Tori turns NINE!

I found both Tori and Levi's birthday posts in my draft folder, unfinished!  I am taking advantage of this snow day to get caught up a bit. 

On September 12th, Victoria turned nine years old.  This past year flew by.  It seems like yesterday that she was getting baptized.  Tori continues to be such an important part of our family.  She is a peacemaker, she is independent, she is kind, she is stubborn, she is creative, she is helpful, she is tenderhearted, she is wonderful.  Here is an interview with Tori as she turns nine:

What is your favorite food-  Chinese
What is your favorite dessert- Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Who is your favorite singer- Cimorelli

What is your favorite song(s)- Pay Phone

Who is your best friend- Julie

What is your favorite color?- Turquoise

What is your favorite thing to do?- Paint

What is your favorite thing to do with your family? Spend time with them

What do you want to be when you grown up?- Artist

What is your favorite subject in school- Science

What is your favorite T.V. Show- Good Luck Charlie

What is your favorite fruit- Pomegranate

What is your favorite outfit- Dresses

Favorite Holiday- Christmas

Favorite Game- Build a Bear Online

Favorite Drink- Pink Lemonade

Favorite Book- Diary of a Wimpy Kid- Dog Days

Favorite Toy- Legos

What makes you happy- My Family
What makes you sad- Being alone
Favorite scripture story- Daniel and the Lions Den

If you could meet someone famous who would it be? Cimorelli

What makes you scared- The room being really dark

What are you looking forward to most about being 9- That I get to do more stuff then last year


The weekend before Tori's birthday we went over to Brandon's parent's house for a barbecue because  Brandon's grandparents were visiting. Since Brandon was going to be out of town on Tori's actual birthday, we decided to have an early birthday party for her that day as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I love how it looks like Brandon is trying to "help" in this picture =)

 

Here are some pictures from Tori's actual birthday:

 

 

 

 

 

 Tori had been wanting a Pogo stick for quite some time.  She was thrilled to get one and worked hard to perfect jumping on it.  It was harder then she anticipated, and she was a bit disappointed that she couldn't just jump on on and start bouncing.  It took a lot of tries and perseverance, but she finally got the hang of it and was a pro in no time. 

 Since daddy was out of town, grandma invited us over to her house that night.  She made one of Tori's favorite meals, chicken wings and salad.  Great grandpa, Emmy, Daniel, Charbel and Benji, and of course Michael and grandpa, were also there to help us celebrate.

 Tori's always so excited and grateful about everything she receives

 I can't believe how little Scarlett looks in this picture, or how old Michael looks!

 When we got ready to leave Benji hopped right up in the car with us.  He totally thought he was coming home with us =)

 

We had a great day celebrating Tori.  She is such a special girl and we love her so much!

 

Next up:  Spa birthday party details!

 

More Birthday Pictures

Our kids were so excited for Scarlett's birthday.  They made sure we kept up with all the usual traditions.

 

Birthday table:

 

 

Homemade cake by mom:

(don't laugh)

 

 

Traditional morning picture at the birthday table:

(She was a little confused)

 But quickly warmed up to the idea.

 Scarlett is so loved by all of her siblings.  They were so excited for her birthday and wanted to help make it special.

 

Everyone (including daddy) wanted her to open all of her presents first thing.  I was able to force, convince everyone to have her only open one present, and save the rest for her party.

 

 

 

I thought she would love this electronic toy phone, that I found, but it was a bit of a disappointment.  It doesn't change volumes and is so soft you can hardly hear it.  She lost interest fast =(

She loved opening a present though =)

 

After Brandon and the kids left for school, I got Scarlett dressed in the birthday outfit Nana bought her, and attempted to take some pictures.  She was till pretty sick and suffering from her double ear infection, so it was quite the task to get some good pictures.  By the end she was so done with it (as you can tell by the last picture) (I just noticed Levi in that picture.  I forgot, that he was home sick that day).

 That night we had a family party.  We had her favorite foods, spaghetti and bread sticks. 

 

 

 

 

Then it was cake time!  Alexis was really disappointed that Scarlett didn't get a huge cake all to herself.  But I thought with her being sick, a little one would be best =)

 

 I think she enjoyed it just fine....

 

 We finished off with opening presents.  She got some fun new toys to play with.  The big kids enjoyed them too, and have been playing with them all week =)

 

 

We love our little Scarly Scar.  Even though she was under the weather her first birthday was a success!



Scarlett is One!!

 

In the blink of an eye she went from

to

Today Scarlett turns 1.  As bad as I am about keeping up with my blog, I could not let today go by without writing about our little girl.  My heart is full as I reflect on this past year.  What a joy Scarlett has brought to our family.  She fits in perfectly.  We love her so much.  It is so fun to see her learn and grow and develop her own little personality. She is so much fun, and brings us so much joy.  Over the past few months I started blog posts when she turned 10 and 11 months old, but never posted them because I was waiting to get my pictures edited to post. I think I will post them now.


The 10 month post I started-

Scarlett is now 10 months old and there are so many things that I do not want to forget. I can not beleive how much she is growing and learning each day. Right about 9 months she started crawling. It happened when I went to take her to get her 9 month pictures taken. The photographer had me lay her on her stomach so she could get some shots of her that way. Well Scarlett was not having that at all, and she got right up on her knees and crawled away! We had been trying to get her to crawl for weeks! The great things about it is that we have her first time crawling on camera =)

She started pulling herself up and 9 and a half months. One day I layed her down for her nap. She usually will go right to sleep without much trouble, but today I heard her talking away in her crib. I let this go on for about 10 minutes before I went to investigate. When I walked in, there she was standing straight up, holding onto the side of her crib with the hugest grin! Unfortunately she did not figure out how to get back down yet so I am glad that I went and checked on her! This has made nap times a little more challenging.

Scarlett has yet to sleep though the night. She still wakes up one or two times and wants to nurse. Last week I thought that she slept through the night, and when I woke up I was so thrilled! That is, until I discovered that the baby monitor was turned off! I went running into her room to see her sound asleep on her tummy. Her arms was reaching through the rails in her crib towards her binky that had fallen on the ground. My heart was so sad!! I would think that I would have heard her if she was crying too much, but it breaks my heart still. Ever since then, she has had a harder time going to sleep. The second I put her in her crib she bursts into tears. Something she has never done. I am afraid she is traumatized =(

Scarlett is getting better at eating, and likes most everything. She mostly eats just whatever we are eating, but if it is something that doesn't seem very baby friendly, she is content to eat baby food. She is really good at mashing things up with her gums. Her first tooth arrived a few weeks ago. She had been extra fussy for a few nights, and I was afraid she had an ear infection. Then one day I noticed a cute little tooth had popped through. I have yet to get a picture of it, but it is so cute =)


The 11 month post I started-

Here are some tidbits about Scarlett at 11 months:

• I took her to the doctor a few weeks ago and she was 17 pounds 7 oz
• She is crawling everywhere! And so fast. She is becoming a pro at crawling up the stairs, but can not crawl down them, so we have to make sure to always have the gates up.
• I was feeding her a lot of regular table food, and she does ok with it, but I figured out she still does best with pureed food so I have been doing more of that.
• She loves to drink water. I have been noticing that she is more and more thirsty lately. If she is really fussy a lot of times it is becuase she is thirsty.
• Her second tooth just popped in about a week ago.
• Scarlett has such a strong willed personality already. She knows what she wants and won't give up without a fight until she has it.
• She is soooo wiggly! I dread diaper changes because she is so squirmy and tries so hard to crawl away. She is successful at it a lot =)
• She had her first ear infection this past month. It came with a really nasty cold which then made its way to me. We had a lot of sleepless nights, and she started sleeping with us a lot because that was the only way I could get her to sleep. Now that she is better we are trying to get her back to sleeping in her own bed again =)
• She started saying "hi" and waving. It is the cutest thing ever. It sounds more like, "ha" I love it.
• Her poor skin is getting so dry. I am hoping to find a better lotion for her this week.
• She loves to be held but does not like to cuddle. I try so hard to get her to cuddle with me but the only time she does is when I am putting her to sleep. I will take what I can get though!
• She is still a binky girl through and through. She is great at putting it in, so that is really helpful.
• She still loves to nurse, and actually seems to be loving it more lately. She nurses about 3 times a day and then once or twice in the night. Those night time feedings need to go though, so hopefully we can stop those soon. I actually don't mind though. I just go with whatever makes her happiest.
• She loves to crawl to the back door and stare out the window. Dreaming of playing outside I am sure =)

• She loves to pull things off shelves, out of bags, out of baskets, and anywhere else things seem to be. It makes for a lot of messes, but keeps her occupied for a while so I'm OK with it.
• She loves me to read her books.
• Pulls herself up really well, and walks along holding onto wherever she pulled herself up to.

• She knows she is not supposed to crawl up the stairs. We usually have a gate up, but ocassionally it gets pushed aside. She will crawl so fast over to the stairs and then look back to see if we are looking. Then she will proceed to crawl up as fast as she can gigling away and always looking back at us, until we run over and get her.

• She got a walker toy for christmas as loves to push it around everywhere. She can't turn it when she is walking, but she will walk and walk with it until she hits a road block.
• Alexis is determined to get her to walk. She has been practicing helping her stand by herself. She has gotten her to a few times.
• She loves her baths. Right before Christmas I started giving her regular baths in the bath tub instead of in her baby tub. She was so scared at first, but now she loves them. She slashes and splanshes, and crawls around. She loves to lay on her tummy and play with all of the toys.
• She still grabs onto people's faces really hard and squeezes. Ouch!!
• We spend most of the time with her in the hall at church becuase she wants to be on the ground playing. She will wiggle and squeal until we put her down to play, and then she will take off crawling as fast as she can.
• A little unknown fact about me is that I dance and sing around the house all day. It is always silly. I make up songs about anything and everything. The majortiy of it happens in the kitchen. Well, I have noticed lately that as soon as I start dancing Scarlett will start bopping her head up and down to dance along with me. I love it!

OK now back to today =)

Here are some things that I want to remember about Scarlett at 1 year old:

~ She still only has two teeth.  They are both on the bottom. I check daily to see if anymore are getting ready to break through, but no such luck yet!  She is really good at mashing her food with her gums though, so that is good.
~ She has already developed quite the sweet tooth, which I am afraid is totally my fault.
~Thanks to Alexis, she has officially mastered going down  the stairs now. Alexis worked really hard at teaching her and now she is a pro.  We still like to make sure we are near by when she is going down, but it is nice not to have to stress too much about her falling.
~She is not saying too many words yet, but I am trying!  Mostly dada and hi.  Occasionally she will throw a mama in there.  The other day when she was eating I asked her if she was done, and clear as day she said "no mama" Alexis was there to witness it too! Today wehn I was giving her medicine to her (which she hates) I had her laying across my lap.  With the saddest face she looked up at me and said, "no" That's the first time she has said no, and it broke my heart!!
~She is already so independant.  She likes to feed herself.  Even if I manage to sneak something in her mouth, she almost always takes it out and exmines it before putting it back in.
~When she decides she is done eating she will start to chuck everything onto the floor.  Misty loves that and is always sitting beneath her high chair waiting to grab anything that falls.
~If she doesn't want what we are feeding her she will grab it out of our hand and immediately throw it to the floor.  She does that quite often with her sippy cup.
~She is still nursing about three times a day and once in the  night.  My plan is to start slowly weaning her now that she is one.  I am not in a hurry though.  I tried giving her milk the other day, and like my other kids, she hated it.  I am hoping to try a little at a time until she likes it more.
~She loves her binkys.  She loves holding several at a time and switching them out whenever she wants.
~She loves to "help" with the dishes.  As soon as I open the dishwasher, she crawls as fast as she can over to it and climbs on it.  She will pull out anything she can get her hands on.

~We still can't get this girl to give us many kisses!  She certainly knows how because I caught her giving misty one the other day.  She will every now and then humor me with one, but for the most part it is not her thing =(
~She is really good at pushing her walker around, and walking along the edge of things.  I am thinking she probably has at least another month before she starts walking, but we will see!
~Her most favorite thing to eat is cheese

~Every morning when Brandon and the kids leave for school, she will crawl as fast as she can over to the door after them. 

~When she is riding in the shopping cart at the store, she always wiggles herself around until she is turned backwards.  Then she will stand straight up and hold onto the cart.  She will stay like that the whole shopping trip (with me holding onto her of course).

~She absolutley hates laying on her back to get her diaper changed.  She will start screaming and wiggling all over the place as soon as I lay her down.  I have learned to get her most of the way dressed, sitting on my lap.  It makes for pretty eventful diaper changes!
~I had to take her to the doctor yesterday because she has been really sick with a horrible cough and cold.  It turns out she has a double ear infection.  It's her second ear infection in a few months =( 
~She weighs 18 pounds 14 oz.  That was with all her clothes on at the doctor yesterday.  We will get a more accurate reading and her percentiles when I take her in for her 12 month checkup.
~She is already a little climber, and is always trying to climb onto something.

~She takes two good naps a day.  One around 8:30-9, and then again at 1.  I try to stick to that pretty strictly, because I am working for my dad and work when she is napping.  Luckily she still loves her naps.  She goes down really easily. 

~She is not a cuddler.  The only time I can get her to cuddle is when I am putting her to sleep.  I stand by her crib and wrap her blanket around her and she instantly lays her head down and snuggles.  I love it so much!
~She is never short on playmates and has all of us wrapped around her little finger =)

                                 

Happy birthday sweet girl!  We love you so very much =)

A Long Week!

I am so bad at keeping up with my blog, and it makes me so sad! =(  I really want to be better at writing things down, because even if I think I will remember things that happen, I usually don't and am so surprised as I read back on things that I have written, that I have forgotten about.  I want to be better at writing just about every day life.  This is more for me then anyone else, so feel free to skip over these rambling posts as I post them from time to time =)

This was such a long week!  Brandon was in New York all week on a business trip.  It was the same place he went last year at this same time.  Last year I was so afraid that I would go into labor when he was so far away.  This year I wasn't too nervous for him to leave. I didn't think it would be a big deal, but it ended up being a hard week!  I think mostly because there was just so much going on.  Brandon always takes the kids to school on his way to work in the morning.  I am so grateful that he does that, and am even more grateful after this week.  Just that extra little thing helps me so much , and I will not take it for granted any more,  I admit we had some hectic mornings with lots of tears from me and the kids. One morning there was a snow storm.  I was watching my friend's kids that day as well.  I didn't start my car early enough and when we went out to leave the windshield was still frozen.  The defroster wasn't working at all and the car felt like an ice box.  I tried to wash some of it off with some windshield washing fluid, but it was out.  So I opened up the hood and poured some in  ( I had bought it the day before)  When I got back in, it still would not work, and the defroster was still not working.  So I got out and scrapped it the best I could.  We were already running late so I only got a little spot for me to see through.  The kids (including the extras I was watching)  were all freezing in the back as I headed down the road barely able to see out of the windshield.  When I got out of our neighborhood there were cars backed up further then I could see.  I had to turn left and knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon so  I tried to go a round about way, but that ended up being totally backed up as well.  The whole time I was praying that I would be able to see and that the defroster would start working and the wind shield fluid would work.  We ended up being 30 minutes late to the school, but luckily the window never fogged up to where I couldn't see.  The wind shield fluid, heat and defroster never started working, but the windows never got too dirty for me to see through.  I know this was a tender mercy, because the day before my windows kept fogging up and getting so dirty because of the snow, and I kept having to turn on the windshield wipers and wash the windows as I was driving.  I am so grateful that I was able to get the kids to school and back home safely without them working properly.  I need to remember the little things that happen throughout the day to let me know that Heavenly Father is aware of me and cares about me.

Between running the kids here and there, working for my dad, school projects and mounds of homework to help the kids with, as well as my own homework I had to do, and all of the other things that seemed to pile up this week, I made it through. By Friday we had a pretty good system down but  I was so happy to see Brandon when he got home last night. It made me realize how much I appreciate him, and how much he really does help me.Unfortunately  he will be traveling monthly for the next few months, so we will have to do it all over again here in a few weeks.  But we will make it through again I am sure =)

Happy Birthday to CINDY!

It has kind of become tradition for me to write a birthday post for my sister Cindy on her Birthday.  She faithfully writes one on each of our family member's birthdays and it always means so much to us.  Cindy is such a wonderful part of our family, and we would not be complete without her.

She is so talented.  One of her greatest talents is writing.  She has such a great ability to write and express herself so well in her writing. She values family and traditions.  She knows the importance of traditions and passes them onto her family while creating new ones of her own. She is an amazing mother.  Spend 5 minutes with her beautiful daughters and you will be blown away by how special their little spirits and hearts are.  You don't become that way without an amazing mama. She has a tender heart and is concerned for others.  She is always willing to lend a listening ear and you know she cares about what you are going through and wants to help.  She is funny.  She knows the importance of being silly, and has instilled that in her girls.  She is a loving wife to AJ.  They comliment each other so well.  I miss her living near, but have so much fun when we get together.  I know I speak for all of our family members when I say thank you for making us feel loved on our birthdays.  I hopd you feel loved and spoiled on yours =0)  Happy Birthday!! We love you!!

Halloween

Halloween was fun and crazy as usually =)  The kids all had class parties, and I spent the hour running in between each classroom trying to make sure each of them got equal time.  I managed to snap a quick picture of each before dashing to the next party.

 Alexis was sad that the middle schoolers didn't get to dress up.  But they still had a great "social" and  got plenty of treats.  I took a few pictures of her and they all turned out like this because she was talking a mile a minute =)

After school we headed over to grandma and grandpa's to have some Papa Murphy's pumpkin shaped pizzas and get ready for trunk or treat.  I bought some red hair dye at Tori's request, and Alexis and Levi both wanted to use some too.  They tried to talk me into dying Scarlett's hair too, but I decided against that =)

Here is Tori our Vapriress  (I don't really know how to spell that)

 Scarlett as our little owl (not a bat as many people thought)

Alexis was Red Riding Hood  (Someone told her she looked just like the girl who played Red Riding Hood in the movie that came out a while ago.  That made her day.)  She looks so grown up to me in this picture. 

And  Levi was our SWAT team guy.   Nana and Daddy took the three older kids to pick out costumes, and I was surprised by his choice.  But he totally rocked it, and it was the perfect costume for him =)

The whole bunch! I can't believe all these cuties are ours =) 

Daniel and Charbel met us at mom and dad's for dinner and to go to Trunk or Treat.  Benji was a police man, and the cutest little policeman I have ever seen.  He got so many compliments on how cute he was.  When we were trick or treating a lady even screamed (literally) to her husband to come and see him.  He even had a badge that said Sheriff Benjamin.

Grandma, Grandpa and Michael all came with us to trunk or treat too.  It was fun to have them there.  I love this picture of my mom and Michael with Scarlett because it shows how much Scarlett is adored around here =)

Grandma and Grandpa manned the candy.  I thought I had bought a ton of candy, but we were one of the first ones out! I told them to give each kid only one, but with my dad in charge of the candy I am sure it didn't exactly happen that way =) 

After Trunk or Treating we headed over to Nana and Papa's house to trick or treat in their neighborhood.  It's our favorite place to trick or treat because so many people decorate so fun for Halloween and they always give lots of Candy =)  

Here is the gang before we headed out trick or treating. 

 And it wouldn't be Halloween without the creepy old man mask.  Although this mask seems to make an appearance quite often, not just at Halloween.  We have gotten far too much entertainment out of this thing.

We stayed out trick or treating for a few hours.  Daniel and Charbel were such good sports to run from house to house carrying Benji so that they could keep up with my kids who couldn't get to the houses fast enough!  Michael even pitched in carrying Benji for a while.  They must have been so exhausted but they never complained!  It was so fun to have Daniel, Charbel, Benji and Michael trick or treat with us this year.

When we got home the kids had to count all their loot.  Then all got an insane amount of candy, around 300 pieces each! 

It was a very successful Halloween, and we have been eating candy ever since! haha