Tummy time and smiles

 

Caleb is starting to smile a lot now. It makes it easier to catch it on camera than the fleeting ones of a few weeks ago. I love the gummy baby smiles. It always makes me smile :) What a great pick-me-up!
He loves to look around. Look at him on him tummy! He actually prefers tummy time to being left on his back. We might have another one on the go early.

The blanket under him is a muslin one. It gets so hot here with the humidity that you sweat like crazy. Even his thin blankets weren't working. He wants to be swaddled almost all the time and it was just way too hot for his other blankets. I love these super thin muslin ones. The only complaint I have is how huge they are. I have to wrap them around him 2-3 times which takes a little away from the thinness!! But they are still better than anything else we have.

He is sleeping well at night but his schedule is still off. He sleeps from about 11 pm to 10 am. He wakes up to eat twice usually. He wakes up earlier if there is a lot of noise..... so the other kids usually watch a movie after they get up to keep things quiet. What a bad habit!! I need to get his schedule switched so I can go to bed earlier too. I really don't want to wake up at 6:30 when I go to sleep at midnight!!

Hair Do

 

The other day I decided to braid some of my hair. I actually really liked it. It helped my hair stay up and kept fly aways out of my face better. When Maggie saw it she stopped short and said "Mom, how did you get your hair to be twisty like that? Can you do it to me?" This was after I cut her hair, of course, so it' now very short. I told her I could put in braids that were a little different. She loved it. I need to learn how to french braid......
Matt was amazed when he got home too. Kind of sad huh? Shows how little I do anything with my hair..... Maybe I will have to play with it a little more. It's getting really long again.

Haircuts

 

I gave the kiddos haircuts the other day. I wanted to document it so I can hopefully, see myself get better at it over time :) There is a very fine line between their patience and my skill....... so I cut quickly........ which leaves a little less than desirable results but not terrible right? I don't know why Maggie is making such a funny face. It makes her look completely different. Her hair is a little shorter than I intended. Oh well, it grows back. She was so excited that I used the clippers on the back though. When she looked in the mirror she said "Thanks, Mom. That is exactly what I wanted!" Funny girl. I can't figure out how to cute Jackson's so it doesn't look fuzzy.

I don't have a picture of Hailey but I do have a lock of hair..... that she cut off. I set the clippers down - (they were still running because they won't turn off with the switch, you have to unlug them) So she picked them up and started on her own hair. She only got some long hair on top. I don't know how she did it so you can't even tell it's missing. She could have shaved herself a reverse mohawk. I definitely don't have the skill to fix that :)

It was great having a neighbor with a salon in her basement just across the street in Brigham City. Oh well, now I get to save some money..... :)

Watermelon jello

 

This was really fun and easy..... I saw the idea in a magazine somewhere. You clean out a watermelon, cantelope or anything with a rind really - lemon, orange..... Then mix up some jello - I used a little less water so it would set a little thicker. Pour it into your rind and refrigerate as usual. When it's chilled you just cut it into slices and serve. I wish I had had red jello for the watermelon - maybe next time.

The kids were totally amazed. I love it when they think I'm so cool after doing something so simple :)

Maggie

 

This girl loves to be on video so I think we will have to add an easy video camera to her wish list. Actually all of them love to watch themselves on video so it would be a good present for all of them. Then they could put on shows and watch them on the projector. Wow.

Toys

 

This is one of our all time favorite toys. Marble towers are excellent because they are timeless. All we would need to do is add more pieces for bigger towers and this toy would last forever. I still like to play with it :) Keeping the marbles contained when there are little babies around is a bit of a stressor so we usually just have one marble each and keep count to make sure all of them go back in the bucket when we are done. My grandkids will probably look at these pictures and say - hey, we have that toy now!

Handsome Boy

 

There is just something very cute about dressed up babies :) Caleb is over 6 weeks old already! He weighed 12 lbs and had grown 2 inches when he went to the doctor last. He is a pretty easy going baby - meaning he is easy to read and please most of the time...... He is stubborn though. He knows what he wants and he is not happy if you don't take of it immediately. Usually it's a diaper change or eating :) But you can't distract him with anything else - if he diaper change on his mind then that's all that will stop the crying. He is starting to track us with his eyes and smile. He doesn't smile very often yet. I wonder if he will be more stoic, like Jackson. You really had to work to get him to smile until he was quite a bit older. Caleb doesn't mind tummy time but he gets tired quickly so it's just for very short periods of time. He loves to look around at everything especially when he's outside.

Hailey in Motion

 

Hailey loves to sing and dance. She will put on costumes and dance around singing. She has wanted skirts or dresses for dancing around for awhile since she sees Maggie do it all the time. Now it's costumes. She is greatly influenced by her sister...... and her brother - since you can find her right next to him at the park digging in the dirt and collecting sticks. She is starting to talk more and more. It's so fun to hear what they come up with. Their personality starts to emerge that much more.
She was really upset at church one Sunday when the primary sang. Both Maggie and Jackson went up to sing and when Hailey realized it she started to try to escape saying "sing, sing"

Growing Up

Jackson has his first loose tooth. It's going to be awhile before it comes out but he was beyond excited to learn that it was loose. He started jumping up and down and running around telling everyone that his tooth was loose. He also wanted to call all of his Utah friends and let them know - since we were in Nauvoo, I told him we could do it when we got back. I haven't reminded him that he wanted to do it because I'm afraid it will make him sad and miss everyone all over again. The kids have really handled the move well but I don't think they feel settled. I think it just seems like a long vacation to them and they wonder what's coming next. In reality, it almost feels that way to me too. They know that we have been looking at houses so we are moving away from this apartment but no one know when.So much change in so little time. Apartments definitely don't lend to that feeling of permanance.

Road Trip

 

We drove from Maryland to Illinois on the 3rd. Matt's parents volunteer each year to help with the Nauvoo Pagent and his first cousin once removed (I think) was getting married in the Nauvoo temple. We lived close to this family in Utah and wanted to be there for the wedding so we made the trek. It took us 20 hours - Google said it would be 13 hours of driving time - so I guess 20 hours with 4 kids, one of them a newborn, wasn't too bad. They actually all traveled really well. We stopped every 2-3 hours for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. With that schedule we could feed the baby, change diapers, give everyone a chance to run around and then get back in the car. We stopped to stay with the cousin family (Art, Merilee, Ryan, Troy and Sean) who live about 3 hours from Nauvoo. Ryan was the one getting married. We were in Nauvoo for almost 5 days. Ryan and Maryanne got married on Friday and we started home on Sat.

 

For the pagent they have all kinds of activities going on. We watched a few smaller plays, played pioneer games, went on a wagon ride, saw a blacksmith shop, a brick place etc. It was pretty neat but it very hot there. Even more humid than here. Whew! We stayed in a little two bedroom apartment with Gram and Papa (thanks for fitting us in :) ) It was a good trip. I'm glad we went eventhough the idea of a road trip that long was a bit overwhelming - at least everyone did really well. Caleb wasn't quite as cooperative on the way home but we made it!!

Family

 

It's always amazing and blog worthy if I can get the kiddos all looking at the camera at the same time :) It will be even more noteworthy when I start to get Caleb in there :) Right now I can just tell them to say 'cheese' and all of them will look, smile and say 'cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese' while I take a picture. Hailey is the best at this!!

Father's Day

 

This is what I made Matt for Father's Day. It was fun to do the kiddos footprints. It's amazing how big they all seem when in footprints. They loved putting their footprints on paper too :)Below are the words the poem. I thought it was pretty cute. Matt was also excited for his other present - Lego Harry Potter!

Walk a Little Slower

"Walk a Little slower, Daddy." said a little child so small.
I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.

Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be.
Then I will have a little child who'll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!

author unknown

Just because he's cute :)

 

Time to play catch up again. It seems that keeping track of all the stuff I need - digital camera, cords, batteries - is a little harder to do with 4 kiddos around so I don't stay on top of things very well. Cleaning, cooking, laundry, patience...... it all seems to pile up and overwhelm. But every once in awhile - like today - I find a minute to blog :)