Friday, April 29, 2022

6 MONTHS

Lou hit her half birthday in April.  What a joy it has been to hold this little one for the last 6 months.  She is up to size 3 diapers and is wearing some 9 and 12 month clothing.  She has loved spending more time outside as the weather has warmed up.

 

 
One of my very favorite things about Lou is her smile.  When she smiles her whole body seems to smile.  She is very quick to smile at others.and she loves when people smile and talk to her.

 

Here are Lou's weekly pictures for the month.  Nona found a few more vintage dresses and sweaters that I used to wear and it has been so fun to dress Lou up in them.


 Lou received the most beautiful gift from Nona this month.  Nona finished Lou's baby quilt.  I love how this quilt represents my rainbow baby girl.  This quilt will surely become an heirloom to Lou.

This picture represents how Lou spent this month...right by my side.

Lou loves the baby Bjorn and that she can be upright with a great view of her surroundings.  She enjoyed watching her siblings play at the Baby Animal Festival.

She also enjoyed exploring the red rocks down in Escalante.

 
...and a cave that is close to Covered Wagon Natural Bridge.


Lou had her first ride on a swing. 

Phin loved pushing her.  He is the most attentive and kind big brother.  He is constantly asking to hold Lou.  I would have never survived the 5 hour drive down to Escalante with all four kiddos on my own...without Phin.

Millie loves being a big sister too.  She brought this writing assignment home from school this month.  Millie was learning about Force and Motion and when she had to write about that she wrote Push Lou Lou.  The older kids are always fighting about who gets to push Lou's car-seat/stroller when we get out of the car.

This picture cracks me up. Lou with her feet straight up in the air.


Lou had her first major illness this month.  It was heartbreaking to see her so miserable.  I got Covid over Spring break and about a week after I started to have symptoms, Lou started to show symptoms.  She had a horrible barking cough and couldn't seem to be comfortable.  Fortunately her symptoms lasted just a few days and by some miracle she never had a fever.  

 
The past two years have been so hard but they have definitely shown me how much I love this little family of mine.  There is no one else I would rather be quarantined with.  

Lou started to make a cute little slurping noise this month.

She also makes some great vocalizations...



Thank you for coming to our family Little Lou.

Thursday, April 14, 2022

MARCH

We started March off with Millie's performance in Fine Arts Class.  She and a friend chose to do ballet together.  They got up there and twirled their hearts out.


I took Millie and Phin to our neighborhood school's production of The Wizard of Oz.  Several of our ward members had leading and supporting parts and the kids loved the show.  They were very connected to the characters due to our Halloween theme this past year.

We attended Salt Con the first weekend in March.  Seth took Thursday and Friday off to play.  I worked in the morning those days and then checked Phin out a little early so that we could go up and play together.  I won't like it was a little crazy to try to play with all four kiddos hanging out with us...but we managed.  

DRAGOMINO is a kid version of the popular Kingdomino game.  All three of our oldest kiddos were able to play this one.  I would recommend it for anyone looking for an alternative to Candyland or Chutes and Ladders.

We played quite a few Play-to-Win games.  This one was called LIFE OF A CHAMELEON.  The idea was that you were trying to eat bugs but could only eat bugs that matched your chameleon's colors.  I thought it was a fun and unique game.


Phin checked out CUP-A-CUP from the game library.  It is basically a simplified version of SET.  Our kids liked playing with the cups after we played the actual game.

SUPER MARIO CHESS was a huge hit and we checked it out of the game library several times. Phin seems to be getting really interested in chess.  I am hoping to sign him up for the chess club next school year.


Seth and I also played WILD SPACE.  This was an engine building game.  The theme was fun and it was quick to learn.

Our kids of course loved the oversized games.


Seth taught Phin and I how to play MISSION RED PLANET.  Seth had played this with a couple of friends a few weeks before the convention. This was a area control game that didn't drive me crazy like other area control games.

It is crazy to think that the first Salt Con we attended was back in 2014 when Phin was a baby.  I think I have a photo of all of our babies playing on the floor at Salt Con.

Silas is the absolute best at keeping himself entertained.  Here he is turning the Super Mario Chess pieces into toys.  I love that Kamek is stuck under a cup that Silas had.



On Friday night we met Matt, Tonnie, Annie, Otto and Wren at Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner before heading to the Con.  Here Silas is making forks into toys...this boy has the best imagination.

It was really fun to watch Phin and Millie introduce Annie to some of the games we had been playing.


On Saturday we checked out 7 WONDERS:ARCHITECTS.  This was a Hot Game this year.  We own the original version of 7 WONDERS but we liked this one even more.  It was really easy to learn and teach and would be a good entry game for new gamers...yet serious gamers would still be entertained playing this game.

The kids were good sports to be dragged along to the convention.  On the final night they spent some time watching movies on the laptop.

We got a pretty good snowstorm the first Sunday in March.  The kids were delighted to be able to get out and play in the snow. This was the first time Lou had been out in the snow and she seemed to enjoy it.
















Millie had to report on a "pet" at school.  For kids that didn't have a real "pet" they were able to report on a stuffed animal.  Millie chose her pink pig.


Silas loves to play with play-dough and kinetic sand.  One Sunday afternoon he remembered we had Kinetic Sand and asked to play with it.  He sat at the table for the longest time playing.

We went to the Rec Center to check out the remodel of the pool.  The kids loved the new play area and were so excited to be back at the pool.


Grandma Jo saved the day on St. Patrick's Day with her bag of St. Patrick's Day goodies.  The kids had  Lucky Charms for breakfast.

Then we pulled out the Mint Chocolate cookies at lunch.


Millie made a "Leprechaun girl" hat at school.  She couldn't wait to tell me about how the Leprechauns had left footprints in her class and brought them gold coins.



Millie had the best time at her best friend Betty's birthday party.  She was delighted with the treat bag and her Kitty Cat face paint.

We have had several beautiful Fridays in a row and have turned Friday night into Park nights. 



The kids loved Free Cone Day at Dairy Queen.



I took Silas and Millie to the production of Frozen at my school.  Millie dressed up in her "Elsa" dress.  Silas had just had a bath so he wore his impromptu "Sven" PJs.


Millie was on her feet for most of the show.  She absolutely loved the music, costumes and dance numbers.

I can't even remember where this picture was taken...but this is me and my girls.

The day Silas has been impatiently anticipating for the last year finally arrived...his birthday.  He woke up to the birthday table and was so excited to open his presents.

One of his gifts was his baby book...which I finally had printed.  He pulls this out every night and has us "read" it to him at bedtime.

We threw a last minute "birthday party" for Silas.  We headed to the park and invited a few friends to join us for pizza and snow cones. 




Silas was so excited for his new Miles Morales jammies.

 
I love that he actually sleeps with the hood on.
 

We had Silas' birthday cake a few days after his actual birthday.  I made an ice cream cake and in retrospect should have made it smaller.  It was a beast to cut, but it was delicious.  I had bought the cake topper toys with Silas and he was devastated when I told him he had to wait until his birthday to open up his transformer dinosaurs.  He carried around this toy in the box for days before the big day.

Millie drew this one Sunday.  I don't know if you can tell...but she is anxiously awaiting her turn to be baptized.

We went for a scooter ride and found a long line of flags at the local mortuary. 

We met friends at the Children's Museum on one of the early out days that was added to the school calendar.




Millie loved building a "house" with gumdrops/marshmallows and toothpicks at Fine Arts.

Phin loved building catapults for Activity Days.