Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Birthday catch-up.... Wyatt!!!


I feel bad that Wyatt didn't get to have a birthday party in September,
but he was too sick and was actually in the hospital on the day his party was supposed to be,
and the week after, and he spent the month recovering.
So we just never ended up doing a party for him.

But we did a few family things on the actual day of his first birthday,
so I thought I would post a couple of those pictures.
Yes, it was awhile ago (our grass is now covered with a foot and a half of snow).
Wyatt is such a sweet little boy. Here is his update for the baby book:
At 16 months....
He is very verbal. A couple of weeks ago I followed him around and wrote down 146 words!
He tells us "I love you" at least once an hour, and loves to give kisses and hugs.
He even tries to sign "I love you", which is basically him showing us the palm of his hand :)
He also says "All done. I stuck." when he wants out of his highchair.
He signs about 12-15 words.
He curls up on my shoulder in the sweetest way when he's cuddling.
He loves to sing songs, especially happy birthday!
He is a pretty musical kid, and loves to play instruments.
He sleeps with several stuffed animals, his favorites are: a "kitty cat", a "Tucker" cat, a toy baby named "baby", and lots of books.
His favorite book is a book called "babies", which he insists on sleeping with every night!
Wyatt mostly follows Josh and Claire around all day and plays with whatever they are playing with (much to their dismay). Actually, they are very sweet to him.
He has gotten much pickier with his eating, ever since he first tasted his birthday cake! Coincidence?? :)
But he still LOVES bananas, and m&m's... if he hears any wrapper crinkling he gets very excited and will say "M'n M'n M'n M'n M'n....!!" until you give him one.
He also does this with "Scooby Doobie Doobie Doobie Doobie..." (scooby doo).

He goes up and down stairs by himself pretty well.
My heart stops every time he goes down.
He is very patient, and will sit in his stroller or highchair without complaint for quite a long time when we are out. You can tell he's a 3rd child and is used to waiting his turn!
He is still the biggest of all of our kids, and actually weighed exactly 20 pounds on his first birthday. Josh weighed 17 pounds and Claire 15 pounds respectively :)
His growing curve has changed though, and is closer to how Josh was at his age
... maybe slightly bigger.
His eyes are still bright blue, and his hair is reddish/strawberry!
So we have 3 different combos with our kids:
Josh = brown hair, green eyes
Claire = blond hair, brown eyes
Wyatt = strawberry blond hair, blue eyes


I usually make a cake for our kids, but on their actual birthday we usually
just buy cupcakes at the grocery store and then save the cool cake for the party.
Wyatt didn't know the difference though, and loved his cupcake!

It was a really nice day, so we spent most of the time playing outside.
Wyatt was pretty happy about all the walnuts on the ground at Claire's preschool,
thinking they were apples!


Lots of love from Josh and Claire :)

We love you Wyatt!!!
Happy birthday baby.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Halloween Happenings - January recap!


Happy Halloween, in January!!!
Yes, I've been busy. Sorry, but better late than never, right??
I have a LOT of pictures here.... halloween is my favorite, so I take a lot of pictures, and want to share them all!! So get comfortable...


Starting out in October, the kids helped decorate for halloween... they were really into it this year, but maybe got just a little side tracked at times :)


Here is proof that even though Claire is a girly girl, she has a tomboy streak :)
She thinks worms are really cute.

We read a lot of books and watched a movie this summer on making faerie houses in nature, and the kids were pretty proud of this one.
Claire said the worm could live there too. :)


Here is a picture of my front garden, .... some of it was dying since this was October,
but you get the gist.
I also included some pictures of the porch and some of the pots.





Claire went to the pumpkin patch with her preschool class to pick out pumpkins.


Our Halloween Family fun day in pictures:
We ate lunch in "Hell, Michigan" at the only restaurant in town, which happens to be really good!


Then went to Hell's little halloween gift shop for some of Hell's famous "Screams Ice Cream".


The kids each made this little walking spider craft.



Next we went pumpkin picking














Afterwards, we had doughnuts and the kids played in a hay maze!
I have a couple of pictures from another day, same place :)





Grandma Grimmett came to play with us for a week!
She helped the kids carve pumpkins :)



Claire insisted we carve her tiny pumpkin "Bingo".
Bingo is a gourd, so you can imagine it wasn't easy to light, let alone carve.
But somehow Jason managed... Go Daddy!


COSTUMES!
Our family theme this year was "toy story".
I don't know how much longer we can swing a theme, so we may as well live it up!

Jason and I were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

You can see the resemblance, I'm sure!
Everything was attached with velcro, so we could switch the pieces around, putting the eyes where the mouth goes, and replacing an eye with an ear... etc.

Josh wanted to be a cowboy, so I dressed him as Woody.
This actually started our theme.
But if you ask him, he is NOT Woody... he is just a regular cowboy ;p


Claire was "Princess" Little Bo Peep.

I have a few pictures because I'm pretty proud of how this actually turned out. It was a compilation of old dresses with a new overskirt and some new accessories to jazz it up.
(ruffly blue bloomers!)
She has a cane, but it's not in these pictures.



And Wyatt was Bo Peep's sheep.



We had a trunk-or-treat at the church, so the kids got a TON of candy!


My friend Abrea and I threw a little Halloween party at her house.
I decorated the walkway with ghost lights made from milk jugs:


And I dressed up as the tooth fairy for this party.
(my Mrs. Potato Head costume wasn't ready yet!)
I had a dental floss necklace, and toothpaste cap earrings, plus a little bag full of money, and a toothbrush magic wand, of course.

And just for fun I put Wyatt in Josh's halloween costume from when he was a year old.
(I was a beehive that year)

Here is Wyatt... having a pumpkin party on the porch!










Look how strong our kid is!

Ok, it's plastic.
A pumpkin that size would weigh more than Wyatt does!
Did he fool anyone?