Since I've been really horrible lately about updating the blog, I figured I could just do another iPhone photo/video dump and hopefully that will catch me up to just about the New Year and I can resolve to do better about keeping up on it. With a better iPhone app for blogger, maybe that will make it easier for me to update on an every day basis like I do Facebook or Instagram. We'll see. I will try, but I'm not making any promises. Anyways, here it goes:
Audree is now 9 1/2 months so in the past 1 1/2 months she really has grown a lot. She is so full of life and energy and is learning at such a fast pace. She now walks along furniture and currently has her 4 top teeth coming in. She has just recently learned how to clap, give kisses and is loving all of the table food she's eating. For her 9 month stats she was 18lbs7oz (55%) and 28" long (65%) making her grow 3lbs and 3 inches in just 3 months. She sure is growing so fast. I think she is definitely going to be my adventurous, daring, and trouble-making one. She likes to climb and get into everything. But she is such a doll. She is always so happy and a really pleasant child.
We've had a couple bad cases of diaper rash lately. This is something that never happened with Josh and so it's all new for me. So every now and then we had let Audree run naked around the house. That little bum is just adorable. :)
In early November I took the kids in for my first time participating in a Presidential Election. Even though the results didn't turn out as we expected or wanted to, I have faith that things happen for a reason and that we will get through it. During election time there was so much raucous going on about the results and the "end of the world" and I remember thinking and discussing with Jake that this time on earth and the results of this election are but a sliver of time in our eternal existence. Of course I think that it's important to be involved in politics and things on this earth, I don't think that we should necessarily worry so much about it that we can't focus on what's important in this life.
Josh still has been having some issues with trying new foods and eating well lately. It really has been the biggest challenge of parenthood thus far. I never know what to do and I worry all the time about him getting adequate nutrition. I also wish every day that I could sit peacefully down to a meal with Josh and be able to feed him what we are eating and have that be enough. I really hope someday that it'll happen.
Josh has really enjoyed his school time lately. We've been a little out of it since traveling and the holidays, but we are hoping to get back into it. Pictured above is him playing with our paper bag cats during the week of letter "C" and then the other is playing with our memory cards for our letters and numbers. He loves it! And he does so well at it.
Josh definitely enjoyed his first snowfall.
Audree had a little incident with the dishwasher. The one second that I looked away she managed to slice her finger on the peeler and so I tried to get a bandaid on her which really isn't the easiest thing to do. She managed to eat off all 4 of the bandaids that I put on her. Eventually it did stop bleeding so that's good.
To bring in a little more income so that I can enjoy my time in Italy this Spring, I started up with Scentsy. I've enjoyed it thus far and I hope that I can continue to be successful with it.
Audree loves to chew on my drawstrings. If she ever sees them out she goes right for them. Guess it's all those teeth coming in. What a cutie though.
Audree has started to really go for table foods. She enjoys her solids and just over the past couple of days she has been constantly starving. The most recent new things she has tried and loved are cheerios, diced carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables, scrambled eggs cinnamon roll, toast, etc. Give her just about anything and she'll eat it. I can't believe how quickly she is growing up.
On the morning that we went and picked out our Christmas tree we let Josh pick out a donut. He went straight for the "chocowat" donut and ate the whole thing once we got home. I'm surprised that there was only chocolate on his face and not on everything else.
Looking adorable in her "I heart Auntie" outfit and bunny slippers. Can't get over how cute she is.
Our Christmas festivities began with decorating our Christmas tree, taking Josh and Audree to see Santa and finishing up our new burlap stockings. Josh obviously LOVED his time meeting Santa (not...). This picture is priceless. I really loved how the stockings turned out too. I love that they have coordinating colors, but different designs and liners.
One day while Josh was in his room fussing while trying to fall asleep, Audree crawled back to his room and was reaching under his door. Love seeing that sibling love. :)
In our short trip to Utah for Christmas celebrations we were able to spend time with family on Sunday while Eli was ordained a deacon. We had great food, decorated sugar cookies, and enjoyed the time we had together as family. I'm glad that we live so much closer now and can enjoy these visits together. During the rest of the week we played in the snow, visited more family, took a trip to Scheels (where Josh took a ride on the ferris wheel and Monster Truck photo opportunity). We really enjoyed our time there and are looking forward to seeing them again.
Also while in Utah Audree learned how to take off her bibs. She definitely learned earlier than Josh did and I'm not that excited about it, but we'll survive.
Before heading to Utah, we found a place in Idaho Falls to rent. It came up quick and wasn't a place that we expected to like, but we really did. Even though it's going to be a crazy move since we've been traveling and have to pack up and clean our current place in just a few days, we are really looking forward to it. We are out of our place at the end of this month and start moving in to this place on the 27th. It's a really nice place with just about everything that we were looking for.
Here are our family ornaments for this year. I thought that they turned out well.
We had a short little break in between Utah travels and before heading out for Montana. During that time we found out that Audree's top 4 teeth were all coming in and that the gap in front is going to be a bit bigger than we expected.
Since getting to Montana we've had a lot of fun. The kids traveled really well here and we've been able to spend a lot of time with family. We are all really looking forward to Audree's first Christmas and Josh enjoying his presents as he is a bit more aware of what's going on since last Christmas.
We've also had a lot of fun playing games from Jake's sibling's childhood "Loopin' Louie", setting up the old slot car tracks from when Jake was a kid, and having a Gingerbread contest with everyone. Jake and I made a Tokyo Christmas with a candy monster attacking the city. The girls made a candy wonderland complete with sled, ice skating man and shingled roof. The boys made a ranch complete with cows, cow pies, garage, and reindeer head. We had a blast. We have a couple more days here before we move to Idaho Falls and so we are really looking forward to the little bit of time that we have left before the long drive and long days of moving.
I'm really hoping that over the next few weeks I can pull myself back together and get back into a good routine in our new house and get back with my resolutions to keep in touch with family better, keep up on updating this family blog, and work on becoming a healthier me overall.
Here are the videos that I've had for the past few weeks as well:
As part of my little summer bucket list, I wanted Josh to paint his own bird house. He started out painting very nicely. But then he got into the black, and we all know what happens when any color touches black. It's basically all black... Oh well, he enjoyed it.
He started to dip each of his fingers in these handy little paint containers. Aren't they perfect size for those little fingers?
He ended up looking at his hands saying "Oh no..." After a little bit of saying that, he'd go back to dipping them fingers right back in it anyway. I'd say, it was a success.
His house now hangs on a tree in the backyard. We haven't seen any birds yet, not sure if we will at all, but atleast the bird seed is being eaten (by earwigs...) ha!
Well it's been awhile (about a month, I'd guess) of packing, moving and settling in, but I think I'm just about there. We found a place here in Blackfoot, a perfect 3 bedroom for the 4 of us and it's working out great so far. We do miss our life back in Yakima, but we are excited about the adventures that await us here. We are already enjoying being close to family. Here are a couple pictures of what the place is like:
Our Living Room
Kitchen/Dining
Joshua's Room
The Fenced Backyard :)
The Fenced Backyard
Garage (I can never go back to not having one now)
Audree's Room (still need to finish bedding and decor)
Our large closet that is half for our clothes and half storage
Before the move, we had a little trip up in Seattle with Jolene's
sister. We picked her up in Seattle and then stayed in Puyallup where
Jake would be taking his boards. While he was testing his sister and I
went to the Point Defiance Zoo, which was a lot of fun. The next day
Jake took Josh to the Children's Museum while Jolene, Audree and I went
to see Pike's Place Market. Here are a couple pictures of Josh at the
museum.
As an overall family update: Jake started on Monday with orientation at the hospital. He's nervous, but I think he was looking forward to starting his rotation today. The kids are growing like weeds and I can hardly believe how quickly they both are growing up. We are having a good time meeting new people and adjusting to new friends.
Watching Baby Noah together
First bath together
Josh: He is growing up so fast and is more of a boy that a little baby now. He is slowly growing in his vocabulary and his newest words are "ah-gon" (all gone), "bubbles", "bapple" (apple), "nana" (banana), "bih-bog" (big boy), "cireago" (cereal, sun, and circle), "crackgo" (cracker) and a handful more. He is still obsessed with trucks, planes, cars, etc. We live right across the street from where they do CDL training in Blackfoot, so he's able to watch Semi trucks very often. He loves it!
Audree: She will soon be four months, she just got blessed (for another post), and she is kicking and moving more and more everyday. Her newest way to babble is to curl her lips in and then chat that way. It's stinkin' cute. She is such a smiler and so social. She is sleeping pretty good (not nearly as good as with Josh) but we do okay. Her typical night is down at 8:30, up at 11:00ish to eat and right back down, up at 4:30 to eat and right back down, needs a binky to soothe back to sleep at 6:30, then wakes up to eat and up for the day at 8:30. So I'm usually waking up to feed her 2 times a night, which I guess isn't too bad. I just need to start motivating myself to get to bed earlier so I can get more sleep.
As for me, just working on settling in the house and adjusting to Blackfoot. Since getting here I've started getting into a better fitness and eating routine. I'm trying out Bikini Bootcamp. You can see how it's going here.
I will give a few new posts soon including individual ones
about Audree's blessing and 4th of July. But for now, I've got to attend to my baby girl.
