Was this on your Christmas list?

Wandering through Sam's Club one day we found this:

What family doesn't need a gigantic caterpillar?

The kids were in heaven.

All I could see was the amount of stuffing that would cover my house when Cody got ahold of it.

So we had fun playing in the store:

and then said goodbye to Mr. Giant Caterpillar.

Continuing the tradition

Ever since I was born my grandparents have bought me a new Christmas ornament every year, usually with the year on it. I have an ornament that has my birthdate on it and an ornament that has "My First Christmas." These ornaments are 34 years old. It seems incredible to me that we still have them. Over the years some have broken some but mostly I still have all of them.

My mom started the same tradition with my kids. Every year she has bought them an ornament. This year I wanted the tradition to continue so off to the Christmas store we went.

My mom's friend owns a Christmas store in Folsom. This store has every kind of ornament imaginable.

Want a pickle ornament?

They got it.

Want a cactus?

They got it.

Want a jaguar?

They got that too.

My mom has gone here every year to get the ornaments so there was no where else I was going to go. Ok, it was a little nerve racking with Evan. It is not the most child friendly store - lots of things to touch or knock over. We made a "pointing only" rule to try to limit the amount of touching.

Here are our goods:

Trevor's

(I wrote his name on it)

Evan's

The boy loves monster trucks!

Hailey's

A jeweled butterfly

Kayla's

A Fairy with a bird

Kayla, as usual, was having a little trouble deciding which one she wanted. She was choosing between 3. I saw this one and said "that looks like one Grammy would have picked" and after that there was no more indecision. She went for the one that looked like Grammy's choice. So sweet.

I knew it might be emotional picking out ornaments. I did really good until I got to my final choice. My mom loved angels. I mean she really LOVED them so I wanted to get an angel to hang on our tree to remind me of my mom. That's what got me. I started tearing up and trying to keep it together while I searched through blurry eyes. I enlisted the help of the kids. Here are our choices:

The kids liked this one because it lights up and the colors change.

This one spoke to me. It is a pretty glass ornament with a beautiful green dress.

I hope my mom is happy with our choices. I am sure she is.

We will continue this tradition and some year we will buy our grandkids ornaments. Man that seem weird! Our grandkids . . . the way time is flying it will be here before we know it.

34 years old and still growing up . . . but just a little bit.

I am what some would call a picky eater. Always have been. Drove my parents crazy.

I am sure there is a more politically correct name for it now. Maybe "taste bud challenged" or "texture sensitive" or . . ., I don't know, something cool like that.

Well this has been a big year for my pickiness. I have discovered 2 foods that I now like.

The first:

Mmmmm ~ Blueberries!

Love them.

Totally addicted now.

I eat them like they're candy.

And the second?

Would never have ever thought in a million years that I would eat them EVER!

Let alone like them.

I went to a Relief Society dinner and they served them. I didn't want to leave them on my plate like the picky little person that I was so I decided to try them.

And discovered that they were scrumptious.

(I even ate my friends that she couldn't eat because of a nut allergy and they had almonds in them.)

What were they?

The nasty, forever feared:

Green Beans

My poor mom tried for 34 years to get me to eat them and I refused. I am sure she is so proud of me now and saying "see, I told you that you would like them if you tried them."

Maybe in another 34 years I will discover that I like other things like tomatoes or onions or avocados or cheesecake or . . .

But I wouldn't hold my breath!

5 months old already

Where does the time go? I have no idea but if you find out, let me know. I would like to slow it down just a bit.

Trevor is growing soooo fast! And I mean that literally. He is 4 POUNDS heavier than any of our other kids at this age and is wearing size 12 months clothes. Did I mention he is only 5 months old? I think he is trying to catch up to his siblings or something.

So the other day I noticed that I haven't posted any pictures of Trevor since he was 6 weeks old (1st day of school pictures) and that wasn't even about Trevor. So here is a plethora of photos of Trevor.

About 1.5 months

Twiners - she was so excited to match him.

We went camping when he was about 7 weeks. We spent one day at a lake and this is how he spent his time most of the day:

2 months:

Almost 3 months:

3 months:

Kurt's Grandma made this beautiful blanket

1st Halloween:

Scarey, scary picture of me but the best we have of Trevor. He was a candy corn baby. This was coming off the week of NO SLEEP AT ALL and after walking a bazillion miles with Trevor in the front pack and Trick-or-Treating with the kids. The kids are getting older and not wearing out after a few houses anymore. I was a mess but he is cute.

4 months:

Just before he turned 4 months old he cut his first tooth. I couldn't believe it. All the others were 8, 9 or 10 months old. He was an early bird getting 2 teeth at 4 months.

He mastered sitting up at about 4.5 months. He doesn't like laying down at all which is why he was a little slower than our other kids on rolling over but the quickest on the sitting up.

I love this picture of my boys. They both crashed our bed during the night. Kurt and I didn't have much room. In fact, I am not sure where we fit in the bed?

This is what he does while I fold laundry. Well, this and knock over my piles of folded clothes =)

Thanksgiving:

Trev and his friends

5 months:

This is so funny - Kurt took this picture of him and Trevor the other day. He is fake sleeping but aren't they cute!

So many of my pictures were on Kurt's computer and so I haven't blogged about a lot of stuff. I found a quick and easy way to transfer them the other day so now I have all the pictures. I should be able to blog more often now. Yippee!