Feb.- Rest of Week 4- Well Checks and Smiths Visit!

Thursday, Ben and Anna had well checks at the doctors.  Ben received three shots and Anna only got one.  Both did about as well as expected, but the best news is Ben is done with shots till he's 12!  

Anna's 18 Month Stats

Height: 32.2in (2.7in increase in 3 months) 45th percentile

Weight: 23lbs (2lb increase in 3 months) 50th percentile

Head: 95th percentile

She's a pretty "average" sized baby.  :)  

Here are some new things she's done since her last check-up in October.

• Started saying "woof" around all puppies and doggies
• Stayed with neighbor friends while we were in Disneyland
• Acting like such a girlie girl wanting to wear necklaces, bracelets, and carrying purses.
• Oct. 15th- More walking than crawling
• Oct. 19th- Waking all the time!
• Getting into the Halloween spirit and can say "Boo!"
• New molar- bottom left  
• November: 1st- Can say mama, daaaaah (dad), baaaaaw (ball), poop, boo, boooo (moo), woof
• 10th- Can go down stairs by herself 
• Loves to smile for the camera!
• 14th- says "pssss" for please
• Can make horse and chicken sounds.  And say buh-buh (bubble)
• December: 2nd- Lots of practice using a spoon by herself at breakfast
• Attended Festival of Trees.  
• Can say "wow" and "meow"
• At Zoo lights, we heard a tiger roaring.  She tried to imitate the sound and it ended up coming out like "sssshhhhh"
• 11th- Huge goose egg on forehead when dad tried to catch her as she tried to get down from our bed all by herself and her head hit our bed frame.  
• 14th-Went to Instacare because mom accidentally dislocated Anna's elbow ("nursemaid's elbow") when pulling her off the bed.  
• Makes a cute mad face/happy face on command
• Shrugs shoulders on command
• Saying mama and dada LOTS!

Ben's 4 Year Stats

Height: 40in (2.5in increase in 1 year) 45th percentile

Weight: 36lbs (4lb increase in 1 year) 50th percentile

I hosted the second day of preschool on Thursday and my kids played tons with their Smith cousins.    My sister, Emily and her youngest, Kelsey, finally arrived around 4pm.  They made it on a flgiht standby by the skin of their teeth!  Later that evening, we had dinner and then visited my Condie grandparents.  

Friday, Emily and her family went skiing and had a jolly good time!  They left their youngest home, and put Dylan and Kaitlyn in ski lessons for most of the day.

Friday, we also had our 20 week ultrasound for baby #4.  The baby was super wiggly but also very cooperative for them to see everything they needed too.  All looked healthy!  When it came time to look at the gender, I looked away and Dan didn't, just like we planned and did at Anna's ultrasound.  Then Dan and I went out for our traditional lunch date post-ultrasound to Firehouse subs.  

Aunt Pickle helped babysit most of the day, so she was a little tired.  But that didn't stop her adoring nieces from giving her zero personal space.  :) 

We had a lovely dinner once everyone returned home in the evening.  Meal times were crowded but so awesome to have everyone around the table! Unfortunately, Justin wasn't feeling too well that night, so he pretty much stayed down stairs the rest of the evening. 

After dinner, our good friend Bonnie (whom we grew up with in Virginia) and her kids came over to hang out! It was very nice to catch up, let the kids play, and strengthen our friendships.   

We had an ice cream bar for the kids to enjoy as well! 

Saturday, we all got up and ready and out of the house by 9:10am!  We did most of the kid chauffeuring in our van since they just couldn't all be separated!  ;)  

Our first stop of the day was my Thompson grandparent's house.  Grandma's mental health has been declining for quite some time so she seemed a little overwhelmed by our large group.  Recently Grandpa's physical healthy has taken a turn for the worse, so it was a relatively short visit, but the kids were well behaved and we got to catch up a little with extended family happenings.

We also took some great pictures!  

When my grandpa saw my pregnant belly, he asked if I was "packing" again? :)

Because my sister requested a visit to the Maddox restaurant in Perry, UT while she was in town, and also wanted to do a temple session, we decided to attend the Brigham City temple since it was closest to the restaurant.  Such a beautiful temple but it was so cold and windy outside.    

While we were there for 2+ hours, my other sister and brother were brave, brave souls and took all 7 children (ages 1-10) to see the new Spongebob movie.  They said they kids did very well and ate tons of popcorn.  :) 

 Next we headed over to Maddox for a late lunch.  The food was delicious as usual, and my sister got her bison burger she'd been craving! 

Also while we were up north, we decided to check out Crystal Hot Springs.  Dan had just been there with the scouts a couple weeks before and he said it was pretty cool.  Anna fell asleep on the way there with her cute fingers laced together.  

The hot springs were kind of crowded, but we had a good time and enjoyed the relaxing warm warm water.  Thankfully, it wasn't "hot tub" hot so even being pregnant, I felt safe being in the water up to my chest.  Unfortunately, we failed at taking any pictures.  We got home Saturday night around 7:30 in time to give everyone baths/showers to get ready for church the next day.  Sadly, in the middle of the night, two of Emily's kids ended up having sick stomach issues.  They decided to take a 24 hour "isolation" of sorts until they knew all the stomach issues had cleared up.  

Sunday, my kids and I went to church as normal.  Happily, there were no other upset stomachs to report from the Smith family, so the rest of the afternoon and evening were spent playing games, watching movies, napping, and playing! Family day of fun! 

Kelsey enjoyed rocking out on Ben's ukulele from preschool.  

Some of the menfolk talked tech stuff, as usual.  

Emily got in some good bonding with time Miss Anna.  All you really have to do lately to be her friend is read to her.  :) 

Kelsey may have been a little jealous 

 of mommy holding another baby. ;) 

One of the games we played called Spot It, which we received at Christmas. 

Sunday dinner was once again loads of fun!

Monday, after picking up McKenna from school, we joined up with the Smiths at my Thompson Grandparents, and then we also we visited the Condies again... this time during lunch.  Grandma prepared some yummy sandwiches, fruit, and veggies.  

Here's a cute cousin moment with Kari and Anna. 

We loved seeing our kids playing with the same toys we played with when we were kids visiting our grandparents.  

I'm so grateful I still have 4(!) living grandparents!  

Just another cute bonding picture.  

Monday night, the Smiths headed to Provo to visit some friends of theirs that used to live in Alabama.  Once they got home, they got their kids to bed, and packed and prepared for their early morning departure.  Then all of us grown-ups stayed up WAY too late having a good old time talking about nonsense things!  We started a Facebook thread about it with many of our random quotes so now it's forever on the internet.  :) 

We're so glad the Smiths could come for a visit, even if the main purpose was to see grandparents.  :)  I'm grateful that even though our kids have only visited each other maybe 3-4 times in the last 6 years, they still get excited to be with each other and know one another well enough to be friends!  Hooray for family!