There is so much

Where to begin...

How about funny things? I don't here to many funny statements from my girls anymore, besides girly goofiness.  I guess that is because they are growing up and they understand a lot more now.  But you are in luck because I caught a few and wrote them down.

Macy:  About a month ago around dinnertime, the time of sheer chaos, Tanner wouldn't settle down.  He couldn't be the number 1 priority at the time so I had to let him fuss while I was finishing the 10 million other tasks.  Macy came to the rescue. She started talking and playing with him.  When I could finally turn my focus to Tanner, Macy says to me as if I could easily do one more thing "If you would just talk to him, he would be happy."  I don't think I will ever say that to her when she is a mother, but the thought crossed my mind.

Macy does not lack confidence in some areas of her life.  This winter she played basketball.  According to her she is the best basketball player.  She would come home from practice and say she made more baskets than anyone else on the team but during the games she hardly ever scored.  She was dreading soccer practice because she has an awesome coach that makes them do conditioning 2 days a week.  I told her that to be a good/better soccer and basketball player she needed to the conditioning.  She informed me that she was already good and that it wouldn't help her.

Kelsey:  Another mom overheard a conversation between Kelsey and her friends and relayed this story to me.  The girls were talking about church when Kelsey says "when I grow up I don't think I will go to church as often.  And I will get my ears pierced two times."  I could only sigh and shake my head.  Kelsey has always complained about going to church.

Braden: He is a real home body.  I have a hard time getting him to the daycare at the gym.  I never know what he will say when a friend calls to play.  Sometimes if they live "too far" he will tell them he doesn't want to play unless they come to his house.  Even if they live "close" he makes them come to our house or he won't play.  One mom asked him if he wanted to come play with her son (a primary friend) and he bluntly said "no".  But some days he is begging for a friend and wants to go to their house.  I never know what blunt statements will come from his month when it comes to playing and sometimes he really embarrasses me.  He had one friend ask if he wanted to come to his house to see his new Star Wars toothbrush (the kid was real excited and always wants to play with Braden, it is his preschool buddy).  Despite the other kid's excitement Braden said flatly "no".

Tanner:  He is just beginning the funny stage.  He growls all the time.  He definitely growls when something is happening he doesn't like.  But he growls a lot for no reason.  It is really funny and most people notice his deep, throaty growl.  I call him our little monster.  He is a really happy and gives big huge grins.  He loves his siblings and gets excited when they come home or when they play with him.  Braden is pretty good at getting him to giggle.  He loves to "make out" with me.  He even made out with Calee the other day while we were helping Emily move.  He grabs on to the face and just attacks with his mouth over and over again.  Of course the mouth is always open and you are pretty wet after.  He is more prone to this when he is tired.  He started sitting around 6 months.  His bottom 2 front teeth came in at 5 months.  He is into grabbing everything.  If he gets a hold of an item it will be sopping within seconds.  He drips drool constantly.  He gets a big ring of water on his shirt as he sits and plays with his toys.  He was a lot drier when he could only lay on the ground.  He is still a big kid.  At his 6 month check up, which was closer to 7 months, he was 28.5 inches long (90%) and 18 pounds 8 oz (75% and his head was in the 70th percentile).  This means he is in the 9 to 12 month clothes.  He is not great about a schedule.  Four days before Brian and I left for a cruise he decided to have a routine and sleep through the night.  By the end of the trip the routine was gone and there were a few bumpy nights of sleep.  I think he is back to sleeping through the night but he is an earlier riser than most of my kids (I think I had to force Braden to sleep later).  He is up around 6 or 7 and he likes to go to bed around 8:30 with 2 naps during the day.  Oh and he is a jabber mouth.  He has to get his 2 cents in and babbles constantly.

Pictures to come soon.
*Warning: Soon is a relative term :)

Family photos

I figured since 2 out of the 4 kids were getting pictures, all of us should get pictures. Here is a sampling. It was so hard to narrow down for this post.

4 months old

At the beginning of December Tanner went in for his 4 month check up. So far he has beat all the other kids in size ever since he was born. He latest stats were:

Height: 26.5 in
Weight: 16.3 lbs.
Head circ.: 16.9 in

According to clothing charts this means he fits 6 to 9 month clothes.

Here are pictures from his first photo shoot.

Funny Sayings

Braden: "I know why you signed me up for school. So I would have to do boring stuff."

Kelsey had a school assignment to define 2 words and then use them in a sentence. One of the words was "overjoyed".  The sentence she wrote was "When I go to the mall I fill (feel) overjoyed." This is a true statement for her. Brian and I are really worried for her bank account.

The other day Braden had spent his allotted time watching TV/playing video so I made him stop. A little time had passed and he was ready to play more video games but I wouldn't let him. Below is what I remember from the conversation.
Braden: Can I play video games?
Me: No. You need to find something else to do.
Braden: If you don't let me play video games I am walking out the door.
Me: I will be really sad if you leave, but you can't play video games.
Braden thinks for a bit: If you don't let me play video games I am going up to Jeffie's house without calling him.
Me: Okay. Have fun.
He then goes outside for a couple of seconds then comes back in.

Braden: Do you love me?
Me: Of course I love you.
Braden: If you love me, then you will let me play video games.
Me: I love you that is why I am not letting you play video games.
Braden: If you won't let me then I am putting on my big coat and leaving.
Me: I will be really sad if you leave, but that is your choice. I will always love you no matter what, but I can't let you play video games.

Braden then got his big coat on and went out the front door. I went and peeked on him and he was hiding behind our big, wooden Nativity in the front yard. He was out there for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Baptism

In November Kelsey chose to be baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Brian and I are so proud of her decision. We would have loved her no matter her choice but we know she made the best one. She will be happier because as long as she keeps the commandments she will be able to have the Holy Ghost with her at all times. What a wonderful gift!

She was able to share her special night with her good friend and our neighbor, Lindsay Driggs. The girls were so excited to be baptized on the same day. Both families were able to attend and support the girls. Afterwards we had an ice cream sundae bar and dessert bar. I am not sure what Kelsey was more excited for, to be baptized or the treats afterwards.

Happy Birthday Kelsey

I don't know who decided to have Kelsey when we did, but it is too darn close to Halloween. (Oops that was me. I didn't want to wait another week for my due date and at that point in my life Halloween was a breeze.) Every year I prep for Halloween and a birthday. This year was worse because she got to have a party this year. We made it worse on ourselves because we decided to throw it ourselves instead of going somewhere. The reasoning behind the madness was Macy had never gone outside the home for her party, she wanted to invite a lot of people and we could do it cheaper (only slightly). Next time I will push for it to be else where and make sure I have budgeted appropriately.

It did turn out to be a blast and all the work paid off. I received several comments from parents about how much fun their daughter had. Kelsey chose a science theme because at one point in the decision making process she wanted to go to the Natural History museum. The party there was science based.

So we did science experiments with the help from a special guest, Professor Von Kartchner, and her assistant, Stefanie Tallwoman. I think I shocked Brian and Kelsey when I walked out wearing goofy glasses, a pink mustache (Stefanie brought them not knowing the plan which was perfect) and a funny accent. I didn't tell them what I was going to do and I know Brian didn't ever expect me to do anything like that. The girls at the party loved it and thought it was hilarious. The glasses made it hard to see things clearly so I would take them off sometimes. The girls would quickly remind me that I couldn't see without them and I would have to put them back on. They would also remind me when I stopped talking in the silly accent.

It was a lot of work but I was happy to do it for my sweet Kelsey. I hope she enjoyed it.

Just in case you can't tell it is a flask with bubbles (the m&ms are bubbles along with the 2 circles at the top). Just before lighting the candles I put dry ice in a cup at the top.

The experiments we did were

•  elephant toothpaste
• exploding bags
• exploding colorful milk
• lava bottles
• slime
• mentos in soda

Happy Halloween

So I do know that in 3 days time it will be Thanksgiving but I had to share our Halloween pictures.  This year we had a ninja, vampire and a Hershey's kiss. Macy's costume was homemade because I suggested the costume idea thinking I could easily buy something like that. Her previous ideas were a little out there so I thought this would be perfect. I learned my lesson, always do an internet search before suggesting anything. I could only find adult Hershey kiss costumes or toddler sized costumes. She kindly offered to be something else like a sewing machine. I knew we wouldn't find a sewing machine costume so a kiss was a lot easier to make. It actually wasn't too bad (it took maybe 4 hours). It was perfect for her because it came off easily (she isn't in to wearing costumes for a long time) and it didn't require a lot of extra touches. I could have found a silver/grey shirt and she could have worn colored leggings but that is just not her so I didn't bother. And she was still happy with it.

I was also the hit of 2 classroom Halloween parties. I brought homemade slim (thanks Alacey for the the idea). The kids loved it, but they somehow managed to make a mess with the slim I intentionally made not as sticky. Maybe it was the way they dug their fingers into it or wrapped their hands in it or just all the hot little hands playing with it that made it really sticky and stringy by the end of the first party. I had to keep adding a little more borax solution during the second party so the damage was very minimal to the second classroom.

I couldn't get a picture with all the kids together. They were in too big of a hurry to be with friends and wouldn't stand together. Looking through the pictures I realized I didn't get a picture of Macy's painted pumpkin yet (it is still on the front porch).

Kelsey's pumpkin/mom's. She picked the design and mom did all the work.

Braden's pumpkin. Cleaned out by mom, designed by Braden, drawn by mom and carved by dad.