Pumpkins, Bats and Spiders OH MY!!!

I try to decorate cookies with the kids at least twice a year. Always at Christmas and usually at Halloween. I have some cute Halloween cookie cutters that I bought when I was in college. There is really only one time of year to use them so I have to take advantage of it. Generally I try to do all activities of this nature while Eric is at home. It saves me a huge headache and gives me another set of hands and eyes to make sure fingers are not being licked in between sprinkle applications. (I may want to share these with people who don't appreciate toddler germs!) Since Eric has been doing some daytime work it was up to me to make this happen if it was going to happen at all.

To keep me sane I gave very specific instructions about finger licking. Any sight of it and they were done helping. Period. No second chances were allowed. To help keep little fingers out of mouths I gave everybody their own bowl of sprinkles and a baby spoon to apply sprinkles. It seemed to work. I didn't see any finger licking violations and Zane is usually a regular offender.

I was a bit worried about Lucy helping. She is big enough that she really wants to help but too little to fully understand what we are doing. Fortunately I gave her one frosted cookie and some sprinkles and that kept her occupied the whole time. Of course she ate the sprinkles and licked the frosting off the cookie but that was ok. One cookie certainly wasn't going to hurt her!

All in all it was a fun activity. Maybe I will try it again at Christmas. Or maybe I will just plan it better and make Eric help me!

Gwen the Great

Great sleeper that is! I usually have my babies cry it out to fall asleep right around 4 months old. Pretty consistently they will take three days to learn to fall asleep on their own. Miss Gwen is proving to be the easiest and best sleeper of the bunch! For the past week Eric and I have fed Gwen and then put her down awake. Not that she isn't sleepy when we put her down but she is certainly not asleep in any way. She has been putting herself to sleep without crying. We will hear her fussing a bit in her crib but she is not overly upset. I compare it to when she is bored sitting in her swing and just wants to be held. Not urgent enough for me to go and get her just enough noise to let me know that she is discontent. After about 3 minutes of that though there is no more crankiness. She is asleep.

How much more fabulous can that get! Add to that her sleeping through the night most of the time and you will find one extremely happy mommy! Gwen also ADORES Zane. He can get super smiles and giggles out of her more often than the rest of the kids. He loves her in a rough kinda way. We are still working on the gentleness thing but his intentions are all for the best.

Here is one of the smiles Gwen gave Zane. I was trying to get a picture of her smiling and she kept being happy while she could see my face and then changing expression when I lifted my camera. Zane however had her giggling and smiling for me. So sweet!

Fall Conferences for Andrew

It feels as though the school year just began and here we are at conferences already. I enjoy conferences with Andrew's teachers. Partially because I like to hear how he is doing and partially because I already know he is doing well. This year I have been interested in seeing how Andrew is coming along with math. Yesterday he brought home a math test that he got 100% on. I always have thought that he would like math. Such a nice concrete subject. There is a right answer and there is a wrong answer. None of that pesky free thought and imagination stuff involved. All in all he is doing well. The standard tests that he took show him right at benchmark or low risk which is where we want him to be. Plugging along on track is perfect in my book. Now to just keep him going with reading and writing!

Pumpkin Carving!

Yesterday we went and got pumpkins for carving. We decided to just go to the field at Haggen rather than a real pumpkin patch. The kids were really excited to carve their pumpkins. They have been anxiously waiting until it was close enough to Halloween.

As always they were kinda wimpy about cleaning out the pumpkins. Something about the slimy guts really throws them for a loop but Eric and I are tough. We require assistance or no pumpkins are carved into faces.

The funny thing about pumpkin carving at our house is there is very little thought that goes into the designs they create. I know when I have done my own pumpkins I think about what I want to carve. Not so with the little munchkins. They seem to think any type of a smiley face is acceptable.

It was very wonderful to have Eric home to help this year. Cleaning pumpkins is long tedious work and it is nice to have someone to split the labor with. Especially since the attention span is short.

The creations with their creators trying to look scary. Except for Lucy. She just seemed kinda confused with all that was going on. Gwen slept through the whole thing. Wonderful good baby!

ANOTHER Lost Tooth!

I am sure you are all tired of hearing about each and every lost tooth Andrew has but I swear it is beyond me to stop taking photos and posting about it so you will just bear with me until he is done! It will be amazing to me if the child can even eat by the end of the year with the pace he is losing teeth. Although this time I think the culprit is more the adult front tooth pushing down next to it rather than the adult secondary incisor pushing down. Amazing to me how fast he is losing them!


The tooth fairy will be making another pit stop at our house tonight!

LA INK or Bust!

It is almost a daily occurrence for Lucy to draw on herself. I have gotten to the point where I won't let the boys color with markers while she is awake because she doesn't seem to know how to resist coloring on her skin. I suppose I should be grateful that it is her skin rather than my walls but it is still a pain to try and keep her out of the markers all day. Especially since she has gotten big enough to climb up on a chair at the craft table and open the marker drawer. Fortunately almost all of our markers are washable so it comes off her skin easily. I just can only imagine what she is going to think of tattoos in the future. I think I will let Eric deal with those conversations though. Since I have one (and still don't regret getting it) I don't have the ability to dissuade my kids from getting them once they are all grown up.

Hopefully she won't go for the sleeves immediately. Goofy little girl!

Matching Again

I adore this whole matching outfit business. I used to do it with the boys too but they are starting to get more picky. Anyway, these outfits were given to me by Joanna and I LOVE them. So comfy and adorable! And of course the boys wanted in on the whole picture thing too so I have a new photo of my 4 Little Blessings!

Checkup for the Gwenie-Girl

Took Gwen to get her checkup today with the whole crew by myself. Usually Eric goes with me but he was working today so it ended up being a solo mission. Trips to the doctors office can either go smoothly or extremely rough. Depends on the mood of little people and the status of their tummies. Todays appointment was at 11:00 which is typically a horrid time for me to have an appointment. We usually eat lunch right around 11 and being out and about almost always ends in a meltdown for one or more of my children.

Also today Andrew is home from school because of a cold. Usually Andrew is a super helper and it is a major asset for him to be home. When he is sick though, he is whiny. And seems to thrive on pestering his siblings. This typically makes for a long day. We went to the grocery store right before the appointment and I bought the kids Lunchables to eat while we were at the doctors office. That was probably the smartest thing I have done in a long time. The Lunchables were a treat (don't know if I have ever bought the kids one) and they took care of the "I'm Hungry!" whines. Win-Win in my book for sure.

Gwen is doing fabulous as I expected. She got 2 shots and an oral vaccine. Screamed really loud with the shots but took the oral vaccine like a champ. Here are her latest statistics:

Height: 24.5" (98%) Although I think her head wasn't all the way to the top so she may be more like 24"

Weight: 13# 1.5 oz. (93%)

Doing great!

Loving that Sis!

It is funny to me how my kiddos always want to hold the new baby when it is first born and then steadily less and less as the newest one grows. Today however they all wanted a turn holding Gwen. So we obliged and you all get the benefit of seeing how sweet they are!

Gwendalyn Lily- Two Months

I cannot believe my Gwen is two months old today. It is amazing how fast (and slow) the time has gone. Gwen is an amazing baby. She is so sweet and happy almost all the time. She is also a fantastic sleeper. Very needed with baby #4! I don't think I have ever slept so much with a newborn in the house. It has been so much fun to see her grow and change over the last month. She is chunking up so much (not that I should be surprised) and getting super cute and smily.


I still am not sure what color her eyes are going to be. I am leaning away from blue though. Some days they look blue but most of the time they kinda look hazel or brown. It will be fun to see what the permanent color is. Gwen has her appointment next week so I will post later on how big Missy ma'am has gotten.

Just In Time

Just in time for pictures that is. Andrew lost his second tooth on top this afternoon. He currently resembles an adorable Jack-O-Lantern. And of course his picture day is next Tuesday. I think that it will be adorable that his picture is all gap toothed.

Zane keeps telling me that his teeth are getting loose. I find it amusing that he wants to be all grown up like Andrew.

This tooth won't be coming down all that soon. Although his other adult tooth is making its way quite nicely. I wonder how long it will be until he starts losing the next ones over.

He is growing up all to fast!