Fancy Abbey

Abbey is such a sweet and beautiful girl.

She is growing up before my eyes.

I love this little girl with all my heart.

Cousins

This picture is stolen from Emily's blog. Thanks Em. xo

Here they all are.

Minus 1. well 2 if you count the one in utero.

13 kids.

6 and under.

Everyone has a little partner except Mikey.

Good thing there are 2 boys right above and 1 below him.

When Dad picked us up from the airport we began talking about the dynamic between the kids.

I told Dad that I thought it would be interesting to see how fast the kids broke off into their pairs.

He didn't seem to think they would.

Within the 1st day all of the kids except for the boys and babies had broken off into their pairs.

It's so cute to see.

They all love eachother and play nicely together but the pairs just seem so perfect.

They must have been bestfriends in heaven.

On the move

This guy started crawling 2 days ago.

I put him on the floor and off he went.

Straight to Abbey's dollhouse.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

She looked over and me and yelled "he's getting my stuff!!!"

I had to fight back the laughter.

I've never really had a crawler.

Abbey walked at 8.5months, like full on walked 100% of the time.

It was AWFUL.

Jack was so so so FAT he couldn't get on his knees.

He dragged his huge body all over the floor (around 9-10months) with his arms for a few weeks and then he walked.

Josh is hilarious.

He gets on his knees and then goes into a downward dog, flops back to his knees and then moves forward.

So silly and cute.

I remember being a 1st time Mom and thinking how awesome it would be to have a baby that could crawl.

Now, I fully realize what a crawling baby really means.

Baby gates, door and drawer locks, vacuuming multiple times a day.

Oh well, tis the season of my life.

New Years in CO

4 days after Christmas we boarded a plane to catch up with the rest of the G crew for a week.

It was so fun to hang out with everyone and see all of the kids playing together.

We enjoyed playing games, fondue, catching up, swimming, sledding, shopping, girl time, etc.

The only sad parts of the trip were that my normally sweet and calm, never cry baby basically cried whenever he went to bed. So sad. And when we had to leave.

We love being with family and wish we lived closer.

And in excited news it looks like we will have more G's coming to live just down the road from us. WHEEEEEEEE.

And now that we are home my sweet little (hahaha) baby has returned to sleeping and being sweet. And he is now 8 months old.

He needs to stop growing up, now.

And yes, I know my 23lb baby is too big for the baby bucket but I'm too lazy and have too many kids to move him yet. :)

Jack loved the Foam Factory.


hairy. enough said.

Joshua loves Uncle Jake and Auntie Lanie.

Abbey and Katherine are two peas in a pod.

Festival of Lights

We went to the Temple on Christmas Eve.

It was wonderful.

There was no traffic and it was so peaceful.

The kids loved seeing the Christus statue and seeing all the lights around the Visitors Center.

My loveys

The outtakes from this photoshoot are hilarious.

Neither one of my boys can look normal...ever.

Good thing they are cute.

Earrings

Abbey got her ears pierced.

At the beginning of November I realized that it was going to take more than the threat of other kids teasing her to make her stop sucking her thumb.

I bought a "handaide" which she wore for an entire month plus a week or so. One day I forgot to put it back on her hand after a bath and she never put her thumb back in her mouth.

Awesome.

I promised her that she could have an American Girl doll if she stopped sucking her thumb.

Well my Mom decided that she was going to buy it for her for Christmas so I promised her that if she stopped she could have her ears pierced.

So I asked her if she was ready and she said yes. We called Dad home early from work and off we went to get them done.

She picked gold earrings with pink quartz hearts, such a girly girl.

They marked her ears and I made them remark her ears 3 times before they were just right.

They lined the piercing guns up and did them at the same time.

She didn't cry just sat there looking at me with her huge, gorgeous blue eyes.

When I asked her if she was OK, 2 little tears ran down her face. And that was it.

They gave her a lollipop and off we went for pink icecream to celebrate her new jewelry.

She has been so good about remembering to have me clean her ears.

NOTE TO SELF: bribing children TOTALLY works.

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was so fun.

We stayed home until after the BIG day.

We woke the kids up at 8am.

It was so fun to watch their little faces light up when they saw all the things Santa left for them.

The big highlights were:

Abbey: her caboodle and her twinkle toes shoes. She carries the caboodle around all day long. And I often find her covered in sparkles and glitter. So cute. Her twinkle toes are on her feet everytime we leave the house.

Jack: loves his Spiderman scooter and blaster (laser gun). He is in heaven. We've had a few talks about how we don't shoot people with the gun just the pretend "bad guys".

Josh loves to scoot around and pick up anything that gets left behind by his siblings. He loves Jacks matchbox cars and Abbeys Polly Pockets. He also enjoys his move and crawl ball.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any cuter than that.

He is now the proud owner of 4 teeth.
He was happy with his stuffed Brobee.

Jack the tool man.

Christmas Jammies.