6 Months!

Uh huh... my baby girl turned half a year old on Saturday. Where is the time going?! Her stats from todays 6 month well check were as follows:

• Weight = 15lbs 13oz = 48th%
• Length = 25.25 in = 11th%
• Head = 16.5 in = 25th%

She's definitely remaining my most petite baby. She rolls where ever she wants to go. She can sit up but is still a little wobbly if she isn't concentrating. In the last few days she has discovered spitting for some reason. She holds her own bottles much better now. Daddy 'celebrated' her 6 month mark (to the day) by kicking her (and her pack -n- play) out of our room. So I decided it was high time she stopped getting up to eat at night and I would be brave enough to let her cry it out; it hasn't been all that bad and I think the longest she has cried has been about 1/2 hour.

She went on her first vacation and plane ride (details to come) and got to get Mickey Mouse head earrings in her birthstone - peridot...

At first I wasn't thrilled with the bright lime green color of her birthstone. But I quickly realized she has tons of outfits that match that color. And I guess its a good match for her red hair.

She still isn't "talking" much or making too many noises but we love her thick cheeked smiles!

Passing time

January is probably the most depressing month of the year. Not that I like to look at life as my glass of diet pop being half-empty, cause I don't. I'm just speaking sort of matter-of-factly. With all the wonderful holidays... the build-up and excitment and activities and special moments that come with the previous months, its hard to keep feeling the love in the more bleek and less occupied time. So, I tried to pass time these last many weeks by keeping busy indoors with the many projects I always say I'll do but always put off. Here are a few examples:

I got my sweet friend to teach me how to make hair bows and flowers. And while I haven't quite gotten the knack of it... I guess I'll keep trying...
After PJ and the boys made their new beds, I had him use some of the extra wood to make me some "frames" so I could pretty them up and make these to store my bows and flowers on...

And I promised to make my new little nephew a stuffed giraffe. He's 7 months old now. And I finally mailed it to him today ;{

And Kate needed pacifier clips in all the basic colors and a few fun ones (not all pictured)...

And our stroller needed some matching pouches to hang on the back for storage... (I don't actually like how these turned out so I'll be making better ones. Just don't have time before our travel starts on Monday)...

And I canned. A ton. Dozens and dozens of cranberry sauce to give out next holiday season. And another several dozen peper jelly's....

And I meant to make Kate this blanket as a Christmas present; because she still needs a special one - PJ insert eye roll here ;) But it was a lot harder to do than I thought and had to be put off...

Tyler passes time creatively too. While I was showering he took the foam and skewers from his Valentines craftiness and made a rocket to play with...

...yes I know it seems like the worst toy a kid could be playing with - I'm a great mom. Don't worry, it went in the trash as soon as he left for preschool.
And yes, my glass is most definitely half-full. The weather has been beautiful and wierd and in the 60's and 70's this week. And on Monday we are heading off for a much needed family vacation...

Earrings

When Brynn told her 'different grandma' that she had gotten her ears pierced she also mentioned that she wanted heart earrings. And for Christmas her grandma did not let her down. And Brynn anxiously awaited the day for her 6 weeks to be up when she could switch them. Only I wasn't so ready for that day. While Brynn was very good at remembering to clean her ears - she would never think about going to bed without it being done - she also was a little dramatic. She would wince in pain as the cotton ball brushed passed them :) She would even push the backs on way too tight because she didn't want them to fall out but it would cause them to bleed. So I didn't exactly bring up the fact that 6 weeks had past and waited for her to bring it up. So several days after the fact she finally got to put in her pretty hearts...
And Kate thought her big sister was pretty darn cool...
And not long after Kate could change her earrings too. So on a particular girls trip to the mall we bought a set of three hoops that went from small, to smaller, to smallest. And we all matched...
K, so you can't see Kate's tiny hoops too well in this picture but the perfect timing of the spit up coming out of her mouth reminded me of another funny story...
One particular morning as I was trying to get us out the door I had Brynn ready and on the bus to school. The boys were dressed and eating their breakfast of FiberOne bars in front of the Disney channel (awesome I know). And next to them, in her bouncy seat, was a dressed and fed Kate (its a good day when she gets to go out in the morning in clothes and not her jammies). So I went upstairs, changed, and as I came down the stairs I noticed that Kates face was all red, her eyes were buldging, and she was throwing (not spitting) throwing up 6 ounces of her bottle.... and gagging in the process. I sat her up and got things under control and turned to Tyler who was sitting right there and we had this conversation...
Me: Buddy. Did you not see that Kate was having a hard time and really needed some help???
Tyler: Yeah. I don't do frow up.
Me: Tyler Wilson. When your sister needs help, you either need to help her, or call really loud for mommy. Do you understand?
Tyler: Frow up is yucky. You bemember when I frowed up at school? It was just gross.
Me: (I don't know. How do you respond to that? Its true. In fact he probably got that "I don't do" saying from me unfortunately. Alrighty... lets move on...) K, I remember. And I understand. But when someone needs help you need to make sure you do something about it OK??
Tyler: Otay...

Love that it didn't even phase him and his eyes were probably glued to the TV the whole time (he gets distracted easily that way). Also love that while I miraculously was running on time and had everyone dressed to go, I had to start from square one with Kate who needed a last minute bath. Kids will do that to you thats for sure!

Love Boxes

Valentines Day has never ranked high on my favorite holiday's list (its actually fallen towards the bottom right around New Years). But with kids things become a whole lot more meaningful and important. And so I'm trying. And I came up with a plan this year. I bought everyone mailboxes... And at the very beginning of the month we had a special Family Home Evening on charity and what it means to truly love and serve one another. And I left them with a challenge to fill our love boxes with acts of charity until Valentines Day came. And we focused our scripture/story reading around charity to be a reminder. And while the challenge went ok, considering my families demographics, as usual the mom did most of the work ;) But here are some sweet examples of what I saw (wish I had gotten more on camera)...

And the boys did go out with a bang on Valentines evening...
Oh did you see that?!...

Preston helped his sons make these creations for us girls. That couldn't have been easy to start, and then with special little helpers I'm sure it only made it easier. Well, lets just say they lost a few cookies in the process...

...but Tyler put them to good use.

And I had told Brynn's teacher I would throw their 1st grade class Valentines Party - 'cause I like doing that kind of stuff. And I went in the afternoon and helped them do a craft, play HEART (aka bingo), and do a Silly Bands/Rings estimation jar and all sorts of jazz (that snuck in some learnin')...

It was fun. And we came home and dumped their bags...

...and they were sweet and didn't hesitate to share with Dylan! Maybe they learned something this month after all...

SUCCESS(ful day)!!!

The weather report called for a "light dusting of snow" sometime between yesterday and Monday. Well imagine our suprise as we woke up this morning to several fresh new inches of snow on the ground. It was very lovely.

And so, while Brynn played outside, I quickly shoveled off the new layer of snow to reveal our thick icy driveway. And decided to finally do something about it.

It would have been nice if this truck would have stopped to help as I entertained the neighbors by crashing on my buttocks at least twice; and took to hacking at the ice layers with a very sturdy garden rake. Pretty sure I was thrilling to watch. And I didn't even realize that I was probably drawing attention in other ways -- at one point mid morning my friends pulled up in their van, rolled down the window, and informed me (in case I didn't notice) that it was cold outside. It took me a second but I realized that I was standing there, working away, in a short sleeved shirt, crocs, and capris. HA! I guess I have some of my husband in me after all. Who knew??!? But all my hard work and long hours were a success - the ice is basically cleared. So when PJ tries to get up the driveway in his truck tomorrow afternoon when he gets home *surprise* he won't have to get a running start to make it into the garage. And on Monday the kids won't get to slide down the driveway and into the bus.
And at least with this snowy day we weren't stuck in the house and managed to have an all day playdate with our friends the Shumways! It was definitely a success as I heard the kids proclaim, "this is the best playdate ever!". Now, yes, you should worry. My kids don't use those words loosely. So I admit, I was the responsible mom who let them have a 'tea party' with crackers and cookies for lunch and then let their dessert be popcorn with a movie. Whatever. I'm the coolest mom ever.

And I found our Johnny Jump Up...

And this could be considered a success because nobody killed Kate in it. She'll live to see another day. Success!!

Ice Days

In our neck of the woods we tend to have "ice days" instead of "snow days" off from school. And Tuesday and Wednesday was a doozy of an ice storm. With two days off from school the kids did get a little stir crazy. So I sent them out to the drive way to ice skate...
We played with just about every toy we own...
We built forts and made messes in general...

We spent time being grumpy and taking naps...
We even found ourselves digging through the trash to find treasures -like things that made a drumset or boxes that could be taped into wings...

We were in awe over the sheet of ice covering the ground and the icycles that dripped everywhere...
And today we braved the negative degree windchills to head back to school and life in general.

And, as I mentioned before, the hospital apparently doesn't close down, so the past few days while we were snug and cozy inside, Preston still had to slide his way to work. And facing the elements left him "loving" the midwest more than ever and creating even bigger dreams and wishes for sun, and beaches, and pools and heat... We'll get you there soon honey! One more winter to go, one more winter to go... You can do it!