Update on Jake

Many of you have asked me how Jake has been sleeping since I recently posted a plea for help. Well, this story might sound "too good to be true", but it really is true. I knew there just had to be something I could do to get him sleeping through the night. Well, I pretty much took advice from everyone so it was a culmination of many things that probably contributed to his ultimate success. First of all, he wasn't sick. I had already had the doctor check him out. So I stopped drinking caffeine (cold turkey), limited spicy foods and dairy products, filled his tummy up before bedtime, and swaddled him. I did keep him in his own bed because I felt like if I got him used to sleeping somewhere else, then I'd have to go through this again anyway when I wanted to move him back to his crib. So anyway, on top of all those things, I took him to his doctor for his 4-month check up. That was on January 14th. He suggested I try the "cry it out" method again. He said one of the things I could do to make it easier is go in and soothe him (without taking him out of the crib) then leave for 5 minutes. If he's still crying, go back in and soothe him then leave for 10 minutes and so on adding 5 minutes each time. I decided to try it that night. As pathetic as I am, I knew I couldn't handle 5 whole minutes. I figured I'd start with 2. He was still crying after 2 minutes, so I put his binkie back in and then sat in the rocking chair in his room. This time I was going to do 3 minutes. It was awful. He was wailing and it just kept getting worse. I almost gave in, but I just stared at the clock and was waiting for it to hit 3 minutes. Well, just when I almost gave up, before three minutes hit, he stopped all of a sudden and fell asleep. He seriously slept for the rest of the night. Well, I did that for about three nights in a row where he woke up only once each night and I let him cry it out, which lasted less than three minutes each time. So now he's sleeping 12 to 13 hours a night straight. Isn't that an amazing story?!? So thank you all for your help and suggestions! All of it put together worked like a charm!

Top Moments in 2008

It's been a big year for us. We had a lot of big events, so I thought I'd recap the year with our top moments during 2008.

Bryce came home from his mission! What a way to start the year! Hailee had been prepped for so long with pictures of him, she was so excited to see him and ran straight to give him a hug even though she was only two months old when he left. You can check out pictures of that here.

Moab in May. (Yes, I know I look like I'm 500 lbs.)

The FrontRunner opened. Hailee has loved that thing this year!

My Mom & Dad got remarried in June!
Ty turned the big 3-0! Read all about him here.

Hailee moved into a big girl bed at the end of July so baby Jake could have the crib. It was quite a transition. I'll try not to wait that long with Jake!

We celebrated 10 years out of High School. Here are all of us on our way to the reunion (except Sherice, she was in Bear Lake). I love these gals. I think we are better friends now than we were in high school since we've all grown up and aren't experiencing crazy teenage hormones all the time. I guess we have crazy pregnant hormones, but maybe we take that out on our husbands or something!
Bryce & Jen got married in August!

Lot's & lot's of Lagoon!

Out of state visitors all summer!

Jakey Lakey was born in September!Pheonix in November.
Hailee turned three, got rid of the binkie, and got potty trained!

We had a great year and thanks to all of you who were a part of it. We feel blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives. Here's to a wonderful 2009!

Christmas '08

Hailee's B-Day Parties

Ok, I know I'm way behind. I'm going to post a blog marathon here so I can catch up. I posted a few pictures of Hailee's birthday in November, but I have a few more I wanted to post. Hailee was lucky enough to have three birthday parties!

Her first birthday party was when we were in Arizona and we celebrated it with both Hailee and Addy because Addy's birthday was coming up soon too. It was so much fun! Kaleena made this perfect cake for them. You can't tell from the top, but it's actually a "tiara" cake.

Here's the front view. How cool is that!?! The girls loved it!

The girls admiring their cake with Blake.

This was hilarious. Grandpa decided to buy trick candles and I have never seen either of them laugh this hard. You can see in the picture how hard they were laughing.

Since her actual birthday was the day after we got home, we didn't have anything big planned for her. Her big party was the following weekend, but we wanted to do something to at least celebrate her actual birthday. I made cupcakes with Hailee & she got to open a few presents.

Here's her big birthday party. It was fun, we had our family and some friends over. As you can see, Hailee is very loved!My mom made the cake this time. Look at this awesome princess castle cake! We've got some serious cake making skills in my family (I'm not a part of that classification).Here's the birthday girl!
Hailee's big gift. Ty has been wanting to get this for Hailee since we found out we were having a girl when I was still pregnant! Finally she's old enough to have her own bike. Of course it had to be a TREK because no other bike would be good enough for this bike snob's little girl!

Arizona

Ok, I'm way behind on posting pictures, but I had to post some pictures of our fun trip to Phoenix! I apoligize for the number of pictures, but I swear I scaled them down as much as I could bear!

This is Hailee playing basketball with Brady in their new backyard. Check out their awesome new court! Brady was trying to do slam dunks by jumping off the chair and Hailee had to get her own stool to try to do the same.

Here are the cousins having dinner together.

They all took turns holding baby Jake. Here's Carly with him.

An unprecedented moment. Hailee NEVER falls asleep in the car. Must've been all the jet lag, time change and activity she was experiencing.

Hailee & Addy swimming with Grandpa in the pool. Notice he's wearing a wetsuit? Ya, it was freezing. But the kids didn't seem to mind!

Aunt Krista with baby Jake.

Here are the cousins out to dinner. Ya, we went all the way down to Phoenix to go to Peter Piper Pizza! The kids had a blast though!

Here we are at the zoo. Hailee is trying to touch the sting rays.

Hailee & Addy.

This was a lot of fun. Addy goes to this fun class at the library so Hailee got to go with her. They read stories and danced around to music and did an art project. This is Hailee and Addy showing how old they are.

Here's the whole crew at the Science Museum.

Hailee had just accidentally flipped dirt up onto Brady's nose. They thought it was hilarious!

Here's an attempt at a picture of the whole gang.

My Uncle Jeff & Aunt Jodi (from CA) happened to be in town the last day we were there, so we got to visit with them for a bit. They brought their dog and Hailee walked her all over the place.

Here's a picture of the Shreeve clan at Blake & Kaleena's house. I just noticed I'm not in any of these pictures. I guess I was behind the camera the whole time!

Hailee's airplane entertainment!

We had so much fun! Thanks to Blake & Kaleena and the Stone's for making us feel so welcome and for entertaining us so well! Thanks to Grandpa for coming with me and helping me entertain the kids. We had such a great time, I can't wait to do it again!