Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we gutted the pumpkins and carved them. well, we all gutted them, the boys drew their designs on them and then rich carved them. Christian and Aiden went to Aldor acres on field trips but Ethan didn't get to go as our month was too crazy to go as a family. Ethan was okay with it after I promised to buy him a big one. I bought him one and it came to 7 bucks - I thought that was okay until I went to save on foods later and saw one for 2 or 3 bucks and it was the same size! I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get a pic. of Callia at a pumpkin patch for her first fall. Oh well, life goes on and the field trips were much better sans baby. The boys were so pleased with their lit pumpkins.

Fine China and Candlelight

Nope - not talking about an anniversary or my bday or Valentine's Day but Ethan's birthday. We let the kids choose their birthday dinner - it can be home made or a restaurant and Ethan chose to have ribs (so YUMMY!) and wanted the china and candles too. If you had told me 7 years ago when I had my first baby boy that he would request china and candles I would have laughed!!

I can't believe Ethan is 7. This time 7 years ago he had not been born for even an hour. I love Ethan so much - though he has a way to drive me completely insane. Ethan loves his siblings (even though he sometimes declares life would be better with out them) - he will help with Callia, he will hold her and play with her. Him and Aiden play together and he can be kind to Christian and play trains with him. Ethan is a smart kid (if I do say so myself) and so sometimes his mouth gets him into A LOT of trouble (maybe it would even if he wasn't so bright) but at the same time he can come up with the sweetest comments to his siblings or to me. He has an incredible memory and it is often so cool to hear what he has to say about things we've done in the past. Life is always interesting when Ethan is around - one never knows what is going to come out of his mouth next! I do pray that as he grows that God will continue to work on his heart and that what comes out of his mouth will glorify God and will lead others to HIM. Love you Ethan!!

Gone are the days....

Gone are the days of stuffing a poopy diaper in my diaper bag or taking a three point shot from our bed to the garbage can. Callia has been eating her cereal like a real trooper over the past week and a half and we are now experiencing stinky, sticky new poop! Oh, for the sweet smelling breast feeding poop -oh well, there's no turning back now. At first she would not touch the cereal and we thought oh no!! We were a little worried since she has now rejected the bottle and formula (we keep trying ) however, we found the right consistency and she loves the stuff. Now to begin the introduction of veggies - I kind of want to wait until we get back from our Disney trip but by then she'll almost be 7 months. So good bye sweet smelling pool (relatively speaking) and hello diaper genie.

Five years!

My Aiden turned five this month. WOW! For months he had been asking for a Star Wars bday party but about two weeks b/f we were going to have it he changed his mind to a Hot Wheels party. I was kind of glad - I have nothing against Star Wars but Hot Wheels just seems more age appropriate - more innocent. Aiden had six kids to his party and I think everyone had a great time. We raced cars, played hot car potato, raced plasma cars outside, drew race car tracks and made goody bags. Now Christian wants a hot wheels party too.

Aiden is such a sweet boy. He is very full of emotion - which can be very frustrating at times but I think it'll end up being a good thing. I was worried at the beginning of the year that he would have a hard time making friends b/c of his speech but he is having no problems. In fact he invited three friends from school to come to his party where as Ethan had no friends yet that he wanted to invite when he was in kindergarten and we thought Ethan was the out going one. It so made me smile inside when I took him to soccer a few weeks ago and we were a bit late but when we arrived a bunch of the boys yelled out "Aiden" "Hi, Aiden" - obviously he is well liked. I'm not writing this to brag more like to let out a PRAISE that God has heard us and answered our prayer with regards to Aiden making friends despite the difficulty they may have understanding him.

Aiden loves to play with Ethan and though he won't admit it him and Christian play well together too. Aiden loves hot wheels, star wars, transformers, playmobil and building things. Aiden also doesn't stop talking at home - sometimes I tell him to be quiet. I feel kinda bad about it but for one thing sometimes I need quiet for another thing it can be tiring listening to him since you really have to listen sometimes to get what he is saying. Anyways, we love Aiden so much and hope that he has an amazing year!!

1/2 a year!

Miss Callia is 6 months old! Not sure where half a year went - but it's gone. Let's see what's different with our princess:
-loves to sit in her exersaucer
-eats cereal by the gallon now (only for a bout a week)
-can balance for a few seconds while sitting on her own
-moves all over the place in her bed
-naps two times a day for sure for 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours and needs a third nap but doesn't always take it
-stares at us when eating (very intense - I wouldn't be surprised if the food flew off the spoon and into her mouth with how hard she stares at it!)
-puts everything in her mouth - including toes
-loves the big bath - splashes lots
-makes a coughing sound for fun and will mimic you when you do it (at first we thought she was choking)
-weighs in at 11lbs 12 oz (might get her checked out but Christian stalled at about this age too)
-down to four feeds during the day and then I still get her up at 10:30 (don't know if I need to or not but I tell myself I have to or my milk will deplete - really I know if I give up that feed it's a sign she's really growing up big!)
-easily laughs
-played strange with people for a bit but I think she's over it for now - unless she's really tired
-goes to the church nursery (sometimes) with no problem

I think that's about it. I love her smiles and giggles and how she lights up when she sees ME (makes a mommy feel great - maybe not so great for others). We all love her to bits!

Silly faces

Callia has moved up to the big bath. It only took me over five months to do it. She enjoys her bath time - she is beginning to really splash now that she's not all scrunched up in a baby tub.

Pumpkin Pie

One again we had two delicious meals for Thanksgiving. Little Miss Callia tried a miniscule amount of mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie! She's right there with her brothers and loved them both.

A Baxter Moment

I've just finished reading a series involving a family called the Baxters - it is a mom and dad with five adult children and it's fantastic. They aren't perfect but they have lots of fun traditions and do things all together with their kids. I know it's fiction and families aren't like that all of the time but on Sat. I would say we had a "Baxter" Moment. We went with friends down to the river near us and roasted hot dogs and marshmellows - which was so much fun but what was even more fun was the game of football keep away we all played. I'm not sure what made it so much fun - no rules, parents and kids working together, laughing, running, spontaneity but it was. The kids had so much fun and want to do it next week. I hope that as our family grows we can create traditions that they remember and love to do even when they grow up and have their own families. Right now I think that traditions are fantastic for families but need to be flexible (especially as kids grow up) and I hope that I remember that and don't get "stuck". I hope that one day our kids will want to be a part of each others lives - praying together, raising their kids together, laughing and crying together, having big family dinners together on a regular basis etc. etc.

What!?!

I was just looking at Aiden's October school calander and noticed that they're having a fire drill (I remember those), then an earthquake drill (never did one in school but know they do them now) and then I read lock down drill. WHAT! Yikes - there is probably a better chance of the school catching fire or an earthquake happening then an incident where they needed to lock down the school but still - it sounds scary. I was going to title this entry Welcome to the public school system but I don't think it matters if your child goes to private or public - it only takes one kid to go commando or something wrong to happen outside of the school and the school has to lock down. But still - I guess I could have labelled it Welcome to our World in 2008. Hmmm, maybe I should homeschool - naw - then we'ld be in constant lock down or at least that's where I would end up by the end of the first week.