Baby Alex is 9 months old!

I can hardly believe my baby is already this old. Where has the time gone? He is a healthy boy weighing in at 18.2 pounds and he is tall at 27 3/4 inches. He is in the 15th percentile for weight and the 30th for height. He loves to sit and play with toys and loves to be held. He is my snuggle bug. He still is nowhere near crawling or pulling himself to stand. But I haven't minded not having to chase him and Owen around the house so I am really in no hurry for him to be mobile. He loves to eat! He is eating solids 3 times a day and just scarfs it down! He also likes Fruit Puffs and is trying to figure out how to pick it up and put it in his mouth. He can't get those fists open. :) And my little guy has 2 new sharp teeth in his mouth.

And I know they are sharp because I have been bitten by them a few times! Youch! But the sad news is that I think he is finished nursing. He used to eat on both sides at all feedings. But for the past week he has only been eating on one side and either biting me on the other side or completely turning away. And this morning, he wouldn't have anything to do with it. I have been crying all morning. He is my last baby and I am so sad for him to be done. I am going to try again after his nap but it looks as if I will be pumping for the next 3 months and he will have a bottle. I really don't want to do formula. It really makes me sad.


I love this baby so much and I am so grateful to be his mommy. My heart just bursts with love at the thought of him. Thanks Alex for coming to our family and for being my little snuggle bug. I love you!

Owen is so BIG!

My sweet little Owen is not so little anymore. For the past couple of weeks he has been doing this:

Yep! He uses the toilet! He kept wanting to sit on the big potty but would never do anything but we got tired of holding him on it. So we pulled down the little one and he got so excited. He knew it was just for him. He sat on it for 30 minutes that first day. The next day he woke up and his diaper was dry so I told Dave to put him on the potty and within a few minutes he peed! He was so excited! He threw his little fists into the air, jumped up and down, and yelled, "yay, O-O" (Which is what he calls himself.) It was adorable. That day we went and bought him some Cars 2 undies and some M&M's. And he has been using the potty since. :) He has had accidents and he still doesn't like to poop in the potty even though he did do it once. But it's amazing to me! I hadn't planned on even attempting potty training until he was 3 but I guess he was ready. What is really funny was that I was at the store 2 days before buying 2 boxes of diapers and I thought to myself, "It'll be so nice when I only have to buy one box." So, there you go. The power of thought and a very independent little boy. Good Job Owen!

New Year's Theme

I don't like new year's resolutions. They fizzle out too quickly. So, we decided to have a theme this year instead. It is "DO BETTER". As a family we are going to try to do better in our lives. This is something I know that we can achieve and we remind each other of it every day. Instead of saying, "don't be mean" we say "do better" and the kids know exactly what it means. We hung it up on our wall in our kitchen too so we are reminded every day. This is going to be a great year!

Happy 2012

Birthday Fun

I had a great celebration for my birthday in December. It was Disneyland! So, on my actual day, we ordered in some dinner, drove through the Festival of Lights, and ate some cake and ice cream. It was a nice relaxing day. The day after Christmas we celebrated with my niece who I share a birthday with. We had good food, cupcakes and ice cream, and presents! Who could ask for more fun than that. Thanks everyone for an awesome birthday!


Owen blew out my candles before the song was even over. He made me laugh as you can see.

My brother in law asked me what was the best thing about my 33rd year of life. Here are my top 6:
1. Alex- He has been such a fun blessing in our lives this year. Unexpected blessings I think are the best ones.
2. Dave and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. I love him so much more than I ever thought I could. And aside from the 5 kids, we still feel like newlyweds.
3. The triplets and Owen- They just make my life richer. They make me laugh, they make me cry, sometimes yell, but they are the greatest kids ever.
4. Disneyland trip - I truly love this place! It is so much fun! I want to take my kids all the time. Maybe because I never went as a kid, I don't know, but I love it.
5. Old Faithful- After all these years reading about this geyser, learning about it in school, and even hearing jokes about it, I finally got to see it for myself.
6. Dave's sabbatical! I loved having him home for a month! It was so great to have him around all the time!

Connor Business

Our Connor man finally lost his first tooth on December 26th! We are so proud of him! Both of the girls lost their first tooth in Kindergarten so I was nervous that Connor was missing permanent teeth like me. His dentist reassured us that his big teeth were there they were just taking their time. And so they did. Yay Connor. He is so pleased with himself for getting a visit from the tooth fairy.

He also got his tonsils and adenoids removed on December 29th. He has been a trooper and a really good patient. No problems, no complaining. He is just really quiet. Which is very different from his usual loudness. He also gets to miss school all week long. We have been playing Sorry lots with him and he has been watching lots of movies and tv. Now he gets to do homework too. :)

For our New Year's Eve we stayed home due to Con's surgery but we (not him) had lots of good food and again we played Sorry all night long. Everyone fell asleep for a while except Dave. But we all got up and watched our neighbor's spectacular fireworks. It should be a good new year for us all. Especially Connor since he will lose more teeth and sleep better!

Owen

Owen is so funny these days with his talking. He has a such a cute way of talking. He doubles up the first syllable of long words. He is O-O instead of Owen. Alex is Al- Al Connor is Co-Co Brooke is Boo-Boo hammer is ham-ham. It is so funny. One of our favorite words he says now is "bubutt" which is Owen for button! Oh it cracks us up. Another funny one is "Nana" for monster. He is even starting to put words together for sentences. His latest is "Dadda nose boobers out." Dad helped him blow his nose. He also pauses in between each word. When he wants us to get up and help him or get him something, he'll say, "Up you." Man he is funny. And I just adore his blond head of curls. So sweet. We love him so much even though he beats up on the kids quite frequently. Our little Noni is quite a character.


He also loves his little brother. Even though he pushes him over and steals his binky, he always wants to kiss him, hug him, and share his couch with him. Which is a big deal.

Christmas

We kicked off the Christmas weeks with a concert provided by the 2nd graders at Riverview. The triplets were so cute singing their songs. (I have all the songs memorized by the way. They have been singing them for the past month.)

Then we were privileged to watch the girls and the Hupp girls dance at their Christmas recital. They danced to songs from Tangled which we love here in our house. It was really fun.

For Christmas Eve we had the Souths over to join us in our fun! Our dinner was delicious with lots of yummy snack foods which combined together was just delicious. So good in fact we had the same foods for New Year's Eve! Anyway, after we ate, we acted out the Nativity. This is the kids favorite thing to do on Christmas Eve. We acted out the story 3 times with each person getting to be a different character each time. It was great and truly reminds us of the reason we celebrate Christmas. Jesus is the hope and light in our lives and He is the reason we have Christmas. After the Nativity we sat around the tree and sang Christmas carols. Then the kids got to open up a special gift. Disney jammys to remind us of our trip to Dland for Christmas. Dave is so sweet. He put on Mickey jammys just for me. :) Then we put out fudge and milk for Santa, carrots for his reindeer, and stockings for the kiddos. We had a family prayer and then off to bed. Aspen couldn't wait all day to go to bed. Unfortunately the kids only slept for about 3 hours and then were up for about 4! They finally fell back asleep when it was time to wake up! Silly kids.



(Yes - Owen is a wise man in a tutu. with a magic wand. Aspen is an angel. Brooke and Connor are also wisemen and sweet Alex is baby Jesus.)

We had to wake the kids up Christmas morning so we could open presents, eat breakfast, and get ready for Church at 11. They were so excited and could hardly wait a minute to get down the stairs to open presents. After all the gifts were opened, we had some yummy breakfast of sticky buns, sausages, and orange juice. Then we got ready for church and enjoyed a wonderful meeting of music and messages about our Savior. It really was wonderful to go to church on Christmas day. After church, the kids played with their toys while Dave and I got ready to go up to Centerville. At my parents house, we opened more presents, ate more yummy food, and talked to my little brother who is on his mission in El Salvador. It was so great to hear his voice. That was probably one of my favorite things of the day. Then we went to see the Grants and sleep over there.