Mmmm, sock foot tastes good…
Victoria has decided that she’s going to start teaching Aidan to play violin. For now he’s really excited to learn and has been careful with the violin. He stores it in his bedroom and doesn’t want anyone else to touch it but him. I love it when they’re young and excited about learning something new.
Halloween night around here isn’t the real star of the show it’s trunk or treat that everyone looks forward to. It’s always the first event of the season and they get to be with all of their friends as they go around to the trunks for treats. This year there was also a carnival indoors. The kids had a great time playing games. Victoria had face paint stitches put on her face and Aidan thought he wanted to do that too but once it was his turn he froze up and wouldn’t get in the chair. He got into the doughnut on a string game big time though!
Chullain got to go around with some of his friends who were also all dressed. It’s great to see these man sized teenage boys get into the spirit of things and have some good clean fun. I loved his costume!
Victoria worked on her costume longer than anyone else. She decorated the yard for Halloween and did some decorating inside the house too. She’s really great about motivating everyone to get up and do things that are good for us.
Aidan was all excited to be swap thing and then we went to shop for Chullain’s costume and he decided he wanted to be a pirate. I wasn’t down with buying another costume so we talked and talked about how cool swap thing is. In the end he was happy to dress as swamp thing and had a great time.
Little Connor is getting big and was almost busting out of his 6 month sized monkey costume. I figured it was for just a few hours and would do. We dressed him up and he was so snuggly that he fell asleep in Daddy’s arms at the fair so they went and sat in the car for his nap which suited Bo just fine because it was mobbed with people.
The gangs all here in this one and I love it! I love having four children and I love that they’re all spread out and love being with one another. Happy Halloween everyone!!
The stand out thing this past month as been that he’s teething. He got his first tooth just a few days ago and is working on the second bottom tooth as I type this. He’s very interactive lately and reaches out for Mom and kicks and reaches for attention from others. He loves to jump in his jump up likes to jump when we’re holding him on our laps as well. He started eating baby food and doesn’t really like it much so far. We’ve given him plain rice cereal and then rice cereal with pears. When we gave him the cereal with pears last night he made the most terrible faces! The thing that he seems to hate the most is riding in the car at night. The thing that he seems to like the best is being tickled and bounced up into the air. We love, love, love our little Connor!!
Connor is growing up way too fast! For the last week or so he’s been yelling at dinner every night unless someone holds him on their lap. He will sit on one of our laps and watch as the spoonfuls of food go from our plate to mouth. He very obviously wanted to be let in on the fun. Yesterday we decided we’d start rice cereal a few days before his five month anniversary. He didn’t actually think too much of it (none of mine ever really have which leads me to believe rice cereal isn’t that tasty.) I’m sure with a little practice he’ll be throwing the food back with all the rest of them. Milestone achieved!
One of Victoria’s favorite friends Michaela came over for the evening and they played dress up for a good part of the night. They had a little photo shoot in Halloween costumes at one point. Too fun!
A few weeks ago when Michaela was having another visit we dug up our sweet potatoes. The girls thought it would be fun to name the potatoes as they pulled them out based on characteristics each of them had. The potato filling this pot was named “monster.” He was huge and pretty darn tasty. He turned into bread and a few more bags of him are filling the freezer for later use. It’s great eating things we’ve grown ourselves.
This is mystique. She showed up at our house one morning. I was hoping she’d leave but she was back later that evening. I was pleased to find her gone the next morning but she showed up this morning again and climbed the tree in our front yard. I don’t’ know where she comes from or why see keeps visiting but Victoria absolutely loves that she does. If it was up to Victoria we’d probably have 100 cats running all over the house and yard. I’m grateful that I’m in charge and not Victoria!
This is the cow at the Farm and Ranch museum who we were able to watch being milked. It was a fun field trip for Aidan and his little preschool pals. Aidan started talking to the volunteer leading the demonstration and he was going off on a tangent about zombies. I couldn’t get him to hush and the volunteer couldn’t redirect him either so she finally say, “We’re not going to talk about dreams anymore we’re going to talk about cows.” Aidan stopped talking and his friend sitting next to him says, “I had a dream about cows!” It was too cute.
Here are some of the preschool kiddos on the wagon ride. They were able to ride around and see cows of all different breeds and ages, including some long horns.
In order to finish the Eagle project we had to go up to the camp ground two more times. We didn’t stay over either time but we did take the whole family when we went in late September. Our wonderful friends the parks went along this time and Dalin practically put but the side roof. He has mad welding skills. The Anderson family came again and Brother Anderson did a ton of work on the front roof. We are so grateful to all of those that put in so much time and effort on Chullain’s behalf. The last time they went up just Bo and Chullain went. The Sensiba family came up and as they have every time since Clay and Chullain were both working on projects at the same time. Will was wonderful in lending time, talent and tools over and over again.
Hard at work on the side roof.
Front roof in progress.
The front roof turned out to be a bigger project than we’d initially envisioned because the rafters were rotted out once we got the roof board off. Also once we got started it was decided that instead of just replacing the original roof the new roof would be a bit of an expansion.
Side roof all finished. It looks fantastic! I know everyone will appreciate staying dry when they go in an out of the kitchen or have outdoor cooking to do.
Front roof all finished! I still want to go up sometime and paint the under side of the rafters but for now it’s done because winter is setting in that high up. What a rewarding and worthwhile project for Chullain!!
You’re rolling! You’re laughing! You’re jabbering and cooing and trying to get attention from everyone. You’re eating less often but more when you do. You’re bouncing in your bouncer seat and spinning in your exersaucer. You’re riding in your ergo pack on walks now and pulling hair whenever you can get a handful. We all LOVE playing with you!
We spent the weekend in Cloudcroft, NM at the Stake Campground. Chullain and Clay both love this place and wanted to do their Eagle Projects there. Clay intends to install a playground and Chullain is going to replace a rotted out roof and build a new roof over the back kitchen door. The Dads all helped with the heavy for and the Mom’s and siblings made sure their bellies were full and that the little ones kept out of the way.
They tore off the front roof of the front porch. Burnt the old trusses. Dug huge holes for the support beams of the side roof. Built 90% of the trusses for the new roof. Put up the poles for the side roof using concrete.
Our little Connor turned three months old on the 26th of August. He’s getting bigger, weighing in at about 16.5 lbs now. He’s also much more interactive than before and will “talk” to us and try to get our attention if we walk by him. He can roll over and wants to be a part of all the action all the time. We are all having a ton of fun watching him grow and playing with him is one of his siblings favorite pastimes. One thing that he does not like is his infant car seat so we’ve switched him to the convertible one and he tolerates it better. Another thing that he doesn’t like is being hungry! One of his favorite things is being sung to and he also likes being naked, lol.
Going to the pool! So this wasn’t really from our day in photos but I found it on the camera and it’s pretty dang cute. He’s getting more and more social every day.
He’s picked a passie and it seems to be the only one that he’ll suck for more than a minute. The funny thing is that it’s a different kind than any of our others have liked. What else is funny is that he’s the only one that will swing in the swing. He doesn’t tolerate it he loves it! He swings in there just about every day to nap.
Asian pears are yummo! Our tree produced tons of pears this year and Aidan really likes them. I have to say that I really like them as well. I don’t know what to do with them besides eat them and give them away but for this year that’ll do. Next year I’ll investigate other things to do with them.
It was violin lesson day during our day in photos this time. Victoria is still improving and now is taking violin and piano lessons. She enjoys her lessons and playing so for now I think that she’ll keep on with the lessons. Her instructor is Delores and she’s wonderful.
I’m not a fashion plate and I can’t wait to get some more contacts but I’m going to share a picture anyhow as I have a new hair color. I love, love, love red hair and I’m so glad that’s the color mine is again!!
The look says it all…
He’s making a monster face just like the monster on his Daddies favorite onsie.
What’s missing? CHULLAIN and BO! I have to ask for pictures as gifts at this point as they feel that the camera is some sort of mortal enemy to be avoided at all costs. Maybe next day in photos I’ll make sure it’s on a Saturday and I can take pictures of them in their beds.
He’s growing so fast! He stays up a lot of the day now and likes to “play” with everyone. He’ll smile, babble and blow spit bubbles. He enjoys looking around at the world and being talked to. He even likes having a song sung to him once and awhile. He lights right up when one of his siblings comes close for a cuddle or chat. We’re all enjoying our little guy. Two months of age brings a miserable doctors appt. with it and he received a dose of live virus along with 3 injections. Pain now for protection later so it’s worth it but still hard for him as it’s the worst thing that’s happened to him besides being born in his whole little life. He weighed in at 14 lbs and 6 oz (90%) and was 22.5 inches long (50%). We’re all looking forward to another month passing to see how much he changes!
Bath time has grown on Connor but it’s still not his favorite pass time. It’s not nearly as fun as say blowing spit bubbles or being sung to. He’ll take his bath without much complaint now and as you can see he’s pretty happy at the end of it.
Over 4th of July weekend my Dad come out to bless the baby. It was great to have some time to visit with him. We were able to go to the farmers market, spend time chatting, eat some good food and shoot off fireworks on Monday evening.
One of my goals for his visit was to get an updated photo with him with all of my children. I love this one!
We get rewarded with occasional smiles now! You’re really a pretty laid back kid so long as someone it paying attention to you. I feel like we can officially say that you do NOT have colic for which I am VERY grateful. You’ve started wearing 3/6 month onsies and your eyes are Harris blue. We love having you in our family and getting to watch you grow. You have hyper alert times several times a day now and one of them is generally at night time around 10 or so which is late for me but which I love because there are no other distractions. You look a lot like your brothers so you’re one lucky guy if you get to be as handsome as they are when you’re older ;0)
It’s small but it’s a great way to battle the heat. We’ve had some battles trying to get a pool up this year. The first pool, which we were given, had a leak which we couldn’t find so we bought a new pool. We put up the new pool in our ideal spot and it wasn’t level and so all the water came crashing out and flooded the yard. Finally we decided the only level place in our yard is the deck so we moved the furniture and put the pool up there (after buying padding that cost as much as the pool because of the stone work underneath which would have put a hole.). It’s a been a pool adventure but now we’ve got it mostly figured out and are on to the fun part of thing, swimming!
Chullain hasn’t been in the pool once. He thinks that he’s too big for it to be any fun. Maybe he’s right but I’m not willing to have a deeper or bigger pool with kiddos this little at home still.
Our friend at church started a children’s theater this year. Victoria was able to
be in her first production called the Seven Ravens. She had a great time and learned a lot. I was impressed by her ability to learn her lines. It was also a good way for her to have something of her own to focus on while everyone else was busy with baby things. I imagine that theater is something she’ll do again given the opportunity.
Chullain was asked to help back stage. Two of his other friends were working back stage as well so he had a good time with that and learned some things as well.
He didn’t love it but didn’t hate it either which is saying something. With baby #4 time just seems to pass too quickly.
The first baby to use this bath tub is now helping the next baby to have his first bath in it too. Aidan is a great helper!
practice, practice, practice…
Little helper!
Vayu
Too cute even at 3 1/2
Video games with her favorite friend Juanito.
Best Chullain picture we could get. Teenagers!
Tummy time. He actually doesn’t mind it!
Mmmmm….
Stretch!!
Grandma came. She played, kept us together and sane. We’re glad she came and sad to see her go.
