Picture of the week:

Wildlife Safari

Last weekend Jan and Lisa came up for a visit and we took the kids to Wildlife Safari.  I took a ton of pictures of animals (most of which didn't come out that great because I was in the back seat, holding a kid while trying to take them).  Wish I would of taken more pics of humans....but here are some of the favorites. 

Keeping up with it.

Trying like heck to make blogging part of my weekly routine, and so far I've been successful two weeks in a row.  Hey, it's a start. 

 

This week Dani and Weston have been eating like horses.....everything in sight.  Weston must be in the middle of a growth spurt.  The other morning he ate a scramble egg, whole piece of toast, yogurt and six pieces of bacon, and asked for more bacon but I was out.  Tonight he ate half of a quesadilla (using the burrito size tortillas), two crunchy tacos, and a handful of chips with guacamole.  Then he still wanted dessert for cleaning his plate.  Dani loves real food, don't bother her with any of that baby goup in a jar.  I'm actually really impressed at how well she does with just her two teeth.  The other day at lunch Tyge was waving his grilled cheese in her face and she snatched it from him.  Turns out she loves grilled cheese!  And tomatoes, I could feed her diced tomatoes all day long (raw or cooked ones picked out of a pasta dish we had one night)!

 

She also loves to wrestle with the boys....and they love to wrestle with her.  I do have to get on Tyge quite a bit because he gets a little rough. 

This is what we call her cheer leading pose....does it all the time.  It's really funny when you can get her with her hands up in the air at the same time, but I haven't caught that one on camera yet.

Father and son bonding over youtube videos of tractors stuck in the mud!  Exciting stuff don't you think????

I'm still experimenting with my camera and editing software.  I told Danny for my birthday I am gifting myself five kid free evenings, and it's his responsibility to watch the kids or get a babysitter.  Planning on taking a Wednesday night class that lasts for five weeks at LB.  The goal is to take better shots and to stop under utilizing my camera.  So, I am also going to try to post a "Picture of the Week", and hopefully they will get better as the year goes on.     Here's my first one, a snapshot of Tyge I took while he was out watching dad gather the cows. 

Two blog posts in one week!

This week has been dedicated to getting back in some sort of routine after all the holidays.  Weston started back up at preschool while I've been trying to get back into a "normal" work schedule and make dinner every night rather than grabbing a pizza, can of soup or making turkey sandwiches (although my kids would eat a turkey sandwich for every meal all week long if they could). 

This afternoon Weston decided that I needed a car wash, even though it was sprinkling off and on all day.  Said he was tired of getting his hands dirty when he shut the car door (and I just washed it last week!).

















Speaking of washing things.....you have to make sure Dani isn't around when you are loading or unloading the dishwasher.  Is it just my kids that are obsessed with crawling on the dishwasher, or do all babies do it?

























This was a big week for Tyge, as he had his first day of "school" this week.  Anyone that is around him may have noticed that he has some trouble pronouncing most consonants (cow sounds like "ow", Uncle Jan sounds like "unc ann", etc).  I can understand pretty much everything he says, but I do act as the interpreter for others tyring to have a conversation with him.  His pediatrician recommended we get him some speech therapy, thinking that it will be easier to correct the problem now rather than when he gets into school.  And since our insurance covers it, why the heck not!  So, every Wednesday morning Tyge gets to go to his own "school", just like his big brother.  This week he was so excited. he had to get out his backpack, and take a few cows with him, proclaiming it was his sharing day (Weston has his sharing day on Wednesday too).  So, since in his mind, it was his first day of school, I had to take the inaugural picture!

 And yes, Tyge wears that stinkin' cowboy hat all the time.  It's been sat on, left out in the sandbox, shoved under the bed, and who knows what else.  But I have to agree with an older gentleman who passed us in the grocery store the other day that said to him "That's a great hat; has character and could probably tell some good stories.". 

Long overdue....

Why have I not posted in over three months?  I have 3 kids, a husband, full time job and life is just busy.  Yep, I have really fallen behind on blog posts.  Should I start with today and work my way backwards, or the other way around?  Maybe just quit and abandoned the blog all together....that's a thought!

I originally started this blog because I'm not the kind of person who was going to journal in a baby book.  My kids would never have a place to look up when they got their first tooth, took their first steps, etc.  All they will get is a box.  Yep, I have a storage tote with each one of their names on it and anything that seems important gets thrown in.  I was hoping this blog would supplement their "box of stuff", and the intention was to create and print a book for each year of posts (I AM going to do that THIS YEAR!).  In 2013 I really missed the boat.  Seems Dani will look back and scream at me that she got the short end of the stick, complaining that I documented so much more of what the boys did as babies.  And, unfortunately I will have no excuse, she will be right.  So here is my best attempt to make up for it.....if I could just remember the last few months!  Good thing the pictures will jog a memory or two!

OCTOBER:
Camping - the first weekend of October was gorgeous, so we took advantage of the weather and headed to the Florence for the weekend.  Last minute camping trip with the Rose family was the only camping trip we got in all summer, and unfortunately it was without Dad who had to work.

 Pumpkin Patch - Thanks to Pinterest (the source of most all good ideas), I got the urge to put Dani in a pumpkin.  Poor girl.  So, on the way home from work one day I stopped and purchased the right size specimen and spent the next day hollowing it out so we could go to the pumpkin patch for the perfect photo shoot.  I did get some great shots of our adventure to Thistledown Farms, but I think the best picture was my "test shot" that I took in our backyard right after I carved out the pumpkin (had to make sure she would fit!

 

 

The boys got to pick out their own Halloween costumes this year, by way of a bribe.  I told them if they were good for their haircuts I would take them to the Halloween store.  They were, and Weston was really excited to go get a pirate costume.  Tyge didn't really know what he wanted.  Once we were there none of the Pirate Hats were "just like Captain Hook's", so he didn't want to be a pirate anymore.  Once he saw handcuffs, a walkie talkie and whistle, he decided he needed to be a Police Officer.  We tried it on once we got home, and he wore the costume nearly every day for the two weeks up to Halloween (I got my money's worth).  He still uses the hat and handcuffs all the time.  At the store Tyge carried around a Buzz costume for a while, but then he saw the football player and decided he wanted to be a 49er.  There was no convincing him of leaving the store without the football player costume, even though I knew I would get off cheaper by buying a little 49er jersey and some sweats!  Dani's costume came from the local thrift store....the only one they had in her size but I thought that the cow fit her well (and it only cost me 5 bucks!).

NOVEMBER:
The first of the month started with a trip to the park in an attempt to take a few pics of the kiddos.  I got a few, but not anything that I considered great.  Dani had her 6 month well check, she was 25 inches tall and 16 pounds, 6 ounces.  Weston was over 20 pounds and 27 inches tall and Tyge 21 pounds and 28 inches tall at that same age.  Strange having a child that is "average" as opposed to the boys who were always above the 95th percentile for their size.

I had to go to Reno for an appraisal conference for a few days, so we made a big tada of it and turned it into a trip to California.  It actually worked out quite well, we went the weekend before and got to go to Kash's birthday, and then during the week the kids stayed at Avo and Ava's house while I was in Reno. 

Grandma knew we were going to California, so she sent a package down for all of the kids.  Adorable Christmas dresses for the girls and matching shirts for the boys.  We felt a little bad taking a picture without Reese and Alexis, but per Grandma's orders we went ahead and got a couple of good ones out in Jennifer and Chad's front yard (at their new house, they moved into the day before!). 
























While we were in California I tried again to get a good 6 month picture of Dani, in the owl hat that Auntie Amanda made for her.  I do love his one of her out in the oats next to the dairy. 

 

After we got back from California Dani didn't sleep for over a week.  I figured it was the result of cozying up with Avo and Ava each night the week before, I finally let her cry it out one night, only to discover the next morning that a tooth had popped through.  Within a couple of days she had two bottom teeth!

 

We finished off the month celebrating birthdays.  Tyge was super excited about his barn cake (one of the easiest designs I've had to make, which was great for me!). 

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we had the "joint Birthday party" for the boys, with our friends and neighbors.  Weston requested a Batman cake, and since Tyge just goes with the flow he wanted the same.  Again, a really easy cake design....I got off early this year which is good because my assistant cake decorator Alexx didn't get to come see us this year. 

 



DECEMBER:

The last month of the year started off with the annual Christmas card photo shoot....this year we did two.  One for our "regular" card, and another for Danny's customers. 








































I also got this one of Tyge with the cows....looks like such a little man, and so proud of his herd!

 

Grandma and Papa came for a whole week to visit.  We celebrated Weston's Birthday with a tie dye cake....his pick in the baking aisle.  It actually tasted really good, but it was kinda weird with the bright colors.  We got our Christmas tree and visited Santa, which only Dani would get close to.  Grandma and Papa also babysat for a two nights while Danny and I went to Bend for the Cattleman's Convention. 

That same weekend we got our first big storm, which brought quite a bit of snow.  My kids are wimps though, and they wouldn't play in it for long before they were cold and wanted to come in!

 

December also means NFR....Tyge's favorite thing to watch on TV.  I was glad to get a few new rounds to put on the DVR, after having the ones from the previous year pretty much memorized from having to turn them on for him so often. This year we got to see Grandma and Papa on TV too, since they headed there after they left our house.  Tyge typically watches while on his horse, bull, or on top of one of us if we happen to be laying on the ground or couch. 

The weekend before Christmas everyone was sick.  Started with Tyge and Weston but they were lucky enough to only have it for about 24 hours each.  I started with the flu, which turned into a cold and cough, and I'm still carrying it around with me almost three weeks later.  Dani got a pretty runny nose for a few days, but she recovered pretty well. 

 Christmas Eve got interesting, when the boys were wrestling on my bedroom floor while I folded laundry.  Tyge fell backwards and hit the corner of my hope chest....just perfectly.  Blood everywhere and a split big enough that we needed to take him to the ER (Urgent Care was closed early due to the holiday).  The nurse took one look and said he would probably need a staple, which is exactly what the doctor said after looking at it for about 10 seconds.  So for the next 7 days he had one staple in the back of his head....other than being super sensitive about you even looking close at it, it didn't bother him one bit!
























Christmas was relaxed (good thing since I was so sick) and we spent the morning at home, followed by church and dinner at Jake and Tabitha's.  The boys seemed to be pretty excited about the gifts Santa brought them.  Weston said he must have been "really, really good" since Santa brought him a BB gun.  He's been really good about learning how to use it, and knows that he can only use it when mom or dad are around to go outside with him and set up a target.  Tyge likes to take a turn too.

 

A FEW MORE PICTURES FROM THE LAST THREE MONTHS:

Weston is loving preschool, and made quick friends with the boys in his class.  We parents volunteer at least one day a month, plus I've gone on each of their field trips, to Detering Orchards for their pumpkin patch, Storybook Land and decorating the Christmas tree at the Library.  Siblings get to go on field trips too, and Tyge usually fits right in with the others, although sometimes he does get left in the dust by the older boys.  He was so excited when Miss Chaundra made him his own name tag for the Storybook Land field trip!  Weston got to take those tye dye cupcakes I mentioned earlier for his birthday. 

 

 

After being so sick the days before and after Christmas, I managed to get some holiday baking done on New Year's Day.  Weston proclaimed I was his favorite mom for making kiss cookies!

Dani keeps us entertained, and is always crawling her way into something....she loves nooks and crannies!

Ready to start another crazy year......hopefully with more frequent blog posts!