Tummy time

Trying to eat a toy
This is MJ's pouty lip. She usually makes this face when she is about to burst into tears (like when her dad laughs). I'm not sure why she made the face this time - maybe the camera flash scared her. Luckily this time she didn't burst into tears...

Blizzard?

We had a ton of media hype about a huge blizzard that was supposed to hit Utah Tuesday evening - leaving 4-8 inches of snow in the valleys with 1-2 foot snow drifts. We were supposed to have really high winds, zero visibility and super cold temperatures. Businesses were closing early. Everything was cancelled for the evening. We were sitting at home waiting and watching. And all we got was about 2-3 inches of snow, next to no wind and super cold temperatures... What a disappointment... Normally I don't care for big snowstorms, but when we don't have anywhere to be and we are well stocked on food I don't mind getting a big storm now and then.

MJ update - 4 months old

MJ is 4 months old now and is really starting to interact with people. It is fun watching the kids talk to her and see MJ respond with big smiles. She is getting a little better with sleeping lately so I usually don't have to hold and/or feed her all day long. She still startles easily but is also getting better at that. She does not like her dad's laugh and will more often than not burst into tears when he laughs - which usually causes him to laugh even more... She is great at rolling from her back to her stomach and will usually only stay on her back for a few seconds once she is set down. Last week she managed to flip from her stomach to her back once, but I think it was just a fluke because she hasn't been able to repeat it since. She is getting better at being on her stomach and will try to grab a toy and eat it while she is laying there.

MJ drools a TON and usually has a soaking wet shirt. We keep feeling in her mouth to see if she is teething, but we can't feel anything trying to come through. MJ also will put anything in her mouth - toys, fingers, her sleeve - she just loves to be mouthing/drooling on everything! She is finally starting to chub up a little and she has definitely grown taller over the last couple of weeks. When DH set up the exersaucer on Halloween, she could just barely touch the bottom with her feet and now she can stand flatfooted in it. We'll have to move it up a notch here shortly. MJ loves to be held and quite often she will start crying when she is on the floor or in her exersaucer and will immediately stop as soon as she gets picked up. She especially loves to sit on someone's lap during dinnertime. We are still struggling with church because she doesn't like to just be sitting there on someone's lap. I usually have to get up during Sacrament Meeting and either stand in the back of the chapel with her or walk around the foyer bouncing her around.
Another thing she loves to do is pull hair! She loves getting a fistful and then trying to shove it into her mouth!

Kay talk

Funny things Kay says:

"Shhhhhh!!!" - She'll stick her index finger in front of her mouth and say this when we ask her what she is doing and it's something she shouldn't be doing.

"I'll be right back!" - while putting her index finger out in front of her.

"I don't know." - This is her first response to just about anything we ask her.

Kay loves to talk with her hands. Sometimes she will just kind of babble and while she is babbling she will put her hand on her hip or hold her hand up, palm up in front of her (and she will keep turning her hand over).

Kay is also very good at play acting with dolls or stuffed animals and sometimes we hear her reciting movies. The other day she kept walking around saying, "Where is my FOOD!" Finally I had to ask the kids where she was getting that line from and we figured out that it was from "A Bug's Life" which she had watched earlier that day.


Kay Translations:

Kanilla or Ganilla = Vanilla yogurt
Ganana or Gamana = Banana - When I try to sound it out slowly for her she will say "Ba-gamana"
Melolee = Melanie

Sleeping kids

Last night at dinner Kay kept dozing off in her seat and then she would wake up and try and position herself in a more comfortable position and then doze off again. This was the final position she ended up in:

Bear

Luke received his Bear rank advancement last week at Pack Meeting. He actually had earned it by the October pack meeting but since it was also the Pinewood Derby, we elected to wait another month. It was pretty easy for Luke to earn this award since I am his den leader. I have been in this calling for a little over 2 years now - my longest calling in this ward to date.

Now I need to get to work sewing his awards on his uniform!

Snow!!

We got dumped on Saturday night! This is what we woke up to Sunday morning:

We  have my parents' car here for a few days. I had to move the car in from the street on Saturday night so it wouldn't be in the way of the snow plows.

I measured about 10 inches on the driveway and 14 inches on the lawn.

It was kind of funny when my dad called me Sunday evening and didn't believe me at first when I told him how much snow we received! I think that this is the biggest snowfall we have had before Thanksgiving since I moved to Utah 14 years ago...  It is a very wet, heavy snow.

And here is the forecast for the next few days:

Monday - 40% chance of snow, high of 38° F

Tuesday - 50% chance of snow, high of 40° F

Wednesday - 60% chance of snow, high of 13° F

Little things

* MJ squealing when I smile and say hi to her in the exersaucer.

* MJ sleeping a little better at night and getting some good naps in during the day as well.

* Luke helping Kitty make cookies for FHE.

* MJ getting excited when her dad gets home from work.

* M&M and Luke being able to make cookies on their own without any help.

* MJ laughing while watching her siblings play.

* Kay napping without putting up a fight.

* Finding some nice shirts for me and M&M at the thrift store.

* Being told that I look too young to have a child in middle school.

Clothing Woes

Several of the kids have all of a sudden had some growth spurts.  Luke in particular all of a sudden has outgrown just about every single pair of pants that he owns.  They are all about 1-2 inches too short for him now and he looks ridiculous wearing them!  In fact, I had just bought him a new pair of pants to wear to church, he wore them once or twice and now they are also too short for him!

M&M has also grown out of several of her dresses that she wore last year and right now I am moving clothes straight from Blondie's drawers to Kitty's drawers.

Kay is just a big girl for her age (at least as far as our family is concerned).  She has skipped over most of the 2T winter clothes that we have and gone straight to the 3T clothes.  My bigger problem with Kay and clothes though is that she does not like to wear pants.  Quite often when I try to get her in pants, she will throw a fit and later on throughout the day she will take them off and run around the house in just her diaper and a shirt.  It wasn't so bad in the summertime because I had quite a few skorts that she could wear, but now it is getting colder outside and I don't have a lot of warm dresses and skirts with tights that she can wear.  She especially doesn't like to wear jeans - I think it is because she has some bigger legs than some of the other kids have had and she just can't move around as easily or as comfortably in jeans.

So today I need to try to make it to a store or two for some new clothes for Luke.  The other kids (with the exception of M&M) have enough hand-me-downs that they don't have to wear pants that are too short.  It can definitely be quite a chore trying to keep the kids well clothed!!

Crazy Sunday

Yesterday was kind of a crazy Sunday. I had to go to ward choir practice from 11:30-12:15 because they are getting ready for a Thanksgiving number and some Christmas songs that have a flute part that I have been asked to play. Normally I would be attending anyways, but ever since MJ was born I haven't made it. The time of the rehearsals is kind of bad for our family because church starts at 1:00 and it's hard getting home at 12:20 and trying to get everyone fed and ready to leave for church on time. Yesterday I was able to get MJ fed and down to sleep before I left and she stayed asleep until it was time to leave for church. I tried picking her up gently to see if I could keep her asleep a little while longer, but it didn't work so I ended up sending the rest of the family on to church while I stayed home to feed MJ.

While I was sitting down nursing MJ I all of a sudden remembered that Kitty was supposed to be giving a talk in junior primary that day! Usually the primary secretary gives reminder calls a day or two before Sunday, but we just had a new secretary called in our ward and she either forgot to make the calls or doesn't know that she should. So I quickly searched the diaper bag to see if I could find the sticker that had the theme on it - and of course I didn't find it and the other bag had gone with the family to church. My next step was to head down to the computer to go to the church's website to find the theme in the online version of the Friend. After finally locating the theme for November I quickly wrote up a short talk for Kitty to give and printed it out. I then left for church and pulled Kitty out of class for a few minutes to let her know that I had written a talk for her and we practiced it once there in the hallway. (Thankfully junior primary has the closing exercises...) I then went to tell DH about it, went to the last few minutes of Relief Society and the first part of Sunday School, and then showed up at the end of primary to help Kitty give the talk.

So today I am grateful that I remembered her talk before I left home. I'm not even sure what triggered that memory in my head. I was just sitting nursing MJ and thinking about it being fast Sunday when I all of a sudden remembered it. Thankfully things turned out just fine and I think Kitty was very glad that I had remembered.

Little things

* Teaching M&M how to make bread.

* So many people at church commenting on MJ being such a pretty baby.

* Kay loving nursery.

* Playing my flute with the ward choir today at rehearsal.

* MJ finally getting some chubby legs.

* MJ sleeping the whole time I was at rehearsal yesterday - almost 3 hours in the morning.

* Watching Toy Story 3 and eating popcorn with the family last night.

* Harvesting some potatoes from the garden yesterday and using them in a beef stew for dinner tonight.

* Eating homemade strawberry-peach jam with the homemade bread that M&M, Luke & I made. YUM!! :)

Little things

* Kay breaking out into song this morning singing "Book of Mormon Stories" and "Patty Cake"

* Kitty entertaining MJ while I showered this morning.