The Good, The Bad, and The Utterly Frustrating

There are three reasons I blog.
1. To keep anyone interested (mainly grandparents) updated on the happenings of our family.
2. I was given a box of my childhood photos. Very few have any details of who, what, or when, and my memory is terrible, so I don't remember much about what was happening -- and I wish I did. (Don't feel bad Mom -- you had six kids, worked, and didn't have the technology today that makes it so much easier). But because of that, I want my kids to be able to look back and be able to see/read what was going on and what their lives were like as children.
3. My original goal was to have all our life perfectly scrapbooked and kept up to date. ...Right... So that didn't happen. So, then I made a goal of first getting the first year of each child scrapbooked, and then go back and scrapbook the rest as I had time. With the blog, I could flip back to the date and pictures of the event to be scrapbooked, and I would have everything written down so I could just put it in the scrapbook -- which has worked great.

So, I have digitally scrapbooked a little more than a year with both Emma and Jake. Yay! Goal achieved so far. I wanted to print them into a book so I had something home they could look at and read, and finally got motivated to get it done. I now have two books that cover about a year of our lives (Jake's year). This is "The Good".

I did his first because I knew I wanted to redo a few of Emma's because when I started digitally scrapbooking, I wasn't very good, and I wanted her pages to look a little nicer. So, I started taking a look at them, and was realizing I was REALLY bad back then, and would want to redo a bit more than expected -- more time taken away from starting Luke's and catching up. This is "The Bad".

The Utterly Frustrating? Well, as I took a closer look, I remembered that when I started almost 7 years ago, I had sized my layouts for being posted on the internet because I had planned to have them on a website -- at the time, I thought they would print fine like that also, but the quality is not good enough... So, now instead of redoing a handful of pages, I have to redo about 6 months of her year -- which is when I started doing them in the higher printing quality...  Yes -- I got quite frustrated.

On the bright side, It won't take as long to fix them, as I already have the pictures and words picked out from the previous pages. I'm also much more motivated to get them all done now, as the kids have already enjoyed looking through the two books I printed. Seeing the end product and that they truly enjoy them, will make it worth it.

Laughs

Well, I don't have the squeals yet, but here's some laughs to brighten your day. My appologies for the loud background noise. Jake was playing with those trucks that rev when you push them...

Sometimes I forget how fast these little ones change and grow. Since I did my post on Lucas turning 6 months -- yesterday morning, where he was not rolling and just scooting -- he decided last night to roll over about 4 times, and check him out up on his knees! I'm not ready!

Jan 21, 2015

Progress

Way to go Jake -- learning to write his name! Jake is a different type of learner than Emma, and I'm trying to figure out how best to assist him in this process. He can recognize most capital letters on fridge-phonics or signs, but when it comes to writing them, he can't think of the letter, and asks what it looks like. You have to describe the shape of the letter (up, down, and across for "A"), or he has to watch you write it, while saying the description. With the descriptions, he was able to write his name though! He has the disadvantage of being the middle child, where my attention is on helping Emma with homework, and having to meet a baby's needs. That being said, I'm proud of him for trying so hard to learn his letters. It's definitely difficult for him to sit still and try to focus on learning, but that will come -- he's doing great!

6 Months

 Lucas is 6 Months!

   

   

Yet another baby boy in the family that makes me think I could handle another one. He's generally such an easy going, happy baby. He loves to be held and talked to, especially by Emma and Jake. He still hasn't got the rolling over thing down, but he can pivot around on his stomach and scoot backwards. He loves to grab people's faces, remotes, phones, everyone's drinks, and anything placed near him -- and they all go in his mouth. He's my first thumb/finger sucker. His favorite thing is his blanket that he loves to chew on and rub on his face while being snuggled in it to sleep. He loves to grunt, blow raspberries, growl, laugh, and squeal. 

   

Lucas does what Emma refers to as "the Lucas Squeals". I've been trying to get a video of it, but all my videos are too long to put on the blog, so I'll try next time to make it shorter. When he gets really excited, or sees the kids playing and wants to join in, he lets out these high pitched squeals that makes everyone crack up. These pictures of mid-squeal give you some idea of why... I especially think it's funny when Brad or Jake's heads' are near him, he'll reach as far as he can to grab their hair or whack their head while squealing. Something about short hair on a head I guess?  He started squealing in Relief Society this last week, and all the ladies thought he was so cute and funny. I about had to walk out. Then he proceeded to fill his diaper...of course, you always get the little giggles from the ladies that hear, and the one in front of me turned around and said "oh, excuse me!" Pretty funny, still a little embarrassing, but funny.

   

Everyone loves little Lucas, and I constantly have to hand him to Brad in another room so that Emma can concentrate on homework. He's just so much fun and always wants to be where everyone else is. Wherever he is, Emma and Jake are sure to be close by -- they definitely can't get enough of him. He loves all the attention he gets, and makes us all laugh. Love this kid!

Jan 13, 2015

Christmas

We had a nice, quite Christmas at home this year. We had planned to have Brad's parents with us that day, but it decided to snow on us Christmas Eve. Perfect timing for adding that extra awesome Christmas excitement, but not so much for traveling guests, so they couldn't make it.

I tend to go a bit camera crazy around the holidays, so I decided to just post a few of my favorites. Emma proves why Christmas with kids is just SO much more fun! Look how much pure joy and excitement she has! You can't help but smile looking at her!

   

 Jake enjoyed opening all the presents, and wanted to stop, open, and play with each one.

   

 Lucas happened to wake up with a fever that morning, but still managed to squeeze out a few smiles in-between being snuggled by Mom and Dad.

   

When we got married, Brad always joked about getting a gong for like a dinner bell. I figured 9 years later, it was time to get him one as a joke. It is pretty fun to hit... but loud. It is currently hidden in a kitchen drawer until we think of a spot to put it that the kids can't reach very easily...

 There were two big hits with the kids' Christmas this year -- Disney Infinity (Xbox one game set that, now they know how to do it, ask to play every day), and these plasma cars.  They spent the entire day (and everyday since) cruising them around the kitchen like a race track. Literally. Every. Day. Brad got me a remote control Porsche, and I chase them around the track with it. It is really fun -- crazy loud fun when you catch up to them and they burst out laughing and screaming. Brad's much better at it than I, but my coordination is improving slightly.

Angela's family made it back up so the boys could spend some time with Parry. Aaron and Brad had fun upstairs with guns, the kids ran around crazy playing, and Angela and I got to relax on the couch with the chunky one.

Dec 25, 2014

Christmas Eve

Annual Family Jammy Photo. Love getting new comfy pajamas!

Gingerbread Houses

Okay, okay, they're graham-cracker houses. Much easier with the same result -- putting a bunch of different candy and treats on them for about 10 seconds, and then eating them all off.

I had to keep asking Jake to try and put the decorations on the house instead of just eating them. Both houses were thrown in the trash candy-less shortly after... 

Dec 23, 2014