Rory's 4 year stats, Beckah's 18 month stats, and Owen 2 month stats...

It was a busy couple of weeks for us.  Rory turned 4, Beckah turned 18 months, and Owen is now 2 months old.  All of them needed to go in for well checks!  lol

Rory is 38 inches tall (so 3'2") and 30lbs 5ozs.  Still on the skinny side, but she is holding steady on the growth chart so we aren't worried.  Rory is always awesome at the doctor's office.  She answers questions and has no problem holding still for the exams.  The only thing she didn't like was having to get her shots, but I am pretty sure that no one likes to get shots.  At least now she is done with shots until she is 11 and needs a booster.

Beckah was also very cooperative with the doctors. She is 31inches tall and 25lbs 3ozs.  She talked a bunch  (some nonsense and some completely understandable lol) and is a little bit ahead of where they say average is for her age. Beckah also needed shots which she milked for a couple of days by talking about her "ow-ies" and getting weepy.  She is a little bit of a drama queen.  

Owen had his two month appointment on the 18th.  He did very well, was smiling at everyone and even "talked" for the doctors.  He was 12lbs 15ozs and 24 inches long.  He got a few shots too, which wasn't very fun.

Sadly we are going to be saying goodbye to a few of our favorite doctors as they will be finishing up their residency soon.  This means that there are a whole bunch of new residents coming into the clinic and this drives me a little nuts.  As Owen is my FOURTH child there are somethings that I really don't need to sit and go through step by step with the new residents assigned to our care, but at the same time I feel that I need to let the resident go through the steps they need to for their benefit. They are learning and trying to get these things to be second nature.  Most of them seem insanely nervous, especially when dealing with children and I so want them to be at ease.  My kids are so good about letting them listen to hearts and lungs, letting them look in their ears, nose and mouth.  They get the giggles from doing the response tests (tapping of the knee to make the leg kick stuff) and like to talk to the doctors about how they are doing (even when they are sick).  I know my kids are good for these new Residents to work with because they don't have to worry about upsetting them and can really get a feel for what healthy/sick looks like in kids their ages.

But...It is really exhausting for me to have to go over proper infant care, car seat safety, and/or what they should be doing/learning at this stage/age in detail at every. single. appointment.  Further frustrating things, most of these residents are young, have had no children themselves, and are mostly male.  They also have to go through the appointment once alone with me and again with their attending present to make sure they are checking right.  Sigh.

Good news is all the attending doctors are very good are thanking me for my patience and giving the attending a chance!  The attending at Owen's appointment had an awesome sense of humor and the resident relaxed a lot when he realized that I was going to be as helpful and patient as he needed me to be and that Owen was happy and relaxed.  I really hope that we can get in with him consistently (and I am annoyingly persistent with the appointment people so I'm thinking I will get my way lol) because he had a pretty good bedside manner with the kids once he relaxed and sounded the least like a walking textbook of all the attending physicians when dealing with me and my questions.

Rory's 4th Birthday Party

Let me start by saying that Rory always asks for the most interesting, least mainstream party themes. Last year it was a purple duck party. 

Yeah. 

Purple. 

Ducks.  

Let's just say that purple ducks aren't exactly easy to come by.  

This year she wanted a Very Hungry Caterpillar party.  This was much easier to accomplish.

Rory made me a list of everyone she wanted to invite.  Both sets of grandparents were in town too as we were blessing Owen the next day at church.  It was super fun!  

Some of Rory's favorite people are her Sunbeam teachers at church and their little boy, Hyrum.  We were super glad they were able to come (Rory talked about it for a few days after).  Hyrum is only a few days younger than Beckah and too cute for words (evidence below).

Our good friends Megan and Jeremiah let us borrow their water slide for the day and it was a HUGE hit. 

Here are Beckah and Chloe enjoying some sun and watching the big kids be crazy on the slide. 

Rory of course had to have a Caterpillar "cake" which was easier to do with cupcakes.  It was very fun! 

The little kids liked the cupcakes too...they left trails of frosting everywhere they went...

Here is a picture of my dad with Owen.  It was super awesome to have him and my mom up, along with Brady's parents.

And no summer party is complete without a pinata. 

We looked all over for a Caterpillar pinata but in the end we went with a butterfly.  I managed to get the pinata, got it filled with candy, got a bat to beat it with and then totally forgot to get rope to hang it from the tree.  My awesome husband managed tie two of my shoelaces together and hung the pinata up with that.

The big kids had to use the blind fold the first time around. 

The younger ones got to swing at it with just the bat.  

Beckah even wanted a turn. 

Everyone got lots of turns...

...because the butterfly was insanely durable. 

Even our strong older boys were having trouble. 

This next picture is one of my favorite pinata moments.  Beckah really wanted a turn again, so Brady took advantage of "helping" her to do some damage to the pinata so that the kids could actually get some candy out of it.  He would swing really hard at the pinata and Beckah would laugh SO HARD.  I will have to see if there is any video of this from my mom because it was so funny.  

After Brady "weakened" the super butterfly they kids got another turn and this time they would see some candy.  

In the end our new neighbor, who is nicknamed Juicy, got in a good swing and the candy was set free!

Then it was present time!

And of course, because these kids are all 7 and under they slowly crept closer and closer to Rory until they were practically sitting on her while she opened the presents.  Thankfully Megan was there to help keep things from getting out of control so I could keep taking pictures. :o)  We heart you Megan!

It was super fantastic day.  We topped it off by going to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's with the Grandparents and Megan and her kids!  Rory tells me it was the best birthday ever!  

Part of me can't wait to see what she comes up with next year.  

Comparison Pictures...

Here are all my kids at roughly the same age...

I think it's fair to say there is a resemblance.