Blue and Gold Banquet

The whole family went to the annual cub scout blue and gold banquet.  This year each scout had to make a sculpture from garbage; Carter made a snowman from plastic bags.  Each boy had to get up and explain to the audience about how they made their creation.  It is always interesting to here what comes out of kids mouths when they are put on the spot.  Carter was very matter-a-fact explaining how he came up with is idea.  The audience voted on what award each sculpture should receive.  Carter's snowman won the "Low Tech" Award.

Carter has been working really hard on scout requirements the last few months and all his hard work was recognized with the following awards: bear badge, gold arrow point, outdoor activity award and the outdoor ethics award.  

The audience got to make hand clappers that we used for applause.  Reagan was super proud of hers and wanted to give high fives with it all night long.

At the end all the scouts got their derby car kits to get started on.  They have two months to get their cars built before the big race.

Winter Nature Hike

The gang ready to start the adventure.

One of the benefits of living in Missouri is that we always get a few warm days scattered throughout winter.  We decided to take advantage of just such a day for a nature hike, even Isaiah decided to take off work early and join us.  Even in the dead of winter we enjoyed seeing the signs of life and natural treasures we stumbled upon on the 5 mile expedition.

Carter by a little brook we crossed.

Carter and Ben were our water boys.  Carter wears his brown hat (made by Aunt Angela) everyday of his life.  Ben has one also he wears all the time and the boys are constantly stealing and hiding each others hats.

The girls proudly showing off their find (a mushroom).

Miles had lots of fun.  Whenever we put him down for a little rest he was so delighted to see all the stuff he could dig up and grab.  He got to where he didn't really want to be carried for the walking part, but just wanted to be on the ground exploring.

Miles loving being outside.

By the about half way, we found out the kids were out of practice for walking so far after sitting around all winter.  Isaiah ended up carrying Reagan and Miles (at the same time) a lot of the way back to the vehicle.  Let's just say everyone sleep really good that night.

January Birthdays

January is a very popular month for birthdays in our family.  Three of our six kids have one, so we kinda get to party all month long.

First up is Benjamin, who turned 12 on the 8th.  I can hardly believe that in one year he will officially be a teenager.  Crazy.  The changes I have seen in him this last year know he is morphine into a young man.  He now chooses to sit with the adults and listen to our conversations and instead of just going off playing.  He also has decided he want to listen to his own music and just isn't into kids play as much.

Next is Miles, who got to turn the big 1 on the 17th.  Can it be possible that he has been part of our family for a whole year?  He is such a joy and it is hard to image our family without him.  He is a big kid and heavy to carry around, which he loves to be since he doesn't walk yet.  He eats none stop.  His favorite thing is to be outside, which isn't often in the winter, but he was lucky for his birthday.  The weather warmed up and the whole family went on a picnic to Caplinger Mills and he got to spend most the day playing in the dirt.

Last up is little Melody.  Well, she isn't so little any more.  She was my smallest baby, but is my tallest 6 year old yet.  She turned 6 on the 19th.  She loves to help no matter what job we are doing.  Her favorite thing in school is writing and she begs to do it all the time.  For her birthday, we went skating and she got to try out her new purple skates.  She was so brave and didn't cry at all about falling down, which is a big deal for her.

Miles @ 4 Months

Miles turned into a cross country traveler this month.  Isaiah, Grandma Mary, Reagan, Miles and I all jumped in the car for the 18 hour drive to Salt Lake.  Miles was a very good rider as far as my kids go, which isn't saying much.  At least he didn't scream for 6 hours straight like Melody did at his age.  He got to go through 6 new states on the trip and go hiking in the Rocky Mountains.  He also got to meet lots of family.

Miles is such a smile, happy guy.  He loves for anyone to talk to him and will squeak, giggle, and coo back.  He is really fat and everyone loves his cheeks.  He has gotten heavy to pack around.  He is already in size 3 diapers and almost to outgrow his 3-6 months clothes.

Isaiah has been sneaking him little tastes of different foods.  He will let Miles just lick a grape or watermelon and Miles facial expression turns to one of "Are you trying to poison me."  It cracks us up every time.

Reagan has really taken to Miles in the last few weeks.  She will ask to just sit and talk to him.  If one of the other kids is playing with him, she comes right over and pushes them out of the way, so she can play with him. 

Derby Racing Time

The boys have really enjoyed building derby cars with their dad.  This year Isaiah helped Carter and a friends son build their cars. 

Carter and his dad spent all day one Saturday picking out designs and sanding the car to shape.  Then Carter worked on getting it painted just perfect.  I tried to help him think less is more as far as the paint job went because he wanted to put blotches everywhere.  In the end he did a great job. When it was time to put the wheels on Isaiah found out that they didn't fit good because of the design, so he had to spend a few days working out a fix, but like always he came through.  On race day the car looked great.

Carter raced against twenty other races.  It was fun to see all the different designs and how excited all the boys got as the race went on.  Carter ended up taking 7th.

Carter's 9th Birthday!

Carter is my quiet thinker.  He loves to do puzzles and build with legos, so much so that Ben always has him do his lego building for him.  He is also very kind hearted and tries to look out for his little sisters and brother. 

He is also becoming a good piano player.  He loves to try and play his pieces of music as fast has he can without mistakes.  It is fun to watch his fingers fly across the keys with his head bopping to the beat all at top speed.

For his birthday this year, he decided to have chocolate cupcakes.  He helped me make them and then he put the sprinkles on and stacked them all by himself. 

We had Grandma Mary and Will and Jeannie over for our little family party.  Carter got a watch, a knife, legos, a book: "Summer of the Monkeys," a book filled with puzzles, two puzzles, and a snap circuit set.  Do we notice the puzzle theme here. 

Miles @ 3 Months

Miles personality shines through more and more everyday.  He loves to be talked to and will light up when ever anyone gives him the time of day.  He will smile and coo and almost laugh.  Sometimes he makes such loud noises trying to talk, he scares himself. 

He has gotten over a lot of his fussiness and is pretty easy going.  As long as I rotate him from bounce seat, to floor, to being held and talked to, to walking him around then he stays pretty happy.  Luckily by doing all of that I have been able to still get the kids through their school work everyday even with a newborn. 

I have been slowly taking Miles outside on the nicer days.  He is getting better about handling the wind blowing on him if it is just a gently breeze. 

He still spits up quit a bit, but not has bad as Ben and Carter did.  Miles is very chunky and we call him are little marshmallow because of all his squishy rolls.

He is sleeping long and longer at night.  Now he goes for a good 6 hours before needing to eat during the night. He likes to go to bed at 7 and get up around 530.  I don't mind the early bed time because it gives Isaiah and I time to hang out but I wish he would sleep till 600, so I am trying to move his bedtime closer to 8.

He is getting really good at using his hands.  He will grab stuff and trying to play with it.  He also loves to look at his and and wiggle his fingers.  It is like he is focusing really hard and making his hands do what he wants and figure them out.  It is interesting to see him so fascinated with his fingers.  I don't remember the other kids being that way.