Nov- Week 3- Bethany 4 Months, McKenna and Bethany Check-ups

Sunday, the kids were matching so I tried to take a few cute pictures and this is what I got.  Poor Bethany was hungry! 

After I fed her she was a little happier.  

Still not the easiest to get to smile. (Editor's note: let the record show that she gives smiles freely to her Daddy.)

Bethany's 4 Month Stats

Height: 24.7in (1.7in increase in 2 months) 50th percentile

Weight: 11lbs 2oz (2lb 12oz increase in 2 months) 2nd percentile

Head: Went from 50th to 10th percentile

Still a little tiny thing.  

Milestones the last two months:

• Lots of sucking on hands, even gagging herself
• Laughing out loud
• Still good at putting herself to sleep
• Still loves ceiling fans
• Face broke out a little, possibly from mom eating too much ice cream
• Crying kicked up a notch... much louder
• Had her baby blessing 
• Very stinky toots
• Every time we tickle you, you give one good laugh then get the hiccups!
• First Halloween (dressed up as a pumpkin)
• Started grasping objects
• Batting at hanging toys
• SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT 45 OUT OF 60 DAYS!  
• When she didn't sleep through the night, she only woke up once around 4 or 5am.  

We had my parents and sister over for dinner that evening and my mom did a cool snowflake craft with the kids.  

Bethany admiring her daddy!  It's amazing; whenever he speaks, he has her full attention. She sure loves her daddy!

Dan got some good laughs out of her.   

Tuesday Ben's preschool had a "be there" activity.  We read the Gingerbread Man, decorated cookies, then did some nursery rhymes with actions to encourage nice physical contact with your preschooler. 

Yup...he still likes to make goofy faces.  :) 

Thursday, I had Ben's Parent/Teacher Conference.  His teachers had all good things to say about him, for which I was very thankful.  

Thursday was also McKenna and Bethany's well check-ups.  Poor baby got two shots and was super snuggly.  

McKenna's 7 year old Stats

Height: 47in (2in increase in 1 year) 35th percentile

Weight: 43lbs 4oz (4lb 14oz increase in 1 year) 15th percentile

Anna often enjoys a little nap while I drive carpool.  It's really funny and cute when she wakes up and  is very sad and asks to go pick up the kids with me.  She doesn't realize she's slept through it and missed the whole thing.  

Friday we went to Ladies Lunch at the church, I also had a song practice for something I was singing at church on Sunday.  Later that night we went to Mockingjay (Part 2) with some of Dan's family thanks to our friend and past realtor Cari Moss.  We went to dinner after at the Hilton Garden Inn in Layton...so good!!

Saturday we went to breakfast at IHOP with my family to celebrate my brother's birthday.  

Later while I went grocery shopping, Dan hung our Christmas lights, and Dan and Ben got haircuts.  

Nov- Week 2- Primary Program, Mouse, Disney on Ice

Sunday we had our Primary Program.  The kids did great on their parts and sang so beautifully.  Ben even had a little solo. 

I recorded it during the Saturday practice.  :)  (When he was first learning this line of the song, he would sing "His truth I will complain."  I didn't correct him, but eventually he figured it out.  

That night at Webster family dinner all the kids had a dance party.  

Monday was a pretty significant day for me!  After coming home from visiting teaching I was headed to the sink to refill my water bottle and Ben was right next to me in the kitchen.  He saw something moving out of the corner of his eye and alerted me to it.  I looked and saw a MOUSE scurry under our dishwasher!!  I screamed and freaked out A LOT!! I quickly lifted Ben out of the kitchen and onto the couch.  Later he told me my screaming scared him more than the actual mouse.  It took me a good long time to calm down and gather my thoughts.  

I called Dan, he told me to try to block off the area and then leave the house for a while so I could calm down.  We went out for lunch then returned and I just did a lot of stomping around to keep the mouse scared and hidden away.  That evening we attended the Nelson Family BD party and I was very thankful I didn't have to be in the kitchen making dinner.  Later, Dan came home, cleaned out mouse droppings he found under our sink, and in our pantry and set 4 mouse traps.  

I enjoyed this tiny lady to keep me distracted,  

Thank Heaven on Tuesday evening we CAUGHT the mouse in our patio room!!  Haven't seen another one since and we plugged up what we're pretty sure was the entrance. Dan's my hero!

Anna dressed up as Anna. ;)  

She loved singing along!  I was surprised at how on pitch she was. 

Not to be out done, Ben had his little moment to shine.  What a goof!

I love these smiles at breakfast time where, as soon as I acknowledge her presence, she wiggles so much with glee!

Bethany was getting the hang of catching this toy and pulling it to her mouth! 

She had a blowout in the middle of lunch, so we had to spend a little time naked until mom could get some more clothes.  

Tuesday I also tried my first dinner in a pumpkin recipe.  Dan and I loved it!  On the other hand, anything new for the kids will take a few more tries for them to like it. 

Wednesday I did some visiting teaching in the evening.
After baths Ben put on these Utah jammie pants and wanted me to text a picture to our friend in the ward who handed them down to us.  She has two boys just older than Ben so we get some amazing hand-me-downs that he loves!  Thank you to the Holdstock family! 

Thursday morning snuggles! 

Thursday evening Dan and I attended our Stake High Priest meeting and dinner.  The food was catered by our Bishop and was amazing as usual!

Friday Dan helped Bishop with a funeral for a neighbor.
Anna is getting good at making Bethany smile too. 

Friday evening I was lucky enough to take the girls to Disney on Ice using some tickets Dan got through work.  

The princesses LOVED it!!

It was so fun to watch Anna's face especially.  

The blue face shows she was a little scared during the old woman part of Snow White. 

This was during the finale.  I might have teared up a little watching her light up with joy!  Guess it's time to go to Disneyland again. ;)  

Ben got to go on a date with Dan to go shoe shopping and then some treats at Swig.  

Saturday was a busy day.  Dan and I attended the temple in the morning with our ward.  Then McKenna, my sister, my mom and I (and Bethany) attended a baby shower for one of my cousins.  Later that night we went out to dinner with my parents, then Dan took the older three kids home while Bethany and I, along with my parents and sister went to Highland High's production of Pippin' to see two of my cousins perform.  They did such a great job!

Nov- Week 1- Cute Kids and Webster Mancation

Some pictures from Sunday and Monday.  

Anna has been big into dress-up lately.  She called this ensemble her "Super Lucy" outfit.  I think it came from something she and McKenna were playing.  While going through Ben's "new" hand-me-down clothes we found this handsome SUIT!!  He wore it for the Primary Program the next week.  :)  Monday I also put up our Thanksgiving decorations.  

 Some pictures from Tuesday.
I often have to wake up this sweet sleeping baby to drive carpool.  Good thing she's so easy going. :)  And some other cuteness...Bethany's been interacting more and more with her siblings and they're getting better at making her smile! So cute! 

The other two little ones at home with me all day make me so happy too.  Anna's zipper on her jammies was bugging her one morning, so she had some naked time.  Man has she got some creative dress-up fashion too.  Ben is such a sweet older brother to Bethany and he likes me to document it. :) 

Wednesday I was so proud of myself for being "spontaneous,"   We heard about the Chick-fil-a deal to bring a jar of peanut butter and get some free meals.  So we did and were very pleased that the wait wasn't long at all!  :)  

I spent more time throughout the week sorting kids' clothes, mending, stain treating, and patching other clothes.  I wanted to get a lot of it done before Dan left for his Webster Mancation to Seattle for the Utah football game.  

They went to Pike's Market. 

 Lunch at Ivar's (yum!) followed by the famous gum wall!  Ew!

 They took a ferry ride. 

 The Friday night all the dads were gone, we had a pizza, popcorn, movie party at Grandma's house.  We watched Inside Out.  

 Saturday was game day!
They pretty much all got soaked but were definitely super happy with the WIN!! 

 They visited the Space Needle as well. 

 Dinner after the game at Serious Pie.  

Saturday at home we had Primary Program practice, then I did some cleaning and yard work to get ready for my parents coming to town!  We met them for dinner downtown then came back to my house to help me wrangle the kids during baths and bedtime.  I'm always so thankful for their help! 

Oct- Week 4- Pumpkin Walk, Gardner Village, Campfire, Trunk or Treat, LPA Carnival, Carving, Trick or Treat, U Football

Friday we checked McKenna out of school an hour early and headed up to North Logan for their annual Pumpkin Walk.  Pretty sure the theme this year had something to do with Laughing/Jokes.  

Dumb and Dumber

Curious George and Hotel Transylvania

Back to the Future/Inside Out

Looney Tunes/all the cut outs

Going on a Friday afternoon was a great choice.  The weather was great and the crowds were minimal.  That night we spent the night in Mantua where we watched Maleficent with the kids and then Now You See Me once the kids were down.  

Saturday we hung out at the house, I cleaned a little, then we took a walk to the general store to get some treats. The baby girls fell asleep next to each other.  Too cute! 

Sunday we celebrated Webster family October birthdays.  

Monday we went to Gardner Village with cousins to hunt for the witches.  

Since his office is just a few miles away, Dan joined us for lunch!

Monday evening we were invited to a have a campfire with some neighbor friends and tell spooky ghost stories.  

Most of the stories were pretty tame.  However, we did have the kids wake up once each the next couple nights saying they kept thinking about spooky things.  

Tuesday, Ben said, "Look mom, I'm camouflaged." 

Bethany wore this sweater and shoes made by our home teacher's wife.  Too cute! 

Ben and his friend Henry built this in the nursery while I attended my Stake Relief Society Book of Mormon class.  

Tuesday night was our ward's Fall Festival.    

We dressed up as a Hawaiian tourist, a pumpkin, a girl pirate (which she changed to a Monster High girl), a bumble bee, and a boy pirate.  

We enjoyed a hot dog dinner, and spook alley sponsored by the youth, and then a trunk or treat.  

Funny story:  I decided to put on the Hawaiian stuff literally as we're loading the kids up in the car to leave for the Trunk or Treat.  During dinner Anna gave me a look up and down and said, "Hmm.  What you be costume for?  I be bumble bee."  I immediately had to write it down so I wouldn't forget just HOW she said it.  It was adorable.  

Wednesday I found Anna talking to her friends all lined up.  I took our van in for an oil change.  

Some cool lite bright creations from M and B--their names! We got the Bumbo out.  She's mostly stable in it, though she still leans a little. ;) 

Thursday both kids had Halloween parties at school.  In the evening we went to McKenna's school Fall Carnival.   We played almost every classroom game. 

Friday, the kids didn't have school and we had a coupon to Jump Around Utah.  So we went with the Winegar cousins and had a great time.  Anna was definitely timid but did about like I expected in the end.  The kids had a play date in the afternoon with the Alexanders.

Friday night, we finally carved pumpkins.  The kids each chose a design; three pumpkins for three kids.  However, they're still not very helpful, so we won't be carving as many next year. :) 

After carving, we watched Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin.

(The bottom picture is all the girls watching Frozen on a Sunday afternoon.)

Saturday we helped clean the church, did our house chores, and I worked on going through and changing out the kids' clothes for the changing of the seasons.  My sister came over to help pass out candy and be with Bethany while I took the girls trick or treating.  We went up the hill first and met up with the Alexanders. Even after mostly pushing Anna in a stroller, she was done after an hour and a half and stayed home with Pickle after that.  McKenna and I continued on with the houses down hill and finished up with a little gathering at the Moulton's.  I came home sooner than McKenna so I could feed Bethany and give Anna her bath (she had fun with some glow sticks--bottom right picture).

Ben opted to pass on trick or treating so he could attend the Utah black out game with Dan.  Nothin like some good father/son time!  Ben loved every minute of it!