Brooklyn's 4 month check up

 Brooklyn is a healthy baby girl.  I forgot to mention that when she was born her left foot curled up and in.  One of the nurses mentioned that is might be club foot but when the pediatrician checked it she said her foot was like that because she was so crowded in the uterus.  We were a little worried about it but it has corrected itself.  At her appointment her stats were:
weight:  16 lbs. 9 oz
height:  26 inches
So she is a big girl.  She is wearing 6-9 month clothes.  She has so many rolls on her legs!

 She is such a happy, easy going girl - what a blessing

 Her serious side:

Her hair is crazy - it sticks staight up all the time.  We will comb it down after her bath and as it dries it slowly raises up till it looks like this:

I get a lot of comments on her hair, either about how crazy it is or the color of it.  The tips of her hair are dark brown (from when she was born) but it is growing in a light blonde.  So she has two toned hair:

She likes to stand in this play center and look around - there is usually lots to see with 3 busy brothers running around:

 

 

Halloween 2012

Here we are doing our annual pumpkin carving.  The kids were still completely disgusted by the pumpkin insides.  Alan and Conner would only work on cleaning out the inside with a spoon and they were grossed out if their hand accidently brushed the side of the pumpkin:

Micah was willing to try cleaning out a pumpkin with a spoon, which is a big improvement from last year.  Last year he gagged just looking inside the pumpkin.  

The finished products:

Alan thought of his design all by himself.  Conner wanted to do a spider, just like last year, but I wanted to do something a little different.  We compromised by making a scared face with a spider crawling on the side of the pumpkin:

This year Halloween didn't stretch over multiple days like it usually does, but Halloween day was super busy.  Alan had his Halloween party at school, and as soon as he came home we went trick or treating down town.  Reed got off early and came with us, so it was a lot of fun.  Then we came home and I stayed home with Brooklyn (so that she could nap) and Conner (because apparently he didn't want any more candy) while Reed took Alan and Micah trick or treating around the block.  Then we hurried and packed up and went to the church for dinner and carnival games.  It was a very fun, sugar packed day!

 

Micah was a turtle:

Conner was a remote control car.  By the time I took this picture his costume was starting to fall apart:

Alan was a ghost.  I wanted to add extra layers of white tulle to make it look more spooky but Alan really just wanted to use a sheet.  It was a super easy costume and we put glow in the dark paint on it just for fun:

Apparently I forgot to take a picture of Brooklyn in her costume so I dressed her up in her costume 2 months later and took a picture.  Oh well.  We dressed her up in this little Japanese costume and when the boys saw her they asked what she was.  While I was trying to think of an answer one of them (Alan I think) said "She's a ninja - a ninja of the forest!"  So Brooklyn was a ninja of the forest:

Micah chowing down on a candy:


I thought this was a sour candy, but judging from Micah's reaction to it I don't think it was very sour:

Conner demonstrating how to eat 2 suckers at once:

We invited our friends Alex and Josh to come and have a candy party the next day.  Everyone brought their candy and traded and ate and ate and ate.  I've decided I like just letting the kids go at their candy and having it gone in a week, rather than trying to ration it.  

Answers

Here are the answers:
Question 1:
Baby A - Brooklyn
Baby B - Conner
Baby C - Micah
Baby D - Alan

Question 2:
Baby A - Conner
Baby B - Brooklyn
Baby C - Alan
Baby D - Micah

So Janae and Ken were right!  To me Brooklyn and Micah look the most alike.  They both have crazy hair but looking at the pictures I think Micah might have had even more hair than Brooklyn, plus his was crazier. 

I haven't been able to upload pictures for a couple of weeks, which kind of put a kink in my getting caught up on my blog goal.  But I see that I can upload pictures again so I'll try again.

Name that baby

Time for the 3rd edition of name that baby!  Below are pictures of our 4 kids when they were about 2 months old.  They are dressed alike (otherwise it would be easy to guess that the baby wearing pink was Brooklyn).  Have fun!  Post your guesses in the comment section.
Question #1:

Baby A

 Baby B

 Baby C

 Baby D

Question #2

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C

Baby D

Canadian Thanksgiving Trip

Since Reed had Columbus day off we decided to head north for Canadian Thanksgiving.  It was delicious and nice to spend time with family.  It was also Conference weekend. 

Great Grandpa Pitcher holding Brooklyn:

On Thanksgiving afternoon we drove up to Calgary with my parents and checked into our hotel.  We decided that while we were up we wanted to go to the Calgary temple dedication so we stayed in a hotel that night so that we would already be in Calgary the next morning.  The hotel that we stayed in had a pool with a water slide.  It was a lot of fun to go down and watch the kids go down.  Alan tried it and loved it.  Conner was not so sure.  I finally convinced him to go down the slide on my lap.  We walked to the top and he chickened out.  We sat up there for a few minutes and I finally brided him with a kinder surprise chocolate egg.  So he sat on my lap and I said "Ready?" and he panicked and yelled "No!" and tried to grab on to the sides of the slide but I just pushed us off and we slid down.  When we got down to the bottom I held him up so that he wouldn't get his face wet.  Once we got to the side he said he liked it and he wanted to go again.  We went again and again and again.  It was funny how much he liked it after he tried it. 

The next day we headed over to the temple.  It was such a wonderful experience to be able to take our children through the temple and let them see all the rooms.  It was nice to be able to say this is where we go (or to one that is similar) when we go to the temple.  It is such a beautiful building, inside and out.  I'm so glad we did the extra drive to go there - it was worth it!

Reed holding Brooklyn, Conner and Alan in front of the temple:

Our whole family:

 

I think the kids favorite part was the cookies and water afterwards.  General Conference, Thanksgiving, a family temple trip plus a visit with family makes for a GREAT weekend!

All about Micah

Here are some facts about Micah:
1.  At his 2 year old check up he weighed 29 lbs. and was 35 3/4 inches tall.
2.  At his check up he could say about 50 words but he hadn't put any together yet.  Then a couple of weeks later his vocabulary exploded.  It seemed like he learned several new words every day.  Now he can speak in sentences and he is quite the chatterbox.  He has recently started saying "tank-you" a lot and in the last couple of days he has started to say "ah weh-cum" (your welcome) whenever he should say thank-you.  It is pretty funny.  He also makes a funny humming "mmmmm" sound when he wants a drink, although if I insist he will say "I want a dink mama". 
3.  He is a tough boy.  He will fall or get bonked and it looks like it hurts but he usually just gets up and walks off. 
4.  He hates to be left behind.  When anyone is getting ready to go he will grab his shoes and sit down and try to put them on.  
5.  He loves to play games.  One of his favorite pass times is to find one of our games, dump it all over the floor and then sit and "play" it. 
6.  We call him our little Russian, because when he answers in the affirmative he tries to say "yeah" but it comes out as "Da" (the Russian word for yes).

(August)

Cool Dude (July):

Micah likes to help vacuum and sweep.  If he is in the mood he is good at cleaning up his toys.  In the picture below he was helping me hang up some of the clean laundry: (July)

He is not my best sleeper.  He started climbing out of his crib when he was 21 months old and he hasn't slept great at night since then.  He is also an early riser - he is usually up by 6 am, no matter how much he was up during the night.  As a result he is often tired by 9 or 10 in the morning.  After Brooklyn was born he would follow me around with his blankets and if I was busy he would just find a quiet spot, like under his high chair and fall asleep.  As you can see, even the bottom stair works(August):

Some days he is a good eater but he is often picky.  One of his new phrases is "I no like it".  He sure does love corn on the cob though (September):

He loves when Grandma and Grandpas come to visit us or we go visit family.  As a funny side note, anyone that comes to visit us is called "gampa".  In the picture below he and Grandpa P. were putting the sleeping bags on their arms and banging into each other.  (September):

This is Conner's first day of Joy School and he is waiting for his ride.  Micah was eager to wait with him (holding his blanket).  He was so disappointed when the ride came and he had to stay with me.  But since then he has decided that it isn't so bad to have more of my attention (October):

 

He can be so silly - I love his smiles and laugh (October):

He can throw quite the temper tantrum (November):

On November 20th I decided to cut Micah's hair short (so that I wouldn't have to cut it for a while).  Here is what he looked like before:

And after:

That is a quick look at our little boy!

Micah turns 2!

Micah turned 2 back in September (I am going to try desperately to catch up on my blogging before the end of the year).  His favorite food is corn on the cob so we made sure we had lots of that for dinner. 

I love how he brings his face to the corn, rather than picking the corn up.  He could polish off 2 or 3 cobs in a meal.  

 

I showed him a couple of cakes online and he got excited about this turtle cake, which is actually a bunch of cupcakes frosted together.  It turned out cute:



Happy Birthday to you!

 

Make a wish!  Daddy helped him blow out the candles.

 

Mmm, chocolate icecream

 

Micah eating his favorite part: the frosting

 

Love that smile!  Micah is wearing the hat he got from Grandma and Grandpa B.  He also loves carrying around Brooklyn's backpack.

 

We gave him a stick horse for his birthday.  I have loved watching him run around with it, yelling "Giddy up!"



 

Happy Birthday Micah!