change now since Gracie is in there and hassles her a lot! Hopefully not, hopefully Bradley can keep her away from her :)

The first night they did great, they talked for a while which was expected; Gracie got out of bed and wondered around, which was expected and we quickly learned that we needed one of those plastic child-proof door knobs on the inside of the room so she couldn't get out. It took a while for them to fall asleep, I was way sleepy but didn't want to go to sleep before she finally fell asleep, so it was definitely a late night - but all in all it was really cute having them in the same room. Bradley used to come downstairs a lot when going to bed with many different excuses - the classic needing a drink of water, being cold or hot, needing to go potty, and of course asking Daddy to come lay with him (never Mommy, urgh :( ). When we put Gracie in there we explained he really needed to show her how you're supposed to stay in bed and go to sleep. Every single night he has fallen asleep before she has. We'll go in there and she'll be sitting in his bed next to him staring at him and she'll say "Bradley's asleep!" Yes, we know, stop watching him sleep (creepy) and get in your own bed and sleep!! Lately though she wants to sleep in his bed with him, which is adorable I think, so I never make her go back to her own bed. Sometimes we'll find they switched beds, sometimes we'll fine one or both on the floor - who knows really what goes on in there during the night, but I'm loving how they are together :) We do have a video monitor in there but it only shows part of the room and we did explain to them that we can see and hear them, so Bradley tested it one night and just started very quietly saying "Gracie's playing with toys" over and over and I went up there and he was just amazed at how I heard him :) Oh and now both of them will come downstairs, Gracie first with Bradley following, she'll ask for a drink of water and Bradley will watch from behind to kind of test our reaction - you can tell that he puts her up to it! I love their relationship and I love how they have each other!!! They were both really excited to move into together and have been getting along really well in one room together, it's very sweet!!!

Day at the park

A couple weekends ago we went up to Laramie for a little family reunion with Kevin's family. It was a beautiful day! The kids had a blast playing together and it was so nice to get to see everyone again. I wanted to go around and take a bunch of pictures, but Sammie and I ended up laying in the grass in the shade and watching everyone play for most of the time. Then she fell asleep so I was pretty confined to that one spot :) It was just such a nice, relaxing day.
Sammie was experiencing a little stranger danger and didn't want anyone but Mommy or Daddy :)

So sleepy...

Out!

Gracie was saying "pretty hair!" She's not used to all that hair :)

Birthday!

I decided for my birthday I wanted to go to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keensberg. I had been trying to go there for years but we never got around to it. So Kevin got off a little early on my birthday, we packed a dinner and headed out. We were a little nervous about the weather because it was raining on the way and the sky looked pretty dark out east, but the rain stopped before we got there and it was a gorgeous night! I absolutely LOVED it. My pictures don't even do it justice (I wish I had a zoom lens for my new camera). You walk on these walkways high above the ground and look down at all these animals. They have hundreds of wildlife, mainly tigers, lions, and bears, but also some leopards, wolves, coyotes, lynx, and some other wildlife. They are an amazing place, they rescue these animals from people who have owned them illegally and mistreated them. Some of them had never been outside until they were rescued and brought to this place. I could have stayed there all night and stared at them if my children would have let me and if they weren't closing up. We did spend a little over 2 hours there and they allow you to bring your own picnic so we walked around and then ate dinner at a table right next to the tigers and bears. I highly recommend it and we will definitely be going back. Tigers are my absolute favorite, they are just gorgeous!

These 2 were wrestling for a while then the smaller one pinned down the bigger one and held him by the neck and they just stayed there for about 10 minutes not moving.

So many bears!!!

This is Gracie reminding us to be very quiet so we didn't make the animals nervous.

This lion was the most vocal, it kept roaring over and over. Then later at night the wolves started howling, which was really cool to hear.

This was on our way out and Gracie was a little done with being quiet, and this tiger was a little bothered by her.