Halloween, Finally

Since November is almost over, I really need to get our Halloween pictures posted.  Some day I won't be so behind.

 

Tyler, Isaac, Gabe and I went to the school for the annual costume parade.  Our elementary school has over 1,000 kids and the gym where the parents sit to watch is obnoxiously full.  Fortunately, my mother-in-law always goes early and saves us a seat.  On the Saturday before Halloween, we had our ward party and Isaac wouldn't put his costume on at all, so I was a little surprised when he let me put him in it Halloween.  He didn't really want his picture taken in it though.

 

 

Chloe was a cheerleader this year.  She's the one a head taller than the other kids and she's waving.

Colin was Darth Vadar.

 

 

Mia was a witch.  She was excited to see us.

 

Brady didn't wear a costume to school this year.  Apparently, he's too cool for that.  He really wanted a Halo costume, but it was $30.  No way was I going to pay that for a cheap costume he would wear for one day.  For our ward party and trick-or-treating, he was Venom since I had gotten that on clearance for $3 a few years back.

 

Brady and Tyler also wore this lion costume.  It's a good warm one from The Gap.

 

Gabe was a puppy.  He's a cute puppy.

 

Isaac figured out you can use your finger for Fun Dip.

Tyler wanted to be Buzz Lightyear again this year.  I got him a cool helmet that has lights, but of course he's not wearing it.



 

Here's the pumpkins I carved for them this year.  Brady's is the skull.  Mia's is the spider and Chloe's is Wicked.  I carved two of them while holding Gabe.  I gave myself a blister too.  Lance was busy that night so he didn't get to help out.

Gabe was blessed on November 4th.  He was a very good boy and didn't cry.

 

His baby acne was all gone and he looked so cute then he scratched himself on the nose in the middle of the night.

 

Some quotes from Tyler:  "I wish the fart fairy took my farts away cause I don't like to fart." 

"This is my eraser hand.  This is my drawing thing."  -as he licked the window at church.

"It was playing scary music and Gabe was in the swing so I changed it to loving music."

"You should not get that because I don't want your eyebrows green." -after a commercial with Pink for mascara.

"Your belly is getting bigger.  I know you're going to have another baby.  Then we'll have three babies!  I'm petting your baby."  -while petting my belly during church.  (Just to be clear, there is no baby in my belly.)

 

Isaac likes to help himself to candy.  When he does, he always gets two, one for me and one for him.  He's a smart boy.  He's very good at throwing the wrappers away too.

 

Gabe's a really good baby, but he has his issues.  He has a rash in the creases of his neck which started out as excema and turned into a yeast infection.  We've been fighting it for almost two weeks.  When he wears shirts, it irritates it so he's been shirtless for the last two weeks.  I made him a fleece tube top and arm warmers, to keep him warm, but those just turned out to be a hassle.  It's been very frustrating.  Just when I think it's looking better, it gets nasty looking again.  I'm not quite sure what the trick is.

 

He's also become a lazy nurser.  Once it stops flowing, he doesn't want to work for it too much.  He just stops eating and screams at me.  In order to keep up my supply, I've been pumping.  Sometimes, I feed him, pump, feed him that, then he's still hungry so I feed him formula.  It's quite the process.  I don't know how long I'll keep this up.  I have too much to do to spend an hour each feeding trying to get him full!

 

The picture on the left is Gabe at one month.  The picture on the right is Gabe at two monts.  He's gotten longer, but hasn't filled out too much.  At his checkup his doctor said he'd fallen to the 30% for weight but he wasn't failure to thrive yet since he was still growing.  The very idea of failure to thrive was a little scary to me which is one reason, I've been nursing, and pumping and adding formula. 

 

He's not really a fan of the car seat too much.  He doesn't mind it too much if we're moving, but when we stop for too long, he lets us hear about it. 

 

 

He found his hands and likes to munch on those.

 

We had our first snow.  There was snow and dirt and snowsuits and hats and gloves and scarves everywhere.  Snow's a lot of work.

 

After the girls painted their fingernails, they left out the fingernail polish.  Look who found it. 

 

He got some all over the table and stool too.

 

You can see Gabe's tube top here.  Mia wanted me to take these pictures. 

 

Isaac thinks the cradle and swing are for him to play in.  He sits in the cradle and sings rock a bye baby.

 

He sits in the swing to watch tv.

 

 

 

Mia lost her two front teeth just in time for Christmas.  I always wanted to lose my two front teeth right before Christmas.

 

She likes to have her picture taken.

 

Isaac has started to bite Tyler when he's not happy with him.  That bite mark is about 5 days old.  He got him good that time.  Tyler didn't bite too much.  Chloe started biting, then Mia learned to bite back.  It took a while before they quit biting. 

 

Gabe's been smiling lots and has even giggled a few times.  It's so fun when they start interacting.

 

Today I decided to see if Tyler or Isaac would eat Spaghettios.  Brady and Chloe used to like them, but not anymore.  Isaac preferred to fingerpaint with them.

 

 

Last night Brady said totally out of the blue, "Mom, I love you."   It was so nice to hear.  I'm not ready for him to become a teenager.  He can be pain when he's bugging everyone, but it's so nice when he's happy.  He went to Idaho with my brother's family for a couple of days over Thanksgiving.  It was not a good idea.  He's never been good with sleepovers and that hasn't changed.  The first night he did pretty good.  The second night he couldn't sleep.  We got a phone call at 10, then midnight, then 4 am.  He finally fell asleep after the 4 o'clock call.  He keeps telling us different reasons he couldn't sleep.  There was too much snoring or it was too cold.  I think he just missed us. 

 

He also has started sleepwalking.  A couple of nights ago he came up to our room asking about some computer and a game.  It's always confusing to us because he almost seems awake, then we realize he's not really and we have to escort him back to bed.  When we ask him the next day, he usually thinks it was a dream or he can barely remember it. 

 

He and Max put up a tire swing in the back yard.  It should be interesting to see how long it lasts.  Most of their stuff is pretty sturdy, but this one is tied onto a pretty weak branch and it's not very close to the trunk, so it doesn't look quite as solid. 

 

Yay!  I'm kind of caught up now.  It's not very exciting, but at least it's something.

Boys

Introducing the Western Moto racing team!  Lance got new shirts for the shop.  Since Mia kept asking for a shirt for her, he ordered some kid sizes.  They're all very excited to have their own shirts.  You can have one too if you go buy one at his shop.  While you're there, buy some tires too.  He'd really appreciate that.

 

 

Mia and Chloe's costumes came so they had to try them on.  I didn't make them this year.  I've been a little busy.  You have to wait until Halloween to see them.  There's a little sneak peek of Mia's in this picture of Isaac.  Isaac has decided he's going to be acting like a two year old from now on.  He's still very sweet, but thinks he can do whatever he wants.  He pushes the stools around to get up on the counter so he can get whatever he wants out of the cupboards.  He learned that from Tyler.  He runs away from me in stores if I don't buckle him into the cart.  I got him a new pair of shoes that he can get on himself, which he does whenever any of the other kids go outside.  He repeats almost everything Tyler says.  He says "Hey!" whenever you try to take something from him or take his spot.  He says "Jack, Jack spot back."  (He's the only one allowed to say it anymore.  When anyone else says it, it just turns into a fight so I told my kids there's no Jack that lives here.  Mostly it just lets everyone know you're getting up when otherwise nobody cares.)  He has to sit on the stools with the big kids.  No more high chair.  He won't eat oatmeal for breakfast anymore.  Most of the time he doesn't eat his cereal either.  He's a picky boy, but he's sure cute.

 

Yesterday, I tried to put a new shirt on him. He just cried. He didn't want to wear it. He also cried when I tried to put this bib on him a couple of months ago. He's a funny boy.

 

 

 

Brady thinks he's growing up too.  He thinks he knows everything.  He loves to pester everyone.  Just a slight pat on the head is enough to get the desired scream from one of his sisters.  When someone else gets in trouble, he's quick to add his two cents or a "yeah".  He gets moody when he has nobody to play with.  He drags his feet at bedtime. This is nothing new though. He's always been good at that.  He's also been very responsive and willing to do what I ask him.  It always surprises me when he does something without arguing first.

 

He says funny things.  One night I was flipping channels with him after the little kids were in bed.  I stopped at Giuliana and Bill for a few minutes.  Brady said, "Those two are married?  She could have done way better than him!"  That made me laugh.  Another time there was a commercial with a lady talking about her special needs child.  She was smiling at him throughout the commercial.  Brady asked me, "Were you ever like that, Mom?"  Confused, I asked what he meant.  He said, "Enthusiastic.  Were you ever enthusiastic with us?"  Ouch.  Apparently I don't smile enough.  It reminded me of one of his other comments.  When the girls were little, life was crazy.  One day he was upset about something.  He said to one of the girls, "You ruined my mom.  She used to be fun."  That one still makes me cry. 

 

The kids all had their teeth cleaned a week ago.  Mia had three cavities.  Tyler and Chloe had one.  Brady had none.  Of course the dentist was telling Brady how good he's doing taking care of his teeth.  It makes me laugh since he doesn't brush his teeth anymore than any of the other kids do, and that's not near enough.  Anyway, they had an opening the next day so Tyler got his cavity filled.  He did fantastic.  He just sat there.  He squirmed a little with the shot, but not much at all.  They told him not to chew on his lip and sent us home.  It was bothering him as it started to regain feeling in it, but I didn't think too much of it.  I took Isaac outside with me and raked a few leaves.  I came back in and his lip was very swollen.  He had started sucking on it and managed to bite it or split it somehow.  When I took him in the next day to have it checked, the dentist said the split was so bad he would have stitched it had he seen him sooner.  It's pretty much healed now.  It looked pretty bad for a few days.  After the swelling went down, it was super dry and chapped.  He wouldn't let me put chapstick on it so I had to sneak some on him one night while he was sleeping.

 

One day when we were in Target and he was busy testing my patience he found a "straight pole".  He ran over to it and tried to climb it.  He wasn't having too much success so he said, "I can use my sticky feet."  I kind of ignored him for a second then realized he had his shoes off and was actually climbing it this time.  I guess that's what I get for putting him in a preschool with gymnastics. 

 

After a bath one night he informed me his weiner was big.  (He tells me this quite often.  He gets really annoyed when it just happens.)  I told him very straight forwardly that it was because he had been playing with it.  He replied, "I like to pretend it's a diving board.  Boing, boing, boing."    

 

Yesterday when I picked up Tyler from pre-school his teacher told me he's such a good kid and she can tell I'm doing a good job with him.  She went on and on too.  I'll be sure not share my blog with her. 

 

Isaac wanted me to take his picture after he took a bite out of the middle of his cinnamon toast. 

 

Isaac has shown more interest in Gabe.  He's starting to ask to hold him a lot.

 

Of course Tyler had to hold him as well.

 

Gabe's going to blessed at church on November 4th.  (It's kind of like a christening, but not really.  It's not a baptism.  It's a special blessing given to the baby, usually by his father, surrounded by other male members of our families.)  I've usually just borrowed outfits since it's only one day and outfits are $50 and up and I don't like to spend that much money for a one day event he won't remember.  Anyway, I decided to attempt to make one.  If it didn't work out I could figure something else out.  I wanted something warm so I went to DI (thrift store) and found a white sweater for $4.  Then I went to JoAnn Fabric and found a pattern on sale for $1.  A couple of days later I found some time to see what I could do.  Originally I was thinking of doing a separate sweater and pants but couldn't decide how to finish the bottom of the sweater.  Then I realized he was about the same length as the sweater so I could just do a one piece outfit and use the sleeves of the sweater for the sleeves so everything would have a finished edge.  Using one of his outfits, I traced out a pattern and made a sample with some scrap fabric.  After that, I went for it and traced it out slightly bigger on the sweater.  Usually, I tend to overthink things, but since my free time is limited, I just did it.  It turned out really cute.

Here you can kind of get an idea of what I started with.

 

 

Here's my finished product.

 

 

And here's my little Gabe in it.  He likes it so much he's even smiling. 

 

Today I almost forgot I volunteered to make a cake for a funeral.  I remembered an hour before it was supposed to be there.  After I put it in the oven, I had the ingredients out for the frosting.  While I was upstairs with Gabe, Isaac was doing some investigating.  He found out cocoa makes a mess. 

 

He started crying so I ran downstairs. He had the broom and was trying to clean it up. I had to calm him down before I could clean it up.  It scared him when it dropped. 

 

While I was at DI the other dayI happened upon this vcr/dvd recorder.  It's the exact same as the one we had to trash after Isaac rendered it useless by filling it with some change after the glass to the entertainment cabinet fell out.  Our remote even works with it, which is good since it didn't come with one for the bargain price of $15.  It's $160 new at Wal-Mart.  Consequently, we've been watching a lot of Power Rangers at our house.  I've second-guessed my purchase more than once.  Power Rangers are really annoying.

 

In case you didn't know, having a baby is expensive.  Our out-of-pocket we've paid for everything is about $3200.  That's without an epidural and staying in the hospital as little as possible.  I was there less than 36 hours.  It's more than we paid when Chloe was born after a 4 and a half  week hospital stay for me, c-section and 1 week in the nicu for her.  We had a family maximum out-of-pocket of $3,000 then.  Our total bill was about $50,000.  Our total bill for Gabe was about $9,000.  So save your pennies before you have babies and get some good insurance.