Thursday, March 27, 2014

Moab


We had a great time in Moab. We drove to Glenwood Springs and spent the night there so we could be in Moab for as long as possible with the Conleys. We had a great time hiking, swimming, running, and being together. The cousins love each other. Liam spent the weekend, which happened to be his birthday, with Roseola. So he screamed the whole trip. Other then that we had a perfect trip!













Monday, March 24, 2014

Mia and Liam

 I spend a lot of time with Mia in the mornings before afternoon kindergarten. I love that I have this time with her. I am not anxious for her to be in full time school. I'm worried about having one more kid to give time to in the afternoon and evening, but I'm sure we will figure it out. I just love this girl. She is fun, funny, and full of energy and life. Lots of pictures of Liam through the last few months. He has grown so so much. He has brought oh so much joy into our home and we all adore him. He has turned into his very own person and it is really fun getting to know his personality. He is cautious and curious. He startles easily. He needs to touch and hold what anyone else is touching and holding. He makes his rounds around the house. He goes into the bathrooms, lifts the toilet lid and splashes and then unrolls the toilet paper and tears it into little pieces. Then he crawls over to the TV and pulls out the controllers and x box stuff and all the movies. Then he crawls to the kitchen and empties out the cupboards. He especially loves climbing into the fridge if I leave the door open. Then he crawls upstairs and pulls out Katelyn's crafts. Then he goes into his bedroom and dumps out the humidifier. He loves driving things around and everything becomes a car to push around. His current favorite is Justin's inhaler. He pushes it all over Justin's floor. He is very musical. He loves to sing and play the guitar and the piano. If anyone is practicing the piano he has to go play too. He loves my phone, of course. And already knows how to turn it on and swipe it open. He moves all my apps around and keeps me on my toes. I sure love this kid.



 Learning to go down the stairs. He fell down once. 
 He loves his bath time. Especially when his sisters get in their swimsuits and bathe with him.
 Not sure why I have all these toys. He much prefers stuff out of the cupboards.
 He didn't eat real food forever. Then he went straight to taquitos. He loves food now. He still won't drink and nurses full time. He also is still up in the night several times to eat. It wears me out, which is why I always look tired like in this picture below.

 Playing at the park. And his cute two  bottom teeth.
 He spent a few weeks like this in his crib. He knew how to pull himself up, but not how to get down. It made for a few sleepless weeks for me. He would stumble over to the side of the crib and climb up to standing with his eyes closed and his head hanging down. It's like he couldn't help but climb up.
 He rarely wears cute clothes, but he is looking sharp for church here. I project my sensory issues onto my babies, which means he is dressed with no socks and in sweats most of the time. 
 He does like his alphabet train.
 He's so cute.
 He is very fast up the stairs now.
 He doesn't love being confined to the high chair, but he does love eating.

 He finds everything. He found a starburst and put it in his mouth whole. Yummy!


 He has been sick for at least half his life. He's had a million sinus infections and an ear infection. He had Roseola in these pictures and refused to sleep unless he was on Hans or I. It was tiring, but he is sweet. 

 He much prefers playing in the front seat to sitting in his car seat.
The lot Hans and I are thinking of buying in Cordera. I keep getting cold feet, although I think we will do it. 

4 Birthdays

We celebrated my birthday, Katelyn's birthday, Liam's birthday, and Justin's birthday this last month. Birthday mania. For Katelyn's birthday we had a winter themed party. They made igloos out of marshmallows and tooth picks, made snow men, made snow slime, and made marshmallow shooters. Then we took the girls ice skating. Good times.



 Oops. This is the kids making a million valentines for valentine's day.
 This is how Liam spent his birthday. Sick. We tried to feed him cake, but he didn't feel like eating. 
 Justin had a fun scavenger hunt to his birthday presents. He got a microscope, a note pad, and pens. He was thrilled. We went and saw a movie, ate cake, and went swimming at a wave pool place. Busy and fun. We are taking a few friends ice skating this week for his friend party. And now he is 8 and can get baptized! We are so excited for him to be making this decision and he is diligently reading the Book of Mormon in preparation. He really is a fantastic kid.



Activities

We are involved in a million activities. I often debate quitting all of them so that we have more time to just be at home. But then don't know what to cut out. Ashley swims. So do Mia and Katelyn. Justin tried swim. Ashley does piano and diligently practices an hour every day. Katelyn and Mia both take piano. Justin takes viola, although he is begging to quit. Justin did basketball. Ashley is starting volleyball. She also does junior librarian at school. Ashley and Katelyn both do activity days at church. Justin is starting cub scouts. Mia does gymnastics. Katelyn takes an art class. So it's common for my afternoon calendar on my phone to look like this. 

Liam hears so much piano practice every day. Maybe he will be a musical prodigy?
Cramming dinner time into our activity-filled schedule can be difficult. Mia and Justin are eating before basketball and gymnastics. Liam likes to eat whenever anyone else is eating.

Swim team at the Wolf Ranch pool. They are great swimmers. Justin and Mia swim twice a week for 30 minutes. Katelyn swims twice a week for an hour and Ashley swims 3-4 times per week for 2 hours.

Justin playing his viola.
Liam likes to swim when the other kids are.
Here we are waiting at the school for Ashley to finish Junior Librarians.
Mia got moved up to level 1 Gymstars at Aerials. She drank this milk shake as a "way to go." She came home and threw it all up though. She can do her cartwheel on the high skinny beam, a million pull ups, and a back handspring. Her goal, she tells me, is to win more medals then Katelyn.
With all that swimming we go through way too many pairs of goggles.
Sometimes we have time to play. Liam is a good sport.
We also bake a lot. Too much, probably. Here Ashley is with cookies. And she's sporting her new braces!
We also do a lot of activities that aren't scheduled like going to trampoline world and Lifetime to rock climb. 



Bad picture, but it's my 4 older kids playing 4 square. I love when they play together.
Katelyn showed Justin how to make a bag out of duct tape. Lots of crafting activities in our house. In fact, right now Ashley and Katelyn are sewing bags and Justin and Mia are making a house out of a cardboard box.

Liam hangs out in the music room a lot. He loves to play the guitar. Hans bought himself a guitar as his midlife crisis. He practices occasionally.