Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween


So this year Julia couldn't decide and kept changing her mind on what she wanted to be but when she saw the costume in the store she just knew this was it. She decided to be the Little Mermaid. I went with Christian looking for costumes for him and he actually saw the owl and started hooting, so I thought this is the one. Its a little short and snug but it looks cute on him. It hung in his closet and every time we opened it he started hooting and saying "owl, on please", so I had to eventually hide it so he wouldn't see it and have a fit because he couldn't put it on.

Julia even got to dress up and go to school for her party and her Halloween parade. I took Christian and we waited and waited and waited for the parade to start. By the time it actually started Christian was done and frankly so was I. But it was fun to see all the kids and what they dressed up like. Julia's class was pretty much the last class to come through the gym but she saw us and waved. They all looked so cute. Once Christian saw Julia he wanted to get down and follow her too but we had to get up and leave to meet her at her class. She had a fun day as school.

Little Mermaid

The cute hoot owl!
This year we decided to go trick or treating with just our family this year. Usually we go with all the cousins and Layne is home passing out candy. So this year Layne was able to come with us and we had a great time. Christian is old enough to realize what is going on and so every time he gets some candy he wants to eat it right away. He even goes as far as eating the candy with the wrapper still on it. This was the snicker bar he got and just took a giant bite out of it with the wrapper still on it. We had to dig the wrapper out of his mouth before he swallowed it.
We had to keep telling him to put it in his bag and so we can go get some more treats. He wasn't to happy about that. But every time he went up to the door he would say 'treat' and grab a few candies. He would sign 'thank-you' and then wave and say bye-bye to every body he saw at the door. It was so cute. He was so happy and polite. He had a great time until he got home. Layne went home early with Christian and he said he was a pill. Oh the sugar highs and then the lows.......Julia and I kept going around the neighborhood for a little while and then came back home to watch the Great Pumpkin.

On our way .......

Daddy being a big help!

Lots of stairs to climb but
still happy kids :)

Waiting for the rest of us to catch up
Grandma and grandpa Cromwell, Rich, Meghan and Olivia stopped by on Saturday to come see our new house. It was so great to have them come visit and see where we live. Julia loved being the tour guide and showing every body where everything was. We visited for a while and then went to lunch.Grandma brought a Halloween surprise for the kids and they loved it. Surprises are the best! We made the masks she brought for the kids and they were so cute. Christian loved his monster and Julia made a cute little cat!
Frankenstein

Monster and the Cat.
Thanks Gma Cromwell for the fun masks.
They look so cute on them!

Yesterday we went to Aunt Amy's work Halloween party. This was Christian's test to see how he would do trick or treating before the real thing and he did great. He didn't even get scared after seeing some pretty spooky costumes. I told him just to say hi and he waved at everybody. They both had a great time. We had a little snack and then went to dinner with Amy and grandma Mott.
He loved the big pumpkin

Miss Peyton sticking out her tongue

Fun at the party!
Its been a fun few days and a great halloween. Thanks to all our family who made it extra special. Happy Halloween every body!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Pumpkin Carving

Well, its that time of year to carve the pumpkins. Julia really got into it this year. I think she helped clean out every ones pumpkins this year. She certainly wasn't afraid to grab the guts. Christian on the other hand, well it was his 1st time and didn't really know what to think. I tried to make him reach inside the pumpkins but he wasn't having it. He just kept telling me "all done" which obviously meant 'mom please don't make me touch the guts.' And once he saw what came out of the pumpkins all he would say over and over again was "EEWWW!" We all got a laugh at that. Its always fun to get together and see what kind of faces will show up on every ones pumpkins. Happy Halloween everyone!

Not afraid to get her hands dirty

Looking inside and not sure what to think

Pulling out the insides. He was saying Ewww.

He did get brave and started to dig with a spoon.
 He wouldn't do it with his bare hands :)


They both did their SPOOOOKY smiles

All the pumpkins and the silly kids.

Fall

Well, a few weeks back we wanted to get a few pictures of the kids with the fall colors before all the colors disappeared. We drove up behind the Draper temple and hiked up a trail and found a couple of good spots. The kids were their usual selves, grumpy and not wanting to smile or look at the camera. Some of the candid shots turned out the best. Then we headed back down and got a few shots at the Draper temple. It was hectic and crazy with 6 kids but its always an adventure to say the least!

Christian showing off his belly
Christian giving hugs



An unhappy little UTE in the COUGAR den

Love this one!

Beautiful

Miss Peyton

Love this candid moment!

More hugs!

Mr. Grump Face

Cutie Pies

Big Smiles

He put himself in the corner?!

Glad we captured this one amid the craziness!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Bath Time Fun

Sometimes we let the kids come in mom and dads BIG bath tub to take a bath and boy they love it. There is so much room to move around to just play and splash. Well, last night Christian thought it would be fun to make the bath tub into a slide and slide down the back of the tub over and over again. He kept saying 'slide' over and over again and would say 'whee' as he slid down. It probably wasn't the best idea but he was having so much fun.
Wheeeee, slide!


This is after he would slide down. He would just sit there and laugh.

Being Silly......

Julia has this thing lately where she crosses her eyes and always wants us to watch her do it. So all last night she kept doing it over and over again. So she wanted me to try it too........and as you can clearly see I cannot cross my eyes and Julia clearly is the winner in this game!


Trying my best

Just the one eye moves when she does it


CREEPY! Layne couldn't even look at the picture
when I showed him, he was so creeped out!
 We tried to get Layne to show us his crossed eyes but didn't want to do it. We told Christian to do it and he tried his best and all he kept doing was closing his eyes and smiling really big while saying 'cheese'. So we finally got Layne to take a picture and it was his imitation of Christian after he had taken a 'cheesy' picture.
Trying to cross his eyes and be silly


Layne doing a pretty good impression of Christian being 'CHEESY'


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

An Update on Christian


I know this little boy is almost 2 but he is getting so big and doing so much right now in his life that I need to write a few things down before I forget them all. So here is a list of a few things he is up to lately.

1. He is talking sooooo much. He hit about 21 months (back in Sept.) and he just started with a few words and now is a little chatter box. If you ask him to say something he will do his best to repeat it. Some of my favorite things he says......
-When ever he hears the Michigan fight song. He puts his arm up in the air and says "Go, Blue!"
-When someone is bothering him or he doesn't want to do something he gets a grumpy face and says "Want it" (meaning he doesn't want to do it)
-When he wants to watch curious George on TV he will come up to me and say "Georgie?" and climb up in my lap.
-We have Halloween decorations out and I have a black house that I put tea lites in and whenever he sees that house, lit up or not, he will say over and over again, "Spooky"
-Its fun to listen to him say Julia's name. It started off like ju-da but now its a little better and says ju-ya
-He wakes up every morning and always says, "Daddy work" (I guess he knows when he is not home)
-Just listening to him talk is fun. And he will repeat the word over and over again until you acknowledge him.

2. A big thing that Christian loves to do is drag a chair over to the light switch and turn the lights on and off. Or every time we walk by the light switch and he sees it he wants to help turn the lights on and off.

3. He LOVES to play with his matchbox cars. He will carry them around the house all day long and when he has more than one this is how he likes to carry them around......

A couple in each hand and usually one in his mouth. Such a silly boy!

4. He loves to sit and eat breakfast and watch Signing Time. He will usually wake up asking to watch "Play" before we even get to the table. He has a lot of the shows memorized because he can tell me what is coming on next. And his favorite thing to eat every morning is cinnamon toast and grape juice. He wakes up and, again, before we get to the table he is requesting, "toast, juice."

5. Whenever we get out of the car and need to walk to the store or park or even if we are walking down the stairs at home. He will say to me "hand" which means he wants to hold your hand and walk and do it
with some help. So cute.

6. Christian still loves to take a bath. Bath time is usually right after we eat dinner. And once I say the word bath he gets so excited and will sign and say bath over and over again until I get him in the tub. He just squeals and does his little happy dance all the way to the bathroom.



7. He loves to give people high-fives. And if he gives one person a high five he has to give everyone in the room a high-five. He holds his hand up to everyone and says "five."

8. The knows that the corner means time-out. And he is so obedient about going to the corner and standing there. He will face the corner and not move and you won't hear a peep out of him until its time to come out. And he loves to tell everyone who acts up, especially Julia, that they need to go to the corner. He even knows that when he does something wrong he will say "corner" before I do. I have to post the picture when I get it but we were up at the Draper Temple the other day and he saw a corner by some stairs and just put himself in the corner. He hadn't done anything wrong but he said "corner" and just stood there for a few minutes all by himself.
He put himself in the corner

All done being in the corner and a happy boy!

9. He loves to look at books or loves to bring you a book and have you look at him with you. He will bring you the book and automatically turn around and sit down in your lap. He LOVES his books! Lately he will carry around the house a couple of books and just sit and look at them over and over again.

10. This boy is becoming a better eater. His favorite things right now are noodles, chicken nuggets, apples, applesauce, toast, milk, juice, pizza, bread, granola bars,candy and snacks. And he can say all of them too. He is getting so good at using a fork and spoon and he gets really mad if you try and help him. You have to just give him his food and let him at it. He knows when its snack time too. He will not leave you alone until you get him one. He will repeat the word "snack" over and over again. And then he usually has to pick out which snack he wants or he gets upset. So I have to limit the choices for him. He usually requests a snack cookie or a candy at every meal. But I have to remind him that we have to eat first and then have a snack.

11. He also sleeps through the night now. Again, when he hit the 21 month mark he just slept through the night. He tends to get up early and I have tried to get him to drink milk from the sippy cup and go back to bed but that is not happening. He won't take a sippy cup in bed like he did with the bottle. I miss those days but he is to old for a bottle now.

Christian is so funny and smart. We love having him in our family. He makes us laugh everyday and we love him so very much.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Photo Shoot

Every year around the kids birthdays we go out and get some pictures taken so I can have some updated pictures around the house. So we went for Julia back in August and I finally got the disc to work my sister made me and I was able to pull them up. Julia rarely takes a bad picture. She is always ready to smile and does such a great job with what we ask her to do. She loves to smile and has such a pretty one! And my sister always does such a great job getting photos of the kids. Here are some of my favorites.........




We also got some of Christian too. You have to catch him at a good time to have him smile and be silly. And we got some good shots of him, some classic Christian smiles :) He even had a little scratch on his face and my sister was able to fix it. Here are some of my favorites....