Scooter

These are just some random pictures of Noah (a.k.a. Scooter) that we've taken. I can't believe he is 5 months old already! He is getting so big! He is now a whopping 17 lbs . (according to our scale at home) and he wears 9 month clothes and 12 month pajamas (because he is so tall).

He is such a stinker though because he still hardly ever rolls over. He can, he's done it a couple of times, but he would just rather not. He is so content to just lay there and kick his legs. He rolls from side to side, but hardly ever does he roll over. I think he knows that he'll end up on his stomach and he does NOT like that, so he chooses not to roll.

He LOVES to bounce in his bouncy seat though. He will sit there for a long time, just kicking his legs and bouncing up and down.

We still haven't gotten into the habbit of eating cereal yet; that is something I need to work more on. He's had it, but still doesn't know if he likes it yet. He's also had applesauce and Garrett has fed him mashed potatoes, which he really liked.

He is such a happy baby--Garrett and I have really been blessed to have 5 happy babies. He is also really ticklish--especially on the back of his neck. I love to hear him laugh when I tickle him there. Here are some photos of my little Scooter:

First time eating cereal; he was not impressed

Bouncing in his bouncy chair

I don't know if you can notice it or not, but Maggie loves to make his hair into a mohawk. So cute!

First time in his exersaucer

Loving his toes

Hanging out with dad

Look at that smile!!

Checking out the Christmas tree

Notice the spit-up on his sweater--we deal with this constantly! Yuck!

Thanksgiving, really?

This holiday season has really surprised me with how fast it came. I've pretty much been in denial that "the holidays" have been/are here since before Halloween. I really wasn't ready for summer to end and since it did, it felt like we jumped from summer to Christmas. I don't know where the time has gone and how it seemed to move so fast because my days seem really long.

So, as the holidays have come, I've just dealt with them and tried to do my best to celebrate them with excitement. But it's been hard. Which is strange, because I love each of the holidays and love doing fun crafts and parties and decorating for them. It may be because I've got a new baby and really can't get back into my old routines yet, because of all the time I spend taking care of him. Nothing seems back to normal yet and I don't feel like I have time to do anything fun other than take care of kids, do laundry and do the dishes. That's my life. So,yes; I'll just blame it all on Noah and tell myself it will be better next year. That sounds good to me.

But seriously, I didn't get out all my decorations for any of the holidays, and in fact I completely skipped decorating for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving this year kind of just was a big dinner for us. It was nice and all, but didn't really feel like Thanksgiving to me. It was just another meal. I'm sure it was because I didn't put forth the effort to enjoy it more. I just went through the motions. Have any of you ever felt like this? I keep telling myself that next year will be better; I sure hope it is because I miss really celebrating the holidays.

So, enough whining and babbling. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

The kids right before we ate. I don't know if you can tell or not, but Paige and Lydia are still in their pajamas. They refused to get dressed for the day. Oh well, at least they were comfortable, right?

All seven of us. We were using my new tripod here. Nice!! The banner above the table is a decoration for Lydia's birthday party...which was going to happen after Thanksgiving.

Watching football

When Garrett went shopping for our groceries for Thanksgiving, he picked up this 1000 piece puzzle for us to work on. Wow!! We only got the border completed. It's still sitting there waiting for someone to work on it. It was fun, though.

This is the puzzle.

Eating Grandma Georgia's most delicious and award winning, Tollhouse Pie!! Now that's something to get excited about!!

And that was our Thanksgiving.

November Birthdays

Lydia and I both have November birthdays and we are a week apart. This year, she turned 8 years old and I turned 35. Wow! My birthday is on the 13th, but since Garrett was going out of town that day, we decided to celebrate a few days early. The girls all made me cute cards and Garrett gave me a great present--something I've been wanting for awhile. He gave me a new camera--a Canon Rebel. He also got me a tripod. I'm so excited about my presents. I've been reading the manual and trying to learn more about my camera; I definitely need to take some kind of photography class--there is so much to learn about.



We also went out to Chevy's for my birthday dinner--it's one of my favorite restaurants! I love their chips and salsa!

Lydia's birthday was on the 19th and Garrett was still out of town. The girls and I and Noah went out and celebrated anyway by eating out at one of her favorite restaurants, Panda Express. We also went to Target and I let her pick out two toys for her birthday. She also got her own set of scriptures and a scripture case from Garrett and I and some chapter books.

We waited until after Thanksgiving to have her friend party. She decided that she wanted to have a Toy Story 3 Birthday party and invite 7 of her closest friends. It would have been much easier to go somewhere for her party and I really tried to convince her of that. But, the last two birthday parties were bowling and roller skating, so she really wanted to stay home and have games and such, so I threw something together. It's fun to do, but SO much work!

Her friends that came were Blake, Rayden, Peng, Elise, Taijah and Riley. Jake was the only friend that wasn't able to come. After everyone arrived, we had pizza for lunch.

Then we started some games. We had 4 in all. At the end of each game, I had my lovely assistant, Maggie hand out 5 pennies to each participant. After all the games were played, they were able to go to "Woody's General Store" and "buy" their loot for their goody bags.


The first game was a stick horse relay, you know because of Bullseye. I had two kids race against each other. Since it had been raining all morning, I was going to scrap that game since it needed to be outside and no one really wanted to go run around in the rain. So, I really didn't have any kind of "course" set up. So, I had them just go up and down the sidewalk. It worked.

Blake and Rayden

Lydia and Taijah

Elise and Riley

Peng and Rayden

The second game was "army men bowling" with a golf ball. The kids really liked that one and wanted to keep getting turns. One of Lydia's friends, Blake, asked that if he got a strike could he have more pennies? So, I told them I would give them 5 more pennies if anyone got a strike. They all tried again and were very determined, but I think there were too many army men and only 2 golf balls. So, no one ever got a strike.

The third game was another relay to see who could put Mr. and Mrs. Potato head together the fastest. All the kids, except Lydia put them together rather silly. But Lyd was very traditional about it.

And the last game I had was an "Alien Shoot-out". I thought this one would be the one that they were all excited about, but it turned out to be a dud. I didn't test it beforehand, so it didn't work as well as I would have liked. Oh well...I had green paper cups that I had Maggie glue 3 googly eyes onto for the aliens. I stacked them up in a pyramid and gave each of the kids a squirt gun and they had to race against another kid to see who could knock down all the aliens. Turns out the the water wasn't spraying with enough force to knock the cups down very easily. They had to be right up next to the cup. Garrett thought I should've used a nerf gun. Oh well, now I know for next time.

The Aliens

Blake and Lydia

Taijah, Elise and Peng

When we were done, the kids lined up to buy their loot. I had different items listed for various prices. Like little Toy Story figures were 4 cents each, stickers and sherrif badges were 2 cents each and army men and left over Halloween candy were 1 cent each. The kids were loving the candy. I thought it was a cute idea.

Next, we had cake and icecream. The only cake ideas that I could find were of Andy's bed with the toys sitting on the bed. I kind of wanted to do something else, but wasn't creative enough to come up with anything else. So, I made Andy's bed. It turned out rather cute, I have to say.

Next we opened presents. After that, the kids just played and watched Toy Story 3. It turned out to be a good party, although if we had ended it about 30 minutes sooner, it would have been perfect.