Penny turned 6 months!

We love this girl to pits. I'm awful because she is the 3rd baby and my blog doesn't seem to give her enough attention but I assure you she gets lots of attention her.

She 's loves to be held by those she's familiar with with. Which consists of her parents and Jace and Talia. BUT she was watched by my parents while we went to Vegas so now she doesn't mind being held by my parents. And she seems to be ok being around Jason's parents especially his mom because she has been around lately helping out with my sister in law.

Anyways she's in between Talia and Jace for size. Built more slender like Talia. Her hair is coming in more brown with bits of red. I love it! She looks a lot like me as a baby but things do change. She sits up on her own. No crawling or anything yet. She is pushing backwards and rolling everywhere which usually end up with her upset because she's either got stuck or rolled onto the hard wood. She doesn't babble much but she makes grunty sounds. She's a great eater, and a great sleeper. She does love to be held a little to much sometimes BUT she is getting better at rolling around and playing in her jumper that it occupies some of her time. I also don't mind holding her because time goes by so fast. She really is pretty easy going. Makes life easier when you have a baby that has slept 9-10 hours since her first week and then 12 hours by 5 months, and consistently since 6 months. Nice not to have to really sleep train :)

Her measurements:

Length: 26.5 inches- 50-60%
Head: 40.4 cm - Less than 3rd% (we have small heads)
14.5 pds (30%) for weight which is pretty good

We did get her immunized. I actually worked hard to get it changed for her to get her MMR vaccine early because of the measles outbreak in southern Alberta. The vaccine discussion is for another post but honestly NO BODY could argue with me about not vaccinating their child if their child can be vaccinated. Anyways another post. So we got her vaccinated early and we got it changed that if you are travelling down to southern Alberta you can get your child over 6 months old vaccinated. How lucky our we to have vaccines :)

Anyways she's a blessing in our life. We love her to bits. I love having another little girl and she fits right in. I think the more kids you have the more you want them to stay your little baby.

Halloween 2013

It was a big year for these two. They actually touched the "guts" of the pumpkin. It was fun great weather except for the increasing wind. So we trick or treated at south gate mall for 45 minutes. THEN we came home had dinner, my parents took them out for 20 minutes, and then Jason took them out for maybe over an hour? Talia wanted to go longer but Jace was done. That's usually how it goes. It was nice staying home with Penny and just keeping her warm :)

 

 

These are day costumes. Talia wore this to school and Jace and Penny wore these around the house.

Everyone loved the carebears costume. We actually didn't see any other carebears. Super warm costume... maybe too warm for going around the mall. Their heads were a little hot!

 

 

update on life... and fall photos

So I've been bad at keeping up on the blog so I'll give a quick update on us all and then some fall photos :)

Jason- Ever since our ward boundaries changed and we were put in a whole new ward he was automatically released from youngmens president. He served well in that calling but man it seems like we've seen WAY more of him than we have in the past year. It's been so nice. He's now serving in the elders quorum presidency. He's playing hockey and he's recently convinced me to take up watching the walking dead with him. SO SCARY!

Me- I was automatically released from my enrichment coordinator calling. That was a hard calling for me but I really enjoy it when the activities had all come together. I love relief society and meeting all the women in the ward. I definitely will go to the activities and support whoever is planning future activities. My life is kids right now. I've successfully got Penny on a great schedule having a morning and afternoon nap. I was able to take some fall photos this fall which was nice. It's nice to do something I love to do. To be honest nothing to new in my life other than helping kids and keeping my house put together. I'm thinking about getting a YMCA pass so I can get out and the kids can play with kids their age. I think it'd be good for all of us.

Talia- She is in preschool. I have decided to put her in kindergarten next year. I have been really debating with the September 28th birthday. If she's really falling behind socially, I think they would hold her back. So far she's making friends easy and not as shy.  She just loves learning so I think she needs something more than preschool. I still think it'd be nice for Jace and Talia to be 1 grade apart... so I guess maybe I should put more thought into it.

Jace- What can I say, he's my Jace. He's busy, and has so much energy. We love him to bits. He dying to turn 3 so he can go to swimming lessons just like Talia. He LOVES tractors and cars still. He still loves to make people laugh and he succeeds.

Penny- She is now on a good schedule. sleeps 9-11 hours at night. It's nice. She's in bed latest at 8 pm. then goes to 6 or 7 usually. She's playing shy already and cries for me often. She really is my most sensitive or how do I describe it? Most needy in the sense she hates to just lay there and be a lone. Can't blame her we're pretty great ;) She's rolling everywhere, eating baby food. Trying to learn to make sounds like spitting with her lips. She's not much of a babbler. She's formula fed now and since then has grown a ton. She's tall.

Anyways that's our update. Not much new here. Just life. We all have our own struggles and strengths and we're loving our life as a family.

Here's some photos Jason helped me take with the kids. I need to get a tripod so we can take family photos. That would have been nice. But the kids did great and who doesn't love updated fall photos of your kids?

Talia's 4th Birthday

Talia turned 4! Where does the time go? She keeps saying "can you believe me it mom? Can you believe I'm 4?"

She is sweet.
She's thoughtful and caring. She tells me every day multiple times she loves me.
She's sensitive
She's obedient
She's cuddly
She's a great big sister and always tries to be the mommy. Sometimes I need to remind her she's not... but other time she's actually being helpful and explains to Jace why things have to be a certain way
She remembers everything I say. I need to be careful with that ;)
She's coming out of shell
She is so mindful of others and their feelings and often doesn't understand why someone would say or something to hurt her or someone else. She will say "I should give [so and so] a hug, that would make them feel good."
She loves church
She loves singing and dancing
She loves learning. I need to be a better teacher.
She loves dress up- mostly as a princess
She loves her new Barbie house and barbies
She loves playing the computer (pbs kids)
and she loves helping.


Talia is now 27.2 pounds. her brother may weight more than her but she's almost at 30 :)
She's WELL below 3% for weight,
15% for height and
5% for head
Our kids have small heads. I think she may be the most like me for height. Penny and Jace are taller, and Talia is my little peanut (as a little boy in her preschool class called her)

She is so special. Sometimes too good for this world. We love her so much and really can't imagine life without her. We are lucky to be her parents.


We got her favorite breakfast- McDonalds pancake
Talia, "They're the sweetest of sweet!"
 

 

Beautiful cake we had made for her birthday. I hope one day I can make cakes this pretty.

 

All ready for her princess party
 

My pretty princess

 

Jace dressing as a Prince for the party. My silly boy.

 

Making a crown.
 

 

 

 

The party! 4 of the 8 were family, but it sure does get big fast. She had fun. Happy birthday Talia

Penny's 5 months

My sweet Penny turned 5 months old on the 21st. This is a picture of her when she was sick. Not the best but it was sweet because I got to hold her a lot.

Penny is now sleeping completely unwrapped. We just lay her in her crib and put her blanky on her and she goes to sleep. sometimes cries a bit but not long. She is having a morning nap, afternoon nap, and one short evening nap. Then she is in bed between 8 and 8 30. Sleep for 9-11 hours with the really rare bad night. It happens to all of them :)

We just started to introduce baby food. Just baby cereal and tonight peas. She's taking it well. With Jace is took a month for him to be able to learn how to use a spoon so I'm glad she took it so well. Feed kids baby food stresses me out figuring out what to feed them and when to introduce them, so hopefully she just likes it all (wishful thinking).

She rolls a lot. and puts everything in her mouth. She will lay on her own for a bit but she's my baby that most like to be by someone or held. Goes to show every baby is different. I actually don't mind though because that's just her and we love her. Some might say needy... maybe so but oh well she needs me OR she'll just have to be mad sometimes on the floor while I help other kids or get stuff done. If I'm in view she's usually good.

Also a fairly big thing is she is 99% bottle fed with the odd nursing which is probably more when she is in need of comfort. We had to do it. She wouldn't take it and I needed a bit more freedom. I love nursing but it just comes to a point where I need my body back, some freedom, and reassurance that she is getting enough. I know I still have to prepare a bottle and feed her BUT I can feed her while doing other tasks and other people can feed her. I still feel bonded while bottling. Also she is so distracted nursing now.

She's starting to play shy. She knows me, Jason, Talia and Jace. She loves her siblings.

I love how she scrunches her nose when she smiles hard.

She loves sucking her tongue still and loves to suck her blanky the same way Talia did/ does.

We love her to pieces and can't imagine life without her.

 

I love her double chin. Fastest part of her body.

Practicing our craft for Talia's bday.

 

Chews on everything.

 

Trying out her new chair
 

Cute girl

 

 

This is the start of scrunching her nose. Too cute! 

A sweet spirit

I don't want to forget this so I'm writing it on our blog. I've mentioned before talia really is a sweet spirit. Very rarely does she have a mean bone and we're not usually surprised when she says things like (and I quote) "I love you mom as big as the sky because the sky never ends", "nana this is he best day and the best part is spending it with you", "I love having you as my mom", "I should give [so and so] a hug, that would make hem feel good right mom?" ... Anyways you get the picture. 

But sometimes I am surprised with how aware she is with how people feel around her. Jason told me today about when him, talia and jace went on a walk. There was this hill they were having a race up it. So jason said, "marks get set GO!" Jason said he smoked them! Makes me laugh because he wasnt kidding. Anyways Talia was in second and she really is competitive and really fast. Jace was in Third. He's the youngest and when it comes to running he gets tired fast ha! As Jason got to the top Jace started crying because he was being left behind. Jason turned to see Talia turn around go back to Jace, grab his hand and walked up with him.

I get tight in the chest even sharing this. Yes they bicker sometimes and he can really tease her but its moments like this and many more comments from her that I recognize how much I can learn from her. All my kids are gifts from god and they each have their unique gifts and qualities about them that are so special. But often I am blown away by Talia and how understanding she is. What a light she is and I'm lucky to be her mom. 

Echo

Echo. I love Echo. I love the lake life. I love the water, the nice weather, I love water sports (wish I could do more... kids does not always make this possible), I love playing cards, and I love just hanging out and talking.

This year 4 of the 8 siblings made it for the week we went. It was fun. The only thing I will enjoy more is when my kids are older and more adventurous with the water and I'll enjoy it more when Jace doesn't get gastro and we don't go through 50 diapers in 4 days. And no that's not an exaggeration. But even then I still had fun. It was fun having Jason with us without any work and not his calling!

Here's some pictures:

Jason, Justin and his Dad trying to control the wasp situation. There were tons of wasps. Jason finally put up these wasp traps and I think he caught over 500 hundred. It was crazy


This is how Penny likes to tuck her head when going to sleep.

Works like a charm. I think she's growing out of it though. :( 

Talia giving Papa white her num nums to keep him warm during his Sunday nap... it was +30. So thoughtful 

The ipad is always a hit

Amelia is amazing she braided Talia's hair. I attempted when we got home... I sucked! Really Talia's hair is a challenge, there isn't much. She looked so cute. Amelia come be her stylist! 

 

Grandma Low bringing out the bubbles

Jason Skiing.  I was even able to get up on one ski a couple of times. I love skiing, but it sure makes it harder when you keep having babies and get rusty. Jason's always great at skiing and I love watching him.

Talia is on the tube. Hard to spot her she's on the left in front of Karen. The child that looks like a baby in the yellow life jacket. Anyways Talia did love the water. Her anxieties sometimes get the best of her with the "dark" water but she really did love the boat, being on the tube and once we got her swimming she loved it. Jace was too sick to learn how to enjoy it. So we'll see next summer how he does.

Amelia teaching Penny the way of Wizard!

Going for a boat ride.

Went to go do something with Penny and this boy went right back in. 

Coloring 

We went to Waterton for the day. I usually am not a huge fan of Waterton but it was actually a lot more fun than I remembered. We got good weather so it wasn't crazy windy, and Jason's cousins that were there were 6, 10, and 12. Perfect baby sisters. So it was nice. Wish I had a 12 year old! Also Amelia offered to watch the kids while we went and ate out. A nice get away. Next time there is another waterton week we'll go a few extra days and do some shorter hikes with the kids. The water even "nice" for waterton. The kids loved Emerald Bay 

 

We even managed to get two decent family photos.

 

  Emerald Bay