7 Months

I am a bad blogger lately.  Partly because I don't really have time a lot of weeks and party because I don't really have a ton to blog about.  Winter is always a little ho-hum without a ton of exciting activities but 4 kids keep it exciting enough anyway.  Ezra, despite my pleas with him to stop, continues to grow and get bigger.  He was 7 months old on January 29th.  He got 2 new teeth this past month, the teeth on either side of his top front teeth so we call them his fangs.  He also is sitting better although still falls over occasionally so we continue to keep the boppy around him.

He continues to love to eat and we haven't found too much that he doesn't like.  He is starting to get the hang of eating cheerios and very small pieces of food off his high chair tray although I think mostly it find the floor and subsequently Rona(our beagle) finds it(I guess at least sweeping isn't really an issue anymore:)  Ezra is proving to be our baby that laughs the most and often gives us big belly laughs, especially when his siblings are entertaining him.  He loves to Jump up and down in his excersaucer and put absolutely everything in his mouth.  Not sure what we would do for entertainment around here if it weren't for Ezra. 

(as you can see his hair is getting super long and yes he needs his first haircut!)

(and the above picture cracked me up, he was not in a smiley mood at all this day but this expression is classic)

Christmas 2012

We started out our Christmas 2012 with a trip up to the farm  to Mawdsleys.  The kids love going to the farm and playing at Great Grandma and Grandpas house and of course seeing Bone.  We got a picture of the kids with Great Grandma and Grandpa and while this one isn't perfect I thought it was cute.

This one is a little less silly.

My Grandpa was diagnosed with Mesothelioma before Christmas and at this point hospice is out to care for him along with Uncle Bone.  We were glad to have been able to celebrate Christmas together this year and prayers are appreciated for his comfort and peace in the months ahead.

That same weekend we celebrated with my immediate family.  The boys loved their new Angry Birds hats.

as well as all their new gifts.

Callie loved all her new dolls

and especially her new bike!

Ezra loved his socks:)

On Christmas Eve we went to church and had my parents over for pizza and to watch Home Alone.  We tried to get a few pictures beside the Christmas tree...

Ezra was tired and not really in the mood to pose for pictures but this one is a little better.

 

With Callie posing for pictures is generally not a problem.

On Christmas morning we got up and did presents at our house. 

Ezra had lots of help opening his present.  We'll have to see if he still needs help next year.  He did like to chew on his stocking though.

We stayed home all day on Christmas and did homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then did a late lunch/early supper or Beef tenderloin, crab, potatoes and corn.  It was great!  We celebrated with the Angus Family the weekend after Christmas and somehow I always forget to have my camera, so if anyone has some pictures of the greatgrand kids with Grandma Max I would love a copy via email:)  We didn't do a formal celebration with the Clark family this year as we had lots going on but we did get to see Grandma and Grandpa this past weekend for an informal late Christmas.  We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and 2013 has been going well so far!

Catch Up

Life is busy and I haven't had a chance to blog in awhile.  I am currently in the process of getting our Christmas pictures uploaded from a different camera so the Christmas post will be coming once I get that accomplished but thought I'd catch up with a few non-Christmas pictures in the meantime. 
The kids were SUPER excited about our first snow of the season in December.  They couldn't wait to get their snow gear on and head out sledding.

Since we got our first big snowfall our inflatable sled met it's doom with a patch of ice but the kids still had fun sledding these past few weeks anyway.  They are eagerly awaiting another big snow since now a lot of the original snow is gone.

We also were able to go to a Cyclone game during Christmas break this year.  The kids all did great and loved to watch the Cyclones play(minus Ezra, who we thought would have more fun staying with Grandma and taking a nap then going to the game:)

and to wrap the random things we did over break post our sweet little baby boy turned 6 months old on the 29th of December!  We actually moved our big chair down to the basement for the time being since we are in the process of redoing our living room so please excuse the drab walls in the background.  This month Ezra started eating vegetables and cereal.  Finally rolled over from back to tummy and started getting better at sitting up on his own for longer periods of time.  He remains our sweet, smiley baby who loves to put everything in his mouth and and screech when he is excited.  At his 6 month checkup he weighed in at 18lbs. 14.5oz and was 26.5 inches long! No wonder he's getting so heavy to carry around!  Hard to believe he's already half way to one.

Busy

We've been busy baking around here and getting ready for Christmas.  I have a girl who loves to help!

With celebrations beginning this weekend we will surely be even more busy soon so wanted to take the time to say Merry Christmas(in case I don't have time to get on to post before then) We hope you remember the reason why we celebrate!

Oh (Fake) Christmas Tree

Yes you read that correctly, we have a fake Christmas tree this year:(  It didn't work out to get up to the tree farm over the last several weeks and I couldn't wait any longer to deck our halls so my mom wasn't using her bigger artificial tree and said we could borrow it.  Yes, we could have gone to get a real tree around Ames but I am too cheap to pay for one when I know where I can get one for a deep discount up the road a few miles:)  Anyway even though it's fake we still had fun decorating it the other night.  I let the kids help me with "my" tree since we didn't do one upstairs this year which is usually their tree.  I didn't have too high of expectations but they actually did a really good Job.  There were a few too many decorations down low but we fixed that and I think it turned out pretty nice...well you know for a fake tree:)

5 Months

Ezra turned 5 months old on Thursday.  This month he started to really laugh a lot, especially at big brother Gabe.  He also started to be a hungry boy and eating a bigger bottle at each feeding.  He is a pretty happy guy most of the time now but he is wiggly!  He will let you know when he is sleepy and ready for a nap and generally does great sleeping at night and during the day.  It is strange to think around this time last year we were surprised to learn our 4th little bundle would be completing our family in the summer and now we can't imagine life without our cute little bean!

I can add a first to Ezra's baby book as well as he tried his first food today.  Sweet potatoes.  He didn't do too bad:)

Bumblebee, Thor, a Butterfly and a Pumpkin

It has taken me awhile to get this posted but the kids loved Halloween this year.  The day before we carved pumpkins.  Gabe had no problem digging right in.

Ty and Callie on the other hand were a little more aprehensive of the pumpkin goo.

Daddy had to scoop their pumpkins out for them:)  Here are the finished products.
Gabe's Jack O lantern

Ty's Jack O Lantern(very robotic looking don't you think?:)

and Callie's Jack O Lantern

The kids were very excited for trick or treating on Halloween night.  We had Bumblebee

Thor

a butterfly

and a pumpkin who really didn't care about trick or treating but who did like spending the evening with Grandma and Grandpa where it was warm:) (That costume used to have a cute little stem hat but apparently through the years is was misplaced:(

 The kids were a hit with their lighted trick or treat buckets from Grandpa Tim, I wished we would have had business cards to pass our from the lady who makes them because I think we were asked at every house where we got them!

After a successful night of trick or treating we went over to Grandma's for Pizza.  The kids are excited to have Ezra Join in the activities next year!