Video #3

Ellie is finally taking off - she has realized she can get somewhere without a toy luring her along. We now find her all over the upstairs!

Video #2

Here's another sweet song.....

Video #1

Caleb and Levi participated in the Christmas concert at their school, and my camera batteries died during it. Luckily for them, they have each other to sing with at home! This is one of my favorite songs they sang: "No L"

November 2011

Sweet little Ellie's hair is finally long enough for a ponytail!

Caleb loves to read books to her. And she likes it, too!

Every November Ian's school does a turkey trot, with one team member from each grade (minus kindergarten, so Caleb and Levi didn't participate this year), so six members per team. Then they race by grade, adding up the team's scores at the end. The lowest score wins certificates for a turkey. Ian isn't the fastest runner in the third grade, but he ran the whole thing (we figured it must be about 1/4 mile) in the snow!

This is the first snowman Caleb has ever built completely by himself - not too bad! It snowed about 2" just once, and hasn't snowed again. Very different from last year, when November had record amounts of snow!

What would Ellie do without three doting brothers to entertain her?

Ellie and Daddy, with her mohawk she usually has since she doesn't keep her ponytails in long. We went to visit grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins over Thanksgiving and had a great time! We truly have many things to be thankful for. We've been keeping a jar to add a candy to when someone either says, "thank you" to someone, or says something they're thankful for. The jar is over half full, so hopefully that means we're learning to be thankful. My very favorite was from Levi - "I am thankful for that we have noses so we can get all the gunk out."

So this month seems to be a lot about Ellie.....here she is standing! So, she only can last a few seconds leaning on the couch like this, but she can do it! She also can copy things like sounds you make, panting, and things you do with your hands like tapping and waving. She's working on clapping. She's really good at spitting. When I put on her pajamas her hand usually gets stuck, and I ask where her fingers are and then say, "there they are!" when I pull them through. She's picked up on that and will say, in a super cute little voice, "there they are!" She even says it if you play peek-a-boo and say, "there she is," etc. And, she'll copy "ta-da!" She will be a talker yet! Over Thanksgiving at Grandma's house she really started pulling herself forward on her tummy. Since we've been home she will now go after a toy across the room, rather than just right in front of her. Soon we may find her all over the house!

Also in November Ian had a musical performance at school. They did two dances and sang four songs. It mostly had an African theme, and each class used instruments for one song. He participated and sang and had a fun time at it!

October 2011

It's still funny to see Caleb and Levi often sleeping in the exact same positions! Shortly after this, we rearranged rooms - the plan was to put Ellie in with Ian, but he kept getting sick. So then I was going to put Ellie with Levi, who rarely gets sick anymore. But the day I was going to do it, Levi got sick! So, I moved Caleb in with Ian anyway, and moved the crib into my room, so for now Levi has his own room and Caleb and Ian share. Of course, nobody has gotten sick since then, but it's still working out letting Ian get used to sharing, and to split up Levi and Caleb - they go to sleep so much faster these days! Soon we'll switch so Caleb has a chance to have his own room.

We went to a nearby apple orchard to pick our own apples. Then we spent a really long day making lots of applesauce! This was the set-up, inside and out.

The boys were excited to help, and figured out their own rotation - one squished it down, one turned the crank, and one watched to make sure nothing overflowed. It worked out pretty well, leaving me to fill the bottles, etc.

Our shed before, it really needed help!

Our shed after painting - it still needs green trim, but we ran out of paint and warm weather.

Halloween! Halloween seemed to have lasted forever. We went to the hospital where Ellie was born one weekend to attend a NICU reunion Halloween party. This is where this picture was taken. Then the next weekend our ward had a trunk-or-treat, where Ian and Ellie stayed with the same costumes (Ian is a spy) but Levi and Caleb chose new ones - a cowboy and Winnie the Pooh (we have enough dress up clothes they kept changing). Then on Monday Caleb and Levi could wear costumes to school (Winnie the Pooh and a train driver) and then they went trick or treating at night (Ian was sick) and they were both firemen. They had a fun holiday!

Levi was a very cute cowboy!

And Ellie finally became a stable sitter! And, her top two front teeth finally came through. She still has four more I can see ready to come in!

Also in October, Ian played soccer. I don't have any good pictures, though. Could have something to do with three younger siblings to keep happy during the games. There were only two third grade teams so they just kept playing each other every game. He improved with each week, which is great!

All three boys are still loving school. Ian is learning cursive, and loves it. It's fun because he's learning to write letters and Caleb and Levi are learning to print their letters! Ian is also studying chemistry which he likes. Levi and Caleb are both doing well with starting to recognize words and to sound some out. At first it was really hard but they get better at it every week!