5 Months Old!

Paigers, Smiley, Boo Boo, Sweetpea, Kicky McKickerson, Baby Blue, Number Three!

I often wonder why we spend 9 months debating on a name for a child, when 5 months into their lives they end up with 100 different nicknames anyway!

I'm torn between Kicky McKickerson & Boo Boo, both names provided by her oldest sister. Kicky McKickerson is 100% fitting for her, as the kids legs never stop moving. Not quite sure where Boo Boo came from, but Lauren started it and it's kinda stuck!

Call her whatever you want, I simply call her adorable! Following in her sisters footsteps, between months 3 and 5, she has successfully gone from a full head of hair to 100% BALD (aside from a few whispies here and there)! I'm not sure why all my kids come out w/ a full head of hair and proceed to be bald 4 months later!

We had our first big milestone this month. Paige rolled over! She can go from her belly to her back, but not vice versa yet, which kinda makes her mad. Especially at 4 am when she finds herself on her back, unable to reach her binki. (Yes, my kids are belly sleepers....sorry!)

She also started at daycare 2 weeks ago cause I unfortunately had to go back to work. She's doing great and is already the FAVORITE (kidding!).

Happy 5 Month birthday Boo Boo!

Update on the other girls:

Lauren has transitioned to Dyersville amazingly well. She misses our neighbors, but found a couple girls in our neighborhood to play with. She is doing great in school.....now! We got a note home from her teacher on the 9th day of school cause she was talking while the teacher was talking, and that was the best thing that could have happened to her. She is the type of kid that does NOT want to make you mad. Knowing how disappointed we were that she got in trouble at school motivates her to be better. She has yet to get in trouble again and has received the top two behavior marks everyday since this happened.

Reese on the other hand I think has struggled a bit. Now whether that's because of the move or Paige or it's just her personality is hard to say. Actually, I think it's a bit of all three. She's going through this lying phase that has seriously put me over the edge. I've taken things away from her, timeouts, early bedtimes, no snacks. Nothing seems to be working. She's getting good reports at school and daycare but once she gets home she just turns into this monster. I'm hoping this phase passes quickly and once we get into our own house, with our own routines, she will go back to "normal"!

Ok, that's enough for now. I hope to get some more pics take of all three girls soon. I've gotten a little lazy w/ the camera lately.

Back to Reality

Well, after losing the weekly lottery for the last 4 1/2 months, reality hit hard Monday morning at 5:15 am when my alarm went off. That annoying thing hadn't been set to go off since April 22nd. Talk about a depressing moment!

I started back to work Monday, but this time around it's with a 30 minute commute. Surprisingly tho, the drive doesn't bother me. I get to listen to some of MY music, have some ALONE time and I get to RELAX a bit. Notice all the capital words revolve around one thing for once. ME! Instead of listening to some random Disney movie or the girls argue or Sports talk radio, I get to do what I want, in MY car for 30 minutes each morning and each evening! Who would have ever thought 30 minutes of peace and quiet could do so much for your sanity!

Me going back to work leads to a whole new routine for us and the girls in the morning. They now get to ride the bus and boy do they think they are cool! Aside from a few boys making fun of Reese because they said her name was a boys name, it has so far been pretty uneventful. (Don't worry about her tho. Trust me, she can hold her own!)

I feel terrible, but I completely missed their first steps on the bus. The only pics I was able to get was them walking from the bus to school. One rule, they must hold hands. And I was happy to see that they listened. (Well, at least the first day they did!)

Besides starting back to work, we also had a birthday in the house this week. Troy turned 33 years old! Isn't that special?!??! He had a cake made out of love & egg shells waiting for him when he got home. (I'll give you one guess who caused the egg shell incident?)

Random snap shot of Reese & her light skinned, blue eyed sister that looks nothing like any of her siblings!!! HA! (Still not sure where she came from! But she sure is cute!)

Now don't forget, throughout all this we are also building a house! Yes, we love self torture! The house is coming along good. They should finish bricking next Monday and also started drywalling today. I'm praying we are done in about a month!

On a bit of a depressing note, the offer we had on our house in Dubuque fell through today. They have been unable to get their house sold, so decided to just take it off the market. So now we have two houses! Lucky us! If anyone is interested in a house in Dubuque, let me know. I'll cut ya a deal! So say some prayers that something happens w/ the house between now and when we move into our new one. I do not want to be stuck w/ that house through the winter.

Finally, I found this video from about a month ago of Dad and Paige. Priceless:

The Oster-House!

It's not rocket science, there are certain known factors in life that can lead to stress. For example:

• Having a baby can be stressful.
• Moving can be stressful.
• Trying to sell a house can be stressful.
• Starting a new job can be stressful.
• Building a house can be stressful.
• Living w/ your parents can be stressful.

No wonder Troy and I have been a bit grumpy the past couple weeks.....this is our life! We are excited about all of the above bullet points, but if they weren't all right on top of each other, it might allow for a bit of breathing room these days. And to top it all off, I have to go back to work in T minus 9 days! Beyond depressing.....

But, all of our hard work is startign to pay off. The house is coming along great, should be in by mid-October (hopefully).

Two of the youngest contractors in Dubuque County....did I mention they work cheap too!

This is the dining area:

This will eventually be the kitchen area:


This is the girls replacement for Maggie.....Birdie the Frog:


And this is a recent picture of the cutest 4 month old in the Tri-State Area: