Mr. Smiley

Colton has started smiling (with his eyes open)! It is such a joy to talk to him and have him respond with a big gummy grin. I love it.

His first smile came when I was holding him, with him laying next to me in bed. He looked right up at me and smiled the hugest smile at me. It just about melted my heart.

Each of the kids have so much fun talking to him and seeing him smile. Lindsey was the first sibling he smiled for. Kaylen can even get Colton to smile.

The worst part about the smiles is trying to capture them with the camera. :)

Kaylen's Projects

Everyday when Kaylen comes home from school, I ask her what she does. She usually gives me a brief answer. One day she said something. After repeating it a few times, I realized that she said she does projects at school. Today when my sweaty, red-faced daughter got off the bus, she showed me her projects. The first one is a paper plate face with googly eyes, yarn hair, macaroni hairbows, and a pompom mouth. The second project is finger painting, which I absolutely love!

Colton: 1 month

A month has passed since "Baby C" has been born. It's gone by slowly and quickly at the same time. It's been such a joy to have him in our lives.

Today I took him to the doctor for a well check-up. He's doing great. He's a big baby. At birth he weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces. Today he weighs 10 pounds, 13 ounces. The doctor said that's an above average weight gain. Also above average is his overall weight. He's off the charts with his height. He is 23.5 inches tall, which is above the 95th percentile. It'll be interesting to see if he follows that or if he stops growing tall so fast.

HB Logan!

Our little Logan celebrated his 7th birthday. His birthday, like Spencer's, fell on a Sunday, which resulted in 2 days of celebrating. His favorite restaurant is Ah-So, so we went there for lunch on Saturday.

Sunday morning, Logan awoke to streamers all over the kitchen, courtesy of Spencer and Lindsey. He wanted breakfast burritos for breakfast, so I fixed those. For dinner, I fixed what he asked, burritos with meat that is similar to Costa Vida. We had Jon and my parents over for cake.

Logan was so cute opening presents. He was so excited for each present. He doesn't like to wear a shirt, that's why he's shirtless in most of the pictures.

Back to School!!!!!!!

Kaylen, the preschooler

Logan, the 2nd grader

Spencer, the 5th grader

Lindsey, the 7th grader

Teachers are my heroes! I love school!

We had a great, unorganized, lazy summer, but all good things have to come to an end. School started just in time for me. Things were just reaching the point where I was about to lose my sanity and then school started. I love my kids, but they needed major structure and less tv, telephone, video games, etc...

On Monday we went to meet their teachers. On Tuesday we went supply shopping. That night we loaded up the backpacks and set out clothes. Wednesday morning I got up early (after being up lots during the night) and fixed pancakes for breakfast. I took my traditional pictures of the kids, some with the kids holding signs stating "First Day of School," their teacher's name, the school, and their grade level. I took the kids to school. Lindsey walked from the elementary school to the bus stop. Spencer independently walked to his classroom, without me taking any pictures. I followed Logan to his line and snapped a picture of him.

Kaylen's school started on Thursday. The bus came to our house and Kaylen excitedly got on, without looking back.

Each of the kids were so independent about going back to school. They were all excited and didn't even worry about me being home without them. It was pretty obvious that they were also excited and ready for school to start!

More Colton Pictures

When I look at the pictures from my camera, it's obvious who my day revolves around. Colton has been monopolizing my time (in a good way) and I have the cute pictures to prove it. Below are a few pictures that I've taken of him. I set a goal when he was born that I'd take a picture of him everyday. I've only missed a couple of days, but I definitely won't be posting all of those!

Colton listening to Eric on the piano

(it can only be Eric and a certain song which entertains him)

I love the spit bubbles he makes when he's sleeping

HB Spencer

We celebrated Spencer's 10th birthday over 2 days. His birthday fell on Sunday, so we went out to lunch on Saturday to Olive Garden. On Sunday, I could have made him fast, but decided not to be that mean. Instead he chose breakfast sandwiches to eat for breakfast. For dinner he wanted some beef kabobs on the bbq. He is definitely a beef-guy! We had cake and ice cream with Grandpa and Grandma and the Boerus.

An Update

Things are continuing to go pretty good. Not much is new; I've just been taking it easy and hanging out at home. Colton is doing good. He has his good nights where he'll sleep in 4-hour stretches, and he has his bad nights where he fusses until midnight and then wakes up every 2 hours. Just when I think I've got him figured out, he changes and does something different. He is really good during the day. He'll take a couple of good naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. He's beginning to be more alert and is interested in looking around. It's funny to hear Spencer exclaim, "Look! His eyes are open!" Spencer would get so excited when Colton would be awake. It's happening more often, so the newness of Colton's eyes is wearing off.




Colton can roll over from his stomach to his back. He is now beginning to calm down when he hears my voice. He will turn his head to look for me when he hears my voice. Colton loves to listen to Eric play the piano. There are two songs that Eric will play for him. It is very clear that Colton prefers one much more than the other. When Eric plays the least favorite, Colton always fusses.



As for the rest of the family, some of the things they've been doing include the following:



-Logan finished his basketball season. He never made a basket during a game, but he definitely improved. He always tried very hard. I enjoyed seeing how determined he was to guard his player and to watch him run up and down the court.



- Lindsey had a back-to-school party on the last Saturday before school. At the beginning of the summer, one of her friends had a party at his house with kids who'll be going to the same junior high school. We had that same group of kids over at our house. They watched "Watcher in the Woods," played Murder in the Dark, and had ice cream sundaes.



- Lindsey attended a 7th grade kick-off. Afterwards, I walked around the school with her to help her find her classrooms. It was quite weird how she didn't seem to care about where her classes are. It'll be interesting to hear her tales of being lost on the first day of school. As I was walking around the school, I was having a hard time believing that I have a child who is old enough to go to junior high school. I really don't feel that old, and it seems like I was just at that school.



- Kaylen is apparently lactating now. I found her resting on the couch with two cats hooked up to her. She tells me, "I am a girl, so my stuffed animals can eat from my boobs." The following day she was busy filling up a container with her milk. She lifted up her shirt, held a container to her chest and made a "shhhhhh" sound. She also now offers water, in addition to milk.