Conference Fun!

I decided to do some fun things for General Conference this year with the kiddos.  I think they are old enough (well, the older 2 are) to listen to at least one full session.  In order to help them out, I looked for some fun activities to keep them engaged.  We did a word bingo and word candy bowls.  If the speakers said a certain word they were able to eat one of those candies and also fill it out on their bingo charts.  They LOVED this!  Even Curt got in on the fun!  I also made them coloring packets with some fun pages.  They didn't finish most of those but I think next year 2 sessions might just be okay and they can do the packet with one and the candy with the other.  I'm just glad they enjoyed themselves.  I want them to look forward to hearing the words of the prophet and the apostles and I think I started a fun tradition!

First day of School!

Blakey is 8 months old!

Blakey turned 8 months old yesterday.  He has made some great progress this past month.  He is now crawling...he'd been scooting backwards, then, crawling backwards for probably 3 weeks before he finally got going forward this past Saturday.  He now moves around a lot better!  He is also working on his top teeth now too...he's been drooling like crazy and not feeling super great the past few days/nights.  Here's his stats and likes/dislikes:

 

Weight: 19 lbs. 6 oz.

Height: 28 inches

Likes:  playing with his feet, baths, jumping in the jumperoo, playing with his sisters and brother, crawling now so he can get things on the floor and put them in his mouth, eating "real food" (as much as we let him right now), being carried around until he wants to arch his back and get onto the floor to move

Dislikes:  Tyler bugging him a lot (he loves to torture his little brother so we have to keep an eye on him), eating peas, being left to fend for himself on the floor at times, having to take naps/go to sleep-he doesn't want to miss out on anything

8 is great!

Jacie turned 8 years old today and her baptism is tomorrow.  I just can't believe how big she is already and that she is all ready old enough to get baptized.  Here's some information and stats about our big girl:

       Favorite color: Pink, Red & Blue

       Favorite food: Chicken legs, spaghetti noodles sometimes with just parmesan cheese and      

                               sometimes with sauce

       Favorite dessert:  Molten Lava Cake (from Chili's)

       Favorite subject in school:  Math

       Favorite song:  "I Am a Child of God"

       Hobbies: swimming, art and painting, beginning modern dance, helping her little sister learn   

               words in Spanish (she's a great teacher)

Height: 52"

Weight: 66 lbs.

Jacie's Baptism

Jacie was baptized on January 5th, just a day after her 8th birthday.  I'm so glad she has chosen to follow Christ's example to be baptized.  She looked so beautiful and happy.  She did say she was scared to have everyone watching her, but she felt happy about it.  Her friend, Parlee, was baptized the same day and went first so she was glad about that.  When I was baptized my Dad baptized me and one of my closest friends was also baptized the same day as me so we have a picture of the 4 of us together so I thought it would be fun to have pictures of the girls and dads together like my baptism day picture.  We had a get-together afterward with pizza, salad and goodies.  It was a fun, busy day!

Happy 6th Birthday to Rylie!

  Another year older and another tooth lost...she lost her 5th tooth last night after a long afternoon/evening of crying, wiggling, tooth turning backwards and finally it was out.  She was so excited to get her $1 from the tooth fairy on her actual birthday, what fun luck!  Until....Mom (aka "The Tooth Fairy") seemed to forget after feeding and consoling baby Blake (he has another ear infection and just got immunizations on Monday so he's not a happy camper) and Rylie awoke to find that the Tooth Fairy had forgotten her, on her birthday of all days and she came in to announce she didn't receive her money through tears.  Ugh, that Tooth Fairy and her forgetfulness.  Luckily, that Tooth Fairy is tricky and hid the dollar, that was so anticipated, underneath the bed, near the headboard right after this happened.  Upon further inspection, the dollar was found, disaster was averted, and the birthday girl was smiling and happy again.  Lucky for me, I mean the Tooth Fairy, the tooth seemed to have miraculously disappeared so it was nowhere to be found when Rylie was searching for said dollar...I was trying to figure out what I'd say if the tooth was there still.  Anyway, fun story to remember...I'll tell her what really happened someday. 

We also have a family tradition of the birthday girl/boy getting his/her present from Mom and Dad on his/her actual birthday since usually the friend parties are not on the actual birthdate itself.  Rylie was just telling me last night how she really wished she'd get some skates like Jacie did for her last birthday...perfect since that is exactly what I got her.  See, I'm not such a bad Mom, just maybe not the best Tooth Fairy in the world.  She was so excited to get her own skates and had to try them out a bit before school.  Then, it was off to school with her white, powdered donuts in hand to pass out to her school friends. 

Then, she had a birthday party with her friends and cousins.  She wanted a Minnie Mouse theme (thanks to her recent trip to Disneyland I'm sure).  She had a great time with her Minnie Cake, pin the bow on Minnie game, coloring pictures of Minnie and her great gifts from her amazing friends. It was a fun birthday this year!!!

Here's some info about our cute Rylie girl!

Age: 6 years old
Height: 47.5 inches
Weight: 55 lbs.
Favorite color: pink
Favorite food:  chicken legs, noodles, pizza
Favorite book: I spy books, leveled books
Favorite song: "The Lord commanded Nephi"
Favorite dessert: molten lava cake, ice cream
Favorite school subject: reading
Hobbies:  tumbling, ballet, learning Spanish
Dislikes:  pancakes, not getting what she wants when she wants it
Best friends: Hailie, Marissa, Calla, Kelsie, Callie & Julia

Blake's 3 and 4 month post!

Well, I'm not doing too well with the blogging lately and I guess I have to blame working and 4 kids and no internet at home...here's what Blakey's been up to.

He is such a sweet boy and loves "talking with" people.  He is so alert and excited about the world around him.  He loves to try to stand up and is practicing his crunches and building up his stomach muscles so I'm sure he'll be sitting soon.  He rolled over for the first time last Thursday...from his back to his belly.  He is still so big and chunky...love him!

Weight: 15 lbs. 1 oz.

Length: 26 1/4 inches