Here Comes Santa Claus

Go here to read about my thoughts on Santa. No, we don't do Santa in our house, but we still take our kids to visit Santa - especially since Bass Pro does free photos :) This year every single child sat on his lap with NO crying! Amazing!

St Louis

(I'm never going to get caught-up, so I am moving on and maybe someday I'll go back and fill in missing posts)

We went to St Louis Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week. We had a great, super cheap hotel room right down the street from the museum we wanted to go to. It had an indoor pool and indoor playground - which was really great because the weather was horrible.

On Monday we got to St Louis at around 3, so we went to the mall to get some dinner and then just hung out in the hotel and the kids went swimming.

Tuesday morning we got up and went to the Magic House Children's museum. I was so excited, because while planning our trip I got a coupon in the mail (yay for one free admission!) for this museum and it was advertising their newest exhibit - Magic Treehouse! Rae LOVES the Magic Treehouse books, so she was super excited. The museum was really amazing. We got there right as it opened, so we got to enjoy about an hour before it got super crowded. It is usually only open in the afternoons, but since it was Thanksgiving week they opened early. PLUS, it was a rainy day, so it was super crowded by 10:30. But it is a huge museum, so if it was too crowded in one area we just moved on to the next place. We all had a lot of fun. We could have stayed longer but everyone was getting hungry by 12:30. I couldn't believe the kids lasted that long without whining that they were hungry.

Back to the hotel for some quiet time. After naps we went to a few stores and out to eat at Denny's (woo hoo for "kids eat free" nights!)

The next morning we got up and packed and headed out the door, wanting to get to the zoo as soon as it opened. The zoo is free but they have a few things that cost money. The Children's Zoo is one of those things, but during the first hour that the zoo is open you can get into the Children's zoo for free. We knew there was a nice indoor area with animals that we could hang out in while we waited for the weather to warm up. I had checked the forecast over and over again and the sun was SUPPOSED to come out and it was supposed to get up to the 50s. Unfortunately, it never really warmed up. The kids were pretty miserable and whiny the entire trip. Not many animals were out because it was so cold, so that was disappointing. After a couple of hours we gave up and headed out. It reminded me a lot of this trip

I was so sure this goat was going to fall. I guess they know what they are doing though :)

Claire wasn't interested in the butterflies.

On the way home we stopped at Costco for our quarterly cheese stock-up!

Claire at 6 months

Claire went to the doctor on November 2nd for her 6 month check up. She weighed 15.8 pounds and was 26 3/4 inches tall (way smaller than Isaac at this age) She only gained one pound since her 4 month check up, so I'm kinda pushing the solids now :) She has been eating solids for about a month now - she seems more interested in them than any of the other kids.

Yummy!

No, not those kind of solids!

She got her first tooth on October 9th (well, that is the day I noticed it popping through) and just the other day I noticed the one next to it is coming in. (the bottom middle teeth)

She can crawl, but not as well as the other kids were at this age. Isaac was pulling himself up by now! She sits on her own really well and sometimes goes from a crawling position to a sitting position. But mostly she would rather be carried around.

You can tell by the lovely spots on the floor that Claire often ends up
in this part of the hallway and slobbers all over it!

Halloween

One of the reasons I've been so bad about blogging is because we have also been SO bad about taking pictures! These are the ONLY pictures we got of Halloween! So lame! Claire wore a cute little lamb costume on Saturday to the town costume contest - but I didn't get any pictures of it. On Monday we put her in this costume because it was too warm for the lamb one and because all of the kids have worn this costume. (see past post about it here)

Our pumpkin carving was pretty lame this year. We were kinda in a hurry. Roy has just been so busy this semester -he didn't have any time to get creative.

I got Rae's costume on clearance last year. She is a sorceress. Blaise has been obsessed with being a magician lately, so I actually shelled out some money for his costume. He loved it, and pieces of it still get worn daily by him or Isaac, so it was worth the money!

I threw a little party at our house on Halloween. I invited the whole branch and said to bring a pot of chili to share. I provided rolls, corn bread, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin bread, cupcakes and punch. I knew the "big family" in our branch was coming and figured even if they were the only ones to show up it would still be fun. Well, they came, one other couple and the missionaries. But the kids had a blast and we sent the missionaries home with a ton of leftovers :) I might do it again next year but not stress over it so much. It was fun to plan an activity - it has been a while since I've been able to do that.

Other happenings

We took very few pictures in August and September. So pathetic. Here are few that we did take:

We've been spending a LOT of time outside enjoying the perfect weather. I'm so glad we bought this swing set - it has been a great addition to our backyard!

Blaise got these capes for his birthday last year and every morning Isaac puts one on and then asks Blaise to put the other one on and play superhero with him. These two boys are getting along really well right now and it's so fun to see Blaise get a chance to be the big kid. He is so good with Isaac - so patient and let's him choose what to play (so unlike his sister!)

I'm doing "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons"
with Blaise right now. I stole my sister's idea and after he finishes
25 lessons he gets to go on a date with me. He finished his first set last week
and we went out to Dairy Queen!

He is such a good big brother. He's so good with Claire and she just adores him. (yeah, I'll admit Blaise is my favorite child right now) :)

Claire found her feet recently. Yummy. Nice to have built-in chew toys when you are teething.

Claire is not the only one teething! Rae finally lost another tooth on Friday Sept.30th. She lost two back in November and this is the first one she has lost since then. She has three more that are pretty wiggly. She went to the dentist on Wednesday and everything is great!

This girl is growing up too fast! She is scooting and rolling everywhere! Ahhh, I'm not ready!

And this little guy is just as cute as ever! We've been having a hard time with jealously issues, but making sure he gets a good dose of mom in the morning and then getting Rae and Blaise to include him in their play really helps him be happy. He's talking more and more and if he takes his thumb out of his mouth you can actually understand him!

Hello Fall

We welcomed October with a trip to a farm/pumpkin patch. We didn't do any pumpkin pickin' (umm, they are cheaper at Aldi) but we did enjoy a hayride, straw maze, animal feeding/admiring and beautiful weather and scenery.

Teasing Blaise (what she does best)

Isaac was not fond of the straw maze. It had a roof over it,
so that made it quite dark and a bit too scary for this little guy.

But Rae and Blaise loved it! (You see Claire? She slept almost the whole time)

That's one cool scarecrow!

Hauling away the prisoners!

Giant catfish

Tiny bunnies

The goats were just regular-sized though

Baby chicks and baby pigs

One more hayride while I took Claire to the car to change and feed her.

"Yay, hay!"

Aren't the colors beautiful??