4 Months

Will was four months old on the 7th. He is a very rewarding baby. He smiles when you talk to him, he loves his jumper and he giggles when you tickle him. He is a fairly easy baby and I am so grateful. I love to kiss his chubby little cheeks.

Everyone told me that our third child would throw me for a loop. They were wrong. My adjustment with Maggie was pretty easy. Parker was 4 1/2 and very self sufficient. This has been by far my most difficult transition. The laundry is never caught up on, I don't get out of my pajamas until 10:00 most mornings, I can't seem to keep the house clean and I am exhausted. I'm not sure if it is my age, arthritis or just having a fourth child that has done this to me...probably a combination of all of them?

I know that this will pass. Our kids will grow up and I will miss them. So for now some of my chores will have to wait. And the projects I want to do will have be put on the back burner, because I don't want to miss the short time our kids are little.

Three

Margaret turned 3 on Thanksgiving day this year. We were in Heber and had pumpkin pie and birthday cake for dessert. All she really wanted for her birthday was a cash register and pretend money. She was very funny about it.

Maggie is the child in our house who always makes us smile and laugh. She is a like a little bit of feisty sunshine wherever she goes. I'm so glad she's ours.

MTC

My parents entered the MTC on Monday. They are there for a week and then off to South Carolina. I have to say that selfishly I am sad they they are going to be gone for a year. William will change so much in that time and they won't be here to see it. I know it will be okay and their will be other blessings for their service, but it still makes me sad. BUT, I am happy for them. It will be a great adventure for them and I know that they will be great missionaries. The people of South Carolina are lucky to have them. Ruben went through quite the physical transformation to go on their mission, and my kids got to help in that process.

Will: 14 Weeks

Will likes: watching his siblings, the swing, the bumbo

Will loves: standing up and balancing while holding onto someone's hands, being swaddled, his monkey mobile, being talked to.

I love: that he smiles when I get him out of his bed, the high pitched squeak he makes when he wants to be wrapped up and go to sleep, the baby noises he makes when I talk to him, that he is almost always content, his solid little body and chubby cheeks.

Halloween

We spent Halloween in St. George this year . The kids have a lot of fun with their cousins and my sister lives in a great neighborhood for trick or treating. My kids started deciding on their costumes months ahead of time. I have never convinced them that having a matching theme for all of them would be cool. Thus we have a baby (matching with her cousin Cami), Wolverine, and Little Red Riding Hood. Maggie talked for months about how she was going to be Little Red and Papa was going to be the Big Bad Wolf. So Papa played along and made himself a costume. He is such an awesome Grandpa.

California

I wish we could have stayed longer. Actually, I would stay forever if I could.

We went to CA for a quick trip. Matt replaced flooring in part of my grandparent's home while the kids played, swam, played and swam some more. I got to visit with Grandma and a couple of my best friends. It was great. I decided that on this trip we would forgo our normal Disneyland adventure and go to some of the places that my mom took me when I was a kid. We wanted to go to the LA Children's museum, but it was closed. So we went to the LA Zoo and to Phillipe's for lunch. TT, John and Kira met us at the zoo, it was great to see them. The LA Zoo is the perfect size. We looked at everything in about four hours and the kids thought it was awesome. The zoo was even better than usual because the reptile house was closed. I hate that place. Phillipe's is exactly the same as I remember it and the food was delicious. The kids were very interested in the sawdust on the floor. The kids built a fort behind my grandparent's house and played back there a lot. They had some unwanted visitors show up at the fort and Parker threatened them with his pocket knife (which he didn't actually have on him) ...isn't that nice? Papa was there for the first couple days of our visit. He took the kids to the fire station to visit Nick and to the beach. He took food for the birds...Kate and Parker thought that was fun, Maggie did not.

A Handmade Affair

So I am going to be selling wire trees in this upcoming craft show. If you are in town and can stop by that would be great. You can check out what will be there at this website.

Heels

At what age should a girl get her first pair of heels? Kate is begging and pouting. We took the kids shoe shopping last night and Kate no longer fits into children size shoes. Her feet (6 1/2) are almost as big as mine.

She's 10 1/2, she hasn't asked to get her ears pierced. She quit asking for a cell phone. She doesn't want to wear a bikini. So do I give on the heels? She has actually conceded to wedges. So we won't be going for the four inchers pictured above. But still I am reluctant to start on this journey.

What do you think?

Will's Blessing cont.

Kids are Funny

Maggie: Dad, smell my finger, smell my finger!!

Matt: Okay....Yuck Maggie, that smells disgusting.

Maggie: (laughing) I know, I stuck it by my bum.

This morning Kate was bawling as she was getting ready for school...the reason...we were out of milk.

Will's Blessing

On October 11, 2009 we blessed William. I feel very blessed and fortunate to have such a great family. Matt did a good job on Will's blessing. I don't remember the exact words Matt said but I do remember that as I sat there listening to the blessing I felt an overwhelming gratitude to my Heavenly Father for entrusting us with Will. I also felt so thankful for the men in our family and for their willingness and ability to stand in the circle and bless Will. William is so lucky to have so many worthy men to look up to.

In the blessing circle: Matthew B Teeples, Marvin E Miller, Ruben Garnica, Scott McEuen, Bruce M Teeples, Peter Andersen, John Emmett, Jason McEuen, Ben Reed, Eddie Pickup, Bryan Johnson, Bishop Brian Beal, Torry Watson and Adam Hawkins.

BYU Football

Since my family is huge on BYU football, we scheduled Will's blessing for the same weekend as the BYU/UNLV game. We had lots of people in town and it was a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who was able to come.

The Battle of the Hair

Have you ever seen a cowlick like this? Is there a surgical procedure to fix these? Plastic surgery maybe? This is one of the FOUR cowlicks Maggie has on her head. It is by far the worst of the multitude. All our other kids have one nice and neat cowlick on the back of their heads. And Maggie got all the additional cowlicks. Lucky girl. I shouldn't be surprised, since I have five mixing it up on my head. But I feel for her. She is going to battle this amazing area of hair growth for her entire life.

Will

I know I'm biased, but he is adorable.

His little square face with his chubby cheeks.

They are perfect for kissing.

To Comment or Not to Comment

I'm wondering...When and on who's posts is it appropriate to comment? I love comments, the more the merrier. But do other people find it annoying when people comment on their posts. Or do you have to know someone really well to comment? I know I often want to comment, but don't. And I also look at blogs of people I knew ages ago and who I know know me, but I haven't talked to in quite some time. I'm curious, what do you think is appropriate comment etiquette? So leave a comment, I'd like to know what you think.

# of times the word comment was used in above paragraph = 7

Maggie-ism's

Maggie has come up with some real doozies lately.

Tonight we came home and Captain had chewed a diaper (I know, disgusting) and Maggie says to me:

"Last year when I was a puppy, did I chew dirty diapers?"

I had know idea she used to be a dog. I tried to explain to her that she has never been a puppy, but she was pretty set that she had.

Andrew was coming over to play today and she says to me:

"Andrew is not a good share person."

I responded, "You are right, but neither are you."

And she says, "I know, I'm not."

Like she is perfectly okay with not being good at sharing.

I had a full sugar, full caffeine soda today (still trying to get rid of this headache), and I left it on the counter downstairs. When I came back down Maggie had drank the entire thing. All of it, not one sip left. I told her that she shouldn't drink my soda without asking and that she shouldn't drink that kind of soda because it is not for kids. And she says to me:

"It's okay mom, cause I a grown up."

Maggie is also very concerned over smells. She unfortunately got my sense of smell, which is very keen, and she mentions how bad things smell quite often.

I love it when she smells something horrible and says to me, "It smells like you." NICE

When my mom was here Maggie was sitting on her lap reading books with her. Maggie literally leapt off my mom's lap and onto mine (a couch away) and looks at my mom with the most disgusted look on her face and says, "I'm not reading with you, you smell." My mom and I both started to laugh. Captain was sitting on the floor in front of my mom and was apparently having some sort of digestive problems. Maggie's reaction was hysterical.

We can't go into any public bathroom without some comment from Maggie. And if she smells anything foul she asks, "Who pooped?"

My mom and Ruben have both been rudely reminded by Maggie that they have morning breath. On more than one occasion she has gotten into bed with them and proceeded to put her hand in front of their face and tell them, "Your nose smells." I guess that is where she thinks the stink comes from.

The best thing about all of these comments is the look on her face when she makes them. I wish I could get it on camera. It is like you or someone or something has done the most awful thing by making a smell. She scrunches up her nose, gets the most high and mighty look that she can muster and proceeds to be very rude. It cracks me up.

I promise I tell her that it isn't nice to tell people that they smell. But a little part of me smiles when she pipes up about a stench. Because most of the time I am thinking the same thing.

Company

Mom, Chelsea, Bridget, Noelle

Maggie, Paige, Anna

Maggie, Paige, Anna, Andrew

Shortly after I got home from the hospital (the second time) Noelle and Bridget came to visit. The four two year olds, Andrew (Chelsea's), Maggie, Paige (Bridget's) and Anna (Noelle's) are quite the foursome. There is never a dull moment when they are around. The crazy thing is we are doing the same thing again. All three of these sister's are pregnant again and we will have four babies within 7 months of each other all over again. We love our cousin friends. And I love my sisters. Jen included, even though she isn't contributing to the baby boom. I can't imagine why she didn't come for the weekend as well? Could it have been the four two year olds? Possibly.