Milestones

So the girls are 8 1/2 months old now and they are just starting to sit up regularly. They still like to lay back, and Lydia just likes to roll all over the place. Audrey is content to just roll once onto her belly and stay where you placed her. They are both really sweet and happy girls. They don't cry that much, and they are content with a few toys for a long time. They are really great babies, thank heavens. I don't know how I would do it if they were really "needy" babies.

Anyway, the girls are hitting all their mile stones, just a little slow. I figure it's mostly my fault. I just don't have the time like I did when Myles was a baby. If I had hours to sit on the floor and help them learn to sit up, or crawl, or walk then maybe they would be on schedule, but I don't. Oh well, they'll get it eventually. Heck, I haven't even finished unpacking all the way yet. I can't figure out why it's taking sooooooo longgggggg. It's crazy around here. Add to that, I'm sick and tiered of being fat so I've started exercising. Well guess what? That takes a lot of time. I walk for an hour, but there is the time getting everyone ready to go and then the time when we get home to get everyone out of the stroller and into the house and fed again! Not to mention the time it takes me to get into the shower and dressed and ready for the day. The price mommy's pay for trying to look good. We have a great trail near our home and we try and walk/run there three to four times a week. Some weeks are better than others, but we do our best. I recently started running half of it. Can I just say it's really hard running with three kids in front of you to push. I have a GREAT stroller, but it's still tough. I better start seeing some pounds melt away or I'm going to have a melt down.

Look at that face!

This is what I found when trying to get all the kids loaded into the car. Now take a step back and just think that I usually load in the babies first. Then I lift Myles up and he can press the garage door button on the wall. We used to let him use the opener in the car, but we had a problem with that so now he is only allowed to push the button on the wall. Okay, now go back to the picture. He took my keys, opened up the car, got in the car from his door, crawled into the front to push the button and open the garage door. Got back into the back seat, up into his seat and snapped his top buckle. He was sitting there just a happy as could be. He couldn't have been more proud of himself. All this was going on while I was upstairs getting the babies ready to go. Now let me just say that the keys are now placed out of reach because, the fact that the garage door was up and he could have be who knows where is a little frightening for me. Not to mention that the dog would be out too, as he loves to run out every time Myles opens the door. Can you say that Myles is just too big for his own britches. His height allows him to get into and out of many things that a normal 2 year old would never be able to reach.

Random

Audrey and Lydia got these cute shirts from their Grandma and Grandpa Dodd. We had to get pictures in them right away because they are almost too small.

Two going on twenty. Myles loves to drive the car and he's always careful to put his seat belt on.

Myles finally is interested in his sisters. He asks to hold them all the time. It's usually not that successful, but it's important that he cares about them at all.

BUSTED! Myles was in his room taking a nap, or was he. I came into the room because I heard a big crash, it was the toys all hitting the ground. Well we've come a long way because now he doesn't nap at all. We don't even pretend to nap. It just doesn't happen. It was a very sad day for me. Now we just have "quiet" time. I don't care what he does as long as he does it in his room!

On another note, we are all doing well. The kids are all healthy now and everyone seems to be loving the extra space at the new house. The kids are growing like weeds and we continue to work on getting the house put together. Weekends come and go TOO fast. We never seem to get enough done.

Look who's*#!

The BIG 40! That would be Bjorn on the 23rd of January. He's really not affected by turning 40 other than his body is harder to get into shape. As for his looks, well, he will always look like he is 12 so that's not a big deal.

We celebrated with a quiet dinner to an Indian food restaurant and the Cheesecake factory for dessert. It was a very nice quiet evening for the two of us. Then Sunday we had friends over for dinner and more friends over for cake and ice cream. It was a lot of fun. We decorated the house and some of the friends came dressed in black! Thanks for the ideas mom!

I thought long and hard about what to get him for his monumental birthday, and I decided that we would take a trip. Thanks to my mom in advance for coming to watch my kids. She is the bed grandma ever. She loves each of my kids and is so capable. It's really going to be nice to not have to travel with them. It will be the first trip we have taken by ourselves since Myles was about a year old and she and my dad came and stayed for a weekend while Bjorn and I went to Monterey with our good friends Emily and Steve. Well this is going to be a lot longer. Both in time and distance. We found a great deal on a trip to Ireland. We are very excited to go and see the country and partake of all it's rain! I am getting a little nervous about how long we will be gone. A total of 8 days. I know mom can do it, but I think it will be a VERY long week for her. It's hard doing it all on your own. By dinner time you are ready for bed and so are the kids. Everyone in full "melt down mode". I hope that in the next two months the kids get easier. We leave middle of March. I can't wait.

You've accomplished a lot in your 40 short years. You served a successful mission to Brazil, finished your graduate work for your law degree, found a great job with the LA District Attorneys office, found a fantastic wife!, had many demanding church callings that you served in beautifully, had three beautiful children(the hard way), and bought a home. You've been busy!

You are liked and loved by all who meet you. Your Myles best buddy. The girls dare devil playmate, and my listening ear when I need to "rant and rave".

Happy 40th darling! We love you. You are an amazing Daddy, husband and best friend.

Christmas

Matching Christmas PJ's. The girls got theirs from Grandma and Myles got his from Santa. They must shot at the same place.

So happy with his "topper" he didn't even look at the rest of the gift for many more min.

Seeing the lights on Temple Square. It was a balmy 13* that night. The kids were great though and we had a great time with family all the way from Hawaii.

Dressed for bed, on the way to LAX. Myles fell asleep 5 min. before getting to the parking lot. NOT ideal. I had to hoist him (40#), and the seat (25#) out of the car while Bjorn searched for a parking spot in the VERY crowded economy lot at LAX.

CHRISTMAS

In a word "WONDERFUL". Thanks mom. I know you put a lot of work into making Christmas great for all of us, especially the kids. I loved every min. of it. I love the decorations, the food, the people, the lights, the snow, the rest, and most of all the kids faces on Christmas morn. Myles is just old enough to know about getting new toys, but doesn't understand that "Santa" brought them to him. He was very excited to see his pile of loot on Christmas morning. It's great. There is nothing better than a big ol' smile from my Myles. The girls, well, they don't get anything yet. Next year!

Catching up

Okay, so I've just noticed that my last post was NOVEMBER 17th. Yikes! Sorry for the long delay, but life has been really crazy for the last few months. I hope it will return to our normal crazy, but for now I'll try and catch you up on the comings and goings of the Dodd family.

So, mid November we finally found a home to buy. It's in our same town of Monrovia, about a mile and a half from the house we were renting on Ivy Ave. It fit our criteria of: a new build, three bedroom, outdoor space for Myles, garage, in the ward boundaries, in a good elementary school boundary. Well it wasn't going to be good timing, but my life rarely has good timing. We entered Escrow on the 20th and had 25 days to get the loan done and funded. Mind you this is the start of holiday season. NOT a good time to move! I began packing almost immediately knowing that it was going to take some time with three little ones.

Meanwhile all the kids got sick. Audrey came down with a 104.9 fever on the 1st of December. I take her to the Pediatrician who send us to the Emergency Room. NOT what you want to hear when your baby is slightly lethargic and only 6 1/2 months old. She was tested for the flu, a UTI, and Pneumonia, all negative. No reason her temp. should be so high. Sent us home without an explanation. The kids are now trading cooties back and forth. Someone is always sick and I'm STILL packing.

Another week passes. My mom is now in town to help me out with the rest of the packing and the kid care. She is a life saver. I wouldn't have been able to do it without her. I don't know how the children would have survived without her. She was their mommy for 6 days. She packed, cleaned my old house, made dinner and fed my kids, and was a major support and help to me and Bjorn.

We start moving on the 16th of December. My brother Ryan and my Dad come into town on Thursday night and work like dogs to get my "punch list" done. They build storage in my garage, a lot of storage. They install my ceiling fan in my master bedroom, take out the glass doors in my kids bath, install a curved shower rod in the kids bathroom, patch and paint various holes in most of my walls. Then they paint accent walls in my master bedroom and living room, and build more shelving in my closet. They install towel rods in my bathrooms, and wood blinds in my kids rooms. It was a lot of work and they helped move furniture on top of all that. We unpack as much as we can, re-pack for a trip to Utah. Then three days later close the door and leave for a week of vacation for Christmas. It was hard to leave an unpacked home, but it was a much needed break from a month long job of moving. Oh, and the kids are still sick. I get sick as soon as we get to Utah. I'm out of commission for two days. Bjorn's back is still bothering him, so no skiing for him. But we did get lots of needed rest. Thanks for a great Christmas mom!

We arrive back home for New Years. We beg off for New Years Eve, just too tiered. But we did have friends over for a New Years day BBQ. It was a great day. We still had sick kids.

Last week we went back to the doctors to see if we can get a handle on all this sickness. Audery ends up with an ear infection, and a lung infection. She gets a round of antibiotics. The other kids are sent packing without anything. Two days pass and the other two are sounding just as bad as Audrey so I call and get them all on the same medication. FINALLY. I can't wait to have healthy kids!

The unpacking is going well. I only have a few more boxes to go. We've been shopping for furniture and are almost set. We are waiting for a dresser and chair to arrive then we will be complete. I've found a large mirror for the living room, a new bigger book case, a clock, Washer and dryer, a hall bench with storage under the seat, three rugs. One for the kitchen, one for the living room, and one for the hall. I still have to get a fridge(eventually), curtains for the master bedroom, finish the kids shower curtain, sew a pad for the hall bench, buy bath towels, and we need to hang our pictures and other things. It's all starting to come together and I hope our life is coming together too. It's hard when you don't feel settled. I promise to post house pictures. I was going to do "before" and "after" photos, but I didn't get the before shots done and now there will just be after pictures...way after.

Hope you had a nice and relaxing holidays!

6 month and growing...

The girls are now 6 months old and growing like weeds. They are still neck and neck for weight. Audrey is 16#9oz., Lydia is 16#6oz. And they are both 27 inches tall. That puts them in the 65% for weight and 90% for height. It's amazing that I have all these tall kids, since I myself am not tall, nor do we have height on the Dodd side. Hhhhmmmm, are these really my kids? LOL. One look at Lydia and you know she is all Bjorn. And the same for Myles and Audrey with me. Can't believe how different they are getting. Fun personalities too. They are way more interactive than Myles was at this age. It's really fun, exhausting, but fun.

Myles thinks that when you say "cheese" you close your eyes too. Can't get him to do otherwise. But he really wanted his photo taken too. Who could resist a face like that!