Adalynn's 6 months!

Geez it seems like 6 months has gone by fast!  Here is a bit about what Adalynn is up to these days:

• She sits up nice and sturdy.  She even rocks back and forth.  She seems excited with this new, upright view of the world.
• She is army crawling around- slowly- but still it is movement.  We are trying to teach Jordyn about putting toys away and keeping things off the floor.  Because if it is on the floor, it will be in Adalynn's mouth!
• She is so incredibly drooly, and has been for months!  We just went through a yucky stomach bug and Addy was throwing up for over a week.  I took her to the dr and it was clear dehydration was not a concern because Addy was soaked with drool.  Yuck!
• Addy weighed in at 13 lbs 9 oz. and 25.5 inches at her 6 month check up.  Head size was around 10th percentile.  Weight and length we both around 25th percentile.
• She is still not a good sleeper.  She wakes up 2-3 times every night and she cannot really be calmed down unless she is fed.  Coming from Jordyn who was the sleeping queen, Adalynn has been frustrating.
• When she is tired, she does the cutest little eye rubbing routine.  She will start to nuzzle into anything she can get her face too.  It really is cute.
• She loves her bouncing/saucer thingy.  LOVES it.
• She loves to watch baby Mozart.  We youtube it often.  Now that she is mobile we just have to watch out because she will attack the laptop/kindle/surface screen.
• She loves Jordyn and will always smile and laugh for her.

Holiday Traditions

This was a fun holiday season, full of fun new traditions for our family.  Jordyn is now understanding about Santa, which makes the holidays even more exciting.  We did the whole "Elf on the Shelf" thing.  We named our elf Mary- I know, we are not the most clever bunch.  Our elf is lame!  So many mornings she would be in the same spot she was the night before.  I just told Jordyn that Mary must really like that spot because she keeps coming back to it after she visits Santa during the night.  Jordyn still loved it and it was the first thing she said every morning, "Let's find Mary!"

We also started a Christmas story tradition.  I feel bad that our tree does not really have presents under it, because we take all our stuff with us to Grandma's house.  So I wrap all my Christmas books and put those under the tree.  Jordyn gets to open one every night and we read it together before bed.  I did a version of this when I was teaching so I have a lot of books.  It is a simple, easy, fun little family moment!  I love it!

We saw Santa this year at our ward party.  Last year, we stood in line for at least 45 minutes to sit on his lap.  This year Chad was just sitting in the hall of the church building and people started lining up behind him.  Accidentally, we were the first in line!  A Christmas miracle!  Jordyn asked Santa for presents.  When asked what kind of presents, she specified that she wanted white presents.  I think she meant the wrapping paper should be white?!  Who knows what goes on in a 3 yr old brain!

On a more spiritual note, Jordyn also started to understand about baby Jesus this year.  I have a little magnetic nativity she liked to play with.  She also loved watching "The King is Born" or as she calls it, the baby Jesus show.  We watched it A LOT in the month of December.  I just love Christmas!

Seasons Greetings!

Merry Christmas from the Barton Family!  Yeah, so it is a little tardy, but better late than never! 

We took our 1500 mile trek again this Christmas.  We first drove to Gunnison and spent a few days there.  We had a Nativity party with my family.  The kids did the nativity and Jordyn got to be the star, we went caroling, we had dinner, and the kids got their grandma sleepover! 

 



Christmas Eve, we drove up to Burley.  We had a quiet little Christmas morning with Grandma and Grandpa Barton and Jason, Joslynn and Flynn.  This is the first year that Jordyn really understood Santa, and it was so fun!  Adalynn tried to eat the paper most of the morning, but she did like her little gifts.  Jordyn got a princess castle to go with the little people princesses she got when we went to Disney World.  It is so cute, and she loves it!

That afternoon, the rest of the Barton clan came.  Oh boy, talk about a full house.  The family has grown and there are now 24 of us.  The crazy part, is that there are 7 babies under 2.  It was crazy, but also a lot of fun to all be there for a few days!

 

After a few days in Burley, we met my family back in SLC for another Jazz game!  My mom rented a sky box again for everyone's Christmas gift.  It is a lot of fun.  The kids love it...really, we all love it!

 

After the Jazz game, we went back to Gunnison for New Years.  We are so grateful that we can see our families each year, and that it works out to spend time with both families, even though they are far apart, and we are far away. 

 

I vowed when we first moved to Denver that I would never miss a Christmas with our families.  After this trip, I am warming to the idea of a quiet Christmas at home.  It gets harder and harder to be away for that long, and to spend that many days driving between Colorado, Idaho and Utah.  We were naïve to think that we would all return home healthy!  What would Christmas be without the stomach flu and runny noses?!  Until the time comes that we are alone for Christmas, I still love being with our families, even with the challenges it brings!

Merry and Bright

It has been a while since I have taken pictures...well, like 2 months!  So I got some lights out to test some of those tips I have been reading on pinterest.  It was hard.  It was frustrating.  Jordyn did not like being tied up in the lights and like a compassionate mother, I tell her to suck it up and smile!  Adalynn kept trying to eat the lights and she is super drooly.  All that combined with experimental lighting means frustrating!

Walt Disney World!

I feel a lot cooler when I call it WDW.  Like I am part of some cool club.  Whether I am part of a cool club or not, I LOVE Disney!  Disneyland...Disney World...or just a Disney movie, I love it all!  Even as I sit here typing, we have the Pandora Disney station on, and Jordyn is dressed like Repunzel dancing around. 

We went with most of the Barton family (minus Tarrin & Tyrell's family with their new baby, and minus Tyler) the first part of November.  We really debated on whether or not to take Adalynn.  We made our plans and got our flights before she was even born.  We assumed Addy would be an easy baby like Jordyn was and that it would be no big deal.  Wrong!  If we had known, we would have dropped her off in Utah and then flown out of SLC.  But, we did not, and after lots of debating and working hard to get her into better sleeping habits, we took her with us, and she was great!  I was nervous at first about nursing in the parks, but after a day, I lost all shame.  I nursed everywhere and anywhere.  No shame.

The biggest drama of the trip was just getting there.  We had so much stuff; 3 suitcases, 2 car seats, 1 big stroller, my pump, my nursing pillow (a life saver on the plane), a carry-on for Jordyn and a carry-on for Chad.  And only 2 adults to carry it all.  We got to DIA a good hour and a half before our flight and with all our stuff, stood in the Frontier line for 45 minutes to check our bags and get our boarding passes.  We tried to do all that online the night before, but because we were flying with an infant we had to check in at the airport.  The line was huge and by the time we got to the front, the unhelpful worker told us we were 4 minutes too late.  They will not check any bags or print any passes if it is less than 45 minutes before departure.  So to recap, we waited in line their line for 45 minutes only for them to tell us we were 4 minutes to late.  The next Frontier flight we could get on would get us to Orlando the next day at 10 pm.  So aggravating.  Chad never loses his cool and I don't think I have ever seen him so upset.  With the help of the nicest little airline, we found a flight on Southwest and $900 and a 5 hour flight later, we were in Orlando and ready to get our Disney on!

Chad's parents rented an amazing house to accommodate us all. Our first day was in Animal Kingdom, followed by a day at a water park,  a day at Magic Kingdom, and a day at Hollywood Studios.  We had to go back to Magic Kingdom a second day, because it is just that fantastic.  Somewhere in all of that we squeezed in 2 days at Universal Studios and the much anticipated Harry Potter World (an absolute wonder!) and the last day was at Epcot.  It was all just so fantastic I can't describe!  This post would be endless if I tried!  If you want an analysis on each park, the best rides, how to squeeze in the most entertainment, the best ways to get around long lines, then contact Chad.  He still looks on his apps to see how long lines are on any given day.  If you want to know the best spots for entertaining a 3 year old, or the most private places to nurse a baby, then call me cause I think by the last day I had it down to perfection!

And now for pictures!  I just printed about 200, but I will not share them all here, just the best ones!  Lets start with Animal Kingdom!

Safari Ride at Animal Kingdom.  Jordyn loved it.  Adalynn did not.

Goofing around with cousins.  Jordyn adores her cousins!

Tired Addy.  She had to have this little pillow to nuzzle into in her car seat.  We also got a little white noise machine you see on the left.  Another life saver.

Donald Duck!
 

Blizzard Beach Water Park

Cute Adalynn.  The was by far the easiest park to take a baby too.  She was so good!

Jordyn loved this park.  In absolute heaven.  She went on slide after slide and had a blast.  She loves the water and she loves slides so it was great!  She threw a royal fit when we had to leave.  The workers there were so nice to her and spoiled her with little toys to cheer her up. 

A friend gave me a swim suit that fit Addy and it was adorable!  Little polka dots with a tutu.  I was so excited to put it on her!


 

Universal Studios-Island Adventure

To my dismay, I got no pictures of Harry Potter World.  How did that happen?  I was just taking in all the magic and I was so enthralled by it all that I forgot!  Butterbeer and all, it was fantastic!

On Pop-eye's ship.

This park had fun little kid playgrounds, which was awesome for all the little ones we had with us.  This was in the Dr. Suess land, and it was adorable!  Cute little rides, and all the characters.  Jordyn loved it!

Magic Kingdom

I hope heaven is like this, only without the crowd!  My favorite ride is Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Chad's favorite is Space Mountain. (We are such nerds!) If you ask Jordyn about it, she will tell you the planes were too fast (talking about a little roller coaster Chad took her on.) but that she liked Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, and the ghosts (Haunted Mansion). 

Tea cups!

I think this is a funny picture.  Chad looks like he is super stoked to be on he merry-go-round. 

Jordyn thought it was so lovely that Snow White kissed her autograph!

Rapunzel was so cute!  She played and talked with Jordyn and was kind enough to share her hair with our bald little Addy!

Jordyn, so proud of her Minnie shirt.

Hollywood Studios
I learned on this trip, especially at Hollywood Studios, that Jordyn loves the live shows.  She was totally zoned into the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney Jr shows we saw. 

The Toy Story ride is awesome.  Not awesome enough to stand in the 2 hour line more than once, however.

Jordyn is obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  She was over the moon to see Jake!  We saw a little stage show as well and she collected about 20 gold deplumes and smiled the whole time! 

Goof ball!  Getting ready for the Muppet Show.

Addy had some big smiles for Grandma!

Universal Studios
Chad says this was his favorite day.  This park was empty and he went on each ride a bazillion times.  They had a super fun kid zone that we spent half the day in.   Aparently, I was getting tired cause I only took a couple pictures!

Epcot
This was the last day.   I admit, I was pretty ornery this day!  Sorry to anyone who had to spend this day with me.  It was rainy, and I was away from the stroller most of the day, which meant I did not have my camera, and thus... no pictures. 

The trip was amazing.  So much fun.  I cannot thank my in-laws enough times for taking us and sharing the fun memories. The flight home was thankfully uneventful.  We got home and it took me about a week to recover from the lack of sleep and sheer exhaustion!  I can't wait to do it all again someday!