Still a month behind

I finally looked at my most recent pictures and realized it has already been almost a month since I had taken them at Thanksgiving. I almost thought about skipping this post since it has been a while since Thanksgiving, but I actually got pictures of Beck looking at the camera, with his eyes open and no tongue hanging out. That just doesn't happen, so I had to post them.

We decided to take a road trip this year for Thanksgiving and we stayed in a cabin in Breckenridge, Colorado. We loved being able to spend Thanksgiving with Dani who lives in the Denver area and attend the baptism of our nephew Riley.

The kids had a lot of fun!

They got to play in the snow. . .

play with cousins all day long in the hot tub, playing games, watching movies. . .

and they even got creative and made a gingerbread house from one of those kits.

It was very relaxing to me also to be able to spend so much time with Eli. He has been working a lot of late nights trying to complete a product that is due to be released this Friday. He has been helping me out a lot lately too with the kids so I can go to various church activities and meetings. So on the nights he came home early I had to head out the door. I don't think I realized how much I missed him until I actually had time with him and realized how much I like having him around. I loved being able to spend a full five days with him. I realized there are a lot of little things I like about him like how cute he is when he's rocking out to his music during an eleven hour drive or how safe I felt with him driving us such a long distance. I guess He is what I was most Thankful for this Thanksgiving. Okay, enough of the mushy stuff. I hope it wasn't too sickening for anyone.

It was also relaxing because I didn't have to cook or entertain guests. Eli and Dani did almost all of the cooking and the food was very good. I think Eli felt like it was the best Turkey he's done so far. Yet another reason for me to be thankful for Eli. He is not only willing to cook, but does a great job as well.

We loved the couple time we had when we went shopping at the outlets and went to lunch Thanks to Tom's generous and thoughtful parents. We enjoyed all the time we spent with the Lillywhites and Kate and Beck now have a third set of grandparents.

We are also so proud of Riley and we glad we could be there for his baptism. Here is a little family photo from the baptism. I look awful, but I must say I am well overdue for a haircut and we were in a rush that morning to get packed up and make it to the baptism with the 2 hour drive.

It was a great start to the holidays and I am looking forward to Christmas. Kate and Beck got to go see Santa and Eli's work and help mom decorate the tree. Hopefully we will get a chance to see the lights and participate in a few more traditional Christmas celebrations before it is all over. It definitely looks like Christmas with all the snow we got with this last storm. We were 20 minutes late for church because the plows had come by and we were trapped in our driveway with three feet of ice. After the last storm the snow was already getting close to reaching the mail box, but it is melting fast after the last few days of sunshine.

One year Ago Today

It was one year ago today that Beck broke his tibia & fibula. It makes me realize I have one more reason to be Thankful this year. It also make me realize how fast time goes and I need to be better at enjoying the moments and not getting caught up in my to do list or I will miss the most important things.

Fun Fall

I am not ready for Christmas, but can you tell how excited my kids are excited for Christmas already? This pictures was taken before Halloween even and they were playing Mr and Mrs Claus. I think Beck looks so big in this picture. He is starting to lose his baby face and look more like a little boy. He definitely wants to be refered to as a big boy since he now uses the big boy potty. He is starting to act like a big boy too and won't let me cuddle him as much unless he initiates it and it is on his terms.

Kiera is also getting so big. She can sit for a bit without falling over and if I had more time to work with her I am sure she would be sitting up by now. She is eating solid foods now and it is so funny to see the differences in her food tastes than my other children. She hates peas. I have to trick her to eat them by mixing them with squash. What kids would prefer squash over peas? That seems wierd to me. Her favorite besides cereal and fruit is carrots. She is such a content and happy baby. Luckily she can entertain herself for a bit if I need her too.

Besides the kids getting bigger and bigger everytime I blink, we had lots of fun in October and I hope that continues in November. Here are the halloween pictures finally. I think Beck was a pretty good sport for a two year old getting face make-up. He was funny because he would have an inch and I would volunteer to scratch it for him, but he wouldn't let me and he wouldn't scratch it either for fear of messing up his make-up.

Beck ran from door to door and he was difficult to keep up with for such a little guy. He did get tired out quick and needed daddy to carry him the rest of the way.

Kate loves her pre-school and was disappointed to miss so much in October with our vacation and then being sick right after and now she is missing a lot of November too with being sick again and then the Thanksgiving holiday too. Here she is with her teacher who also dressed up as a witch at the pre-school halloween party.

I had my birthday also in October which I was dreading this year. Eli bought this for me which was quite a surprise since we don't really do much for birthdays. I guess he figures he is off the hook now. We tried it out at Costco and I loved it, so I think he knew it would be the perfect gift for me.

Here are the pumpkin carving pictures. Eli made some toasted pumpkin seeds as he usually does. Beck loved them so much that whenever he would see more seeds he would eat them even the raw ones. Beck wanted a Bob the Blob pumpkin and I thought that was a cute idea. Kate drew her own idea and then daddy carved it for her.

We also made some halloween cut out sugar cookies. We had a little dough left over, so I joked with the kids that the blob of cookie dough was monster poop. Kate thought that was hillarious and wanted her picture taken with her favorite cookie.

Earlier in the month we went to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day and the kids love riding the tractor and picking out their own pumpkins.

Sometimes I think I don't spend enough time with my kids or do enough fun things with them, but then I look back and these pictures and it helps me feel better about things because I can see how much we do together as a family and how much fun my kids are having. We also took advantage of the great weather last week and got outside almost everyday to ride bikes and go to the park (the later is probably the reason for the illness although I have been quite vigilant with the hanitizer and Beck calls it). Kate had quite a high fever and was hallucinating during the first night. I thought she was just dreaming when she said she kept seeing silly eyes, but then I felt how hot she was and I think her temp. was probably around 105. Surprisingly enough though it is just a cold and not the flu. I am sure everyone will be feeling better soon and we can get back to our fun fall activities.

Southern California

We finally took our first real family vacation. We spent a full week in Southern California and I had to break it up into a few blogs to make it a little easier to view. There are three blogs about our vacation, so when you are finished with this page click older posts to see the rest of San Diego and click older posts again to see Disneyland.


We decided to visit San Diego area and Disneyland both and try to make the most of our trip to Southern California. We decided to drive which was difficult with small children. We woke the kids up at about 4:30 am and instead of staying asleep like I thought they would they were too excited to sleep. They were giddy and just chatted non stop with each other for like an hour until they finally fell asleep. I couldn't help but enjoy the fact that they were so excited and that all our planning and efforts to make the trip happen would be worth it for them.

The first part of the trip went fairly fast and I really did not mind it, but the part from Mesquite to San Diego felt like it took forever.

We also past a big fire on the way that welcomed us to Southern California. Beck screamed like the whole last hour of the drive and Kiera took her turn on the way back.


We spent the first day visiting Balboa Park, La Jolla Beach and Torrey Pines Beaches and then the evening in Olde Town San Diego. This was probably the most fun for me since the rest of the trip was pushing kids around in strollers, bathroom breaks, snack breaks, waiting in line, bathroom break, waiting in line, snack break, walk, walk, etc.


I loved just relaxing on the beach and watching the kids play. I don't really feel like I needed more time at Disneyland or Sea World, but I could have spent more time at the beach, park and in Olde Town. The weather was beautiful the whole time we were out there and my kids didn't get sick until we got home which were two great blessings I was hoping for since we invested so much in this vacation.


I loved watching their little feet make prints all over the sand.


I am so glad we took time out to have this vacation eventhough they may not remember it all since they are so young.

San Diego

As part of our Southern California vacation, we decided to visit Sea World and the Wild Kingdom Animal Park.
Eli and I both enjoyed watching our kids make memories that we had made ourselves as children at Sea World. I loved watching their faces during the Orca and Sea Lion shows. Beck looks a little disgusted or something, but he was really facinated.

I think their favorite part was feeding the seals and sea lions. They also got to feed manta rays, but I don't think they liked that as much because they had to let them take the food right out of their hands. The also really enjoyed being able to touch the star fish in the tide pools.









For some reason after watching a Veggie Tales episode with Barbara Manatee Eli started calling our kids "Kateness Manatee" Until she would scream "I'm not a tee I'm a princess" and then he started calling Beck "Beckness Manatee". I had to stop and get a picture of them in front of the Manatee statue.

I am glad we decided to go to the Wild Animal Kingdom instead of the zoo.

They were freaked out when we first went to feed the Lorakeets and they all three or four landed on them and tried to drink the nectar from the cups and they both ended up dumping the food all over the ground. Then they cried because they did want to feed the birds, so daddy let them try again. We didn't see everything at the zoo, but we tried to see the more exciting animals like the gorillas, Cheetahs, elephants, Lions, and the little safari ride was nice and relaxing and I enjoyed seeing the animals in a more natural habitat.

Disneyland

We spent three days at Disneyland as part of our Southern California family vacation. This was the first time for our kids and we thought they'd like the special Halloween theme. We accomplished a lot the first day since most lines were a 1/2 hour or less and we even caught the parade and fireworks.

The longest line was the princess fantasy faire and after waiting in line for like an hour Kate had a melt down right as it was her turn to meet the princesses. She got to meet Aurora, Snow White and Belle. She would barely even look at Aurora or Snow White, but Belle finially got her talk. Belle talked to her about how they both loved to read books and their favorite colors and even gave her a flower from the backgroung decor for Kate to keep.

Kate's favorite ride was the tea cups and that beat out Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain (which has a special Halloween theme called Ghost Mountain). Beck's favorite ride was the Whinnie the Pooh ride (that was the last one we went on, so I think that maybe why he picked that one).

Thursday I started to get sick and we spent most of the day at California Adventure. I think if I had to do it over I would not take Beck to the Bugs Life 3d movie. Daddy had to close his eyes most of the time. I didn't like it either. I don't like regular bugs much less giant 3d bugs that spray you in the face with air and water.

Later that night was the Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party and I dressed up as a witch along with Kate and Kiera and Beck dressed up as a skeleton. We got a ton of reactions to his skeleton costume and make-up. Everywhere we went people made comments about how cute he looked. I think my expectations were a little too high for the event because I was kind of disappointed. It could have been just fatigue and irritability from having to walk and push a stoller around all day when I wasn't feeling well, but I also think it is geared more toward older kids. There was trick-or-treating and lots of character greets (if you wanted to wait in really long lines) but there weren't any crafts for kids like I thought. I think the funnest part of that night was the little dance party they had with Sully from Monsters inc. and the Incredibles.

Friday we wrapped up the day at Disneyland and it was very crowded. I think there were a lot of locals there checking out the Halloween theme.

Kiera was a great sport. I had her in the sling most of the time and she got to go on most rides with us. It was a great trip and we got to do everything we wanted to.

The ride home driving straight through wasn't as bad as I thought. I was kind of glad to finally rest instead of spend another whole day walking and pushing stollers around. Unfortunately, Eli finally started to get sick on the way home, but once he got some rest he seemed all better. The kids got sick this week too, but I was just very relieved they waited until we got home so they could enjoy their first trip to Disneyland.

Busy September

We have had a really busy month and here is a quick catch up blog.

Kate started pre-school. Here she is on her first day with some blackberry jam for her show-and-tell/teacher gift. I think Beck was more excited than Kate. He begs to walk Kate into pre-school every time we drop her off. He wants to hold Kate's hand on the way and once we get to the room he is very curious and wants to linger. He keeps saying he is five and in kindergarten. We went camping over labor day weekend. Camping with toddlers is the worst because they are constantly triping and falling in the dirt. Beck enjoyed the toys his aunt Emma brought. It didn't seem like he enjoyed camping, but he said the best part was the roasted marshmallow (he doesn't even get to have the whole s'more, but he still loves the marshmallows anyway).

In September I also had a baby shower for my sister. I decided to make one of those diaper cakes and I think it turned out pretty cute. I kind of went with things to soothe baby as the theme.

I was pleased with how everything turned out. We had a lot of people and it would have been nice if my house was just a little bigger to accomodate everyone. I was just glad to finally get my house in order. My basement is still not technically finished, but I went ahead and set up the play room anyway. I am so glad to finally get rid of all the clutter from toys in every corner.

With all of this going on I still make a lot of jams from my blackberry bush. I felt too guilty letting them go to waste. Kate loved helping mom make a blackberry pie and at the end I let her eat the dough scraps with the leftover filling.

My neighbor gave me a bunch of peaches, so we also made some peach tarts and peach pies. I am kind of relieved my neighbor cut down all the grapes and my tomatoes aren't turning out so well so I have excuses not to have to can anything else. It is too hard with the baby to have the time I need to get it all done.

We went with Kate to the fish farm for one of her pre-school field trips. Kate and Beck each got to feed the fish and catch a fish and later that night we ate the fish for dinner.

I am sure October will be just as busy as September, so I will probably be blogging once a month instead of once a week.

Funny kids

My kids love stickers and I have been using them as incentives for good behavior and to motivate Beck to use the potty. The other day as I was sweeping the kitchen floor Beck said, "mom you could get a sticker for sweeping" Then later that day he said, "you could get a mommy sticker for being nice to Kiera".

Beck has seemed so grown up with the way he has been communicating. He has been saying things like "________ makes me so mad!"

Beck has also been talking about his cousin Riley saying things like
"Riley's mom has a baby in her tummy"
"Riley says I'm a genius"

"Riley says I look like Josh"

I was thinking to myself how it has been over a month since Riley visited and I didn't realize they really conversed this much while he was here. Beck continuted with the Riley comments.

"Riley says I'm impossible" this statement caught my attention, so I asked what impossible meant and Beck responded, "It means I'm tired" Then Beck started saying Riley does this and Riley does that and it finally occured to me that Riley is his imaginary friend. I told Eli about his new friend Riley and Eli told me that he was aware of it and that he also had one named Tom.

It caught me off guard a little probably because I didn't think 2 year olds had imaginary friends. Too bad Riley can't teach him to go potty like a big boy.

Kate was sick this week and didn't get to start pre-school yet, but she has been carrying her backpack around with her everywhere saying "see ya later I'm going to school.

I asked Kate to get me a toy for the baby and this is what she brought

It is nice to have some entertainment during the days to break up the monotony

baby milestones

I haven't really posted much of the baby, so I thought it was about time. She is now 4 1/2 months old and has reach a few developmental milestones. She rolled over the day before she turned 4 months. She loves to spit and she cracks us up when she spits at her brother and sister when they get too close and she doesn't want to be bothered. she has discovered her hands and feet and loves to stare at them and play with them. She has been playing with toys for quite a while already and is very good at manipulating them.

She doesn't shreak or make a lot of noise, but she does sigh a lot when she is relaxing in the tub or when she has become bored with a toy etc. She loves watching her brother and sister run back and forth and loves when they talk to her and tell her stories. Beck is still learning how to be soft and today I caught him plugging her nose. Here are some of my favorite pictures I have taken lately.

I love this one of the sisters

Kiera loves to sleep with her arms behind her head

She sleeps from about 9pm until 4am, so I am happy with that and I think it will get even better when she finally gets to eat some solid food.

She is getting the cutest little fuzz on the top of her head. I love it. I was worried she would have nothing for her first couple years except the wierd patch on the back of her head near the nape of her neck.

It is definitely harder to keep up with the picture taking with the third. I see why a lot of middle children don't have many baby pictures and I don't want to let that happen.