We start out with just a few pictures of the smiley baby. We all love this little boy so much, I hate to see him grow up so fast. He's pushing 8 months and starting the inevitable crawling :) We have so many legos and marbles and little animals on the floor... here we go again!
These two have become quite good buddies over this school year. Now that Makenzie is talking and can pretty much keep up with him, Carter is eager to have a little buddy follow him around and listen to him for a change (O is somewhat domineering when she is home... :))
One Friday night we had Matt and his family over for dinner and games. It was so fun to see them again, and Makenzie especially was glad to have her buddy again. She is inseparable from Korissa whenever we see them, which is pretty adorable. We had pizza, put the kids down or in front of TV, and played games for a while. As the stay-at-home person in our family, it was so nice to have a game night, and actually speak to someone who wasn't under 7 (I'm out of practice for sure). I'm really grateful that Alex and his boss get along so well and can be friends as well, it definitely seems like this job is a great fit for him, and the city is a good fit for the rest of us for so many reasons.
Anyway, we planned this evening in about 5 minutes, so dessert was not something I thought about (I was just lucky that I had salad stuff, as our pizza is often served with canned green beans :)) I let the kids bust out the creamsicles and we gave Hunter his first taste. Needless to say, he ate almost my entire popsicle and still wanted more :)
The kids always have fun making a family band, and I am always grateful when it doesn't include a recorder (or 3)... honestly, I love to hear them play even with a recorder, but I am occasionally glad that I can close the door into the play room :) I hope these kids all grow up with the same love of music that I had in my home growing up.
Alex is starting to have more days off on the weekend, which is much appreciated around here. Football season, especially when it combines with preseason basketball, gets a little dicey, but we made it through. One of the big projects in the new house is garage organization. There was SO MUCH shelving installed all around the garage, but it was all shallow and narrow, and made it difficult for my long van to fit into the garage. So Alex tore down one entire side of shelving so he could install his shelves that fit our bins. This was much harder than it should have been, because whoever made the shelves got a little nail-gun-happy. Anyway, he took it on, used his brute strength, and made it happen :).
The next day he made his shelve happen,which are the perfect size for us, and allow the extra room on one side for my van to park. It's so amazing and roomy in there now!
To celebrate, he took the kids (minus one who needed some calm-down time with mom) out for ice cream! The girls were thrilled to use their 'ice cream tickets' that they got in their stockings, which meant they got full size sundaes...and major sugar highs :)
I just loved walking in to this one afternoon. I don't know why the chairs are on top of the table, but I love (and sometimes hate) how Alex can find the fun activity in anything. I would have totally been cleaning up and encouraging the kids to help me put everything in its place instead, but he ignored the mess and made a 4d experience for the kids :). He is great at embracing 'the mess can wait' when he has time with the kids.
Sometimes when you run to answer the phone during lunch, you come back to this sweet (and messy) moment :). Makenzie is a great big sister, and absolutely loves having a baby to dote on. She is constantly putting her face right next to his, and when he open-mouth kisses her, she just grins and says 'hu-ter love me!!'
These two are often caught in a power struggle as Carter learns to assert himself. Olivia isn't used to having anyone argue with her, so it's a constant learning process. I loved this game that she came up with however, because she was working on her sight words and since he isn't there yet, she had this game where she would read the word to get a card, and he would say the name of the first letter to get it. It was the perfect modification, and they played happily through 3 or 4 rounds without any intervention.
After the reading game, Makenzie woke up, so I asked if they would play blocks with her (she has a tendency to play Godzilla around any card games :) They played Olivia (and mom) style, with sorting and arranging more than building. O was so sweet to give Carter all the duck colors :)...love that girl!
Hunter is still toothless, but has been exploring with more foods as he passed the 8 month mark. He is at the stage where a tray of cheerios can entertain him long enough for me to eat a quick meal, or chop veggies for dinner, or any other 5 minute activity in the kitchen. I hope this stage lasts forever!
One day we successfully got all the kids dressed before taking O to school, and as an added bonus, I had showered and gotten dressed, so instead of heading home we went to Moscow (about 15 minutes away) where there is a little mall with a few stores. It's hard to call it a mall, but it's a big step up from Pullman, where your choices are Safeway or Walmart. Since it was pretty spur of the moment, I didn't pack any drinks or snacks (I didn't even grab the diaper bag, just my wallet and keys for the quick trip to the school). We were on a deadline of whoever had the first poopy diaper, but luckily that didn't happen so we were able to get a huge treat for a snack...Starbucks cookie! Carter couldn't contain his excitement about the cookie and chocolate milk...he grinned from ear to ear the entire time :)
I go back and forth between buying and making baby food, but every time I make it I can't believe that I ever buy it. It's so easy, and about 1/5 the price depending on which fruit you use. This particular day I had one overripe banana and one overripe avocado sitting on the counter, and had just rinsed out Alex's smoothie bowl from his bullet blender, so I peeled a pear really quick and threw it all in. No recipe or cooking required, which is my style of baby food. It tasted great, all the kids wanted a taste :)
One big development of January, is that Alex and I decided to get a King size bed! We needed a queen mattress for a guest bed, and have been talking about a King for a while, so we decided it was now or never. We also decided that since we were selling our bed, we might as well sell the entire set and get something smaller now that we have a big closet. So we took pictures and expected to sit on it for a few days. That evening it sold. The woman who bought it came back the next morning to pick it all up, and all of a sudden we had nowhere to store clothes and were sleeping on a mattress on the ground. Maybe some forethought would have been better, but we made it work :)
I took a few pictures of my little man helping Alex disassemble the bed. As soon as Alex asked for help, he ran to the play room to grab his toolbox and went up to help :) He especially loved learning the art of stretch wrapping, which is a Casqueiro tradition that is 3 generations strong.
Don't forget, ladies, this guy is off the market :)
We had a fun Saturday with a movie matinee (a huge thank you to our local theater for doing this program...8 saturday morning movies for $5!) of Kung Fu Panda 3 and then lunch at Sella's, our Pullman favorite. The kids love their pizza, and I love that I can get fancy pesto, sundried tomato, artichoke calzone...it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
All of our kids enjoy the vacuum, including Kenzie. I won't pretend that this photo wasn't staged though :). I was almost done making her ABC Book, and needed a 'V' picture, so I just let her play and dance with the vacuum for a while :)
No explanation, just a fun kid who constantly keeps me on my toes
Hunter has been exploring new foods lately, including a lot of 'real people' foods. The only issue is his big sister who thinks that if mom gives him food, she can give him whatever she wants too :). So far he has tried Cheezits, goldfish crackers, and I saved him from fruit snacks, blueberries (uncut) and almonds. It's an adventure all the time with these two!
I loved this moment so much, I just wanted it to go on and on. The grocery clerk thought I was a crazy person when I pulled out my phone and tried to get just the right angle of these kids while I was juggling Hunter and trying to pay :). I asked the kids to stay close to the cart (the arcade games are SO tempting!) and Carter sat down, invited Kenz to join him, then proceeded to show her his own version of a clapping game. They had so much fun, and both demonstrated patience, which is a rare thing right now :).
No comments:
Post a Comment