Crawling.

I can hardly believe how quickly my baby girl is growing up; I have mixed emotions about it, but mostly I'm excited to watch her growing and learning everyday.

A few weeks ago Jayden began to crawl. Mostly she does the "army crawl," it's her fastest mode; but occasionally she'll do what we call the "inch worm" where she gets up on her knees, pushes herself forward, falls on her face and, well . . . inches along. Everyday she spends a little more time up on her knees, but her primary means of self propulsion is still the army crawl . . . nothing is safe from her now. Watch out world Jayden is on the move! Here's a little video if you want to watch her in action.

Jayden LOVES graham crackers

Jayden has been a new experience for me as far as starting her on baby food. She is 7 months old now and is just beginning to actually eat her baby food; my other 3 all started between 4-6 months and took to it with ease. Jayden did not. It has taken almost 2 months to get her to tolerate the cereals and pureed baby foods. It's frustrating, but funny to watch. I wish I had a video of her, but for a while every bite she took she would either gag and/or make this face that looked like she was sucking a lemon. It was so funny.

The past few days have shown marked improvement (no more gagging). Still, I've noticed that she seems to prefer table foods better, although I'm not quite ready to feed them to her on a regular basis (she's still toothless). Today she grabbed a handful of mac-n-cheese off my plate at lunch and stole a couple of french fries at dinner . . . she liked both very much.

Here's a video of her eating her graham cracker while I cleaned the kitchen this afternoon. I'm not sure what she's doing with her hands . . . trying to make sure the cracker is dead I guess . . . whatever the case it's cute to watch her.

She LOVES graham crackers.

I love this little cutie, dirty face and all.

GO GATORS!!!

We have anticipated watching the game for weeks and tonight was the night . . . the Florida Gators defeated Oklahoma in the 2008 National Championship Game! It's great to be a Florida Gator!

Update

I have finally caught up on some blogging (but have some more to do). Still, I finally posted the Sea World pictures and have a few from Jonathan's bday too; I kept them in the order of events so you'll have to go back to see them.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas vacation started a day early for Jonathan . . . the Friday before break began he had a snow day from school. He was excited, but a little sad too because they were supposed to have a party. Still, we spent the day making little gingerbread houses like this one that he made at school. It was a lot of fun!Then we made a "real" gingerbread house . . . well, daddy and the big kids did while Jayden and I watched and took pictures. Everyone had a fun time. Jonathan was so funny though because he wanted it to look just like the one on the box right down to what candy went where (colors too). It took constant reminding that it was okay if ours looked a little different and yes, Lauren and Landon could put their candy whereever they wanted to . . . bless them they tried to keep Jonathan happy.

Jayden's First Christmas!
We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Thanks to all of our family and friends for the cards, the gifts, the phone calls . . . they all helped to make the season special. We love you! And a special thanks to the Rice's for bringing us dinner Christmas Eve.

Why do kids cut their hair?

One evening not too long ago I was sitting in bed preparing for a talk I had to give in church the next day; Jonathan and Lauren were downstairs playing and Landon was upstairs with me playing on the floor. I thought things were going well until Lauren bounced into the room and asked, "Is today a good day for Jonathan to cut my hair?" I looked up from what I was typing on the computer and when I saw her hair I yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" but it was already too late-the deed had been done.

I was angry with Jonathan for a few minutes, but while it was a really dumb thing to do, he did it because she asked him to - her hair kept getting in her eyes and it was bugging her. So he cut her bangs, cut her hair above her ears, cut the hair at the crown of her head, and cut off half of the back . . . I wish I had taken pictures, but in the moment I was too emotional . . .

I took her to have it fixed and the sweet girl cutting her hair salvaged as much as she could and made it look much better, but it is soooo short. I have to make her wear a ribbon otherwise she looks like one of my boys. Still, it works for her and she is adorable no matter what.


I still feel sad every now and then- it was fun doing the pigtails and ponytails, pulling it into a little bun for dance class. I had just gotten a small curling iron so that I could curl her hair into little ringlets, . . . it was getting long enough to french braid with a lot of work . . . I have waited so long for it to be long enough to play with . . .but like Lauren told me after Jonathan cut it, "It's just hair, it will grow back." Such wisdom from one so young.

I love you 'La La.' Hair or no hair you are a beautiful little girl. And if an unwanted haircut is the biggest "problem" we have to endure then we are very blessed indeed.

Halloween

Jonathan asked if we could carve a "Darth Vader" pumpkin this year, and since I like to do one special one for my own carving enjoyment I thought it would be fun. Here is the finished project- he was happy and so was I . . . how many Darth Vader pumpkins did you see out there?

The week before Halloween we went "Trunk or Treating" at our church's Fall Festival.

Han, Leia holding Chewbacca, and Luke Skywalker

For Halloween the weather was unseasonably warm (the past two years it has been in the 20's)and we loved every minute of it. We stayed out a little longer and everyone came home with tired feet and a bucket full of candy. Jayden fell asleep before we even got rolling.

First Day of School

Jonathan began his first day of kindergarten on October 1st. He was so cute, he woke up and got in the shower all by himself took a 20 minute shower and whistled the Star Wars theme song the whole time. Once he was dressed he came upstairs for breakfast, etc., etc. When it was time to go we said a prayer together and I walked him to the bus stop. At one point I started to feel a little teary . . . my baby was starting kindergarten, but I kept it together as I watched how excited he was to go. Here are some pictures taken that morning.

When he got home he received a special phone call from Daddy . . . :)

Lauren also began her preschool on the 1st and couldn't wait to go, but by the time I dropped her off the excitement had worn off and she was fit to be tied (thanks Wendy for your help) . . . she does this to me constantly . . . , but once I'm gone she is fine. When she came home that afternoon she was thrilled with her day-HOORAY!

Jonathan's Birthday

Instead of having a kid party for his birthday this year Jonathan opted for a trip to Sea World while we were in FL. Still, on the big day we invited a few good friends over to sing happy birthday and eat cake with us.

If you know Jonathan it will not surprise you that he wanted a Star Wars birthday cake; however much to my dismay the bakeries at WalMart, Target, and the local grocery store have discontinued their Star Wars cakes . . . why??? So I had to make one . . . we decided to do a scene from the movie and he wanted to do one of Tatooine (Luke's home planet) which is basically just sand . . . to make it a little more interesting we decided to do the Mos Eisley Cantina, a spaceport found on the planet Tatooine. I did the best I could and thought it turned out okay . . . Jonathan loved it and that's all that really mattered . . . oh, and it tasted super yummy too!

Here's the birthday boy getting ready to be sung too and blow out his candle. I can't believe my baby is 6!

Jonathan and the two Calebs eating their cake on the deck, Andrew was out there too, but went inside for a minute.It was too cold for the girls and Zach, they opted to eat their cake in the comfort of the warm house. Marissa was feeding baby Caden his cake too.