Cahokia Mounds

Today we went to the Cahokia Mounds in Collinsville, Illinois just outside of St. Louis.

If you look closely in the center picture, or really closely in the two similar pictures of PS and Buddy posing, you can see the St. Louis Arch in the background.

Setting up the trains with Grandpa

Putting up Christmas Lights

The day after Thanksgiving, Grandma had Grandpa on the roof hanging Christmas lights. Our kids asked if they could get on the roof so B finally agreed that he'd go up with them one at a time. They were a bit nervous, but mostly excited.

10 months

Buddy Builds Train Tracks

We used to have to build the entire train track for Buddy's trains to run on. Then he'd "help" and we'd have to somehow make it all come together. Now he gets his box of train stuff out, and every day creates some new, elaborate lay out that comes together and involves all these creative bridges, etc. He'll only let us take them apart if we take their picture, or leave the most elaborate bridges up for him to build a new track for in the morning. So, you'll probably be seeing a lot of pictures like this one.

43 weeks

These are getting harder and harder to capture. See below:

42 weeks

Again, Buddy is crazy

When B tucked Buddy in last night, Buddy was laying with his head on its side and he wanted his one pillow on top so he was a sandwich. When we went in to check on them later on he'd rolled his head to face the ceiling and still had a pillow on his head, his face now.

Cute Smiles With His Two Baby Teeth

Buddy is crazy

I was sorting dirty clothes the other day, and Buddy, freshly bathed, laid down in my dirty clothes pile and rolled around.

Mouth

*see his scratched forehead... just a tiny fall and a big scratch.
Baby X sticks everything in his mouth, then crawls around with it in there. It's pretty funny.

Baby X Goes on a Horsey Ride (Daddy=Horsey)

This is Baby X's first horsey ride on Daddy. Buddy likes to call them bus rides now. And for PS they are fairy unicorn rides, or something. But for now, they are horsey rides for Baby X.







Clean dismount.

Prop 8 in California

A family friend who is an officer for the LAPD and whose area covers the LA Temple wrote this article for Meridian Magazine about all the craziness that is going on there.

41 weeks

Teeth

Not such a flattering picture, but a great shot of his two tiny little teeth.

Princess Sparkley on the swing

PS can pump her legs on the swing as of a month or two ago. Again, poor film quality. She wanted me to film her because I'd just filmed Buddy on the trike. She's trying to get going by pumping without a push to start her. Doesn't she look tall!?!

Buddy's Trike

Our kids both outgrew their bikes/trikes before they learned to pedal. I sold PS's on Craigslist, but Buddy's trike sale fell through. He's been riding it all over and has mastered it... forwards, backwards, three point turns, etc. Baby X likes to crawl after him. Buddy hates that. Here he is riding the trike outside. Sorry for the poor film quality... it's my digital camera again, no sound, and I was holding Baby X who made my filming all wobbly.

Strange Sleeping Habits

Colds have been going around. Buddy's had a hard time breathing through his nose at night so he stacks every pillow he has under his head at night. I went in the other night and found this... every pillow and a stuffed bear. Doesn't it look uncomfortable!?!

Reasons to hate Kansas

Look of the size of this bug. It's body was the size of my thumb. And it looks like it is part dinosaur. Yuck. Apparently, thanks to a friend's previous research on this but, it's a Wheel bug. And it can sting. Ick.

More Tongue

Baby X has had a bit of a cold with a runny/stuffy nose and a fever this week.
This is what he looked like all afternoon... the tongue sticking all the way out like a puppy dog.

40 weeks

Out of me as long as he was in me.

Cardiology Check-Up

As if Halloween wasn't crazy enough... Baby X also had a check-up at Children's Mercy this afternoon with his cardiologist. He hasn't been since the summer as the appointments have been getting further and further apart. This time he got the go ahead for a year until his next visit, which got moved to 9 months when I mentioned that we'd probably be moving next summer.

Baby X was awesome. He's the wiggliest baby ever. I can't get him to lay still for a diaper change or getting dressed so I was sure that having an EKG (about 8 little electrode stickers on his chest, arms, etc. with little wires clipped to them... he loves wires!) and an echocardiogram (which requires him laying still while she squirts goo on his chest and takes 20-30 minutes doing an ultrasound of his heart) was going to be horrible. He did great. He just laid there and starred at the woman doing it. It was his best time yet. Even as a newborn he'd cry and fuss a bit before eventually falling asleep. This time he just laid there and looked around. When he got a bit fussy she handed him a Dory fish toy that he chewed on until she was done. It was awesome. I had been really worried about how these appointments would go as he got older and more mobile. Good job, Baby X!

He weighed in at 9.34 kilograms (20 lbs. 9.45 oz.). I dont' remember his height, and it was in centimeters. They also take his blood pressure, etc.

Happy Halloween!!

9 months

Baby X was 9 months old on Sunday. NINE MONTHS!!! And he went for his 9 month check-up on Monday. He weighed in at 20 lbs. 9 oz. and is 29 1/2 inches tall and his head measures 18 1/4 in. He crawls, climbs stairs, pulls himself to standing, walks along tables/couches, will stand without holding on for a couple seconds. He says mamamama, dadadada, gagagaga and nanana. He has two teeth on the bottom that have just popped through in the last couple weeks. He is still a bundle of energy.

39 weeks

Carving Pumpkins 2008

We carved our pumpkins tonight.
top to bottom, left to right:
Baby X's pumpkin with two teeth (just like him) carved by N.
Buddy and his pumpkin... a mailman. Designed by him, carved by B.
Princess Sparkley and her pumpkin. Designed by her, carved by N and B.
Baby X and his pumpkin.
All three pumkins: Baby X's, PS's, and Buddy's
All three pumpkins lit up.
Buddy's pumpkin was really thin and so the light shines through it. Pretty cool!
PS's pumpkin.
Baby X's pumpkin.

Tutu in the mail

When we got home on Saturday and checked our mail, this tutu (crammed in a 8 1/2 x 12 mailer) was crammed into our tiny little mailbox cubicle. Quite funny in and of itself. Then we opened it (it was from Grandma M) and had even more fun with it. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Buddy wearing it as a tutu. It looked lovely with his red firetruck PJs. Thanks Grandma M... we love it. All of us!!

Saturday Road Trip

We had a tiny little family outing on Saturday because:

1) Baby X has been to a new county every month he's been alive and we needed to go somewhere in October to keep his streak alive (B's idea)

2) Last week we told Buddy we'd go to Fritz's while B ran the marathon, but then we decided it would be horribly crowded, and we didn't know when to expect B or his brother to finish and we didn't want to miss them, so we ended up not going and promised him we'd go the next week.


PS in her conductor's hat.


Watching for a train to go past.


Umm... no, I'm not wearing a hat.


Look at crazy eyes... we keep telling her that just because her head is looking at the camera, it doesn't mean her eyes are and that she needs to look with her eyes or she ends up looking crazy in all of our pictures... like this one.



3) Our kids have never been to Liberty Jail.


4) The new temple site for the Kansas City temple is near Liberty Jail so we drove by and saw where that is.

5) B needed some stuff from Sam's Club and there isn't one in our town.

I love the carts at Sam's Club that fit two kids up front. And it cracks me up that Buddy still wants to sit there... he's huge next to Baby X. We kept telling him that he was going to have a growth spurt while we shopped and get stuck in the cart forever.

Autumn

Saturday was our Super Saturday (or as B calls it Soup or Saturday) Relief Society craft day thingymabob, so, as tradition requires, B took the kids to the Prairie Park Nature Center in town and on a little picnic while I made some sock snowmen (not pictured). He drove past a park with all these beautiful autumn trees and stopped and took some pictures for me since he knows how much I love the leaves changing colors. What a sweet guy!

Another Pumpkin Patch

We went to a different pumpkin patch for our music class field trip. It was freezing cold but there were some more things for the kids to do. Buddy loved the giant "sandbox" of corn kernels. And riding the bikes.




Buddy really wanted me to film this.



Buddy and PS jumping in corn and making corn angels.



Baby X and his two pumpkins... I love his little pointer finger and how obsessed he is with pumpkin stems.


Buddy and his second pumpkin... this is the one he ends up deciding to carve to look like a mailman.

Chasing the Bike

Baby X erased the really good video I had of him chasing Buddy while Buddy rides the bike around. He was doing it over and over again until I got the camera, at which point he decided to stand up and walk along the table a bit. Here's the best we have:

Ball Players

I accidentally matched my two boys today. Not on purpose, I got one dressed and then the other and then realized that they sort of matched. So I decided to take some baseball pictures. And Princess Sparkley felt a bit left out, so she went and put on a red shirt to join in on the fun. Here are the results:












Baby X loves when Princess Sparkley wears her red shirt with this sequin heart on it.

38 Weeks, 1 Day