Finally Toddling

Spencer learned to stand up in the middle of the room and bend and stand and stay standing forever much earlier than the other kids.  I thought for sure he was going to be our earliest walker.  He would only ever take a couple steps, then when he fell he would just keep crawling and not get back up.  MONTHS of this!  He finally has decided walking is the way to go. Christmas week was fun to watch the transition happen as he gradually walked more than he crawled.  He's now officially a walker at 15 months! All my other kids were walkers by their first birthday.  It's was fun to see him stay crawling.  With him being so small, it felt like I had a permanent 11 month old! I soaked it up!  Now he looks so big and cute getting into everything. He loves this little red car.  When he's not unloading my pans, dishwasher, or tupperware drawer, he actually plays with toys. 

Brothers

These cute boys.  I love the sounds and craziness they bring to our house.  My house is always a loud mess which can make me feel like somewhat of a failure sometimes, but I had a cute conversation in one of our Baskins with a mother of 4 teenage boys.  She was watching me wrangle my three boys, and just watched me and started chuckling in her own memories of when she was in my place.  She gave me some good words of wisdom and hope. I'll put up with the mess to keep them around. :) 

A Birthday....back in November. :)

So back in November....(I'm really slacking it up these days) Michael had a birthday!  He turned 5 and honestly, I don't remember much about it. It was a Sunday. He wanted blueberry muffins for breakfast and picked Macaroni and Cheese, hot dogs, peas, and jello for his birthday dinner. Mike's parents came for dinner, presents and cake.

Look at that cute face! 

All he asked for his birthday was "Super Bunny Tales." 

He got this crown at preschool, and  he wore it for days!  It was pretty cute. 

Michael got magnet tiles for his birthday among a few other things. These are seriously the best toy ever!  All 4 of my kids, all ages, play with them, every. single. day.  

Grandma brought us one of Mike's favorite childhood books.  The Rainbow Goblins has become a new favorite with the kids.  

He picked a red soccer cake. Oreo Cookies and Cream over chocolate was delicious. :)  

This kid....he makes me laugh and gives the best wiggly snuggles. Mr. wiggly man is still just as wiggly as ever. He loves to read, and build, and be crazy. He loves anything that plugs in, but is starting to learn a little moderation. His favorite color is red, he wants to be a fire man when he grows up and cannot wait for the next soccer season.  When he goes to bed he's always thankful for me. :) He then lists the rest of the family, minus Luke or Isabelle depending on his interactions for the day.  NEVER a dull moment with Michael around. 

Happy Halloween?

We have two cameras one of which never got downloaded. So I just came across all these pictures that I apparently never blogged.  Isabelle decided to change outfits for the school parade, "Mom, I don't want to be Elsa again, that place is going to be CRAWLING with Elsas!"  Haha.  Which was true.

Then we went to Sharon's for soup and trick or treating. 

Skating Party

Annabelle had a birthday.  For her party, she wanted to have a skating party with cousins and then have the girl cousins sleep over. What a fun day! I somehow have completely forgotten roller skates still exist.  Haha!  This was the first time for my kids and they loved it.  We need to remember this. Isabelle wanted to use real skates first and fell all over the place.  We talked her into using some toddler ones for a bit and she got better and then put back on the other skates and was really picking it up. She had fun and is asking for a pair of skates.

Michael was a little trooper and got right out there.  He liked it, but wanted to go faster than he could without falling hard.  He ended up following around strangers at the arcade area watching them play. 

Luke made a couple of laps before he called it quits. 

Michael wanted to go on the big parts but I didn't have skates. Jonathan, being the awesome cousin  he is, took him on a few laps.  Jonathan is such a good kid and is always so helpful with my kids! 

Once he was done, Luke just layed around on the floor being a content spectator. He liked the weight of the skates on his feet and didn't want to take them off.  He had fun experimenting with them and watching the color changing rope lights tucked under the skating area.

Spencer like the lights too.  He was grouchy until he got fed, then he was a busy body that wanted to be on the skating area. 

The girls went out to the middle and danced a few times.  Such a fun birthday party!  

Happy Pie Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving!  Mike's sister, Jeannie's family, hosted Mike's folks and sister, Sharon's family.  It's always fun to be together with family.  The kids played and played.  We ate and ate.  All the food was DELICIOUS!  I didn't take many pictures with my camera, but I did get a pie picture of each of my kids. 

These girls are so cute and fill the role of "sister" for each other!  For this reason alone, I would make the decision to move again in a heart beat.  

Apparently, there was a green food coloring clump and it was in Isabelle's piece.  Her mouth was green forever! 

Thanksgiving is FULL of dairy.  I caved on a few things for this little boy expecting to have a fussy one the next day.  Sure enough, he was, but he loved getting to enjoy some stuffing and pumpkin pie. 

This Thanksgiving, I looked back at the year we have had.  Last Thanksgiving we were at my folks house when they found out they were moving to Delaware.  My last trip to my childhood home. We were pretty sure we were moving back to Utah and I had a newborn.  Life is so different now than it was. I'm grateful we made the changes we have made.  Mike is happier.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing my husband happy.  He loves his jobs.  We both love that we live by lots of family.  Our kids have so many friends their own ages and in our neighborhood. We are back with dear friends and have so much to be grateful for. We have been so blessed. 

Turtle Sitting

We turtle sat for a neighbor while they were out of town for Thanksgiving. I thought this would be fun for the kids and seemed low maintenance enough for me to support.  Feed every other day, let out of the tank to wander around the house once a day for a bit, little to no poop involved. I can totally do that!  Isabelle and Spencer LOVED it!  They are both so obsessed with animals.  Luke and Michael like it, but it was nothing special.  Red eared slider turtle is on my list of approved pets. It's active enough to be fun to watch, but low maintenance enough.  She didn't smell, make a mess, or make noise.  Fun! 

This one's not exciting, except for Spencer standing.  He takes a few steps at a time and then sits down and crawls. 

Food Stuggles

The spoon self feeding has begun.  It's so dang cute. Which end do I use? :)  However, in all this we are definitely struggling with food.  He's been extremely fussy lately and I'm pretty sure it's ALL related to food! He decided he was done nursing, so we have been trying lots of different milk options because he is still struggling with dairy.  He can have a little, but too much gives him a rash and he has a difficult time getting it out the other end and is very grouchy in the meantime, which is about a day.  So I have tried almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk, etc....the works. I don't love any of these options because the fat content on them is almost zero and he needs it for brain development, so my favorite option is goats milk and that is by far his LEAST favorite option.  He is now getting to the point, he is always leery of any cup I hand him.  He usually spits it all out unless it's water, which he LOVES. I'm definitely starting to stress a bit about it.  I'm a pretty easy going food mom, but when it comes to brain development, I'm starting to get worried. I tried even adding chocolate syrup and strawberry syrup to mask the flavor.  My next step this week is mixing the goat milk with some rice milk (the one he drinks the "best" which still is not great).  Until then, we are using coconut oil, avocados, mayonnaise and other fattening non dairy options to help with some fat. 

He is also just wants to eat what we are eating and most of it he can't eat.  The only thing that is saving me is he LOVES baby food. None of my other kids still liked it at this point, so I'm glad he is hanging in there.  He's at least getting fruits and veggies. So we are hanging in there with lots of tantrums and frustrations. Hopefully he will continue to grow out of it. 

My Blessing

Ok, so we aren't still swimming, but this picture was taken on October 14. (I actually am that behind I guess!)  The weather this fall has been SO fantastic!  I told someone it was my blessing. Utah is easing me into being back. This true southern girl really does not like the winter weather around here.  I was in a bit of heaven in Florida.  However, this year, we swam til the end of October, wore shorts and t-shirts on Halloween, and then while it got chillier, we were still in short sleeves and flip flops on Thanksgiving.  This last weekend we almost hit 60! I still feel like I live in Florida (in fact on Saturday we were 10 degrees WARMER than Florida).  Now, there were some COLD COLD days in between there.  Definitely plenty of days I bundled Isabelle up and happily sent her along her way to the bus stop alone. I felt guilty and went along with her a couple of days, only to come home and remember, I don't love the cold and I don't need to go every day. ;) I'm sure this is the end of the super warm weather, but I'm enjoying it until then.