Another Cousin!

Our trip recap is coming soon, but I wanted to introduce our first Grimmett cousin. . . 

Norah Olivia

Born last night. We missed her by just a few days. 

Welcome to the fam baby Norah!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from these 3 turkeys!

The Faces of Gage

These pictures were taken in about a 3 minute span, and this isn't even all of them. Now picture all of these faces in your family pictures! The family pics that I posted yesterday were the few that Gage wasn't making some kind of crazy face in!

Never a dull moment with this kid! Love him!

Family Pics

My sisters have been bugging me forever about the pictures on the side of my blog. Gage was Miley's age when we had those pictures done. We went to the same place where those ones were done and I love them! When I get a free hour (which is pretty much NEVER!) then I will update them! But for now, here are my

faves!

 

 

Student of the Quarter!

Last week, Maisey's teacher pulled me aside after school and told me that Maisey was chosen as student of the quarter for the 1st quarter! Each teacher chooses two students from their class who are among the top five of their class in grades, and show great behavior, honorable character, and respect to their classmates. Seriously, what mom wouldn't be proud of that?

All of the students chosen gathered for a pizza party and ceremony.

 Maisey was so excited to get her first real trophy!

 Maisey's teacher talked about how she is always attentive, gets 100% on all of her work and tests, and how she is kind to all of her classmates. 

Maisey and Ms. D.

Way to go Maisey!

Miley: 6 months!

I can't believe my little baby is 6 months old already! She is an amazing baby!

Here is a little about her:

* She is still nursing, but seems less interested because gets really distracted. She will take a bottle now, even from me! She usually gets one about every other day. She is on solids. She has had oatmeal and rice cereal, peaches, pears, applesauce, and green beans. (All stuff that I have canned. I just mash it up with a fork and she loves it!) She has also had graham crackers and these little rice cups. She is a great eater and I just started feeding her solids twice a day, per the doctor's orders.

* Speaking of doctor's orders, she had her 6 month check-up earlier this week. These are her stats:

Weight - 14 lbs 15 oz (28%)

Height - 26" (59%)

Head - 41.8 cm (30%)

At her 4 mo. appt she was in like the tenth percentile for weight and had dropped from her 2 month checkup. I am glad she is gaining weight well now. And as a fun comparison tonight, I decided to look up the other kids' stats at 6 months. Maisey's were16 lbs 8 oz,  26.4 in., and 43.4 cm. Gage's were 18 lbs 8 oz, 27 in., and 44.9 cm. Miley really is my little baby!

* I find it funny that my littlest baby is my best sleeper as well. Maybe it's because this is my third time around and you learn more with each one. She sleeps 10-12 hours at night and is taking two solid naps during the day, usually about two hours long. We have a great routine going and she is able to stay up for longer stretches of time. 

* She loves to be tickled, she loves when you blow raspberries on her tummy, and she loves when you pretend to eat her toes. She loves to pull and chew on hair (Ick!) and often times pulls it out of Maisey and my head. 

* She went through a phase where she would whimper when other people would hold her, but I think she is out of it now. 

* She LOVES music and dancing, and will often jabber when she hears music playing, kinda like her way of singing. The Young Women at church think it is really funny. She also loves to play her toy piano and likes to watch the big kids play musical instruments.

* Her hair is getting longer, even though you probably can't tell from the pictures. It's thickening up and it's getting darker.

* She is still such a cuddler, and I L.O.V.E. it!!! 

* She is starting to sit up a little bit. Her longest stretch is about 30 seconds, but it gets better everyday.

* She loves her brother and sister. Gage is her little buddy all day while Maisey is at school. He is very possessive protective over her and doesn't like when other people talk to her or about her. Maisey is my little baby sitter. She plays with Miley while I make lunch, take a shower, fold laundry, etc. She loves to read her books and sing her songs. Maisey "babysits" to earn computer time.

Here are some random pictures from this month:

First time in a shopping cart. 

Love this peaceful sleeper!

Gearing up for our cooooold trip to Idaho!

Even though Miley isn't in this picture I had to include it. This is Gage at Miley's appt. The doctor was trying to talk to me and Gage was bouncing around everywhere so I had him sit on the bench and count the spots on this cheetah painted on the wall. He would get to 33 and say he was done and then I would make him start over! Is that mean?

I can't wait for all of the fun moments that are to come in the next six months!

Tree, Table, and Treats!

Shaun made this big tree on our wall behind our dining room table so we could have a thankful tree this month. Each night at dinner, we all say one thing we are thankful for and write it on a leaf and tape it to the tree. It's been fun to hear what everyone comes up with. At the end of the month I will have to record some of them.

 This is what our tree looked like a few days ago. Now it has double the leaves!

(Shaun is very artistic. . . If I had to free hand a tree it definitely would not be looking like that!)

The first night we talked about being grateful and what it means. Gage happily piped in "I'm grateful for Gage!" so that's what I wrote for him!

 We got a new (to us!) kitchen table! :) My aunt moved into her new house and got all new furniture so she offered it to us! Now my table matches the rest of my house! I'm so excited!

 The kids and I made these cute acorn treats (found here) for their teachers and I'm making a bag for our friend's birthday this week. They were super simple, very cute, and the kids had a blast. That's my kind of project!

 Happy Fall!

Time Out for Women and Stake Conference

Time Out for Women:

I went to Time Out for Women this past weekend with my mom and some friends. This was my first time going, and it was wonderful! I took Miley with me both days and she was awesome! It was hard to take notes unless she was sleeping, but she still did really well. 

The theme for this year was "Seek the Good" and they challenged each of us to seek one good thing in our lives that we can give a little more of our hearts to. Such a good challenge for me.

These are a few other things I want to remember:

* Goodness is contagious, spread it around (Mary Ellen Edmunds)

* You will know your children as adults for all of eternity. But for now, and these next precious few years you get to watch them as children, learn and grow and experience new things. (Hilary Weeks)

* Remember to: Listen carefully, look forward, laugh often, and love deeply (Deanne Flynn)

* We create the weather in our home by the way we act. (Deanne Flynn)

* Genesis 21:6 "And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." (Deanne Flynn)

* Hebrews 4:16 "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Laurel Christensen)

* Stop worrying about what you can't control (others agency), and worry about what you can control -- yourself!! (Laurel Christensen)

* The Lord's time frame has been in place your entire life, and it is still in place. You are exactly where he knew you would be. (Laurel Christensen)

On Friday night I took her out to get change her diaper and get in her jammies. We hung out in the lobby for the rest of the time and she fell asleep on the chair.

On Saturday during lunch, we met Mary Ellen Edmunds!

And, this is what happens when you leave the house with Gage awake and Daddy still in bed. He makes another "cake" on the carpet. The list of ingredients: milk, pez, eggs (cracked on the carpet), frosting, kit-kats, salt and pepper, apple slices, and crackers. YUM!

Stake Conference:

Our Stake Conference was the same weekend as Time Out for Women, which made it a very long day on Saturday. I was home long enough to get my older kids ready for bed, feed Miley, and pick up the baby sitter for the adult session that night. But I am very glad I went. This was our first Stake Conference with the new presidency. 

My favorite quote from the night:

"Children are like trees. If they are shaped and molded while they are young, they will grow straight."

I'm so lucky that I get to spend my days at home with my children so I can be there for them and help shape them. 

What a spiritually fulfilling weekend!

Halloween Fun!

We had a lot of fun leading up to Halloween! 

On Monday, was Maisey's pumpkin patch field trip (see previous post) and we had some friends over for FHE. We played a pumpkin walk game and talked about Halloween safety with a ghost story. We also had pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for our treat. The kids and our friends had a great time!

The kids also wore their Halloween shirts! These were before Grandma Grimmett sent the kids new ones!

On Tuesday, we painted pumpkins!

Gage started with a cute face but by the end his whole pumpkin was painted black and blue. 

Miley and Grammy enjoyed watching everyone!

Maisey's face. The blue is the pumpkin's eye shadow! :)

Then it was finally Halloween! My skeletons were so excited for this day. Gage got dressed in his costume at 8 am and didn't take it off til we got home at 8:30 pm. It also rained ALL day up until  an hour before trick-or-treating. I am sooooo glad it wasn't raining in the evening!

We headed to Daddy's work in the afternoon for their Halloween party and trick-or-treating. 

The kids did a cake walk, 

did some coloring and watched Monster's Inc., 

and hung out with mommy!

They also enjoyed seeing Daddy and his team dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters. Daddy was the Tin Man.

Then it was time to hit the streets. Daddy had to work late, so I took the kids and met him in the neighborhoods. The enjoyed going from house to house and trick-or-treating. We also ran into some friends so we hung with them.

After the neighborhoods, we headed across the street to the trunk-or-treat at the church. I sat in front of the van with Miley and the candy bowl while daddy took the kids around.

Miley kept grabbing hand fulls of suckers and shoving them in her mouth. She would get made every time I would take them out of her mouth. There may have been a few kids who got slobbered-on suckers! Sorry!

When we got home we dumped out all of the candy from the day and separated it into a chocolate and non-chocolate bowl.

I would say Halloween 2012 was a success!