November '11

November brought tons of snow!  (we haven't had much since).  We got two major snow storms and the kids loved playing in it. 

 They got really creative!

We had Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad's house again this year.  It was a quiet weekend, cause we were the only ones there!

While we were there, we went to see Santa. 

Erin and Devin had very specific things they were asking for.

Sean wanted nothing to do with Santa.

Colin wanted to ask Santa for things, but would not sit on his lap.  John happened to be sick the day we went to see Santa, so I had to hold Sean while helping Colin stand next to Santa and tell him what he wanted. It was comedy!  Sean was screaming, because he didn't like Santa, and Colin was whispering his requests.  This was a very good Santa!  He didn't seem to mind at all. 

  Grandma helped the big kids decorate a Gingerbread house too!  We had a great time there at Thanksgiving.

November 29th was Sean's 1st Birthday! 

 I can't believe my baby's 1!  He had a great day and was very pleased with his presents.

He grabbed the dinosaurs off his cake right away, and wondered why we were all singing.

At first, he didn't know what to do with this colorful thing in front of him.  When he touched it it made his hands sticky and he didn't like it. 

But when I gave him a taste of the frosting, he dug in!!!  He has a major sweet tooth now!

September '11

I can't believe that I still have Summer stuff on my blog, and it's the dead of Winter.  Time to catch up!  September means School, and I have 3 in school this year!  They all started on the same day:  the day after Labor day.  Everyone was excited.  Erin is in 4th grade this year.

Devin (going into 1st grade) bumped his head right before this picture!  Then we rushed him right out the door to school!  Oops!

Colin was excited, but nervous to start preschool.  When I left him he cried.  But once he discovered how fun it was, he never cried again.

We also went to the Utah State Fair.  After doing several things as a family, we let the kids each choose 1 ride to go on. 

Erin chose this bungee bouncer.  She loved it! 

They all loved the animals!

Also in September, Erin got her Brown Belt!  Only one more belt left!

September 15th was Colin's 4th Birthday!  He's getting so big!  I decided that this year it would be fun for him to have his first friend party!  He invited 4 friends, and they had a great time!

Then later on when John got home, we celebrated again with more cake and ice cream!

On September 17th, John ran the marathon that he had been training for all summer!  His goal was to do it in 4 hours.  He did pretty well!  He did it in 4 hours 15 minutes!  An excellent time for his very first marathon ever!

Devin has started losing his baby teeth!  He lost the first one in August and the second one in September.

And what did the tooth fairy do with his 2 teeth?  She passed them on to Sean!  (Sean really got his first 2 teeth in July, but it was kind of cute that he had the 2 teeth that Devin was missing)  :-)

Here's my cut Sean at 10 months old!  At this point he was doing an army crawl, pulling to stand, clapping, mimicking everything, and just being a cutie (when he wasn't teething).

July

We spent the 4th of July in Delta this year! We had a great time swimming in the kiddie pool outside, going on the 4-wheeler, and seeing the parade. In the park afterwards, Devin and Erin participated in the fish catch. They got to catch a fish with their hands! Colin was not interested at all. I don't blame him

Devin turned 6 this Year! I can't believe he's 6 already! We had a great low key family party. He is a sweet boy! We love you Devin.

John's work put on a great Summer party in preview of the new Harry Potter movie. We got t-shirts, and we got to make potions, be sorted into houses with the sorting hat, see cool reptiles, and dress up in Harry Potter costumes. We even got cool treats for the movie like chocolate frogs, pumpkin juice, and Butter Beer! Then we took the kids to a friend's house while we went to a 3d preview showing of the movie. It was a ton of fun!

In the middle of July we went to a really fun Family reunion with my Mom's family. They had lunch, a water slide, and some fun games to play. Thanks to Mandy, Stacy, and Valerie for putting it on.

In July Sean was 7 months old. He loves to play with toys and with his brothers and sister. up until this point he was generally staying in the same spot, but in July he really started to roll around! He could get all the way across the room eventually as he moved from one toy to another rolling along as he went.

My birthday was in July too. I'm now 32 and John treated me to dinner and a banana cream pie!

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March

March Has been pretty good! Sean has been so much happier lately (though he's come down with a cold and isn't sleeping well at night). He's talking and smiling and interacting so well!

He's also holding things and playing with toys. Here he had a little help from his brothers. I am not a bad mother who lets her baby play with knives. I'm the one who says "You'll poke your eye out" and here he is, poking his eye out! Thanks a lot boys! :-)

March 14th, was John's birthday. I surprised him with a shrimp boil. He loves shrimp, and I don't like sea food at all, so it was a huge deal at our house. The best part about a shrimp boil is pouring the food on the table,and eating with your hands.

Happy birthday John! We love you.

Then on the 17th (St. Patrick's Day) John ran a 5K with his friend Shane. They're training for a 1/2 marathon in June. I think they're crazy, but he's loving it! All the more power to you. You go Honey!

Oh, I just remembered that I was going to post his 3 month pictures, so here they are. He's so much happier lately that it was easy to get a few good ones.

February

February has been busy. I had these cute pictures of Sean taken at about 6 weeks old
Erin turned 9 on February 7th, so on the Friday before, she had her birthday party. It was a late night party where they watched The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. We provided snacks and treats, started the movie, braked for cake and presents, and then sent the girls home. It was fun, (It was easy!) and the girls loved it. I made this really cute birthday cake. On Sunday the 6th, (My sister's birthday), We had Sean's baby blessing. We had a lot of friends and family come. Thanks to all who could. My mom made his cute outfit. He also had the sweater and blanket that John was Christened in 37 years ago. His Grandma made them. That was really special to us.

Sean is such a sweet little baby and we love him a ton, but he has been very difficult. He had a hard time gaining weight! It took him 2 months to be back to his birth weight of 9lbs, 15oz. He went as low as 8 lbs 9oz at one point. It's not because we haven't tried either. I nursed him faithfully with very little supplementing at first. Then as he kept losing, and/or not gaining quickly enough, I supplemented more. The more I supplemented, the fussier he got. I tried everything I could to continue nursing him: Waking him continually, Pumping after, Pumping during, compressions to keep him sucking. Nothing worked. I didn't produce very filling milk in the first place, and on top of that, he was a lazy little nurser. We just got to a point where nursing was just more frustrating than rewarding, and then we called it quits. Now Sean has 8, 6oz bottles each day and has chunked up big time. He's now about 11 1/2 lbs. (according to my not very accurate scale). The biggest thing we've noticed about him though is that he's happy, and that makes us all very happy. After nursing 3 kids very successfully for until they were each 1 year old, I now have a formula fed baby. It's completely new territory for me, but in a way it's a little liberating. Thank heaven for formula.

I just had his 3 month old picture taken today. When I get them, I'll post them asap.