Our Week - Eli Turns 8 months

This week Eli turned 8 months old! He is scooting around the house, clapping, laughing, and being a kook. This picture was taken a couple of days before he turned 8 months. Daniel has started letting him take baths without the baby seat. He LOVES to splash in the water (and has for several months), so giving him a bath is quite the adventure. As Daniel sees it less water means less mess.

 

Kyla had fun at girl scouts and made this cute flower arrangement. Mormor wanted us to take a picture of and send it to her.

 

This is actually the only picture that we took of Eli on his 8 month birthday. He and Myka got sick this week and he was quite miserable. We had actually forgot that it was his 8 month day and Daniel was just taking a picture of him because he was so cute being miserable. As soon as Eli saw the camera he perked right up, sat up, and gave us a huge smile. So much for trying to get the miserable, cuddly boy caught on camera; He is such a HAM.

 

Saturday was a super beautiful fall day. We spent the whole day outside trying to conquer the brambles. Kyla was a great help and enjoyed pulling the Jerusalem Artichoke. She was especially proud of this 8 ft long one.

 

We kept the guinea pigs out most of the day and the girls played with them in the leaf pile. The piggies really enjoyed burrowing in. Then we made a house for them, with rooms and hallways. All the piggies wanted to do was burrow in the leaves. Luckily we didn't loose either of them!

 

We are so enjoying the great Michigan fall weather, still no snow!

Who's the Bunny?

Let's play a game called "Who's the Bunny?" Here is each of my kids wearing the same costume can you tell who is who? Leave a comment with your answers.
Bunny #1

 

Bunny #2

 

Bunny #3

 

Bunny #4

 

Good Luck!
I made this costume 8 years ago! Can you believe it has gone by that fast? We have got to figure out how to slow down this clock that keeps ticking and making my babies grow.

And So It Begins . . .

So this week Eli learned to move forward and the freedom that comes with it.

 

The very first time he ventured into the kitchen he managed to get the cupboard open for the pots and pans and pull them out hurting himself. I can't believe how quickly he is growing up.

 

You can see how proud of himself he is.

 

So tonight he figured out how to open the cupboard of the microwave cart and find all kids of entertainment.

 

With three sisters sitting around him laughing at him and mom in the bathroom, he managed to take the lid off the cream of wheat and spill it all over the floor. Good thing my vacuum was out and handy. He was quite enthralled with the process of getting vacuumed off also. Some of his other favorite spots are the video shelf and the magazine rack (until it mysteriously disappeared). Oh the joy! It is so much fun to watch him explore and discover but it also comes with its downside.

Voting Day

Today the girls had the day off and so we went to the museum with friends (The Henry Ford of course). They have a new Lego castle exhibit that we hadn't seen yet. We got there a little bit later than everyone else (if only I didn't have to shower every once in awhile).

 

Here are the vicious monsters swimming in the moat of the castle. Yep, all those kids were with us.

 

They had a fun building area with oversized soft lego blocks. The kids loved building and especially the little ones.

 

Eli loved playing with the blocks.

 

And his sisters loved playing with him, and made him a fun little house that he thought was fun to destroy. He is definately our favorite toy to play with.

 

 

The five princesses of the castle! They had a fun dress up area that the girls enjoyed. Too bad it was quite busy or we would have let them keep wearing them the whole time we were there. I tried to take a few more pictures but found out that my card was full and so I promptly emptied the camera and erased all the pictures off the camera when we got home. We had a lot of fun playing with Summer and Birgitte's kids and then when they were ready to go we found some fun friends from school to play with. The kids enjoyed working the assembly line building Model T's and testing out their flight design skills in paper airplanes.

 

When we got home the girls decided that it was time to rake leaves. They played with it for awhile until Daniel got home and he could really help them. I spaced taking a picture until it got pretty late and they were ready to go in. Eli had fun sitting in the wagon watching us all work.

 

Daniel couldn't resist taking some pictures of this incredibly cute chubby baby after his bath. They are just so irresistable after the bath.

 

Today Eli did something I hadn't seen him do before and managed to sit back up after being on his stomach. He did it several times tonight.

 

So Daniel was trying to get his picture and everytime he would go to take his picture Eli would give hime this funny cheesy smile. It was really funny I had to go in and watch. It was because when Daniel would push down the button to focus the camera the little red eye light would flash and that would make Eli do this funny cheesy smile. He is such a riot!

Just let me clarity, yes you heard me right this was today. All these pictures were taken today and I am blogging about them today!!! Can you believe it?! Well I'd better get it posted or it won't be today anymore, it is almost midnight.

Given Up

O.K. so I guess I have officially given up the idea of trying to get this thing caught up. Our lives are just to busy and full of great stuff to get this thing caught up. Today is the first of November and we had a great October. It was very busy, but still very fun.

Eli is now 7 1/2 months old and still just the cutest, craziest, funnest little boy ever. He makes our lives SO much fun. He has been sitting independently for the past month and he broke two bottom teeth this past week. He has been rolling from his back to front for a few months but never rolled as a means of getting from here to there. I think it is because our floors are pretty hard. When he lays on my bed he will roll quite a bit. He has been making backward progression for about a month, but that was just really frustrating for him. He would see something in front of him and try and try to get it and just end up under the couch. This week he has really started making forward progress. He can do a pretty quick wiggle worm to get something if he has a good incentive. I haven't been to the Dr. lately to have him weighed and measured but he looks like your average one year old. At his appointment when he was 5 months he was in the 95% for height and weight and hasn't slowed down since. I will be adding more soon. I promise!!! But for now it is time to go to bed so I can get a good start to the week.

Bridal Veil Falls

Yes, I am still trying to catch this thing up. I got stuck because I had some pictures on my phone and didn't know how to get them on my computer. Well I finally figured it out! I guess I had my phone at Bridal Veil Falls and here are some very bad pictures. I should really just get a nice photo from online. Oh well, I am thinking most of you have been there several times anyways.

 

view of the falls

 

little Myka

 

Nora and Kyla. They were excited to wade in the water even though it was sooo freezing. Now for the next hurdle - getting videos off the new video camera, edited, and posted. Lots of learning to do! Hopefully it doesn't take too long.

Bean Museum in Provo

After about a week in Kanab I headed north to visit friends and family. We stayed with my best friend from High School, Amy and her family. After being treated to a fabulous dinner, the kids headed to bed. Well not really, they were so excited to have a sleep over that noone went to sleep till quite late.

The next morning after a quick breakfast we headed down to Provo to Shanna's. With both cars full of kids we drove up Provo Canyon and "hiked" up to Bridal Veil Falls. The kids had a great time playing in the falls, although it was super chilly. I didn't bring my camera or phone, but Nora had her camera so we took a few picture with it. Which she promptly erased when her cousin wanted to take more pictures on the way home. So no pictures of that adventure :-(.

We headed back to Shanna's and had super yummy Navajo tacos! After lunch we met back up with Amy and my good friend Marci at the Bean Museum on campus. It was a place we visited often when we lived in Provo, so fun to go back and visit. The girls remembered quite a bit of the museum and eventually remembered their friends also.

 

Eli fit just right in the hippo's mouth! Mmmmm. . .nice and meaty.

 

Amy, Levi, Claire, Judd, and Gage in front of the zebra herd. What a silly bunch!

 

I let Kyla take the camera and take pictures of all the kids in front of their favorite animal. Parker, Nora, and Kaylee in front of the Pudu (if you can tell through the reflection of the glass)

 

Kyla really likes to take very up close pictures. I am not sure if she just likes to play with the zoom or really gets this close.

 

All the kids in front of the elephants in the center.