Six Month Pictures

My dear friend Nicole took pictures of Tessa for me this past week.  They turned out so good, I can't believe she is six months old already.  I keep trying to soak up every moment with her, but they still pass by quickly.

At her six month check up Tessa weighed in at 15 lbs. 11 oz.  She is 26 and a half inches long.  She can sit on her own and roll all around.  She is a mama's girl and prefers me most of the time.  She has started eating food and loves oatmeal with bananas.  She hates peaches, we'll try again later. And anything she can eat off my plate she loves best.  No teeth yet, but lots of drooling and biting on things.

Tessa loves Isabella and she will hang out with her after school.  Bella always asks to hold her and take care of her, I love having a good little helper.  Jack has to constantly defend his glasses when he plays with her, she tears them off and throws them away.  Sophie likes to hold her for about 10 seconds at a time, then she has other stuff to do.

I think this is my favorite picture.  Isabella and Sophie each have a picture of themselves with angel wings when they are six months old.  I am so glad Nicole found some.  Despite weighing the most at birth, Tessa is the smallest at six months old. All that spitting up in the early months.  Thankfully she seems to outgrown a lot of that and I can go a full day without a burp rag as opposed to using a dozen or so.

We love our little baby, she's such a sweet girl.

Busy October

It seems we have been busy every day this month. I forget how fall flies by with sports and school and the days getting shorter on top of that.  We have been filling our days with gymnastics, football, school, sewing, playing, and spending time with good friends.

Tessa had her four month check up at the beginning of the month-how did that happen?

  She weighs in at 14 pounds and is doing great.  Despite all of Nate and my efforts to keep her a newborn, she has grown out of that stage and is becoming interested in the world around her.  I have soaked up every moment of her babyhood thus far, leaving a much shabbier state of things around the house.

Sophie is the firework she always is, she is a mini-Jack in so many ways.  She wants to have fun all the time, she is always seeing what angle will work for her and going after that.  She has been such a trooper at all her siblings sporting events.  I did pack her a special backpack and get her a special chair to help with that, and it has worked.

She colors and reads and snacks and plays.  She also had a checkup and a few shots this month.  She is almost 40 inches tall and about 35 pounds.  Jack has been QB on his football team this season-follow progress of that at In The Zone.

  They have finished their regular season with a 6-1 record and are ready to head into the playoffs.  Bella is halfway through her first season of competition gymnastics.

She is doing really well and gaining such confidence in the process.  When she doesn't perform how she thinks she should, she comes off the floor and details what she will need to work on next time.  Excuse my commentary, I underestimate my loudness often.

Now we are getting all settled on Halloween Costumes and plans for the holidays.  It seems once you hit October, everything moves at lightening speed.  I am still sticking with the Want, Need, Wear, Read plan for the kids Christmas gifts, it has really simplified shopping over the past few years. I need to get started on that.

Legacy Gymnastics Meet

This is the video from Bella's first meet.  She was third overall for her age group!  We are so proud of her.  The video is taken by me while holding Tessa and occasionally cheering.

Vault

Bars-I always think this is her best event.  I think it was her highest score.

Beam-she struggled the most on this one.  But I love her graceful lines.

Floor-they have been working on this routine for so long.  Bella had a great time at this meet and is looking forward to the next one!

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Sophie turned four this past Monday!  It was a minimal day at school so the big kids got out early and we met up with Nate for lunch.  Well, let me back up, we began her birthday celebrations at 6:30 am that morning.  We seem to have filled evenings these days and we didn't want Sophie to have to wait to open her presents and play with them til almost bedtime, so we just started very early. 

My mom had brought her presents down when I had Tessa, so she had quite a bunch of stuff to open. 

So we spent the early morning opening presents and singing.  Then we got the kids off to school and Nate off to work and Sophie and I played with her presents until it was time to go get the kids.  We ate lunch at Zupas then came home and I finished decorating her cake.

  She requested a cake that looked like Ariel, I did my best, but it really isn't my forte.  I think cake without faces are easier.  Then we took Jack and Bella to their practices and came home to get ready to go to the mascot bowl.  We met up with Nate and headed over to the high school to watch a bunch of mascots play football with the Lehi eighth grade teams.  It was a good time and we didn't get home until way too late.  

Four great things about Sophie:

1. She is exuberant, really excited about most things.  We love to see how she smiles when she runs, it's pure joy.

2. She is really helpful with Tessa, she has been very patient ever since she was born.  She loves Tessa and it shows.  

3.  Sophie is funny, she says the funniest things all the time, we need to be better about writing them down.  Her observations of the world are pretty keen, and she isn't afraid of asking for what she wants and being clear with people.

4. She is smart, she knows so many things.  I think she will have a ball when she starts school in a few years, in the mean time, we do joy school and lessons at home.  She gets frustrated when she doesn't just know things-very reminiscent of Jack in that way. 

We love Sophie and I am glad she had such a fun birthday! 

Summer, according to the pictures on my phone

The weather is cooling down, it's not cold by any means, but you can tell that fall is on its way.  I take a lot of pictures with my phone to send to my mom and Nate.  But a funny thing happens, they don't often get the picture I send, they get a random picture I deleted months ago.  This is a good lesson to never take pictures you don't want the world to see.  I have no idea how the wrong picture finds its way through the ether, but it does.  Usually if I take another picture and keep sending, the right image ends up in the right place eventually, but I only do this if I have a fully charged phone and some time.  Anyway, I downloaded all the pics I took this summer and here are a few highlights.

In the hospital

Scary Hands

Pool in the backyard

Sisters

Mom, I want a haircut

Loves scarves

Neptune

I have 40 of these and it's not enough

Gummy Grin!

Splash Park

34 years old

Great form Bella

BYU Bookstore

Crab Spider

Artistic Concentration

He can finish a footlong

She can't finish a 4 inch

Hard earned football cards

Mom, please take my picture

Multitasking

Going shopping

Just a boy with a ukelele

Costco

QB

QT

 So, the older kids and Nate are hardly ever with me when I am taking pictures.  Tessa and Sophie and I spend the most time together-makes sense.  My cell phone says it holds 4975 pictures, doesn't that seem unlikely?  It would be shocking if I filled it up.  Of course if I did, even more random pictures would go to those I send picture mail to.

St. George

I some how missed doing a post on our only excursion this summer.  Isabella really wanted to see a production of The Little Mermaid when it was on Broadway in New York.  We talked about doing it for her nine year old trip.  However, it ended it's run and we didn't make it.  She's not nine yet.  Anyway, earlier in the year I saw advertising for Tuacahn Theater in St. George and they had the production down there.  So Nate and I planned a little getaway and didn't tell the kids until we were all in the car on the freeway.  They were pretty excited and had a great time.  We stayed in a hotel, which they always love, but this particular hotel had sliding glass doors from our room out to the pool.  The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever.

This was taken from our room.  It was the Howard Johnson, if any one needs a suite that sleeps six easily and has pool access, here ya go!

Nate and the three kids loved the show, no babes in arms or kids under three, so Tessa and I did this instead:

There is a movie theater across the street from the hotel.  It was opening weekend, so I didn't really think I would get into the movie, but I did, it totally wasn't sold out and Tessa and I weren't crowded at all.  She slept almost the whole time and didn't make a peep, which was lovely.

We also went to the Dinosaur Tracks Discovery site.  It was okay, but no where near as developed at The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  The kids loved eating out a lot and we treated them to Dilly Bars at Dairy Queen, none of them remembered having those before.  It was a quick nice trip.

Lehi Jamboree

The hottest weekend in August is the Lehi Youth Football Jamboree.  I have no idea how they know it will be the hottest weekend, but it is, and that is when they schedule it.  Nate had been gone on a scout camp out, so he arrived just as the action began.  Roger and Cassie took Bella and Sophie swimming, which was great, because the girls would have been melting out there with me.

 

Jack is standing the the middle with the yellow penny on.  He is playing quarterback this year, so it should be a fun year.  He loves being in on the action, and you can't get anymore in than that.  He is also playing defense, so I am working hard to make sure he stays hydrated.  They played a seventh grade team in their scrimmage (why?!?) and did pretty good despite the size difference.  I will try and post his stats after each game on his football blog, In the Zone.