My Baby Is So Big

I don't know why Jake thinks that he can grow up so fast. My big kids have been teaching Jake to stand in his crib and he can sit up by himself in his crib because he has the bumper to help pull himself up. Since he is being Mr. Independent, it became time to lower the crib. What a sad day, almost nine months in the making. This is just another milestone getting him closer to being a big boy. Doesn't he know that he is my baby and needs to stay little longer? I know that each milestone is so important and precious. I know this because before Rylee was born I thought it would be so fun to have a baby stay a newborn for a few years and then grow up. Boy did I get what I wanted. As much as I loved Rylee for who she was, I did learned that it is OK for the babies to grow and develop. That being said, I know Jake can't stay little forever but I am sure enjoying each day with him and each milestone. Next he will be pushing himself up to a sitting position and pulling himself up to a standing position and then of course the dreaded walking. I am so grateful for that little chubby boy, he is so much fun.

You can be a WINNER!!!

My cute friend Emily has many great ideas. This is the latest and greatest idea. It is a blog that is all about free giveaways. If you click on giveawaytoday you can go to this blog and enter the giveaway. Pass this along to your friends and family. If someone leaves a comment with you as a reference the more your name gets entered. The first giveaway is a $100 gift certificate to Target. You never know you could be the lucky winner. Good luck!!!

My Chubby

That is what we are calling Jake right now " Chubby". He is eight months old and so darn adorable. Jake can sit by himself without needing any pillows around him just in case he falls. He now understands that he can get somewhere or can get what he wants by rolling. He rolls all over the place. He is getting close to crawling and pushing himself up to a sitting position. I was very worried because up to a few days ago he would not stand or put weight on his legs. Now he thinks that he is so cute and loves to stand with our help. He can be loud at times. He loves to say dada, baba, and ahh. He is just such a happy calm baby. We are all so in love with that chubby boy. He fills our life with joy!!!

Happy Big 11 Megan!!

I can't even believe that my daughter is 11 years old today. It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital having her and here we are 11 years later. Megan was such a beautiful baby, people would comment all the time about how pretty she was as a newborn. She still is gorgeous and people are still telling her how pretty she is. I decided that I want to share the eleven greatest things about Megan.

1. Megan is a lot of fun to be around.

2. Megan is very creative and imaginative.

3. Megan is very funny.

4. Megan is a kind person.

5. Megan loves all animals.

6. Megan loves to learn new words and use them.

7. Megan loves her family and is not embarrassed to publicly tell us she loves us or give us a hug.

8. Megan likes to look out for the little guy.

9. Megan is a huge help to me.

10. Megan likes to do what is right.

11. Megan is beautiful on the outside and the inside.

Happy Birthday Meggy Lou we Love You!

Tagged, Fourth Folder Fourth Picture

I was tagged by my friend Suzie. Here is my fourth picture from my fourth folder on my laptop. This is a picture of Hailey and her cousin Brady at Yellowstone, in July 2007. What a difference a year makes. Hailey looks so little. We went on the trip to West Yellowstone with my whole family a few months after Rylee died. All of my kids had a lot of issues to work through after Rylee died. Hailey's issues were wearing the same two outfits everyday, no matter what and she didn't want to have her hair fixed. She would also take multiple baths everyday, I am talking like five or more baths a day. ( Can you imagine the water bill?) She actually looks pretty good here. This of course was one of the "special outfits." The other outfit was the same style shirt that was red and black and a lime green skirt. It didn't matter which combination she came up with it just had to be two of these items of clothing. I would have to sneak her clothes to wash them, she didn't care if they were dirty and stinky she would wear them anyway. (One of my quirks is I can't stand dirty and yucky smelling clothes. I like them to smell like detergent.) I know that one of these days Hailey is going to look at her pictures from that era of her life and wonder what her mother was thinking let her look like an orphan. I will tell her the story of why she looks like and orphan and maybe she will remember and can enlighten me on why that was her coping mechanism. Thanks for the tag Suz! Now I tag all the people on my side bar.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

We had a really fun Halloween. Here are the kids in their costumes. They had a great time at school and trick or treating. After they got their candy haul they decided they wanted to watch Harry Potter. That is their new favorite thing to watch. Megan is a pirate. This was her first year that she got to go by herself with her friends. She had a great time and thought that trick or treating is better with friends.

Parker is Jengo Fett. I don't love masks but I gave in this year. He was still cute mask and all.

Hailey is a vampire girl. She came up with her make up job all by herself. She even kept her vampire teeth the whole night.

Jake was a cute little Yoda. This was his first Halloween. He went with the kids and loved every minute of it.

I was lucky enough to stay home and pass out candy. I sat on the front porch and read the news paper while I waited for the kids to come.

Pumpkin Patch

After the fun Halloween party at Grams, we went to Jon and Carries for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. The pumpkin patch we went to was great. First, we went on a hay ride to find the perfect pumpkin. There were so many pumpkins to chose from, of course every one wanted to pick the biggest one. I think Jon or Erin were the ones to find the biggest pumpkins. When we each found the perfect pumpkin we got back on the tractor put our pumpkins in the car and went to play on some very big slides. I think almost everyone went down a huge slide that was made by stacking hay bales and then putting some kind of sliding plastic on it. It was a lot of fun! There was also a huge tube slide that only the daring went on. I had a couple of kids that were too afraid to try that one out. It was so fun to get together with the Hendricks family. Thanks Jon and Carrie for the great time, we love you guys!