Baron's 9 Month Check-up

We went to the doctor today for Baron and Daphne's well child exam's. I'll post more about Daphne's later, along with her birthday, which is tomorrow. Baron's stats are as follow's:

weight: 23 pounds 3 oz. (90th percentile)

length: 30 inches (90th percentile)

head: 18.1 inches (72nd percentile)

So, he's slowing down a bit in the growing department, but there is a reason. The dr. checked his hematocrit and it was low, which means Bear is anemic. I'm going to have to start him on an iron supplement and the dr. thinks that this is the reason he has been more cranky than usual and also why he hasn't started crawling (he does the army crawl and can get around fine, but it's not really considered "crawling") I can't wait to see the difference. Jonah also had this problem (it must be in our genes- I'm also anemic when I am pregnant) and after a month on supplements, he was a whole differnt baby, so I'm excited to see if it helps Bear and gets me my sweet baby back!

Baron is so much fun, even though he can be a stinker sometimes. He is a total Momma's Boy and wants me at all times. Whenever Andy's got him and he walks by me, Baron will lunge out of his arms to get to me. He is so funny and he tries to "talk" to us already. He will say "eeooeeooeeooeeoo" and stare right at you like he's telling you something very important. He also does this hilarious little game where he growls at you and if you growl back he will do it back and so on. He loves it and does it about 10 times a day. Another funny thing he does is click his tongue when he sees food. He continues clicking until you give hima bite of whatever it is you are eating. He is so happy in the morning and almost never cries. He will sit in his crib and play until I go get him and then he is all smiles and when I pick him up he snuggles into my shoulder and squeezes me. I adore him and I cannot believe my baby is 9 months old already. He is such a sweetheart and I don't want him to grow up anymore! He is also enormous and is in size 18-24 month clothing and has a size 4-5 shoe. He will be caught up to Daphne in no time. We all love our little Bear. He's such a perfect addition to our family.

Finally Have Time...

I can't believe it is already the 11th of January! Why does time fly so fast as an adult and seem to drag as a kid? Well, I never posted about the week between Christmas and New Years, so for my sake I'm doing it. And I have NO pictures to break up the monotony, so feel free to skip this post! It was just too crazy and I had my camera everywhere we went but never pulled it out. So, Friday, day after Christmas, I did post about. We went sledding and out to dinner that evening with my fam. One thing I didn't mention was I did get to see an old friend that I grew up with who was in town. We hadn't seen each other since my wedding and she came to my house with her kids and our kids got along great. We had lunch and caught up. It was so much fun. (Great to see you Alyssa!) Saturday was our recoup and let the kids enjoy their toys day, so we did NOTHING and it was heaven! Except that evening we got together with Andy's fam and played games. On Sunday we didn't do much, of course went to church, and stayed home with our little family. On Monday my sis Rach and I, and my mom along with all of our kids, went shopping to several after Christmas sales and out to lunch. It was fun but a bit of a nightmare with 6 kids... I'm sure you can all imagine. That evening Rachel and I had a party at my moms with old highschool friends and old college roomates. Rachel and I were roomates for one semester before we got married (best 5 months EVER! I love my sis!) and so we shared some roomates. We had dinner and dessert and talked. It was a lot of fun. On Tuesday we had a big breakfast (again, at my moms-thanks mom!) with really old friends from our childhood. It was so much fun to see people we had grown up with and see how they are doing. Everyone brought their kids and it was a fun, crazy, madhouse. My sister has a bunch of brilliant ideas and loves to see as many people as possible when she comes to visit, especially at Christmas, because everyone is here from out of town to see family. It's great, and I'm glad she organizes it and I don't have to :) Afterwards, we decided to try shopping again, this time without the kids, so we got a babysitter. We just took our babies, and me, Rach, and my mom went up to the outlets at Park City and shopped for hours. So much fun. If you can't tell, I love to be with my mom and Rachel :) On Wednesday, we had our annual Collette Girls holiday shopping trip. I am the only sister-in-law in Andy's fam, so me, along with Andy's mom and sisters (whom I love like my own sisters and mom, which makes it even better) go shopping ALL day to pretty much wherever we want to go. We also do lunch, and we hit up DSW, never fail. It has become a fun tradition that I look forward to every year. We then went to the Collette's to spend New Years Eve where we ate dinner and partied all night playing Wii, talking, and eating. Tons of fun! On New Years day my Grandma Jerman has a New Years open house every year where we go see my whole Jerman side of the family and talk and eat some more and usually end up watching football. It was a lot of fun. On Friday Rachel had to go home :( and my mom was working, so we took her lunch and we ate with her, then Rachel took off home to Las Vegas (well, her real home is here, but it is her temporary home for now :) It was such a fun, crazy, non-stop week and I loved it, but I'm glad it's over for another year. I think my house is the dirtiest it has ever been and I have more loads of laundry to do than I ever have... oh well, it was worth it!

Tea Party

Laylah sliding the cookies in to bake


The other day the kids and I decided to have a tea party. Laylah had received a teeny tiny teaset for Christmas and wanted to put it to use. She made some sugar cookies with her easy-bake oven, and also melted chocolate chips to dip them in. Then we made some hot chocolate. She set up the table and the kids had a fun little tea party. I was the maid who had to refill their cups 20 times because they are so little and after one sip the liquid is gone :) They had a ton of fun talking with funny accents and drinking their "tea" and telling me, the "mom maid" what to do.

The cookies, which are tiny to begin with, were even too big for the plate!

Chocolate face (and nap hair... ugh!- seriously, why do I even bother DOING the hair???...)

Oh so dainty

This is what I did with Baron while we partied... gave him licorice. Hey, I don't want to hear I'm a bad mom because I give my not quite 9 month old candy. He was quiet for HALF AN HOUR! Whatever works, right?

And just look how happy it made him!

Laylah cleaning up her teaset afterwards

Funny Kids

Whenever I do a post about the funny things my kids say, its mostly just for me because my mom always says "If you don't write it down, you won't remember it." So I try to always write it down because when I don't I think "What was that funny thing so-and-so said the other day?..." and I love to remember how funny kids can be, especially when I'm ready to tear my hair out because of them! Here we go...

Jonah singing on the potty: "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir yes sir, three bags full. One for my master and one for my dame, but none for the little boy who lives down the drain..."

Laylah in the car while we were driving to the gym: L "Mom, why do you go to the gym?" Me"So I can workout" L "Why? What does working out do for you?" Me "It's healthy for our bodies to excercise" L "Oh... do you want to loose pounds too?" Me"Ya, it's always great to loose a few pounds too" L"Do you want to loose pounds becasue you think you are fat?" Me "No, I don't think I'm fat, I just need to loose some weight to be more healthy" L "Oh...you want to be skinny like me? Wait, what does skinny mean again? Everyone always tells me I'm skinny, but I don't know what that means!" Me laughing "It means you're not fat" L" okay, well, you are skinny, and not fat mom." What a sweetie... thanks Lay :)

Daphne at dinner, discussing her favorite movie Barbie and the Diamond Castle: "Me and Laylah are the princesses, Liana and Alexa. Sadie and Roxy (our dog who is dead, just FYI) are Lily and Sparkles, our dogs. Daddy and Bear bear are Jeremy and Ian, the princes. Jonah is Slyder, the dragon. And Mommy, you can be.... the witch! You are Lydia the witch!" Andy says "Why does mom have to be the witch?" Daphne "Because she's mean" Ha ha! Oops, guess I better work on not being so "mean" :)

Crybaby

These pictures are very deceiving. Although he looks happy, Baron has been a wreck for the past couple of weeks and I just don't know what to do about it. I don't know where my sweet, happy, cheerful baby has gone! An imposter has replaced him who is crabby, whiny, and clingy. I know this is the age where they are teething and they also have the stranger fear thing, but I can't take it anymore! I would like to be able to put him down without hearing howling protests and screams of rage. Yes, I said it- SCREAMS of RAGE!! None of my other baby's were like this. They all went through the teething thing great and none of them had seperation anxiety. Any suggestions??? It would be GREATLY appreciated, as my arms are about to fall off, and my back is about to break from toting around this 24 pound lug for at least 14 hours out of every day!

Go Utes!!

Watching the game... see Baron's highchair? He even dragged it into the family room to feed Bear so he wouldn't miss one second of the game

Jumping up and down cheering. I told him he should be a cheerleader and I could teach him a few moves

This is for Andy. His beloved Utes won the Sugar Bowl! It was so funny. From the beginning of the game when Utah scored their first touchdown Andy was running around yelling and jumping up and down. He made Baron cry 3 times! I finally had to take all the kids downstairs to play. They were a little frightened of their Daddy :)

Sugar Bowl tickets... $200

Airfare to New Orleans... $500

Hotel in New Orleans... $300

Watching the game on TV with a bag of chips, screaming kids, and a nagging wife... Priceless!

Andy would have LOVED more than anything to go to the game, but he thought it might be selfish after he added up the cost. I told him I didn't mind, but he stayed home with us anyway... what a great guy.

Jonah's Eyes

No, these are not Jo's glasses ( I'm sure you all were wondering ;) they are play glasses he can only wear before he goes to bed at night, so he always puts them on to be funny

Just a little update on my JoJo. We had another appointment with the eye dr. and we were very excited with the news. He told us that Jonah's doubled his improvement in his bad eye, which is very encouraging because that means the patches are working! He will still continue wearing them for four hours a day. We are just thrilled with this news because the type of lazy eye that Jonah has isn't very common and if you dont' catch it early enough the damage is irreversable. It also cannot be corrected with surgery like other types of lazy eye. So we are happy.

We're just getting back into the routine from the after Christmas lazy period that I'm sure everyone has. We have been crazy busy with parties, shopping expeditions, dinners, movies, and family get-togethers. I'll post more about all of that later. I can't wait until next week when school starts again and I can get back into my routine. I hope everyone had a happy, fun and safe New Year!

Christmas!!!

Okay... so there are probably a hundred pictures in this post and my mom will probably be the only one who cares about reading it, but without further ado I present.... Christmas!! Christmas was so much fun at our house. We were very busy all week doing fun and exciting things. On Monday night Andy's work had their Christmas party which was so fun and hilarious. We sat with one of Andy's good friend's and his wife ( we were the gossip table :). On Tuesday my mom had her Christmas party, which is usually Christmas Eve, but she had to work, so we did it a day early. It was so yummy and fun to be with my whole family. She had a guy in her ward come (some of you who read my blog will know him- Bliss Roberts, Skyline Seminary anyone? :) and give us a little fireside about Christ and the Three Wise Men. It was amazing and very spiritual. It left me with a greater love for the Christ Child and for my Savior. Because of my mom having to work, my Grandma had Christmas Eve at her house which was delicious. Then we went home and got ready for bed, set out cookies for Santa and read the story of Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. Then the kids went to bed and the real work began! We were up until 3 AM wrapping and finishing a little project gift for the girls that was procrastinated. We finally went to bed and the kids woke up at about 8 the next morning. They were very excited to see that Santa had come!They opened their stockings and then had to wait for a very tired Daddy to get up so we could open gifts. It was well worth he wait! They were so happy and excited and played and played all morning until we dragged them away to visit grandmas and grandpas ( my parents) where we were all spoiled more and also had a DELICIOUS brunch prepared by my amazing mother. Then it was off to Andy's parents were we had a Spectacular ham and turkey dinner and got even MORE gifts. I think it is safe to say the kids don't need ANYTHING for quite awhile. They were completely spoiled rotton! It was such a wonderful, fun day and I loved spending it with my family.

Andy's work took pictures of everyone and made them these cute cards

Santa enjoyed his cookies and milk

Christmas Eve right before bed

Sadie enjoying her new toys

The girls and their new Barbie Dollhouse that Santa was finishing until 3 AM

The boys in their fun new wagon that Santa was building around 1 AM in the morning

Jo's favorite new toy... the long-awaited pirate ship!

Andy telling Jonah that Santa must think he has bad hygeine because he brought him some new shampoo :)

Daphne's favorite gift... the singing Barbie's

Laylah's favorite gift (yay! :) the Easy-Bake Oven and some Leapster games

My favorite gift that my sweet husband gave to me. We are going to Disneyland without our kids!!! Their is a little story behind this and I have to tell it before you all think I'm a horrible mom for taking off with my husband to Disneyland without my kids. I have always loved Disneyland and growing up my family would go about once a year or so. For mine and Andy's honeymoon we went there and it was horrible. I was SO sick our entire 10 day honeymoon (allergic reaction to some medication I was taking) and we even had to make a trip to the emergency room before we came home. We still made it to everywhere we wanted to go, but I was miserable the whole time (as I'm sure he was because I was) and I seriously don't even remember half of it. I need to enter one of those worst honeymoon contests, because I'm sure I would win. Anyway, we have always wanted to go back and do it again without kids, but obviously I have been pregnant or nursing for the past 6 1/2 years, so it was a little impossible. And so we are going!! And before you feel to bad about the kids missing it, we are going again in October with my whole big side of the family, all the grandkids and everyone, so they will get to go not to long after we do.

The cute peom and picture that was wrapped up

Poor Bear. He opened this one gift and then was ready for a nap. That is why he is in no more pics. He opened them all later when he woke up.

Mine and Andy's gift that Santa brought us. My mom and dad got us a Wii and Santa must have known because he got us some games to play on it!

Cute Piggy's! (Baron got a navy blue one :) After the kids opened these they ran upstairs and put all their pennies in them. So cute!

All of their amazing dress-ups that I MADE!!!

Sadie in her cute new sweater

All the grandkids on Andy's side in their Jammies Grandma made (except for his sister's Stef's kids who is coming up next week.)

Day after Christmas adult get together that we do with my family. My parents take us all out and then we got to their house for games afterwards. It was so much fun! We went to a new restaraunt called Bonsai. It is my new favorite place. We played some new games called Werewolf and Guillatine. They were so fun and it got a little heated, but I don't think anyone is still mad (hopefully :) In the pic, L to R: My brother Nate, my sis in law Annette, My bro Doug, my sis in law Kimmi, my dad, my mom, My sis Kaylie, me, Andy, my bro in law Don, my sis Rachel. Missing is my sis Suzanne who had enough family time through the week and wanted to stay home with her boyfriend. She's too cool for us sometimes :)

SLEDDING!!!!

This is another tradition we've had going. Sledding the morning after Christmas. It was so much fun and I can't wait to go again. My kids are finally big enough to all be able to walk up the big hill by themselves. Except Bear who sat in the back of the warm car and played with toys. We bring hot chocolate and snacks and it is just so much fun.

So fun! Going home.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!!