shocking, I know...

Man, I just looked at the last picture I posted of Noah and I can't believe how much he's already changed in the last 3 months. Why do babies have to grow so fast? I already feel like he's not a baby baby anymore. He's 6 months (but only for one more week) and is getting SO big. He started sitting up over a month ago...I had gone to one of Amya's soccer practices, plopped him down on the ground and realized he didn't need me to help him because he was totally sitting on his own. I had no idea he could do it. Here's a picture from that day -

LOVE the expression on his face. He's so totally expressive with those eyebrows. (I still miss the crinkly forehead though.)We had his baby blessing at the beginning of September. Finding what I thought was the perfect blessing outfit is a story in itself (12 different stores...ugh) but I think it was worth it to see how cute my little man was. (Oh and somehow the lighting here is making his hair look red but it really isn't.)

He went with me to Florida for Kara & Brad's wedding and I loved showing him off. He was SO good on the airplane (everyone commented on how well he did - no crying whatsoever) and while we were out there.

He was totally fine with being passed around to whoever was wanting to hold him next and had no problems with all the craziness that traveling entails. He loved playing in the sand at the beach. (Again with the eyebrows lol)

He is eating and LOVING food - so far he's had rice cereal, grapes, bananas, pineapple, beans, bread, and (thanks to Keith) ice cream, which he threw up. On the baby food front, he's eaten bananas, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, and turkey. Yeah, he didn't like the turkey. At all. In his defense though, Maricela asked to try it and, after I put it in her mouth, she cried for about 5 minutes with her mouth open, not wanting to chew it but for some reason not willing to go to the trash can to spit it out.

The most recent news is that he got his first teeth!!! (Notice it's plural.) Tooth number one came in on October 10th (it was his bottom left) and tooth number 2 (the bottom right) came in on October 18th. Coincidentally both birthdays in my family, Elena's and my dad's, respectively. While I don't have pictures of the teeth yet - it's so hard to get pics of those little things poking through until they're out a little more - he's putting them to good use. Mainly on mine and Keith's fingers. :) He is so vocal...you can often hear him in the background, talking in his 2-octaves too-high-sometimes-only-for-dogs voice. He LOVES his sisters. LOVES them. Loves to watch them, play with them, "talk" to them. He watches them all the time. We just know he's itching to be mobile and following them around, which I'm sure will come soon. He can get in the crawling position and can move backwards (all of my kids did that first) and sometimes ends up sideways from where he started. I'm sure he'll be crawling soon. So while all of this is so exciting for us (watching a baby grow and reach new milestones NEVER gets old), it's also sad to say goodbye to my baby baby.

I have some more catching up to do with the girls....hopefully I'll be back again this week with more info for you guys. Sorry I've been away for so long.

All Aboard!!!!

Welcome to stop #22 on the ScrapMatters 2nd birthday blog train!!! You were hopefully just at Jeni's blog (if not, you can always go back).

As you probably already know, the kit we've used for all the goodies on this train is perfect for summer picnics and barbeques. So we're all sharing our favorite summer memory to go along with this. And while I don't have one specific favorite memory, I do have something to share. When I was a kid my dad would take us out on the Ohio river for boat rides. I remember we'd pull over to the shore and build a little fire to roast hot dogs when we were hungry. I still only like hot dogs when they've been cooked over an open fire. And as soon as I taste them, it feels like I'm right back on the banks of the river, roasting hot dogs with my dad. Good memories. :)

Here's my freebie for you guys....a 12x12 quickpage with openings for 5 photos!


Go {here} to download it. And here's what I did with it....


I didn't scrap picnic pictures with it, but I think it still looks great (if I do say so myself).

Your next stop is Cyndi's blog. Have fun on your trip!!!!

ScrapMatters is turning 2!!

Starting today and going through Sunday, there is a huge birthday celebration going on over at ScrapMatters. Almost everything is 30% off and there is an AWESOME collab kit that is free with every $15 purchase. Tomorrow there will be a blog train of wordart, clusters, and quickpages using the collab kit. So come back tomorrow to get your freebie from me and head over to the SM forums now for all the details of everything that's happening this weekend (speed scraps, games with prizes, etc). You don't want to miss it!!!

Mari singing

Mari wanted to sing a song and record it and I thought she did such a good job that I decided to post it here. After she was finished singing, we watched it back and she giggled to herself the whole time. She was so proud of herself (and so am I).



In case you can't understand her, here are the lyrics....

I am a child of God and He has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear.
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do to live with Him some day.

wedding dance

I thought this was so cool when I saw it...what a great way to celebrate your wedding and the start of your marriage.



Then I saw this today and thought it was SO funny.

JK Divorce Entrance Dance @ Yahoo! Video

Here's a link to the article about the making of the "divorce" video click here.

4th of July

Yes, I know. I've been MIA for a month. Sorry. There really aren't any excuses besides it being summertime. We're trying to get out and do stuff because I hate it when the summer's over and you feel like you didn't do anything. So we've been going to the library a lot. We go to the nearby elementary school for lunch almost every day and then play on the playground afterwards. Keith unexpectedly had someone want to use his scaffolding and surprised us with season passes to Lagoon that he bought with the money he charged the guy for "renting" the scaffolding from him. So we've been to Lagoon 4 times already. We've spent time at the farm with the animals and Keith's family. And we're spending a lot of time in the front and back yards...on bikes, running in the sprinklers, playing soccer, etc. And I've done quite a few more scrapbook pages since I last posted, but I'll put those up later. Today I just wanted to come on and post some pics from the weekend. I always think it's been so long since I've posted that I need to recap EVERYTHING and that would take too long so I just don't bother. I've decided not to feel guilty today and just post what I want. :P

We woke up around 9 on the 4th and rushed to get dressed so we could run over and see the parade. We found a pretty good parking spot at the end of a block that had cars quadruple-parked down the whole block. I mean there were rows of 4 cars going down the whole block (I felt bad for the people parked way at the end of the block - I'm sure it took forever for them to get out) and because we were so late getting there we were able to park right at the front of the block and were the first car to leave. Anyway, then we walked down to the beginning of the block where the parade was. It had already started but we hadn't missed too much. Keith and I stood at the back with the girls, but they eventually made their way right up to the street and sat down in front of some other people already sitting there! But those people were in chairs and the girls sat on the ground out in the street in front of them, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I went up to join them later and asked the people if it was okay and they said it was. So because I was in such close quarters with the girls (I still didn't want to take up too much room in case those people got annoyed with us) I couldn't get very good pics of the girls. But I was able to get this one of Mari. Since we were so close, the bands with their drums were really loud and she covered her ears every time one passed by. I thought it was cute.


Then Elena got up and started walking into the street during a gap in the parade. I was wondering what she was doing, where she was going, and was about to start yelling for her to come back when I realized why she was going out there. Her eagle eyes had spotted a piece of candy that hadn't been claimed and was retrieving it. My girls are candy freaks!


We took these pics of Noah while we were relaxing in the front yard, waiting for it to be time to go watch the fireworks. Noah LOVES to stand up and fusses if we don't let him. He's actually standing next to me right now while I'm typing (I have my arm around him). I love the look on his face in this first picture. He raises his eyebrows like that all the time - he's been doing it since he was born. It used to make his forehead crinkle up more than it does now that he's grown in to his skin a little more. And in the second picture you can see that he's pulled one hand away from me. Already showing his independence. Isn't his outfit cute?


Earlier in the day, after the parade, we parked Keith's truck up on the mountain in the parking lot for the "Y" trail. That way we'd have a good spot for watching the fireworks without having to sit and stake out our spot for 5 hours. So we headed up there around 9:30 and waited for the show to start. This was the only picture I took of (almost) all of us. The girls enjoyed watching the fireworks while Noah slept through them. We had a wonderful time spending the whole day together.



I hope your July 4th celebrations were just as fun as ours!!! And if you also celebrated in Provo this weekend, check out this blog. She's having a little contest for people who post photos of them/their family/whatever, enjoying the 4th of July weekend in Provo.

P.S. Yes I still plan on changing the name of the blog. I just still haven't come up with one that I REALLY like and will be a name that I wouldn't ever have to change again.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Since we were up after midnight last night (this morning) Keith was the first to tell me Happy Birthday today. Then when I woke Elena up for school, the first thing she said to me was Happy Birthday. She's normally a little grumpy in the mornings and I hadn't thought she'd remember, so I said "Elena, you remembered!!" And she said "Of course I remembered your birthday, Mom. I would be bad if I didn't remember your birthday". (Of course I assured her she wouldn't be, and then thanked her for remembering!) Then when Mari, Téa, and Amya woke up, they all came into our room and sang Happy Birthday to me with Keith. Then Keith took them to the kitchen to make me some breakfast - yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Probably not the most nutritious breakfast, but very yummy. Mari keeps walking up to me and singing Happy Birthday - it's very cute.

And the mail just came and it was ALL for me! A birthday card from Memmie (to which Amya said "She always sends pretty cards"), one from Sally&Ben (to which Amya said "They always send cute cards...usually with dogs" (and this one was no exception)) and one from my mom (to which Amya said "Is my money in there?" (long story, but it was)). Oh and I got a card from Ceci on Monday...the first one to arrive. After I opened the card from my mom and pulled out the 3 gift cards to Target, Bath&Body Works and Old Navy, plus a little cash (THANKS Mom), Keith had something to say - "Hey, is she trying to outdo me or what?" :) Thanks for the cards guys!! Love ya!

So far this is shaping up to be a pretty good birthday. And since it's my last one (I don't plan on getting older than 29), that's a very good thing.

Here's Mari singing to me....


And this is totally unrelated, but we think it's hilarious so I'm including it. We like to play a game we call "Who Says? Who Says?" (Amya made up the name when she was 2). We say a quote from a movie and the first person to correctly name the movie it's from or the character who says it, gets the next turn. Last night Téa came up to me with this gem....

I didn't think to have her say it again and tape it last night, but we got it this morning. I think it's SO funny how she changes her voice for the different parts. In case you can't figure it out, she's singing a line from the "A Whole New World" song in the movie Aladdin. She says "Don't you dare close your eyes (Aladdin's part) and then "A whole new world" (Jasmine's part). Oh and that's chocolate frosting from the cupcakes all over their mouths.