Stuff and Things

Today I downloaded 144 pictures from my camera. Granted probably over 100 of them were of Andy and other random objects around the house taken by Caleb. He likes to take my camera when he thinks Andy is being cute and do photo shoots. Anyway, even 44 pictures is a lot for me because I am really bad at getting the camera out. What it tells me is that I haven't blogged about a lot of events. So this entry will be random "stuff and things". I know I really should do periodic small posts, but it is so hard for me to sit down and get it done. Tonight Josh is in SLC with the Young Men and I have a few guilt free minutes as the kids went to bed surprisingly well.

THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving this year was awesome! My entire family, some of my moms sisters Mary, Merle, and Vickie and my cousin Emily and her family were all at my parents house. The weather was amazing. We all had a wonderful time. There were as many horse and four wheeler rides as the kids could handle. Grandpa Neil also took the kids to feed cattle and they all enjoyed the farm adventures. Of course I didn't take any pictures, but I have stolen a few from Cathie and Emily's blogs.


There was a house full of cute babies, and my mom got them all matching outfits. Andy (mine) is the oldest at 14 months, Danny (Cody's) is four months younger than Andy, then my cousin Emily's baby Alex is four months younger than Danny at 6 months, and Cathie's baby Dax is within days of being one year younger than Andy at 2 months. (Ironically each four months apart.)


The meal was fantastic. The only picture I have is this one of Andy scavenging food. He would go from table to table stealing anything that had a sufficient amount of sugar. The kids were happy to share their feast.


It is so fun when Cathie comes with her kids. There is something special about cousins. Cara and Corbin have started being really good friends. Corbin is about 10 months younger than Cara.

TEMPLE SQUARE
The Saturday after Thanksgiving we took our little family to see the lights on Temple Square. The highlight for the kids is always the train ride. We took the front runner in from Ogden and then Trax around the city. The kids love it although it makes the trip much longer. We expected tons of people, but I have never seen Temple Square with such a small crowd at Christmas time. (It was also the BYU/U of U Football game.) It was awesome. Caleb hates movies and darkness so the other visitors centers aren't ideal for him, but the I am A Child of God Display at the Church History Museum is awesome.


Here Andy is trying to throw the bean bag into the Celestial Kingdom.


Cara enjoyed the stained glass window puzzle.


And Caleb was into coloring.

ANDY'S MILESTONES

Andy is 14 months. It is hard to get a good picture of him because he always has "something to say" aka grunting and babbling when I am trying to take pictures of him. He can stand from the middle of the floor and balance for a long time, but he is terrified to take a step. He cruises, but he prefers crawling. He loves the toilets and the bathrooms in general. I try to keep them very clean, but mostly I try to keep the doors closed. Everything he touches is a ball and he LOVES it when one of us will take time to play catch with him. He also likes cars. He strangely likes to crawl around with shoes on his hands (as pictured). Anyones shoes will due, but he always picks a matching set. Andy has now been bottle free for about two weeks. He didn't take it as well as Caleb, who had his binkie for comfort and a sleeping cue or Cara who was old enough to pack up her own bottles and give them away to a "baby". Andy would really like a nice comforting bottle, but I figure we take it away now or it will be another year. He has three months to forget that he even wants one. Finally, he has two words that I think he is using in context "go" and "yah". It is fun to watch him make progress. He only need 48 more words to be on track at 18 months (three months away.)

CALEB LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH

Caleb lost his first tooth a couple of months ago at the age of 5.5. It was very exciting to have the tooth fairy come. He has another one that is really loose. He talks about eating hard food or pulling it out, but when it comes right down to it, it will have to fall out on its own. Caleb is really brave when it is ALL TALK.

SLUMBER PARTIES

Lately I have been finding Caleb and Cara asleep on the floor in Caleb's room when I go to check on them before going to bed myself. They just love being together. Tonight while we were reading Cara leaned over and gave Caleb a big kiss on the neck. He wasn't thrilled with it and I had to tell her "no more kisses" but it is sweet to see how much they love each other and take care of each other.


I made the mistake the first Friday in December of allowing Caleb and Cara to sleep under the tree. This year we don't have funds for many gifts and certainly not for expensive things so we are really focusing on creating happy (free) memories for the kids. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to let them have a slumber party each Friday night in December by the tree. THEY LOVED IT, and they want to sleep by the tree every night. Last night at 4:00 Caleb came into my room to say that he had a bad dream. He asked if he could sleep under the tree so that he could think about happy things. In my sleep I agreed. The next thing I knew I could hear foot steps running back and forth down the hall. Apparently he woke Cara to tell her the good news, that he had permission to sleep under the tree. By the time I got out there they had all of the cushions off of the couch to sleep on and blankets and pillows all set up. They were getting some granola and some water. They wanted to know what the presents on the counter were. Someone is doing the twelve days of Christmas for us. It is amazingly fun, and we have no idea who it could be. Anyway, it was the 2nd day of Christmas gifts that came after the kids were in bed so at 4:30 this morning I let the kids open them. One bag had a plush stuffed Cat to go with the story "When You Give a Cat and Cupcake" and the other was a stuffed Moose that goes with the story "When You Give a Moose a Muffin." The books are classics and we don't have either of them. Needless to say, the kids slept (or didn't sleep) with their new stuffed animals while I went back to bed to lay there for two more hours getting my guts kicked endlessly. The excitement of Christmas around here is apparently more that one 5 year old, one 3 year old, and one fetus can take.