Happy 4 year old!

Last Sunday Gracen turned 4!  He has been anxiously awaiting this birthday!  He counted down the days the entire week.  

We started the day by letting him open his presents.  He just couldn't wait.  He got a lot of fun things.  A bike, coloring stuff, binoculars, and lincoln logs were just a few of the things he opened.

Riding his new bike!

We went to church.  On the way I said something to him and said, "okay buddy." and he said to me, "You mean Birthday Boy!" he was taking the birthday thing very seriously.  During primary he got a paper candle to take to the Bishop so he could get a treat.  As we were walking down, we saw Bishop and he started asking Gracen about his birthday.  He asked Gracen how old he was and Gracen held 4 of his fingers down near his belly and started quietly counting them.  It was pretty funny.  I think he was just making sure he said the right number.  

Later that day we had a birthday dinner and birthday cake.  It wasn't fancy.  He will be having a dinosaur themed party this weekend.  So I saved my energy for making a dino cake for that.  He liked the simple little cake I made.  He said he wanted a chocolate cake with cherries on top. (Cherries went on after we cut it.) 

He wanted to put his own candles on. 

Birthday Boy!

He enjoyed his day!  It was pretty laid back, but fun!  I love celebrating birthdays with my kiddos.  

This boy has brought us so much joy!  I love everything about him.  He is so sweet and caring.  

At 4 years old...

-He loves superheroes.  He is going to be Green Lantern for Halloween.

-He likes to keep things secret.  If his teacher asks what he brought on his snack day, he gives a look and says, "It's a secret!"  

-He's working on learning to read.

-He's learning a lot, and has a great interest in it.  

-He likes learning about the gospel.  He seems to understand it more than I would expect a 4 year old to.

Driving home last week, I told the kids we'd stop and get something to eat for dinner before we went home. We were in a scary part of town and it was dark, so I told them that we would wait to stop until we got closer to our house.  He asked why, and I told him because there were a lot of bad people that lived in that part of town so I didn't want to stop there.  He said, "I'm going to say a prayer."  I heard him back there mumble a few words.  Then a few minutes later I asked him what he was praying about, and he said, "I prayed that the people wouldn't be wicked anymore."  He has such a kind heart and wants everyone to be happy and not wicked.  I love that he used the word wicked.  

-He loves to play with his friends.  

-He likes to be just like dad!

I love this boy!

Happy Birthday Gracen!

A few recent pictures...

9 Months!

A lot has changed for my baby boy since my last post.  He has been growing WAY too fast!  Lets see...

On July 10, at 6 months, this baby boy started crawling.  He learned it very quickly, and was quite happy with himself for being able to go he wanted!  

Soon after, he was standing up to everything, and walking along things.  He learned to clap around 8 months, loves to be chased.  If I say, "I'm gonna get you!"  he takes off giggling.  He loves to play peek a boo under his blanket.  He will pull it up to cover his face and then move it, and wait for someone to play it with him.   

This boy loves to scream!  Whether he's happy, hungry, tired, mad, or just wants attention.  Every time I take him to the store he screams.  People stare, and then he smiles.  It's a game.  

He LOVES to wrestle with his brother!  It is pretty funny to watch.  If he sees Gracen sitting on the floor he will attack!  He climbs on him, pulls his hair, rolls over him, and grabs on to his clothes and pulls them back and forth.  If Gracen gets away, usually it ends up that Bridger has toppled over.  Well, he just gets back up and goes after him again.  Screaming and all!  I need to get it on video.

At church, he scares the other kids.  A lot of them end up crying, mostly because Bridger is just a bit too much for them!  He is FULL of energy.  Usually he likes to climb on the other kids to get a better look, and they don't seem to like it.  He gets so excited to see kids that are his size, hopefully one day he will calm down a bit so he doesn't scare them!

He's learning to wave.  I like how he watches his fingers open and close as if he's not sure how they are doing it.  He also likes to say hi.  It's the quietest sound he makes, "hhhhu"  he just makes the "h" sound.  He will also say mama and dada.

On October 26th this baby took his first steps!  He was playing with a sock.  He has been able to stand up by himself without holding anything for a while, and continues to get better at it.  He was standing there shaking the sock, and stepped forward a couple of times.  Since that night, he's done it a few more times.  It probably won't be long before he's walking!

This boy loves to eat!!  We've had a lot of trouble with feeding him.  It took a long time to figure out what was causing him so much trouble.  He has his casein protein intollerance, as well as an allergy to bananas and oats.  Once we figured out the bananas and oats were a problem things got much better for him and he hasn't had so many tummy troubles.  He eats just about anything we put in front of him.  Usually he just eats whatever we are eating for dinner with a very loud hum of "mmmmm."

  He absolutely loves his dad, and usually cries when dad leaves.  He gets really excited to see him when he comes home.  He will only give dad kisses, the big slobbery open mouth kind.  I think I've gotten a few, but not many!  When  I ask for one he just laughs at me and tries to smack my face.  

I love this little man to pieces!  He has such an excitement for all the things that surround him!  He laughs and smiles all the time.  He's also very bouncy and loves to dance.  When he hears music he just starts bobbin up and down.  He keeps us all smiling around here. 

 We're so happy he's ours!

A couple weeks after he started crawling.  He loved to crawl under this table.  

We were having a pretty heavy down pour outside and I didn't realize the sliding door was still open.  Bridger crawled over and enjoyed the rain that was coming in through the screen.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but his head was soaked!

He's always sticking his tongue out.  He really likes tongues.  He's always trying to stick his fingers in my mouth to get mine.

Bridger loves to look through the banister rails at us when we go down the stairs.  He gets all excited, and thinks it's a pretty fun game.

Look!  No hands!  Back when he first started to stand without help.

My sweet sleeping boy.  He cried in the crib.  He cried when I held him.  I laid him on the floor and in minutes he was out!

He loves that binky! 

He loves his big sister and brother!

His cute little teeth.  He now has 5 of them!

He still loves to jump.  I love that happy little face!

Everything must be tasted!

One last thing... at his 9 month well check he weighed 19lbs 5 ozs.  He's my biggest baby.  The other 2 were 19 and 19.5 at 1 year.  We won't have to wait to turn his carseat!

Writing

Writing hasn't come easy for this little boy.  I tried to help him long before preschool started, but he just didn't have the patience or desire to do it.  He's been in school for about 2 months now and this is how he writes his name. All on his own!  I was pretty excited.  This is BIG!  One of the only things I couldn't teach him.  It was really the main thing I hoped preschool would be able to help him with.   And he's got it!!

Just a couple weeks ago I went to pick him up at school and his teacher told me he is very ready to start learning to read!  He's got rhyming down pretty good and sounds out simple words.  He asks us to help him read all the time!  He's really excited about it and loves when he gets words right.

This boy has an amazing memory!  Nate taught him that there are 3 bones in your ears.  Inkus, Malice, and Stapes(spelling is probably way off).  He was told if he could remember them the next day he could have a dollar.  Sure enough this boy remembered them and still does.  

The other day while driving in the car we were talking about something and from way in the back Gracen says, "I have a hypothesis about that!"  He used the word right and even knew what it meant!  He has such an excitement for learning new things and remembers them well!  

Date With My Girl!!

Brynlee has been earning points for doing her chores, and when she has enough she gets to go on a date with either me or her dad!  It usually works out to every other weekend.  

About 2 weekends ago we were able to go ice skating together.  She has been wanting to try ice skating for some time now.  She loves watching ice skating on t.v. and has a movie called Ice Princess that she really likes to watch.  

It has been a LONG time since I've been ice skating.  I wasn't sure how this would end up.  It went better than expected!  I didn't fall! ;)  Brynlee did great!  We went out on our first lap and I pretty much held her up the whole way around.  

After the first lap Brynlee wanted to try using five gallon buckets to help her balance.  The rink has buckets that people who are learning can stack to the right height and place upside down to help them.  She went around a few times holding the buckets, then told me she wanted to try without them.   

She held my hand, but could balance much better this time around.  After one lap holding my hand she was off on her own!  She did great and LOVED it!  I was able to show off some of my skills to her which included a really bad half circle turn and some backward skating...all without falling down!

Now we have her signed up for lessons!  I wasn't sure she'd like it.  Even with a few good falls, she is so excited to start at the end of the month!

I love spending time with my girl!  

Great BIG Kiss...

I got a new camera!  I saved up and bought a dslr back in August and have been enjoying learning how to use it!  I have a long way to go.  

One day I was playing around with it and asked Brynlee and Gracen to pose for me.  Here is what I got....

Loving brother and sister...

Going in for a BIG KISS...

Trying SO hard to get away...

"YUCK!"  Wiping it away...

And, STILL *trying* to get away...

I got away!

I'm so funny!

Darn cute kids if you ask me!  

Garden and Fire Pit

This year was our first to have a garden.  Nate did most of the work, got it all ready and planted everything.  I bought the seeds and helped out when I could.  It was fun seeing it grow from tiny little seeds and plants to a pretty nice garden!

Here is our garden in it's early stages...

We had to fence it in due to the millions of rabbits that run all over our yard.  

Here's one of our zucchini clubs!  You really gotta watch those zucchini, they grow FAST!

Here is what the garden grew to be....

We got a pretty nice amount of veggies out of it!  We've canned or froze zucchini, bell peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, pickles, and green beans.  The corn didn't do too well.  We didn't think we were going to get green beans due to birds that kept picking the flowers from the plants before they could grow.  We were very wrong!!  Green beans grew like crazy!!  Some of the biggest green beans I've ever seen!

I also canned about 20 quarts of peaches that I bought at a farmers market.  They turned out great!  My first real attempt at canning!

We planted some pumpkins, thinking it would be fun for the kids.  The plant practically took over the garden, but we only got 2 pumpkins out of it...

The big one weighed, about 30 lbs, and the smaller one was about 18.  

Just a few weeks ago, Nate built us a fire pit out back.  We've been so busy that we only used it that night, but I'm sure it will get plenty of use in the summers to come!

I love our yard!  Plenty spacious for fun things like gardens and fire pits!  We plan to double the size of our garden next year, hopefully with great results!