Happy half birthday

Soren Soren is a wonderfully happy baby. He has a smile for everyone (very unlike his big sister). He loves to smile at any child who pays him any attention. He is finally starting to take longer naps, I think it is adding to his better mood of late. He has really taken to baby food (I've been making my own) and loves to eat those little puffs. He already tries to grab the spoon so he can feed himself. It gets to be a bit of a mess but he actually gets a lot in his mouth. He can never get enough of his brothers and sisters, but especially his brothers. Ethan can always get him to stop crying by clapping and he loves to fall asleep on Jacob. If he falls asleep lying beside Jacob he scooches over to be as close to him as possible. It's really sweet to see my boys being best friends.

He has totally mastered the art of the Army crawl. He can get anywhere in the house except up the stairs. He sometimes changes it up and does the inch worm. He sticks his butt in the air and pushes forward. He gets on his knees and elbows but not hands yet. I think the crawling is maybe a week or 2 away. I'm sure if I'm happy about that. He loves being barefoot. Any time he has socks on he pulls them off before I can even get him to his carseat. If he's fussing a lot and he is in pj's if I let his feet loose he gets happy in seconds. I don't have the usual statisics since his dr. appointment isn't until next week. I have high hopes for it even though he has been sick with the same cold for about 2 months. I'm starting to get a little concerned now.
I love having this little boy in our family and I know we would feel lost without him.

November update

I've never had so many comments before. I wrote the title meaning to come back to it but being a single mom right now seems to be sucking all my time. So here is the long over due update for November....

Jacob...
He is still loving ballroom more than scouts or anything else. I'm so glad that he seems to have found the thing that makes him happy and he enjoys. I hope he'll enjoy it for many more years to come. He also got his first report card from the 4th grade. Four A's and a B plus. He also paid his tithing for the first time. He was very proud and loved giving his envelope to the bishop. He also has now saved enough money to buy a Nintendo 3DS. I am very proud of him.

Amara...
Amara was invited to participate in a before school club called SharkNets. There they teach kids how to have good sportsmanship, how to use their time wisely, how to do their homework, and to do speed cup stacking. She has loved every minute of it, she didn't even mind getting up at 8 am every morning and staying at school until 3:30. In November she continued on her perfect spelling record. She loves school and plays school with her friends. She is really looking forward to her 8th birthday (even if she won't be getting baptized until April). She bought this outfit with her allowance so she would look super cute for her Christmas concert at school and her birthday.

Ethan...
Is loving all the tutoring he is getting outside of school. He has learned so much from his private tutoring with Corianne. His sounds, letters, and speech has improved better and faster than I ever could have hoped for. He also loves the reading tutoring at the library. I think it's all starting to make sense to him and that he is learning it for a reason. He actually asks everyday after school if it is a tutoring day. I think Tuesday is now his least favorite day of the week. No one had as much fun on vacation as Ethan. He played his little heart out with his older cousins and had a really great time talking with Great-Great Grandma Lillian.

Keira...
Has the best preschool teacher ever with the cutest ideas. She made this turkey hat and wore it for 2 days until we left for vacation (then it fell apart). She now knows all her sounds through i. She is so cute when she does the actions. Keira is also turning into quite the student. Everyday after school while I'm working with the older kids on their homework she gets out her Hello Kitty (because eveything is Hello Kitty) coloring book and says she is doing her homework. She goes page by page and makes sure she colors everything on the page.

Soren...
Soren gets bigger eveyday and does something new everyday too. I'm not going to get into too much detail since I plan on doing a 6 month update on him too. We bought him this walker since our last one was destroyed by the older kids. He totally loves the colors, sounds and toys it has. He has yet to get it to "walk" but then I'm not really ready to have him all over the place yet. Not that that keeps him still. He has discovered and mastered the fine art of the "army crawl". He could give some serious lessons to Marines. I love that he is such a happy baby.

Jake and Jill...
Jake didn't have to travel for work the entire month of November. We were very happy to have him around so much but he did leave on Dec 2 and we haven't seen him since and don't plan to for a while. His work has been going really well and he seems really happy with what he has been working on. He just got his pilot's physical, so I guess he's working on planes. Jill has been busy doing nothing but laundry and cleaning house. It's not easy getting ready for a 9 day trip and then having to wash the laundry of a 9 day trip. I'm having real issues getting it all folded and up the stairs. My holiday diet seems to be working. So far I have lost 8 pounds so that I could feel like I could eat whatever I wanted for the holidays (if I want pie, I want to eat pie and not feel guilty or gross) and then really start losing wieght for the new year. I only gained back 3 pounds (good pie) at Thanksgiving and I have already lost 2 of those pounds. I'm very pleased.

Portland day trip

While in Washington for Thanksgiving we decided to take a trip over to Portland to visit with Great-Great Grandma Lillian. We had a great time! When we showed up she had a full ham dinner with potatoes, 2 kinds of veggies, fruit salad, a veggie tray, and rolls waiting for us. Her daughter Linda was also there. We had reminisced quite a while about Grandpa and Lillian kept trying to get up to take home pictures and knick knacks.

After dinner we went to stay at our hotel. The kids were dying to get there so we could go swimming. We got all dressed in our bathing suits and went to the pool. We had fun splashing (we had the whole pool to ourselves). Soren took a little while to warm to the pool, this was his first time swimming. Afterwards we got hot chocolate from the lobby. We went swimming again in the morning. During breakfast we noticed a family wearing a BYU shirt so Jake went over to talk to them. It turned out to be Natalie Ashton's older sister. We were even in the room rght next to them. It's always so amazing how small our world really is.

After leaving the hotel we went back to Lillian's where she had ham sandwhiches waiting for us for lunch. The kids had a great time playing with legos and fiddle sticks and loved showing Grandma all the things they made. We stayed until about 8 pm and then we went back to Washington for Thansgiving at my brother's house.

All in all a great trip. Lillian is doing really well but is looking to sell her house soon so she can move closer to her daughter. She misses Grandpa a lot. We got some great pictures of Grandpa when he was young man and some great pictures with Lillian. We sure love Lillian and wish we lived closer.

Thanksgiving

We went to Washington and Portland for Thanksgiving. We left as soon as school got out on Friday and drove all night getting there at 4 am. After a day of sleeping we had a great visit. We went shopping and were able to go on a double date and see Breaking Dawn.

We took a day to go to Portland (to be posted later).

Helping Aunt Brenda making pies. The girls make chocolate, cheesecake, 2 pumpkin, lemon, cherry, and dutch apple (made by my brother).

too much Home Alone

playing with Aunt Brenda's hair

Fun with cousins

We left on Saturday for another long drive home but this time we decided to go during the day. We had to stop every half hour for bathroom breaks. I think we'll go back to traveling at night.

Christmas before Thanksgiving

Since we were planning on going on a loooong trip for Thanksgiving, we decided to send a letter to Santa early to ask for some special things for our trip. Luckily Santa got our letter and decided we were good enough to get our presents.Santa gave Jacob, Amara, and Ethan new sleeping bags and Jacob, Amara, Ethan, and Keira personal DVD players with head phones.

Soren got an Einstein ball.

My new favorite new teaching tool

One day Amara came home from school with crackers that spelled that spelled her name. I asked her where she got them and she told me that a friend had brought them for her to eat. While shopping at Smith's I found them. They are about $2 in the cookie section. Now we play with them everyday for lunch. We spell out names, word of the week, and count too. I love these and the kids are having so much fun with them too and them don't even realize that they are learning.

Reflections

Reflections is a nationwide contest that encourages children to take a topic and then express it artistical. This years topic was "Diversity means....". Jacob decided to do photography. He took his sister and 3 of her friends to a park to take pictures. He had them playing and walking while he took pictures of them.
These are some of the pictures he submitted in a collage.

Jacob won 2nd place. He was awarded a medal with his name on it from the principal. I think he might have done better if we had submitted one big picture instead.


Amara entered the visual arts. She found some pictures of 8 different irises.

October Update

Jacob

He is doing well in school and is really loving being in ballroom. He started the tutoring program at the library and enjoys reading with his tutor. He entered the reflections contest at school but I'll post on that more a little later. He has been working towards getting his bear, he even talked with Grandpa Chipman about what it was like when he was a cub scout. We are hoping to have his bear done by January but our pack is in the process of getting set up so hopefully that will get done soon.

Amara
She is still loving school and has only missed getting a 100% on her spelling test twice. She also is being tutored in reading at the library and has made several new friends there. She was one of Jacob's subjects in the reflections contest and also had her own entry. We had a really good time working on her Halloween costume.


Ethan
He loves going to school just so he can play on the playground and with his best friend Paysen. Like the older kids he too is being tutored at the library but also gets special tutoring by Paysen's mom (starting today). He decided he and Jacob needed to remodel their room. He cleaned their room and moved out some toys to the playroom and then moved the lego table and chairs in. Now I often find the boys playing legos at their table instead of sleeping.


Keira
She loves going to preschool (taught by Paysen's mom) and is mad that she doesn't get to go everyday like the big kids. Her teacher is very clever and comes up with the cutest crafts for the alphabet. Here she is wear her "D"inosaur feet. She has made "F"lamingos and "E"laphants from her own picture. She knows all her letters and sounds through F. We got to go to Cornbelly's on a fieldtrip. It was pretty cold but a lot of fun. She wanted to wear Soren's owl hat.


Soren

He is growing way too fast for my likes. He had his first taste of squash this week. He loved it. He is very clean when he eats. I don't have to use a bib, I just usually do for just-in-case. Unfortuneatly he is sick again, this time his first cold. He is still as happy as ever but isn't sleeping well at night but his napping is getting much better.

Jake and Jill

Jake got to spend all of October at home and not traveling, but did end up working every Saturday. He did get to take of Fall break and we went to the movies and out to dinner and watched movies at home on our new tv. I spent most of the month working on Halloween costumes. We decided to make Jacob a Ben 10 jacket this year. I died a jean jacket green and made and glued white stripes and then ironed on a 10. I bought Amara a southern Belle costume but when I got it out of the package it was plastic white sheeting so I made her 2 more layers and sewed them on. I finished sewing her costume at 10 pm on the 30th. We also glued flowers on her hat. I was estactic that the weather was so nice and warm for trick-or-treating. We went for about 2 hours with stops at Great Grandma Harvey and Grandpa & Grandma Chipman's houses.

Halloween

HalloweenThis was a great Halloween. The kids choose great costumes. And I can't tell you how happy I was this year that the weather was warm. Jacob as Ben 10 (again)

Amara as Scarlet O'hara (the dress was made of white plastic sheeting and I had to sew extra layers of fabric under. I finished sewing on the 30th at 10 pm.

Ethan as Captain America. After school he decided he didn't like the mask and changed into his firefighter costume (I didn't get a picture).

Keira as Hello Kitty

Soren as a tiger or Rath from Ben 10

Soren's 4 month check up

Soren finally had his 4 month check up (it got delayed for 2 weeks because of sickness and Dr. vacation). He is doing well and growing great. He is now 14 pounds (gained 2 pound in 2 weeks:)). He is in the 25% for weight (much better than any of his siblings). He is 26 in. which is 75% (right on track with everyone else). He has hit all of his milestones.

His Dr. gave the okay to start him on solid food. We are very happy about this beacause a heavier tummy means better sleeping through the night and naps. So we started with rice cereal. He wasn't sure about it to begin with, but when Mommy took over he ate much better. He has only been eating cereal for 5 days and he has already started demanding more. He wants to eat cereal twice a day and he eats 4 tablespoons each time and then seems upset when it's gone.

Monthly Update

I love Becky's updates, so I decided that I would do updates on all of us each month. I'll go in age order. So here goes.....

Soren: Is 4 months old. He has been very sick this past month and is still struggling to get well. I had to take him to the Dr. for being sick and found out he weighs the same as he did at 2 months. He's back down to 12 pounds. Next week he has his 4 month appt. He has discovered he has toes not just feet. He also has found his thumb. I know I should discourage this but it is just so cute. He loves growling while he chews on his thumb. He has also found out how fun it is to play with toys and has a blue rattle bear that he can't be without while he's awake. He is starting to get his first tooth. He'll be starting "solid" (rice cereal) next week.

Keira: Is absolutely loving going to preschool. She is learning her letters and sounds so well. She loves getting to wear her school clothes and her Hello Kitty backpack. She has been really trying to assert herself, not in the good way. She has been trying out the power of No. It is really trying my patience. It's a good thing she is so cute with her little girl voice.

Ethan: Is loving school. As soon as he gets his homework he can't wait to do it. He loves showing Jacob and Amara what he has been doing. He is always telling them that he can't wait for next year when he gets to eat lunch at school like them. He has started learning sight words and is so proud of his reading. He has finally discovered that he doesn't have to wear pants and a long sleeved shirt every day. Just in time for Fall and Winter. Dressing is going to start getting really challenging.

Amara: Is happy to be back in school with her friends. She has been excelling in every subject in school. She has been partically good in spelling and handwriting. She has gotten a 100% on every spelling test so far. Her teacher has told her that Amara's handwriting is better than her own. It's definitely better than her Daddy's and brother's too. She is such a social little thing. She asks everyday if she can have friends over.

Jacob Jr.: Has been doing well in school. He has consistently been getting 18 and above on his spelling tests. He loves doing math and his teacher has been teaching him some tricks for learning his times tables. He does really well on his timed tests. He has been really focusing on his cursive and isn't very fond of it but he does it really well and it is 10 times better than his printing. It is also better than his daddy's handwriting. He has also started ballroom after school. He had so much fun at his first practice. He has a lot of friends taking ballroom too.

Jake: Has been working a ton. He spent half the month in Baltimore. Even when he's working in Utah we hardly see him. He's been working Fridays and Saturdays too. The best part about all this work is the paid overtime and when he travels he buys us a special dinner on his way from the airport. All this overtime this month has paid for our new table and chairs (too bad the table won't be done for months. We're hoping to have it by Christmas.)

Jill: I've been very happy to have school back in. I've loved having the structure and purpose and bed times again. I've enjoyed having one on one time with Soren. I really love being able to go shopping with only one child. With school in I've kind of started "dieting". Really I'm just working out enough to cover the treats I allow myself. So far I've lost 3 pounds. I've considered taking my workout up a few notches, but then I get tired just thinking about it. I'm happy to report that after over a week, all the throwing up has ceased. I have finally finished washing everything, now I need to get it all folded and put away. I'm still trying to get a full nights sleep.

How could a Mother be so mean

I've decided to post a vent posting, because I couldn't do it on Facebook because the person I'm mad at is one of my "friends".

Jacob was doing his homework yesterday in the living room (it has the best light) and he saw 3 of his friends ride by on scooters. He asked me if he could go with them and I said sure (he asked so cute). He ran after his friends and when he got to their house, his Mom said he had too many friends over and Jacob had to go home, the boys were playing in their unfinished backyard. Jacob came home just crushed and sad. I tried to cheer him up but he wouldn't have it. He then decided to go upstairs and play by himself in his room. I decided he could finish the homework later. I went back to the living room to help Amara finish her homework and not even 15 minutes later I saw all 3 boys ride away on their scooters.

So as a Mother how could you be so mean, so cruel to such a sweet boy as Jacob. I could understand sending away a bully, but Jacob is definetly not. I just don't understand how you could crush a child like that. I would never turn away a child who came to my door because one of my kids already had a friend over. Really what is one more kid? It would have made their number even.

Anyway, call me a mother bear but I was so mad and hurt. I hope this post helps me get my feelings under control since I have to see her at curch every week.

the vomit comet

On Friday at 2 am Keira started throwing up. She continued to throw up every half hour for 12 hours. I figured that she had contaminated all the other kids and I have a sister-in-law who catches everything. This meant that I would have to miss 2 very important things on Saturday. Around 3 pm I began feel silly for staying away from these events. That feeling only lasted 2 hours, when Ethan started throwing up. Luckily he is only throwing up every hour. 3 hours after that Amara started. Now I have Ethan asleep on a pile of towels in the downstairs bathroom and Amara on a pile in the upstairs nursery bathroom (Soren is sleeping in my room). I am soooo tired. It's like a Chinese torture when just as you fall asleep you're woken back up. I need a solid nights sleep and hopefully I won't get sick either. Do notice that it is 3 am right now.

Now it is 9 am (Been up since 6:30 when Amara threw up) and Jacob just puked on the floor. Just as I got him all set up, it became a quintfectra, Soren is now throwing up too. Quite amazingly just as Jacob starts puking, Soren pukes about a minute after him, it's syncronized puking. Nothing is worse than trying to hold a baby over a bowl while he throws up. Then after he's done he kind of smiles at you and then coos. It's so sad.

I started doing laundry at 2 am on Friday morning and I haven't been able to catch up. Every 2 hours I'm back in the laundry room washing, towels, blankets, pajamas, and my pants.

Potty Training - the worst task a mom has

I've been working on getting Keira potty trained for months. We have yet to have a day with no accidents, but we are getting close. Most days there has only been one accident.

While changing Soren's diaper Keira climbed up and then tells Soren, "Soren, you are naughty. Poop belongs in the toilet. Naughty, naughty." I had to explain to her Soren is too little, he can't even sit up. She then said he just needs to try harder.

I think if she tried harder, she could be totally potty trained. Well a mom can always hope. At least she hasn't had any accidents at preschool.

They don't eat very fast do they?

Ethan and I worked outside today in our flower garden pulling weeds. I love spending time with him. He is my best helper. While out there I decided the plants need plant food. The plant food we have is little pellets that dissolve over time with water. We went to each plant putting a scoop of food at the base of every one. As soon as we were done Ethan ran back to the first plant to check the food. He looks at me with a puzzled look and says, "They don't eat very fast do they?" I laughed so hard. He is such a sweet boy.

First and last day of dance

My sister-in-law expressed an interest in wanting to see my girls dance in a recital so I decided I would look into dance lessons. The studio Amara used to go to is really into their teams and at the performances the teams preform 5 dances each and the regular classes only once. So you would have to sit through over 50 numbers to see your child dance once so I looked into another studio.

Keira's first day of class.

Things didn't go so well. For the first half hour they tried to coax her off the bench and to participate. Then they gave up because she started crying and just walked her to me. (In the last few weeks Keira has realized she isn't the "baby" anymore and no one is caulding her anymore either. She is taking it rather hard.) I guess she isn't ready to be a "big" girl. We'll just have to try again in a couple of months.