Fall Pictures

We LOVE the fall. One of the things I miss about Utah is being able to go to Provo Canyon to see the leaves change. However, here in Oregon we get to see some pretty fall colors as well. Last week we went to the park by our house and took some pictures. Hailee loves playing in the leaves, it's hard to get her to stop to take a picture.

  

 

 

This was the only one I got of them together...unless you count this one

When I asked Hailee to come and get her picture taken she said "Mom I didn't come here to take pictures, I came to play in the leaves." Of course, what was I thinking?

We also tried to get a few family pictures taken. We just set up the camera so it was hard to get James to smile and look at the camera. This one was taken out in front of our new house.

 

We love where we live.

Getting around

James has really started to enjoy his new found mobility. Hailee is discovering what it is really like to have a little brother. One who likes to get into her things and play with whatever she is playing with. I have to say that I have been really impressed with this little girl she has been the best big sister and is always willing to share her toys with James (even her favorite things).  But today I heard Hailee say  "Agh!!!! James!!! Stop it!!!!"  I came into the living room and found this little scene playing out. She had tried distracting him with something else, but little James just had to have what she was playing with. She wasn't too impressed.

James is getting to be such a busy little guy. He loves being able to crawl into whatever he wants and for the most part he's managed to stay out of too much trouble. He is a lot more adventurous than Hailee so there are plenty of bumps and bruises along the way. Todd keeps telling me that I just need to expect that from a little boy. He's not bothered by bumps and bruises so I should be bothered either. (It's a good thing I had a little girl first.)

The other night from getting Hailee down for bed I came it to find this.

Normal bedtime routine goes something like this. We read a bed time story all together, say our prayers, I take Hailee into her room sing a few songs and chat about the day, then I come back to find James asleep in our room. Typically he's just on the blanket or on the bed by Todd. Tonight he had traveled quite a ways off the blanket. Then Todd told me all the adventures he had. First she started on the blanket., then he moved over to the box and played with the lid for a while, next he moved over to the magazine and scrunched it up for a while, then off to the tool box to play with the latch for a while, and then back and forth between the wipes container and the corner of the bed to play with the blankets a few times. Finally he grabbed his blanket and fell asleep. Todd said he carried his blanket to all of the places he went. He is such a funny little guy, so good at putting himself to sleep.

New Food

I was just so sure that James was going to LOVE food when we gave it to him. He has been trying to get our food for a month or so now. He loves drinking water out of a glass and has been very interested in eating. I could not have been more surprised when I gave him his first bite of rice cereal and he spit it right back out and gave me a look like "oh gross mom, that isn't what you're eating."

Once we moved on to vegetables he has started to really enjoy "baby" food. It has turned feeding time into adventure time. He tries to grab the spoon as it's coming towards his mouth so he can put it in faster. For some reason mom just can't quite get it in quick enough. This technique of grabbing the spoon from mom leaves him quite messy. I always dread the first little bit of feeding because it's so messy, but James has taken "messy" to a whole new level. There just isn't a bib big enough to contain it, so usually meal time is spent in just a diaper.

Consequences

The other night I needed to go downstairs for something and I wanted Hailee to get ready for bed. While I was telling her what I wanted her to do while I was gone she was busy laughing and playing with James. Getting a little frustrated that she wasn't paying attention to my instructions, I questioned her about what she needed to be doing. "Mom," she replied "I know exactly what to do." When questioned further it was apparent she hadn't really been listening to which I responded "Hailee you can't listen when you're talking." She quickly said "I know mom, my teacher tells me that all the time."

Lovely. I wonder what parent teacher conference will bring.

Later that night when she was going to sleep she told me about "consequences." I love putting her to bed at night because that is the time of day I get the most information out of her. After school I ask her how her day was and it's always "fine." At night I get more of a glimpse of what is going on.

She told me that they had "assembly" and it was so much fun. The firemen had a puppet show and she learned about consequences. Her friend she was sitting by was laughing too loudly and had to get "consequences." When questioned exactly what "consequences" was replied, "you know mom when you have to sit by yourself and not talk." I asked her if she's had to do that to which she replied, "Oh no mom, I just laughed quietly so my teacher couldn't hear."

It's funny to hear some of her stories from school. I really wish I could be invisible for one day so I could go and watch.

Who is to blame

Todd likes to tease me that I'm to blame when it comes to my child's lack of hair.  I decided to do a little picture research to decided who exactly is to blame for my child's adorable head. (I think the shadow on this picture actually makes it look like he has some hair, but rest assured it's only a shadow.)

First I find this one of my older sister and I ... it's hard to tell, but from the wisps on the side it looks like I had quite a bit more hair than James.

Aaaha, victory....that is until I find this picture...

It's a picture of me and my sister Deneille, I still have lots of hair, but it looks as if James could have inherited Deneille's beautiful head. If he did inherit his baldness from Deneille then he's a lucky little guy, because it took a REALLY long time for Deneille's hair to come in, but she has the best hair of our family. And where did Deneille get her bald head from...that one is easy, my mom.

Then I found this one of my sister Kristen and my Grandma...

I remember Kristen's hair very clearly. she was born with dark hair and then the top all fell out leaving just the sides and back. It was typical male pattern baldness.

It looks like I might be, at least indirectly, to blame. Now I really don't mind taking the blame for my son's adorable good looks, but remember this picture...

Todd didn't have that much hair either. Of course he can make the argument that he was blond and you can't see how much hair he has. My son, unfortunately, cannot make the same excuse. What little hair he does have is as dark as mine.

Riding the Bus

With moving to a new house and starting a new school, I just wasn't too sure about letting my baby ride the bus. Hailee on the other hand had very different ideas. The first day of school I walked her all the way to her classroom, took her picture, and made sure she was settled in her class before leaving. The second day when I parked and started getting out she told me she could do it all by herself, but since I was already getting out I walked her to class, much to her dismay. The third day she reminded me 5 times on the way to school that she could find her class all by herself and that it was not necessary for me to take her to her classroom. I decided to let her do it on her own, I told her that if she got lost to ask the office or another grownup with a school badge on for help. So day three I pulled to the drop off area and let he walk in all by herself. She went straight to the office and asked for help, turned down the wrong hallway, found a friend from her class, and eventually made it to class. She thought it was a great adventure and told me all about it when I picked her up from school that day.

Now there was just the little issue about riding the bus. I like taking her to school and picking her up, but she really wanted to ride the bus. Todd and I finally gave in and let her ride the bus home from school. This bus is only for kindergarten students and we felt that would be safe enough. She was thrilled to ride the  bus and had such a great time. The next day I had forgotten to send her to school with something so I told her I would just pick her up and bring it to school when I came back. When I picked her up that afternoon I met a very grumpy little girl since I wouldn't let her ride the bus. Since then she's been riding the bus every day and loving it. Her bus driver is the nicest lady and tells me all the time that she is good on the bus.  I guess we'll let her keep riding it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year when she's riding with the older kids. Much to Hailee's dismay, she is still my little girl and she is just growing up way to fast.

So much to catch up on...

The problem with moving is that a- it takes a lot of time,  b-you tend to loose things (at least I do) and c- the task of catching up on things (like blogging) seems almost impossible.

So I'm making a list and I'll check it off as I go.... one little post at a time.  Here's is what you have to look forward to :)

• Hailee's Labor Day date with her dad       Done - see below
  
• DJ coming to visit us                                   Done - see below
• Hailee's almost first day of school                     Done - see below
• 3 trips to the doctors in 6 days                 Done - see below
  
• Hailee's real first day of school              Done - see below
• Moving into our new house                  Done - see below
• James turns 6 months and shots         Done - see below
• Hailee riding the bus                     Done - see below
• First solid food for James                  Done - see below
• James crawling and sitting up on his own

Oh it's been a busy month, so many fun things.

Here is a quick look at the kids at 6 months. Before looking up Hailee's old pictures I thought she had as much hair as James. As you can see from the pictures our little cue-ball has significantly less hair than Hailee did at this age. Just the other day Todd said "I think his hair is coming in more now..." yeah I'm not convinced. We do need to invest in some warm winter hats for his bald little head. I thought they started out similar, but at six months they look really different to me.

6 months and Shots

Why does 6 months when you're pregnant feel like 6 years and 6 months when they come out feel like 6 days. It's really not fair.

We had James 6 month appointment and he is still tall and a little chunky. He was 27 inches and 17 pounds 12 ounces. It keeps him about 80 percentile for height and 50th for weight. Todd likes to call him Chancho because he looks so much thicker than Hailee did, but Hailee was barely on the weight chart.

Here he is sitting up all by himself. He decided to do it just a week or so after his 6 month birthday. I think he's been able to do it for a while now, but what is the point of sitting up in one place when there are things to explore. His days are filled with exploring and trying new things.


I must admit before he was born I was worried I had forgotten everything from when Hailee was little, what I didn't realize is that these two are so different that it didn't matter how much I remembered from last time. He is very much a little boy.

I remember with Hailee I would always wonder what the point of straps were. She never tried to get out of her high chair, stroller, bouncy chair, swing, etc...  There were a few times I considered cutting them out all together.  I'm so glad I didn't, if James is not strapped in, he is getting out. The above pictures was him just strapped in on one side of his bouncy seat. As you can see it wasn't quite enough when I got up and left him for 2 seconds.

He is quite a little handful, but just as sweet as ever. I love seeing his smiles and hearing him laugh. He is always ready to be happy and smile for anyone. We sure love this little guy at our house.

While at the doctor we had to do shots for him and for Hailee. I wasn't too concerned because last time we did shots for Hailee she did great and James is never very sad for long after shots.  Well needless to say I'm not sure I'm ready to do shots at the same time again. A late night the night before for Hailee and she was just unreasonable. She wanted them done in her leg and the nurse would only do them in her arm so that was enough to cause a major melt down. James went first so he was crying while Hailee decided she didn't want shots at all. I honestly thought it would be fine considering he had 5 shots the few weeks before. It was lovely. Thankfully we only have one more flu booster and then possibly a H1N1 shot.

New House

We are finally moved into our new place. We couldn't be more excited. Although I absolutely hate the moving process (this is the 6th move in 7 years of marriage) I was excited to get into our own place again.  Not that our apartment was horrible or anything, we loved the area and loved the ward we were in, it's just 940 square feet starts to feel really small after a while.

So here is what we LOVE about our new place.

• We're still really close to Todd's work (about 6-10 minutes depending on traffic)
• It's even closer to shopping (Costco is walking distance).
• We can walk to the library.
• There is an amazing park right by us.
• It is so quiet and private.
  
• This is what we see when we look out our front window.

• This is what we see when we look out our back window.

•  Hailee goes to a great school.
• We now have 1500 square feet to live in and 600 square feet of garage (enough to fit two cars and a whole lot of stuff). It's our first garage and I will never go back. It's lovely to have so much storage space.
• All the appliances are so quiet (the dishwasher, garbage disposal, washer/dryer, etc...)
• I finally have a gas stove again.
• Hailee loves the water/ice in the fridge door and I love she can get herself a drink.
• Hailee loves the "stairs" in her closet.

• I love the laundry upstairs. 
• The kitchen has so much storage space I think I can finally get all of the stuff my parents have been storing for me.
• AND so many more things... it is so lovely to be in our own place again.
  

Some things we don't like...

• Hailee hates the sound of the toilets flushing (I however like that they have yet to get plugged up since we've been here.)
• Switching wards. We loved our old ward and although we just moved 10 minutes away we are in a new ward. Our new ward will be great too, it's just a change that will take time to fit in again.

  All in all it's been a fabulous move. We love it here. With moving into something a little more permanent, it really feels like we're settled here. We love living in Oregon, now we just need to get family moved closer.