School Nights

Dear Connor and Hunter,

We've been having some fun with school lately. Last week we had a Science Night at our house. We invited all the grandparents for a boat making night. Our job was to make a boat out of foil that would float. We had a friendly contest to see who's boat could hold the most pennies. It was really fun. The weather was kind of bad that night, so I hurried things along as best I could so nobody had to drive on icy roads and still we had time for our boat themed dinner. Your Uncle Wade was making Mommy laugh so hard because I asked him to cut the peppers without fully explaining that I wanted them to turn into boats. He cut them wrong. On finding out that they were part of my theme he tried his best to make some pepper boats. It was a Pintrocity that only I could be blamed for but it was funny all the same. You boys really love having people over and doing school stuff with them. You love to show off all you know and on this particular occasion you loved just getting to play with foil and water with your Grandparents.

This week your school had Open House. I wasn't too excited to go because the one in the fall was a bust in my opinion. However, we all had a great time! Each room had a different activity centered around the theme of giving like sewing together pillows for patients recovering from surgery, a bake sale with the proceeds going to charity, making cards for our soldiers over seas, etc. We had fun going from room to room. You both think you are perfect at sewing now and have been begging me to give you a needle and thread for days.

I like having these fun school nights with you. I can't wait until the next one. I'm already pinning ideas!

Love,
Mommy

Standing up

Dear Rusty,

I can't believe how fast you are growing up. Seriously, too fast. You are crawling at rocket speed all over the house and have recently started pulling yourself up on toys and furniture. What's really scary is that you are strong enough to just stand up without any support, but you are still pretty unbalanced so you just sit back down really quick. I was folding laundry the other day and I had to piles of clothes next to me. You crawled up, put a shirt in each hand, and stood up. Immediately, you looked down and saw the shirts came up with you and panicked! I've never seen you plop down so fast.

 You eat like a horse. You prefer solid food over your bottle. You love Cheerios and Ritz crackers. You figured out how to hold your bottle on your own, but are still trying to master the sippy cup.

I love to talk to you these days. You have the worlds cutest toothy, sideways grin. You are always smiling. Everywhere we go you are making friends. People coo at you and talk to you. As soon as they pay attention to you your arms go out and you want them to pick you up. I've let some of the boys teachers hold you and some ladies at church but I'm not there with strangers yet.

We've been taking you to the pool more. You really love the hot tub. Last night you were so incredibly relaxed. Then you got hungry. You started kissing me like crazy. I thought you were just being really loving until my cheek got bit. I yelled in pain and you gave me one of your toothy grins. How could I be mad?

I think the best part of my day right now is watching you take in the world with your big blue eyes. They are always so big and excited. You want to know how to do everything and you want to do it right now!

I love you. I'll stop asking you to slow down because I know it's not going to happen. Thanks for being such a bright spot in my days.

XOXO
Mommy

Santa's Recall

Dear Kaylee,

All you asked Santa for this year was a Flutterbye Flying  Fairy. You saw it in a Toys R Us ad and fell in love instantly! Sure enough, Santa brought you the Fairy. We plugged it in right away to let it charge. It only took about 30 minutes to charge it up but it felt like several hours to you. Finally, it was ready. We showed you which button to push to make her fly and everyone stood back to watch the magic.

Unfortunately, the fairy was much stronger than anticipated and you were looking directly down on her. She flew straight into your face with enormous power. It looked like it hurt so bad! You started sobbing. The dream was over. You wanted nothing to do with that fairy again. We told you that Santa's toys were returnable and we would go find something else.

Everyone we saw asked you how your Christmas was and what Santa brought you and you told them all about how the fairy hit you in the face. You were so upset about the whole situation. The next day we went to Josie's house to visit family. We were there for a couple hours. When we got home there was a surprise waiting for you!

Under the tree, the fairy had disappeared and there was a new toy! All the characters from the movie Frozen in big box! There was a note too!

It was a recall notice! Turns out, the Boogie Man tried to steal Christmas and put a curse on all the Flutterbye Fairies. Thousands of little girls got hit in the face on Christmas morning and as a result Santa had to recall all the fairies. He even enlisted the help of The Guardians to collect all the fairies and distribute replacement toys. Santa wished you well and promised to increase security at the North Pole next year to avoid another recall.

You were thrilled! You played with your new princesses and they even snuggled in bed with you as you fell asleep. Christmas saved....

The best part of the whole ordeal was when we were reading the recall notice to you and we got to the part about the other little girls getting hit in the face by the fairies. You gave me this angry look that said, "Stupid Fairy." ha ha. I am still giggling about that look on your face.

I love you! I'm so sorry that you were a victim of the Boogie Man's mischief and am so glad that all has been made right in your world.

Merry Christmas!
Mommy

Santa

Dear Bubbas,
We had such a fun night last night! It was really needed too. We had a pretty rough day. We had to sit at Russell's cardiologist appointment for 2 hours (his heart is perfect!), then Connor lost his cool on the way home, Hunter and Kaylee were getting grumpy from all the activity and noise.... needless to say we all needed a nap. However, you haven't taken a nap in a couple of weeks. For a variety of reasons nap time got cut from our schedule rather suddenly. I decided to play my bribery card in order to get you to take a nap and save my sanity. I told you all if you took a nap we would stay up late and go visit Santa. You were asleep within minutes!

Daddy got home and I sprung it on him that we were leaving to see Santa before the store closed! Not his favorite way to come home, but he was a great sport! We loaded into the van and were off! We always go to Beaver Bark. We saw the reindeer and had a good visit with Santa. You all told him very clearly what you wanted; Hunter a keyboard, Connor a telescope, and Kaylee a flying fairy. The store wasn't busy so by the time we were done it was still really early. We loaded into the van to go home and Daddy changed the course. He decided we should go to the mall for Cinnabons. It was a rather great idea.

We wandered around the mall eating Cinnabons and pretzels, played at the kid zone, smelled candles and tested products at Bath and Body works, picked out some new pajamas, and just had a good time together. We even played a game where you got a point for every person you told Merry Christmas too. Kaylee was pretty darn adorable with her little voice saying "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" to complete strangers. Everyone she said it to just burst into a huge grin and said it back.

It was a good night. I'm glad I got to spend it with you. I love you!
Mommy

Army Crawling

Dear Russell,

We have to get our gates up this week. You are army crawling all over our living room and just the last couple of days you have been pulling yourself up onto your knees. I know you are going to be crawling by Christmas. You just have places to go and things to do! It's really cute to watch you move around.

We got you a sippy cup. You try your hardest to pick it up and use it yourself but almost every time I have to put it in your hands and help you tip it back. You love it though and work really hard on trying to figure it out. I also let you have peas for the first time the other day. You spent over thirty minutes trying to pick them up and get them in your mouth. If you were able to pick it up, it almost never made it into your mouth before you dropped it. After I let you practice (while I made dinner) I helped you out and you were pretty pleased with finally being able to eat some of them!

I love the looks that you give everyone. You are always full of smiles. You absolutely adore other babies. The other night Leanne's baby Daisy was here and you were doing everything you could to get her attention. When she would look up, you got so excited and just burst into big 'ol smiles.

We've been letting you taste all sorts of fun things; pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, Candy Canes, sherbert. You pretty much love all of it! What a great time of year to be able to try new foods.

There isn't much to tell you right now, besides you are absolutely the sweetest little boy in the world. I just love snuggling with you. You are all Mommy's boy right now. You only want Mommy to rock you and take care of you. You like playing with Daddy but when it comes down to it, you need your Mom....and I love it. This time is so fleeting, before you'll be Daddy's boy wrestling and running all over the place. Needless to say, I am eating up all the attention you're giving me and hope it continues for several more months!

I love you sweet boy!
Mommy

growing, growing, growing

Dear Rusty,

You are learning new things every day and I just love it! You love watching your brothers and sister and you just want to be involved so badly. They are really great with you and always play next to you or with you so that you can be with them. I can tell already how much you all adore each other.

You're rolling both directions, although you still prefer to roll from tummy to back. You turn around in a circle and push yourself backwards. The other day you were getting frustrated because you wanted to get closer to Buster so you could grab some of his hair, but you kept pushing yourself backwards and getting further away from him. Buster was just sitting there watching until I gave you a little help and lunged you forward. You should've seen Buster jump up and get out of there. hee hee.

You're eating solid food and LOVING it. You've tried bananas, avocado, rice cereal, oatmeal, squash, pumpkin, and random licks of my juice or frosting. You love it all! You sit in your high chair now and not in the Bumbo. You still fit in the Bumbo chair but you lean forward so much to grab everything around you that I don't want you to tip out and it's incredibly hard to feed you in there. You really enjoy sitting in the high chair. You will sit and play with your toys there too while I am cooking in the kitchen.

You outgrew your baby bathtub so now you have a bath chair in the big tub. You are not sure what to think about it, but you tolerate it!

You were the world's cutest elephant for Halloween. I loved it! You wore the outfit for a total of 20 minutes, but it was totally worth it! 

You sleep for a few hour stretches on your own, but you do the majority of your napping in my arms and almost all of your sleeping at night in our bed. I pretend it bothers me, but it doesn't. I love having you close.

You went with me to Portland for a weekend. I went up to see my friends. We rode with Kristi and her baby Hayden who is just a month older than you. I told Kristi you were a great traveler and you did everything in your power to prove me wrong! We had to pull over so many times and twice I had to throw away the outfit you were wearing because you pooped all over yourself and I wasn't going to put stinky clothes in the car. We had a great weekend though. It was fun getting the chance to devote all my attention to you for a couple of days. You had a lot of fun with Baby Hayden. You loved looking at her, and talking to her. The two of you were trying to grab each others hands and feet- no doubt to stick them in your mouth. Everything goes in the mouth right now! You must've been teething because you went through so many bibs and outfits that I had to buy you extra at the outlet mall we were shopping at. You were a really good baby in all the restaurants, hardly making a peep. You slept great in the hotel bed. It was a fun trip to have you with me.

I love you! I love watching you grow and learn! I can't wait to see what's next....
Mommy

Pumpkin Patch

Dear Kiddos,

October has come and gone, and here we are half way through November! Where does the time go?!

October was a fun month. We went to a new pumpkin patch this year. We went with the school as part of a field trip. It was fantastic. We learned all sorts of things about milking a cow, and chickens. You even go to practice milking a cow!We picked our pumpkins out, and even a few extra for Russell so that we could make baby food. In fact, you were so excited about the baby food you just kept bringing me pumpkins out of the field. I had to cut you off.

We also went around to the neighbors and left them a treat on their doorsteps. We wanted to leave our neighbors a treat so we made little baskets of candy as one of our school projects and we left them on doorsteps, rang the bell, and ran. We were laughing this year because Connor wasn't running and he kept getting caught by the neighbors.

Connor, Hunter, and Kaylee have been doing so well in school that we decided to have an Open House night for the grandparents to come and see all the things that we've been learning about. You really enjoyed it! You loved showing everyone all the projects you've been making and showing everyone that you can tell time and read! It was a very fun night and I'm thinking we'll have to do something like that again after Christmas.

Kaylee had her first Cowboy Day at preschool. She wore her cowboy skirt and hat. I thought it was so funny to hear about her day. Connor and Hunter use to be all excited about the snack on cowboy day; bacon, biscuit, and chocolate milk. Kaylee was the most excited about hayride. 

We went trunk or treating at the church. Kaylee was the cutest little bumble bee, Connor was pajama man, Hunter was the Hulk, and Russell was the cutest little elephant there ever was! Trunk or treating was fun and we got lots of candy very quickly. They even had a Spam shack where they were making the adults Spam sandwiches. Gross! There were a few minions there and we all got a kick out of that.

It was a very fast month. A very fun month! I can't wait for this holiday season. I'm sure we're going to have a great time with all the festive activities coming up! 


Love you!
Mommy