What a Year

How this year has flown by. Little Kater-bug is such a joy and has quite the personality.

She is busy-busy-busy. She just wanders our house pulling out drawers and shelves and carrying around treasures (she especially loves the little ones that fit nicely in the mouth). Lately she chatters non-stop and makes the cutest little sounds. She loves her Gerber cheese puffs, Mac-n-cheese, mashed potatoes, french fries, apple cinnamon cheerios and mommies Life cereal (from mommies bowl, of course). She imitates sounds/faces that we make, and is pretty good at it too. She hates to be told "no" and will throw herself on the floor if the "no" is directed her way. She loves her baths and LOVES to play outside. Unfortunately the weather hasn't allowed much outside time. She has been walking since 10 1/2 months so she RUNS now. She loves to hug her stuffed animals and plays with the corners of her blankies (gerber cloth diapers--I have 30 of them)

At her 12 month check-up she was in the 75% for height (I thought she would be smaller,,,she seems like such a midget to us---running around like she owns the place).
Her weight was 40% (20 lbs 11 oz).

She wakes up around 7:30-8:00. Plays like a maniac all day. Her naps are all over the place (one day 1 hour all day, the next 2 hour morning and 2 hour afternoon). I can't count on anything sleep-wise, but that's ok, I am able to run errands etc according to when the princess decides she will sleep. She handles the irregularity of her daytime naps better than the boys did. She likes to sit in her booster and watch me cook dinner. She normally gets pretty silly and is lots of fun in the evenings just before bed (I think she has figured out--the better I am the longer I get to stay up). She goes to bed like a champ between 8 and 8:30. That's when our sweet love turns into a devil. She is up for 2 bottles in the night and usually cries at some point for 15-30 minutes (just for fun). We have tried "crying it out" in January and after 3 weeks and 4 nights she broke us (yes, we endured hours of screaming for 25 days in a row to no avail). So we just give her the 2 bottles and hope and pray that one of these days we will go to bed and when we wake-up and look at the clock and it will be 7:30. It is amazing what you can endure, when you know it's the last time you have to go through it.

Our big one year old

One of her newest expressions--I love how it shows off her lonely upper tooth.

11 months--aww loves to snuggle

10 months

9 months

8 months

another 8 month

7 month

6 month

5 month (same dress as 7 months--good thing I put a sweater on her for 7 months)

4 month

3 month

2 month

1 month

"Mom, I'm going to keep pee-ing!"

This is a post about one of the messier joys of motherhood. One of Chad's favorite movies is Dumb and Dumber and he particularly loves the pee-ing in the beer bottles scene. So I wish he would have been with Spencer today. Spencer had his 5 yr check-up (Abby had her 12 mon as well--fun fun). They needed a urine sample, so we headed into the restroom. I had Abby in one arm, diaper bag in the other, holding the cup with the diaper bag hand. I just wanted Spencer to keep the pee-shooter pointed down with his 2 free hands.

Hmmm--that was a mighty small cup....."mom, I'm going to keep pee-ing"

As we are trying to walk in unison to the toilet, without spilling the contents of the diaper bag, cup, and toddler, Spencer forgets to point down. That kid has some pressure---all over me, abby, the wall and floor. Not a drop on him though.

EEEEWWWW!!!!

Yes, I do have 2 other children

I know it's been the Abby show lately. It's easy to do with a baby who is changing and growing so fast. There is always lots to blog about with a baby in the house. Well, my little men are just awesome and we are nuts about them. Or is it that they drive us nuts? Either way works.

Cameron playing basketball. This year he was in an instructional league through Mapleton City. It was fun for him, but it will be nice next year when he gets to actually play some games.

The boys had a blast swimming with Daddy. They did not want to leave the pool. I took Abby home and she was asleep for an hour by the time they got home.

Cam and Spence in front of a picture of Cam's on display at school.

Best birthday cake EVER!! Way to go Grandma. I could not be more thrilled with Spencer right now. He is working so hard on his speech. We have all learned that Spencer is one tenacious little dude--If he can work this hard in all areas of his life, he can accomplish anything. His teachers are so impressed with the progress he is making. They assumed I had him on a daily practice schedule. When I told them it as been 100% Spencer, they were even more amazed. So proud of my little man. He can now say chicken.....it used to sound like shittin. (oh, Kristi had fun with that one.)

Abby's First Birthday Party

Thank goodness it was warm last Sunday!! Dude, my house is way too small to host both families. Should have had my kids in better months--Nov, Jan, March don't always lend themselves to outside parties. This one worked out great!!

Oh, come on Cameron. Could we just get one decent grandkid picture.

This makes 3 for 3. All 3 of my kids cried and wouldn't touch their birthday cakes.

Love these 2 pictures with Grandma

What's wrong with that kid?

Time will tell if there is something REALLY wrong with her, but for now Abby likes to put her head on her left shoulder when she is shy, being told "no", being gushed over--even by mommy, getting too much attention, not getting enough attention. Basically, Abby has her head tilted quite often, and it's hilarious. Mom and I love taking her to the mall, with all the attention from strangers, her head if bobbing to the left constantly. he he

More Birdies

I'm gonna make a crafter of this girl if it kills me. This was the last of my birdie projects. Nat was a good sport to make them with me,,,and I think she even kind of enjoyed herself.

These are at the end of my hallway. I hope I hung them high enough to keep Miss Abby away.

Bear Ears and Spaghetti

I am able to put about 20 hairs into each Klippie, but I couldn't wait to try these little Bear Ear Klippies. Kind of silly, I'm sure they will look better when she gets more hair. Cole-bear looks so cute in hers.

With a little help from Grandpa Abby ended up with spaghetti all over herself and the floor.

For the love of ....change..and birdies

I LOVE to redecorate. I love the planning, the buying, the doing, the newness, the change. When I finished with the kitchen/living room in January I realized my upstairs had way to much brown. I obviously love brown. Even though I ate through my redecorating budget for the year Chad was ok with me changing the bedroom. I re-used as much as I could to save money and if fabric wasn't so darn expensive I would have stayed under budget. Oh well.

NEW BEDROOM

I was nervous about the baby-poop/chartreuse color paint, but once I put the silver metallic glaze over it I love it. If you are into faux painting, I highly recommend Benjamin Moore metallic glazes---I've now used the bronze and silver, and might just try the copper in the bathroom (in 2012).

Painted the old frames with purple paint from the living room project.


I put the silver glaze on the lamps and used all the pillows from my previous bedding.

Luckily I have oodles of wool felt, so recycling the old pillows just required a couple of yards of fabric for the blue and green pillows. Then I appliqued the flowers/birds/leaves on.

hmmm...I now love BIRDIES.


Brown was fun for a while, but I love the colors of my new room.

Tweet Tweet

My TV is normally off at 11am, but this day I happened to watch Studio 5 and I had to try this craft project by www.simplykellyb.blogspot.com . My birdies didn't hang right with the fishing line she used so I used a toothpick, wire and chain to make a swing for the birds. I also made the cages 3 different sizes. I found some candlesticks at the dollar store--love them.

Then I went back to the dollar store and found these tea light holders. Love them even more. I think they would make DARLING centerpieces for a wedding luncheon. Let's just hope whoever Scotty ends up with will be as chill as Natalie was and let me make these for the luncheon. I know Pat would be thrilled to have one less thing to worry about. (Don't worry, if mystery gal has other visions for her wedding that's totally fine.)

We SO funny.........and .......Technology

We have this little thing going with Greg and Richele---we try to get the most obnoxious/loud/big/annoying gifts for each other's kids. We decided to let Greg and Shell enjoy the present this year.

Who doesn't want a bottle opener deer butt hanging on their living room wall? And the boys had a great time hiding the root beer bottles all over the house.

Nicole was thrilled with her deer butt!!!! It will be hanging until she graduates from High School. Then I will make sure it goes to college with her.

And

What keeps 7 kids (and a few adults) entertained at a family dinner?

Oh, just 3 Ipads and 5 Iphones....gotta love technology. Apparently Angry Birds is the greatest game ever.

I Have the Best Sisters Ever!

And this is why....

Birthdays are just not my thang. I don't do themes, cakes, big hoop-la etc. I DO give lots of hugs and kisses and tell them their birth story etc. I just can't make myself do anything more than have Chad blow up a bunch of balloons and scatter them on the floor.

When we were discussing Abby's Birthday party--Chad threw out that we should have a lumberjack theme. He was totally kidding, but give us gals an idea and it's a done deal.

Leave it to Shell-Bell to have her entire family dressed up as Lumberjacks, including face painting and accessories. Oh Shell, we love you. (Poor Greg had to go Home Teaching with make-up stubble still on his face. Her eyeliner pencil didn't come off Greg or the kids as easily as she said it would.)

Love Nicole's dark brown eyebrows--so cute.

And Kristi's wonderfullness begins with her baking skills. She made this AWESOME flannel shirt cake,,,and it was tasty too. I couldn't find the picture of the Woody cake (Toy Story that is) that she made for one of Cam's birthdays--but it was great--A huge cupcake iced to look like his shirt.

Tell me what little girl wouldn't be thrilled to someday learn that she had a Lumberjack party for her first birthday. Princess parties are SO overrated---just ask Rebekah.