The evolution of a moving baby...

Kate has been very slow at moving. At her 9 month check up, she hadn't started crawling yet. By her 1 year check up, she was moving around - not crawling, but scooting and getting around in her own way. She had her 15 month check up last week, and she has finally started to do some walking. I've tracked down several videos we have taken of her over the months that highlight the evolution of her moving! (hopefully, they will all load!!)

This first one was taken in early November. She had just started to scoot...

This one was in early January. She's really got that scooting thing down! I think she looks like a gorilla when she really gets moving! She never really did crawl. She will, once in awhile, if she gets stuck in a spot or she's copying her brothers.

The walking begins. Kate will cling to your finger and walk anywhere! Her favorite place to walk is outside, up and down the sidewalk with dad. She yells at him everytime he comes home! This was in late January...

A few first hesitant steps on her own. This was February 8th.

10 days later, she's doing so much better!

Which brings us to today.... Since February 18th, she's walking more and more - although she is still really hesitant to walk, unless she is holding your hand or using her little walker toy. Once in awhile, she'll be brave and walk across the room. This past weekend, she tackled the stairs, and went all the way up and all the way down (I'll have to try and get those videos loaded on soon). She's finally getting it all figured out! It will be interesting to see how long it takes her to finally walk on her own, without screaming for someone's hand to hold. She's a funny girl!

Here's is one last video, taken on February 19th.  I was cooking dinner and she came into the kitchen and stood herself up and started walking back and forth on her own.  She hasn't done it since, but I love this video!

 

Presidents Weekend Sleepover!

When we bought our home - almost 10 years ago, we never could have guessed that the couple that bought the home next to ours would become like family!  They were a sweet little couple, and we slowly got to know them.  Then we had Adam, and they had a little boy about 8 months later.  They they had a little girl and 11 months later we had Jackson.  Then they moved away to Edmonds.  We were all so sad!  But, since they've moved away, we still see them every couple of months, and they still feel like family.  Over the long Presidents day weekend, Adam and Jackson had a sleepoever at their house, and they had so much fun!  Jeff and Quyen are so amazing and they make my boys feel like they are at home.  The kids got to build their own forst to sleep in!  Here's Adam and Xander's fort...

 And Jackson and Maira's fort...

The new day, there was actually some sunshine!  They all went across the street for a basketball game.  Not sure what Adam is doing in this picture...

Jackson and Maira took turms riding bikes.  Quyen has generously saved some of Maira's things for Kate and she was thinking that these pink riding gloves could be passed on to her when Maira was done with them.  Little did she know that pink is Jackson's favorite color!!  She said it was pretty funny to watch Maira help Jackson get them on!

 
We love having such great friends!  The boys loved having a sleepover!  We did find out the Jackson is a little theif!  Apparently, before they went to bed, Quyen found that Jackson had swiped Jeff's wedding ring and put it in his bag.  Then, when I went to pick them up, I found several toys in his bag that didn't belong to him.  Then, after getting home and unpacking everything, I found a bag of chuck e cheese coins.  We have never been to chuch e cheese, so I know they don't belong to us!  I think all of the items that have mysteriously gone missing around the house must have been swiped by Jackson!

100th Day of School

Adam's class celebrated the 100th day of school on February 15th.  Maybe all schools do this now - I don't ever remembering celebrating this when I was in elementary school, but Adam did it last year in Kindergarten and this year in 1st grade.  My mom had the day off from work, so she came and stayed with Jackson and Kate so I could go in and help with the celebration.  I ended up spending almost the whole day there!  Adam's teacher is great, and she had so many fun projects to do with the kids.  It was a long day, and I came home exhausted and with a very big appreciation for what elementary school teachers do every day!

Here are a few pictures.  They made glasses, and crazy hats and took a group picture when they were all done.  Adam was being a goof ball!!

 

 
 This is the only other picture I took of one of the other projects.  They did 10 dots of 10 different colors of paint to make 100....

It was fun to spend the day in Adam's 1st grade classroom...

Happy Valentines Day!

From all of us - to all of you - here's a big KISS!!

 

 

A new year at Church!

I love 9am church.  I don't think I ever said that before having kids!  But - it's the best time with kids!  9am church doesn't interfere with naps (or at least only with the beginning of nap time), it's easy to just get the kids up and dressed for church - no messing around trying to keep them busy before it's time to get ready for church, and you have the entire afternoon for kids to nap or take a walk or do something fun as a family!  This year, we have 9am church.   Scott has meetings every Sunday morning, so it's just me and the kiddos.  (But 9am church also means that Scott gets to spend most of the afternoon with us too!!)

So - here the kiddos are the first Sunday of 2013.  Adam moved up into senior Primary - into CTR 7 (our ward Primary is huge!  so they put the CTR 7 class into Sr. Primary).  Jackson is a sunbeam!!  And Kate still has 5 months before she can go into nursery!  Aren't they a cute bunch of kids?

Believe me - these are the best two pictures of Jackson!  He just can't seem to make a regular smiley face for pictures lately.  Goofy boy!!

Jackson had a bit of a hard time going into sunbeams today, but once I bribed him with his own big chocolate bar, he decided he could go.  And the primary president was nice enough to come over and ask him to help her collect the signs from the chairs.  I think he'll do just fine. 

Museum of Flight

We went to the Museum of Flight with some friends a couple of days before school started up again.  Everyone at our house had been sick most of the Christmas break, and the kids were feeling better.  My head was still in a bit of a fog, but we really needed to get out of the house and do something fun.  So, we went.  It really is a fun place - lots of cool things to see.

Like space suits!!

The museum had tried to get one of the Space Shuttles when NASA shut down that part of their space program, but unfortunatley, they were not chosen.  They do have the "trainer" which is what the astronauts did all their training in.  It was huge and fun to walk through - although, I didn't take any pictures.  We also walked through one of the old Air Force One planes, which was fun to see.  Again, no pictures.

In one part of the museum, they have tons of planes!  They have several that you can climb into and pretend to fly.  The boys had to do that, of course! 

 Then we headed over to a play area.  They have a hand gliding game, where you have to try and steer the hang glider.  It was really hard to do - but everyone had fun trying!

 Before we left, we walked quickly through the WW2 room.  They had these really cool planes that the wings would fold up so they could fit a bunch of them on an aircraft carrier.  Here's Adam and his buddy standing in front of one.

It was a really fun afternoon.  I want to go back and explore some more - without the foggy head!!

Celebrating the New Year!

We stuck without tradition of celebrating the New Year at home with yummy fondue and good friends!  The Terry family joined us and everyone enjoyed the fondue - especially the chocolate fondue!  Chubby Bunny - anyone??



 We celebrated a bit early with party hats, and poppers.  Then sent the kids off to bed!

 I don't think anyone made it up to midnight.  We were all tired, and still nursing a bit of cold/flu stuff.  But, we had a fun, quiet night!

Jackson like the hat so much, he wore it for several days afterwards!!

Bring on 2013!!