Why I don't like tile:

I really don't care for our tile.  Dishes break way too easily on it, and it is such a pain to keep sparkling clean.  I do clean my floor regularly, but that dirt just gets trapped in the grout and texture of the tile. Maybe there is some better way of cleaning it, and if you know the secret, please share.  Now that Lauren is crawling around, I thought I better scrub the tile good. Some of her shirts have already started to get  dirty when the sleeves are white.  So, I've been spending a lot of time on my hands and knees, scrubbing away at the tile and grout.  I've been working at it for a couple of weeks, and I still have a lot more to go.  Part of the problem is how long it takes to scrub it all out, and the fact that I still have three little ones as home which means not a lot of time to spend just cleaning my floor.  I've thought about hiring someone, but the last time we did that I remember not being impressed with how much I had spent, and how I still didn't think my floor looked that clean.  So seriously, if you know a better quick solution, let me know!

9 Months

Lauren is officially 9 months now, and it seems she was waiting for that designation. She turned 9 months on Saturday, and promptly used the stairs and the banister to get herself to standing for the first time. Then on Sunday she pulled to stand in her crib. It was so fun to come in to get her from a nap, and see her standing there smiling at me! Then on Monday she figured out how to get to standing against the couch.

She is still fairly small, but growing well.  She weighs 15 lbs 1 oz (2 percentile), her length is 26 3/4 in (23 percentile). 

Her hair is long enough I can pull it into a little ponytail on top.  Here she is the first time I tried in mid January. 

Austin has so much fun playing with Lauren.  His new kick is to do what ever she is doing.  Here they are army crawling together.  Ethan also picked her outfit out for the day.  These boys take such good care of their sister.

And... Lauren is a crawler now!  She started to figure it out on January 25th, in case you wanted to know - sorry I don't have the exact time.  =)  She is getting better and better, but still sometimes does the army crawl if she wants to get somewhere fast. 

Happy Valentines Day

Jayden and Dylan were supposed to make Valentine boxes for school this year.  I remember making these as a kid.  I loved it!  My kids haven't had the chance to do this yet;  their teachers have had them make something at school.  So I was excited for them to get to make one at home this year. They both had some great ideas.  Dylan knew from the beginning he wanted to do an AT-AT walker (Star Wars, incase you didn't know).  I wasn't so sure it was going to work.  But he was persistent, and once I told him it was his job to figure out how to do it, He went to work.  It actually turned out pretty good.  Jayden had wanted to do one too (I'm sure he had heard Dylan talk about his idea), but he was the first to get to work on his, and I conviced him to find a different idea.  We got online and found a monster he wanted to copy in his own way, so that is what he did.  Ethan then wanted to make one too, so I helped him make his, and he let it be more like the one we found online for Jaydens.

I bought Fun-Dips for them to give their friends this year.  I thought they would be excited, but they were actually kind of disappointed.  Their reason:  They wanted to keep them and not give them away.  Silly gooses.  I explained that it is good to give something you like to other people, because they probably like it too. Hopefully something was learned here, but maybe not.  Either way, I'm sure they had fun giving them to their friends, and seeing what they recieved in turn. 

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Say Cheese!

I adore this little face! I love to just smile at her and see the little smiles that come out of her.  I love to tickle her and hear her girly giggles.  Her new kick is to give me closed-eye smiles.  I'm not really sure why she started doing this, but it started last week. In my attempts to get a picture of this, I got a few others of her silly smiles.  Oh, and Devon says she scrunches her nose like me.  Since I don't see my expressions as I talk and smile, tell me what you think.

I seriously love this girl!

Smile for the Day

Here is your smile for the day - you're welcome.  It made me smile to see at least.  =)

I was busy in the other room for a minute and come out to see this.  What a nice brother... he really loves her so much!

Teeth

Jayden has had lots of teeth being lost over these last two months.  The most memorable for me had to have been in December when I get a phone call from Devon telling me this story.  Devon was home with the kids while I was helping set up for a Relief Society Activity.  Here is the basics of his story:

He had made the boys some chicken nuggets for dinner.  As they were eating Jayden said there was something hard in his chicken nugget (as I'm listening to the story, my stomach turns).  I think he said he told Jayden to spit out whatever it was.  Jayden did that, then said something like "hey, its my tooth" or "I lost a tooth!"  Whew!  I don't know how he lost a tooth without knowing it, but I'm glad it was his own tooth, and that he didn't swallow it (he would have been one sad boy). 

He also has lost his two front teeth.  Here is the proof: