A month in review

This month has been filled with ups and downs. It started out with a beautiful drive through the Uintah mountains on Labor Day.
The kids love to stop by the lakes and streams to through rocks or sticks in them. Above is a picture of Macy at Teapot Lake.

Here is the happy family (ignore my hair I didn't really do since we were going to be in the car all day). I bought Brian a place-anywhere tripod for his birthday so he didn't have to set the camera on rocks, ledges or anything somewhat stable. Well we keep forgetting it so he found another somewhat stable rock for the family photo-op.

The following week our buyers cancelled on our home, so we had to start looking for someone else to purchase our home in AZ. If anyone needs a real estate agent in AZ I know of a guy I wouldn't recommend. He either doesn't understand what a contract is and that it is legally binding or he is just flat out dishonest and unethical. By the way it is not our agent. Now I get to spend time filing a complaint against the guy.

On to happier times. Braden went in for his four month check-up at a little over five months. He is tipping the scales at 19 lbs. 6 oz. and has grown to 26.5 inches tall. The big guy is pretty much out of his infant carrier. He still likes to scream, really loud. His second tooth came in so no Jack-o-lantern for his Halloween costume.

Here he is practicing how to sit up. This was earlier in the month. Today he does a lot better but I still place the Boppy Pillow around him just in case he tries to reach for something too far away. His eczema cleared up once started giving him 1/2 tsp. of a probiotic every day.

He started rice cereal some time after his doctor's appointment. He does pretty well and is so far a clean eater. The jury will decide once he starts fruits and vegetables.

Macy was off-track at school this month (This means her class didn't have school. It is a way to allow for more kids in the elementary school. There are 4 tracks with 3 tracks being in school and one track out. It rotates as to which one is out of school.) Since she didn't have school, she and Kelsey were able to have a sleep over at grandma's and grandpa's house. They went down to the Gateway Mall to play in the water fountain.

They also came home with Build-a-Bears. Macy's was Hannah Montana Bear and Braden's is the U of U monkey.

I took the Utah Real Restate exam and passed. Now I am looking for a broker to hang my license with so I can start using it. Brian is itching to look at the MLS. He was very sweet and brought home a balloon bouquet to say congratulations.

Here is Braden enjoying his balloon.

Of course to avoid any fights, Braden was given the largest balloon. The girls had to have the smaller two. This did stop all fights relating to the balloons.

We made it to the Utah State Fair this year. When Macy found out that we were going to see farm animals she quickly volunteered to stay home because it would be stinky. We made her go and she said it did smell. Kelsey saw the bunnies and immediately fell in love. All night she begged to take one home. The girls had the chance to milk a cow but they turned it down. Their cousins didn't miss out. To make it all complete we rode the ferris wheel and ate funnel cake.

My Grandma Lue and I hosted a baby shower for my sister Emily. This is her first and will be my kids first cousin on my side of the family. She received many cute things. We played a two games including the candy bar in the diaper. Did you know that the most number of children born to one woman was 66? And did you know that heaviest baby ever born was 23 lbs? The most amazing thing about these facts is that they happened in the 1800s. Ouch!

Since we are back in Utah we had to take advantage and see the fall leaves. Last Friday we drove the Alpine Loop. The aspen trees have not changed color yet but the drive was still pretty.

We stopped at Sundance Ski Resort for lunch/dinner with Brian's parents (they were taking the same drive and we didn't even plan it that way).

While there the girls had to play wish stick would pass under the bridge first, aka Pooh sticks (for any of you who have seen the old Winnie the Pooh).


Our last stop on the drive was Cascade Springs. It was beautiful and the kids got the wiggles out.

Here at the springs Brian practiced his photography. The 2 pictures above were taken by him. He is really quite good. I might have to get him a better camera for Christmas. I will post the rest of his fall leave pictures on facebook. I am not going to give him credit for the last 2 on this post. I took those.

On our way down the canyon we saw a bull moose. Brian took a picture but it didn't turn out very good. It was about 15 feet from our car.

When we got back from our drive we had another offer on our home. It is now under contract. Hopefully this one will go through. I am grateful Heavenly Father is looking out for us.

I failed to mention one of Brian's big excitements of the season, football. Brian has put in some time to watching all the college football he can. This year we purchased season tickets. We watched our team (the U of U) win 2 games at home and had to watch them lose one on TV. We have also been cheering for BYU and were sad when they lost. Don't get me wrong. Come November we will be cheering red.

Braden at 5 months

Braden is the happiest boy. His first tooth came in last Wednesday without a word of complaint from him. It is one of his bottom teeth. The other is no where to be seen so he just might be a Jack-o-lantern for Halloween.

He loves to laugh. He just giggles when he looks at me. Do I really look that funny?

Last Thursday the girls where pretending to swim and dive on the couches. They were close to crossing the line of inappropriate play on the couch when they would "dive" into the water. I was folding clothes so I couldn't see everything but I kept warning them to not get to that point. Braden was no help to me cause. He was sitting in his exersaucer laughing hysterically at them as they "swam". The swimming made lots of noise and the flaying arms were quite a sight. I tried to tell him to quit egging them on. Of course it did no good, but they all had a good time. Later that night Stefanie came to watch the kids while we went to the University of Utah football game. Macy was so excited to show Stefanie how to make Braden laugh. When she tried the swimming act, Braden just stared at her. It made her a little mad. She told him that it was funny and he was supposed to laugh. Again he didn't listen.

Oh and he loves to scream usually for fun. It is a high pitched girl scream. In his defense he hears his sisters fighting and playing all day so why wouldn't he scream like them. Of course most babies if probably sound that way if they scream. He is not a quiet child and loves noise. This is presenting a problem in church. I had to leave my mother-in-law's Relief Society lesson because he was screaming as she talked. He won't suck on a pacifier for very long so I am foreseeing some problems at church. With the girls if they were babbling too loudly we just had to pop the binky in and the problem was solved.

He is also a TV watcher. If the TV is on he becomes glued. If I watch TV while feeding him, he will sometimes give up the bottle just so he can turn his head and watch. This is a good and bad quality. Macy never watched TV or movies until she was at least 2 1/2 and even then she only lasted 20 to 30 minutes. There were moments when I would just want to get a few things done and wished she would sit quietly watching a movie. I would try and it wouldn't work. Kelsey on the other hand was also a TV watcher from day one. She could watch movies all day long. The down side of a TV watcher is that as a mom I can fall into the trap of utilizing it too much. I can get a lot done but at what price.

Over the Weekend

Brian has every other Friday off. Last Friday was his day off so he spent some time living his dream and hanging out with his grandpa. His dream is to own horses so he can go out riding whenever he wants. Okay his real dream is to be a cowboy, but I don't think that is happening. And the problem is not entirely me. It is his allergies to horses and he doesn't know much about roping and herding cattle. When he was little his allergies were so bad he had to stop riding with his grandpa altogether because his eyes would swell and other allergic reactions would happen. Since then he has gone through allergy injections to help alleviate the symptoms. They aren't completely gone but he can at least ride as long as he doesn't touch his eyes, nose or mouth after touching the horse. My part of the problem is I won't let him buy a horse right now. There are other things I want first like a house and a newer car. I would also prefer to have a boat before a horse too but that is up for debate.

Here is grandpa and Bullseye, his horse. The man is 87 and still riding once a week.

They went to American Fork Canyon. Brian said it was beautiful. They went on an 8 hour ride. Brian loved it but his body wasn't exactly used to it. He was a little sore and chapped the next day, but not enough to keep him away.

The only bad thing that happened was while they were gone his grandma fell and broke her hip and wrist. She had to have a partial hip replacement on Saturday. She seems to be doing well and giving her therapists a hard time.

Saturday we made a quick jaunt up to Bear Lake to meet our friends the Hodlmairs to do a bit of sailing. We had a great time. The weather was mediocre. I am glad we didn't have a speed boat to tempt me to ski because it wasn't hot and at times it was cool. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and water and didn't notice the temperature. I am surprised they noticed when it started to sprinkle.

This week we have been visiting a couple of grandmas (great). I don't know what it is but if "grandma" is part of your name they get excited to visit. We went and saw my Grandma Lue yesterday and today the girls were begging to visit Grandma K in the hospital. Then they mentioned that we hadn't been out to Grandma Bonnie's for a long time. I guess we need to get there next.

A funny thing that Kelsey has been crying about lately is her ears. Several times in the car she would start crying about her ears being off. Yesterday she was upset because her ears weren't on. Well I figured out the problem. Her ears needed to "pop". I am not sure what it is technically. I think the pressure in your ears is out of balance or something. But anyways, because she couldn't hear very well her ears had been turned off.