Jonah

I can't believe how fast our little Jonah man (that is what I like to call him) has grown up.  My friend took this picture of him and I love it.  Jonah has been so much fun from day one.  He was a happy, easy going baby and he is still a very happy child.  He is always smiling or laughing.  There is no middle ground with Jonah he is either happy or very upset.  Lucky for us the very upset isn't very often. 

Jonah has such a fun personality.  He loves to joke and play around and he will always laugh at your jokes!  He has a contagious smile and he has always been able to make others laugh and smile. 

He has started combing his own hair and loves to comb it in a "pinhawk,"  for some reason that is what he calls it.  Jonah loves sports, trains, lego's and animals.  He is constantly moving.  He will sit still for a movie, but that is about it.  It is hard to keep him quiet when Wyatt is napping.  He is always so excited about what he has to say that he can't help but yell.  He will not stop talking until you acknowledge what he has said.  This gets a little tricky when he is talking to other kids. 

He loves dress up.  He has a few costumes that his cousins gave him and he is always wearing them.  He loves to play with Caitlyn and will usually follow her lead on what they should play.  We have started working on some work books while Caitlyn is at school and he amazes me with what he knows and how quickly he learns things.  He told me a while ago that he wanted to read and I didn't think much of it, but he has been very insistent. We bought the first set of Sam books and he has picked it up so quickly.  He knows all of the letter sounds and does pretty well at blending the sounds together. He can already read quite a few words. 

I never know what Jonah is going to say or do next.  This is a lot of fun, but also a little bit of a challenge.  I'm always worried that he will do something crazy while someone else is watching him or hurt someone because he doesn't watch where he is going and doesn't understand how rough he is sometimes. He is such a little charmer so I can never stay mad at him for too long.  I never have to wonder if Jonah is lying because he will tell me everything.  He will come home from church and tell me he wasn't reverent or come upstairs at my mom's and tell me he hit his cousins.  It is nice, but a little annoying because he doesn't seem to care that he is doing things he shouldn't be.  Sometimes it drives me nuts when I'm trying to discipline him because he will just sit there with a smile on his face, but I have to remind myself that is just Jonah.  He is always smiling, he just can't help himself.  We love Jonah so much and we are so glad he is in our family.  He always keeps us on our toes and smiling!

Off Track

I love when Caitlyn is off track.  I'm not to the stage in life where I am ready for my kids to be gone.  I can handle kindergarten because it is only half a day, but if I had my choice I would rather have her home.  I'm dreading first grade, I really don't want Caitlyn to be gone all day.  These six years have gone by way too fast. Jonah also loves when Caitlyn is off track.  We bought Jonah this bunk bed a few weeks ago and we told them they could have a sleepover when Caitlyn was off track.  They have been talking about their "sleepover party" for a while now.  I just love that they are such good friends. 

Yesterday the kids were thrilled when they realized it was snowing outside. While I was shoveling they made these huge snowballs.  They thought jumping off of them would be more fun than making a snow man. 

I was impressed with how big they were.  They had a great time playing in the snow.  It was a great day for it because it wasn't freezing and the snow was perfect for packing.

Today we went to the zoo for the free day.  It was a little chilly for the zoo, but we had fun.  My sister and her son came and we all had fun looking at the animals.

I like to go to the zoo in the winter because the animals are more active.  There were five tigers walking around.  Jonah was excited and kept yelling, "hey tiger" and growling. 

Wyatt was a good sport as usual.  Luckily he could stay pretty bundled up in the stroller.  I wasn't very smart and didn't have Caitlyn and Jonah wear their boots or their snow clothes so they ended up pretty cold and wet. I swear my brain is turning to mush lately.  I forget everything and I'm always late.  That never used to happen before I had kids.

It was a nice day.  I love to go places with the kids.  It is always nice to get out and I love to see them get excited about things.  Every day they ask, "so what are we doing tomorrow mom?"  They like to be out doing things.

Jonah started his soccer class again last week.  He seems to really love soccer and he couldn't wait to take his new soccer ball to class.

Caitlyn started a dance class yesterday.  She has been so excited to start.  I kept telling her if she couldn't get up and get ready for school in the morning that I wasn't going to let her take dance.  She did great for a week and then she had a hard time getting up again.  I asked her what she thought I should do and she said, "mom I guess I just shouldn't be able to take dance, I try to be nice in the morning and move fast, but I just can't.  I guess I'm just not ready."   She really is a good kid.  After talking to her we figured out that she doesn't like to be rushed so I started waking her up earlier so she could take her time and our mornings have gone so much better.  Who would have thought to actually ask your kid their opinion?  Hmm, maybe I should try that more often.  Anyway, we let her take dance and she is thrilled to be taking it with some friends. 

6 Months

I can't believe it has already been six months since this cute little guy joined our family.  I also can't believe how much they change in the first year.  He is no longer the sweet little newborn that just lays still in my arms.  He is an active, smiley baby who loves the sound of his own voice.  He is always making cute noises and seems quite entertained by the sound of his own voice.  He got this dumbo for Christmas from Keith's parents and he loves it.  He is always grabbing it and chewing on it.

This is one of his favorite things.  He loves to jump and bounce in here.  It is a lifesaver when I am trying to get things done.  He is usually very happy and content in there.

He is eating a variety of baby food now.  Just within the last couple of weeks he seems to be liking food more.  He will pull a sour face on most foods. but then he opens up for another bite.

His favorite so far is definitely sweet potatoes.  He loves to lay on the floor and play with his baby toys.  Everything he gets his hands on goes straight into his mouth.  He loves to roll all over the place.  He loves water.  He loves to be in the bath and he loved swimming.  He will just stare at me with a big smile while he kicks his legs and splashes water everywhere.  He loves attention.  He will sit and stare at anyone who is talking to me until they acknowledge him (and of course say how cute he is) and then he will smile and look away. 

We are all having so much fun with Wyatt.  I love to watch Jonah talk to Wyatt.  He talks in this high voice and says things like, "Hi Buddy, Oh your so cute, yes you are."  It is so cute.  Jonah loves little kids, he just hasn't figured out that he can't be rough with them.

Caitlyn just adores Wyatt.  She tells me every day that she is so glad we have Wyatt.  She had fun reading to him the other day.  Wyatt has always loved Caitlyn.  Even when Wyatt was first born he would always look around to find Caitlyn when he heard her voice.  Taking care of Wyatt seems to come natural to Caitlyn.  She has always been able to hold him just right and she is always giving him a binky or a toy when he is upset.  She is going to be a great mommy. 

Keith has always been able to get Wyatt to smile or laugh.  When Wyatt was first smiling Keith could always get the smile when the rest of us couldn't.  Keith will hold Wyatt and bounce him and dance around with him and Wyatt loves it, he always has a huge smile on his face the whole time. 

And if you can't tell I'm just a little smitten with Wyatt!  He is such an easy going baby and really makes my life pretty easy.  He is such a good sport about being dragged around all day while we do fun activities for Caitlyn and Jonah.  He will take cat naps in his car seat and just go with the flow.  He is starting to get a little more restless in the car seat so we may have to get a little more creative on our outings.  He is still growing like crazy.  He has his doctors appointment next week so I will find out how big he is then.  I love this age with my kids.  It is the best to have someone who smiles and gets all excited every time they see you. 

Caitlyn

I can't believe this cute little girl is almost 6 years old.  She is so much fun.  It is hard to describe all the cute things that Caitlyn does because you really have to be around her to understand just how funny she is. The way she talks just cracks me up.  When she went back to school after Christmas break she came home and told me, "mom everyone was like hi Caitlyn and I was all, hi. Then everyone was like cute hair Caitlyn and I was like, thank you.  Then people wanted to hug me and I was like,  umm Okay."  It is much funnier to hear her say it with a little attitude and of course some hand movements.

This is Caitlyn's room.  She is constantly rearranging it and decorating it.  She has decorated most of the walls and doors with photographs or pictures that she has colored.  I used to fight it a little, but then I realized that is silly.  Now I love it because her room captures her personality. 

We went to Chuck E Cheese a few weeks ago and she spent a bunch of tokens getting pictures of herself. I told my sister that I knew they would end up hanging in her room and I was right.  I just let her keep tape in her room because she is constantly hanging things up.

She loves to draw pictures so she always has something new she wants on her walls.  Now that she can write and sound words out she hangs up a lot of that as well.  She wrote out the rules for her room and had to post those on her door.

Caitlyn got this fur coat from her cousin last week and she hasn't taken it off.  As you can see she even sleeps in it.  Caitlyn always has something she is attached to and obsessed with and it will usually last for a few days and then she will move on to something else. Caitlyn is a pack rat.  She is in charge of emptying all of the garbage's and a while ago I found stuff in her room that I knew I threw away and she said, "sometimes I take things out of the garbage, I love garbage."  She loves any type of ad or magazine or coupon.

Caitlyn loves to pretend.  She loves to play house and dolls and she loves stuffed animals.  She came up with these leashes for their dogs out of her necklaces.  I love to watch her use her imagination.  She is doing amazing with her reading and coming along with math and numbers.  She is so excited that she can read some Dr Seuss books on her own.  She thinks its really fun to read to her brothers.  Her teacher told us a few weeks ago that she wished she had a classroom full of Caitlyns. Every parent loves to hear that!

Caitlyn is such a sweetheart.  She is very concerned about every ones feelings.  She hates to see anyone sad.  She is always complimenting people.  Last week after Jonah told me dinner was gross she said, "mom, I don't know how you make so many yummy meals, that must be your talent."  Caitlyn is always looking out for others. She came home from school and said we needed to go buy more gloves because she always lends hers to people that need them at recess.  She tries so hard to do what is right all the time.  I'm so impressed with her, she definitely seems wise beyond her years.  She is a wonderful big sister.  She loves to play with and take care of Wyatt.  As you can see from the picture Wyatt loves Caitlyn.  He will always smile for her.  We love having Caitlyn in our family.  She is so much fun and can always make us laugh.

Swimming

Keith had the day off yesterday so we decided to take Wyatt for his first swim.  He looked so cute in his swimming suit, even with the drool hanging off his chin.

I didn't think he would last very long because he doesn't like to be cold, but we stayed for over an hour.  He loved it!  I knew he would like the water because he loves his baths.

He was very content to just sit there and kick his legs and splash in the water. 

I'm glad he likes swimming because Caitlyn and Jonah love it.  We went during school hours so we pretty much had the pool to ourselves.  It was great so Wyatt wasn't getting splashed by a bunch of kids running around.

Caitlyn has always loved the water.  It has always amazed me to see how fearless she is in the water.  With all of her fears over the years, water has never been one of them.  She is so happy that she can reach everywhere in the pool.  She jumps off the sides and loves to just have the freedom to swim around.

Jonah loves to swim, but he gets cold pretty fast.  Sometimes he wants to get out and just sit in his towel.  Lately he has been staying in for a long time.  He is a little more timid in the water, which also surprises me.  He loves to splash and had a hard time not splashing Wyatt.

Jonah loves to have the water pouring down on him.  He also thinks it's pretty funny that it pushes his swimming suit down in the back.  Luckily, he usually pulls it back up pretty quickly.  It was nice to see all the kids enjoying themselves.  The best part was they all slept great last night!



Cute Kids

 I just love these cute boys.  Jonah is always asking me to take his picture with Wyatt.  Jonah loves to play with Wyatt and Wyatt loves to smile at Jonah.

Our church moved to 11 AM this week.  Keith and Caitlyn slept in so I had time to play with the boys in the morning.  It was so nice to have a relaxing morning instead of rushing out the door before 9 AM.

I love this picture of Wy Guy.  He has the sweetest face.  I think I could just kiss his cheeks right off!

Both kids were a little nervous to have new teachers, but they both came home excited with how nice their new teachers are.  I'm so grateful for primary teachers.  I'm amazed how much the kids learn in primary.  Caitlyn wanted to share her testimony in sacrament meeting on Sunday.  I was a little surprised that she was brave enough to do it in front of everyone.  She wanted me to take her up there, but she said it all by herself.  It was so sweet.  She said she knew the church was true and she knew that Heavenly Father loves her and if you talk to him he will help you.  I am always amazed with her spirituality.  She really has a love for all things spiritual and an amazing comprehension of it all.  I also love to see her over coming her fear of speaking in front of people.

New Years Eve

We had a blast on New Years Eve.  We went to my sisters house with "the group".  We are glad that Katie and Ben are back for good and not just visiting this time.  Tiff and Paul were awesome hosts, they had so many fun things planned.  We started with "Just Dance" on the wii.  Of course Keith was a great sport and got right out there and did it first. He did beat everyone he danced against, sorry Tiff! I don't have a picture of me and Keith dancing and that is fine with me because I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked.

Caitlyn didn't want to do it at first, but we finally talked her into it and of course she loved it.  Her and Jonah were so cute dancing.  They wanted to do it over and over.

Later we got the kids to lay down and watch a movie so we could play some games.  The kids were so excited to stay up late.  We all took naps so they could stay up and I was impressed with how well they did.  I was even more impressed when they slept in the next day and weren't grouchy.

Next we played minute to win it.  I struggled with this one where you had to get a spaghetti noodle through six different pieces of pasta.

Keith did great and was able to complete almost every task. 

He won the grand prize, daisy dukes with a note about deserving a lot of attention for winning the game (the note was funnier, but I can't remember exactly what it said).  It was such a fun night.  Wyatt was a stinker and woke up on the way home and wanted to play until almost 3:00 AM.  I was so tired on Saturday, but it was definitely worth it!

Sledding

Keith had the week after Christmas off of work and we were able to do a lot of fun things.  We all had a great time sledding.  I don't think I have laughed (or screamed) that hard in a long time. 

The kids were really excited to try out their new sleds. I was really surprised at how brave they were. I thought they would be scared, but they loved it.

Even when they fell off the sleds they were laughing. 

Jonah was a great sport.  You can barley seem him in this picture, but he is on the front of the sled with Keith.  He got completely covered with snow.

He whined for a second until we got the snow off of his face and then he was fine and ready to go again.

I love this picture of Caitlyn.  We all had so much fun the first day that we went back for more the next day.  For some reason Caitlyn was nervous the second day, but after a short time she got over her fear and had a great time. 

The kids were excited that their cousins joined us the second time we went.  Unfortunately none of my pictures with all the kids turned out.

Keith and I took turns sitting in the car with Wyatt because it was so cold.  He was a great sport and was his normal happy self.  We had a great week spending time together and none of us want Keith to go back to work.  Jonah keeps asking when Keith is going to be off track again.