These are the days to remember

Sophie with her Minnie Mouse backpack full of nothing.

We do a neighborhood extended playdate "preschool" twice a week. She loves going to school like her big sister. She comes and wakes me up everyday and says, 'mom, get up. It's time for my school.'

Chloe loves kindergarten and her teacher. She just started riding the bus too and thinks she is too cool.

The end of a comfy ride...?

Lyla Claire...We like her a lot!

Blessing Day at Aunt Margi's house, we had a fun day.


Blessing dress with Mom...the blessing dress is another story for another post. Ain't they beautiful? (this is brit...)

For the love of dairy

I love cows. I love the fact that all they have to do all day is eat. I would have even considered having one as a pet if I weren't severely allergic to their dander. Everything that is wonderful in this world comes from a cow... milk, cheese, steak, cheeseburgers, ice cream, butter, yogurt, chocolate. Brit and I have even had a big fight once over cheese. Smoked gouda. Mmmmm.
I have been sober from dairy for a week now. I miss it every day... every minute. So when Jonelle "Jojo Babbit" emails me and threatens to use force on me if I don't update my blog...(which is funny she did that because we would always wrestle in high school -in front of Robert Martin for some strange reason- and she would always be taken down! She really has no upper body strength) ...she gave me a list of things I could write about, and my love of cheese was on the list. *
(Some other things on the list were too personal to write about...the whereabouts of my green suede shoes with the black ribbon laces. I get teary just thinking about them and the joy they brought me.)
I just knew I needed to share. Now, you might be saying, 'Cristine- they make delicious soy versions of everything you mentioned. Whats the big deal? Buck up, camper!' But I failed to mention, I also am on the gluten free and egg free wagon. Some of the soy items contain wheat and egg. Ironically, some of the gluten free items contain milk and egg as well. What's a poor girl to do?! So why am torturing my body like this? Perhaps a new found health kick or road to a new self discovery? Maybe a new recipe for mood alteration? Maybe I am half vegan?

While I eat my butter pecan soy dream, I look at my sweet little bundle of love and her shredded, beet red cheeks, I could care less about those delicious dairy cows. ( Well- maybe I care a little when it comes to sees candies.) Her food allergy is more important than all the milk in Utah. When her doctor told me to go off gluten, dairy, eggs, tomatoes, and chocolate I thought 'hey, no big deal. I don't drink that much milk anyway. I don't eat that much bread.' The very first day Brit was making fun of me for acting like a homeless person looking in our cupboards. I was starving for the first 3 days. I even cried a little bit.

Now I feel better. I do think my new found diet actually has some mood alteration proponents. A few weeks ago, Chloe was saying the prayer. It went something like this..."please bless mommy to not be so grouchy and we won't have a bad day like we did today or yesterday or the day before..."

I haven't had a prayer like that since, so it's safe to say it was the wheat and cheese that made me grouchy.

*Author's note: I find it funny that after I write this I find a small pamplet about cheese written on Jonelle's blog http://thisishowwerolllv.blogspot.com/

Not even 2 months old, and she has moved 3 times!

I'm convinced she is nornal baby size now! I'm not sure how much she weighs yet, but that second chin has to be 6 ounces or so. She is doing great!

We were able to recover at my mom's house in Las Vegas. Brit's group moved out of Minneapolis right before I had Lyla, so we stayed until I could fly. The girls and I were able to be pampered for about a month, and now we are in Southern California with Brit. We have been here 2 days now. The first day I thought... let's please move back! I miss it so much. It is 87 degrees at the end of July! The second day we had a 5.8 earthquake. We are on the 3rd floor in our apartment and the whole building was swaying! So much for that.

Chloe...of the hill people

After months of dangling from its root, she finally pulled out her top tooth! She is excited and nervous because she found 2 more loose ones and dad keeps threatening to yank them.

She's finally ours!!

After 5 days in the hospital we finally have our new baby at home! So I guess a recap is in order for those of you reading that don't know details. Lyla has been a little baby from the get go, kind of like our other two, but just a little smaller. After buying my bro Mikes farely new car seat a few months ago, we took it in to the hospital to get Lyla and take her home, we quickly found out how small she really was...the nurse in a round about way told us how bad of parents we were because we had a huge (normal size) car seat that our little peanut as she called her, just would not fit in! Here she is in her preemie car seat and it looks like she's being swallowed, so you can

imagine how she looked in the other car seat.

Anyway, she is doing great, she is classified as SGA or small for gestational age or just a little baby. More than likely the placenta just wasn't giving her enough to grow to be a 7 pounder. At todays week old check up she passed with flying colors. She is so small that our biggest obsticle is keeping her warm, she has no fat to keep her warm so she is always bundled up. So after a slow start she is growing like a weed, she's up to 4 lbs 14 oz. She is eating good and is just as cute as ever. We like her a lot, and so do her big sisters!! They thought it was so cute how small she was, this was the first time they got to be close to her since she has been in the Special Care Nursey, they laughed when they saw that she really is a baby doll size.

Cristine is also doing great, she is eating good and pooping just like she should...and I like her a lot too! Actually in response to her Ying/Yang thing, she is just my happiness, she simply makes me happy. I love everything about her!

We also get to have Grandma with us for a while...what a blessing, she has been so wonderful. We love her and love having her! I couldn't be happier, I have the best family anyone could ask for, 4 babes all to myself! I wouldn't have it any other way, I think heaven father knew that these sweet girls were the key to my happiness, there's only 1 boy allowed, me!

Update...Update...Update...

So leave it up to me to completely botch the name...Hopefully everyone reads my explanation of the name, Lie-la, not lay-la. After her normal, "Brit, you are not very smart" look, Cris explained how to spell the name to me, it's LYLA. So I think it is pretty much official barring any last minute changes, LYLA CLAIRE TERRY.

Here is a little treat from some daddy/daughter time we had today. She is so sweet and little!!

My first time holding her...brings a tear to your eye doesn't it?!