Ryn 5 months and Other Stuff

My baby is 5 months (sniff,sniff). She is laughing more everyday, grabbing and holding onto toys, interacting with her brothers, skooching on her back and just being an overall joy! She must have lost some baby weight, sure wish I would, as she is now 50/50 in her height and weight percentile.

We have had a few Christmas outings lately that I felt the urge to dress her up like a doll! I figured I would go "vintage" and put her in my dress. That's me below at 1.

She has also discovered her toes and is constently sucking on them. (Not sure why I am now blue and underlined!)

Jackson had 2 performances in 3 days of each other. First was his preschool program. He did an awesome job of learning 8 songs and motions. Too cute! Do you like the bare chest?

Next came the church performance. Another pic of Jacob and Hudson!

JJ apparently thought that the song "Go Tell it on the Mountain" needed hand motions!

We had a kids book exchange at a friend's house. The kids all played great and loved their recycled books!

5 kids wrestling...Jacob was the underdog but loved it.

Random pic of Jacob. He pulled out the battery pack of the stick horse and was walking around using it as a phone. "Hello?"

Christmas Time Happenins

This is my favorite time of year and luckily for me it is Jackson's too! He is just as crazy about Christmas as me and it shows more every year. It is great to have someone to share it with...have you met my husband, Scrooge? Just kidding, Marcus, you are getting better every year too!

Every year I take each kiddo out by themselves to pick an ornament and then go to Starbucks. No, I did not take Ryn by herself this year, but she is loving her first ornament.

Here are Jackson's last 2 year ornaments. He picked the bells when he was 2 because he liked walking around with them like the train conductor in The Polar Express. He chose a diesel train last year and I thought for sure it would be an airplane this year. Nope, another train. Maybe trains have stuck in his heart and he will work on one someday!

Jacob's first 2 ornaments

And this year's ornaments...a Santa Fe diesel and a race car. Unfortunately, the Starbucks trip with Jacob didn't happen. He stunk up his diaper so bad at the store we couldn't go anywhere but home!

I let the boys put most of the ornaments on the tree this year. Jackson did great at spacing them out, but kept complaining that Jacob was hanging more than one on a branch. Good thing Jacob doesn't care if they get moved! We had a picnic lunch by the tree which they thought was the coolest thing ever!

We also have made ice ornaments for the tree and railing outside. The weather is so cold they still haven't melted yet.

The teacher in me was getting ansy! Some friends came over, that also happened

to be teachers, and their kids to make gingerbread houses. I used to do this every

year with my class and loved finally having a kid old enough to try it at home. Jacob did

okay, but I ended up decorating much of his house. It was fun to see the creativity of the

kids, especially the girls.

We got about 6-8 inches of snow in one night and JJ was thrilled! I love that he is at the age where he can get himself ready to go play in it outside. I also love having an excuse to make hot cocoa!

We were out there only about 30 seconds before Jackson threw snow in Jacob's face. It took another 5 minutes to convince Jacob that he would have fun and needed to stay outside!

Ryn's First Rice Cereal

Ryn is almost 5 months, so I figured that I better give in and try out some cereal. The boys always had this right around 4 months, but I am finding that I baby her more. Could it be that I don't want my last baby to grow up?!

One of the few interesting faces!

She did pretty good and kept opening her mouth for more...even though it didn't stay in her mouth long!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my family this year. Before we left, Jackson had his feast at school. It was really interesting seeing preschoolers go through a buffet line. Most had 2-3 items and did not want to try much, even things like oranges or watermelon! JJ wasn't shy though, he did a great job of trying lots of items!

There's something about a baby, everybody would rather have their picture taken with her!

Ryn with cousin Justin

We actually had a beautiful day and headed to the beach. It got cold fast, but it gave the boys a great chance to get some energy out.

Kathryn at 4 Months and New Shoes

My baby is 4 months already! She is kind of sitting (like a beanbag stuffed animal), rolling front to back, and loving her family. I had to squeeze her into this outfit one more time, as it is one of my favorites. I wish these next few months would slow down. My friend found these baby shoe patterns online and I love them. They are great for keeping their socks on and very easy and fast to make. So fun!

The boys were lovin' on Ryn the other morning...had to capture it!


Marcus made a huge pile of leaves for the boys to play in. They could have spent hours burying each other.

Got to love the pure joy on Jacob's face!

(JJ's not hurt, just throwing a leaf up!)

Traditional Cougs in Leaves

What do you think? Do our kids look alike? If you cover up their eyes they look exactly alike! I took our annual "Coug Leaves Picture" today. It was a gorgeous fall morning, not to cold, sunny, and mild wind. Trying to get all three of my kids to smile at the same time was ridiculous! Below is the best we could come up with.

The chaos that won't be framed!

So big!

I put Kathryn in her in her excer-saucer for the first time this week. She is somewhat amused with it but has a hard time grabbing the toys. I am sure she will learn soon!

Seven Babies

There were seven of us at church that had babies this past year within a 6 month period...all girls! The youngest is 3 months already and it has taken us this long to get together for a picture!

It was fun seeing all the girls together and very humorous trying to get their picture.

From youngest to oldest (L-R) Livia, Ryn, Renee, Courtney, Ally, Lylah, and Grace.


Livia and Ryn are about 3 weeks apart, which is the same as their older brothers, Hudson and Jacob. We mothers (Tricia and I) tend to take pics of the boys together, I am sure it will become habit with the girls.

Jacob and Hudson, also about 3-4 months old.

Halloween

It has been a busy few weeks! The kids and I went to Seattle briefly so Ryn could see a doctor at Children's about her UTI's. She is doing fine, but will have to do some test again in a year. While we were at my parent's, I got this picture of her that all three of my kids have. Same spot, same position, and even JJ has drool coming down just like her. Although, I only have Jacob's saved on the computer, JJ's is from a scan so it is fuzzy.

Friday before Halloween the kids went trick-or-treating at Marc's work. JJ is a spider and Jacob is a turtle. He couldn't decide on what he wanted to be, so he got to choose from "leftover" costumes, which is why he is Eeyore later on.

Kathryn was Minnie Mouse on Halloween, but I thought I would try on her princess outfit before she didn't fit it anymore. She wasn't too thrilled.

My sisters family came for the weekend. The boys loved having cousins to play with and there was a lot of tree climbing.

Jacob after carving pumpkins. Gross.

Yum.

Ready to trick-or-treat.


Even Jeff was a good sport. He didn't even get any candy!

The Eeyores

We only trick-or treated a little bit then headed to church's Harvest Party. They had a lot of fun and got too much candy!