William is 9 months

This little guy is growing up before my eyes every.single.day. And it's making me sad! His job is to be the baby... I mean he really needs to just stay 9 months for-ev-er! I love this stage! The girls just adore him. They fight over who gets to pick his clothes

Some things he's doing right now:
-Army crawling
-Rocking on all 4's and starting to brave 1-2 moves before dropping down to his belly
-Opening and closing cupboard & closet doors (we just added child locks = frustrated baby)
-Babbling a lot! Mama, dada- not necessarily intentionally, and he mimics sounds we make
-Says Hi.
-Claps, especially when we cheer for him.
-Recognizes his name.
-Has moved upstairs to join his sisters and is sleeping through the night!
-Has 2 bottom teeth that have poked through.
-Loves rice, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, and green smoothies!
-Draws attention because of his BIG SMILE and RED HAIR!
-Has started pulling up to his knees in the tub, on the bottom step, on the dishwasher and anything else he can.

From the doctor: In the 15% for weight & 50% for height.
William will be getting a probing done on his right eye this week. He has a clogged tear duct that we are excited to fix- no more green, goopey, eye drainage!

We love this little man!

Annual Aquarium Field Trip

Every year one of our 'At Home Preschool Teacher' friends organizes a field trip to the Houston Aquarium. You see, it's GROSELY over priced and a bit disappointing as far as aquariums go. (I mean, what aquarium includes, parrots, snakes, and a WHITE TIGER?) Don't get me wrong, there are some colorful aquatic displays including an octopus, a few alligators, sting-rays, sand sharks, a 'petting area', an electric eel and more. However, it's a real short walk through the aquarium, which leads your to a white tiger for the grand finale!? (Talk about a fish out of water!) To top it off the fair-type rides outside are quite enticing. For a whopping $4.33/ person- & a great way to spend MLK day- one cannot complain! (Which is why 263 people showed up to support the preschool field trip yesterday!)

First Stop: The Shark Train
Look at Willaim watching the sharks swimming overhead!
On to the carousel next... we did MANY rounds on this carousel!
Madisen was tall enough to ride the Big Shot (type) ride, but unsure at first. A little convincing from her peers & she was off. I actually wanted to ride with her, but had a few too many bodies to juggle. Maybe next year! She actually rode it a few more times, too.
Look at those smiles as they are getting ready to come back down!
After lunch it was time for our tummies to settle for a while (& the crowd had died down) so we headed inside to check out the fish. I LOVE the spotted sting ray below.
The petting area- can you spy Caitlyn? She's not so much of an animal lover up close!
Since the fieldtrip was technically for Caitlyn- I let her have the camera for a few minutes to capture a few of her favorite fish.
And William fell asleep in the stroller- what a dream baby!
The kids were entertained here for quite a while as they figured out how to push the red button, the camera would snap their photo & it would appear on the screen to the side. (Pictures of the real tiger from last year's trip & many of the same friends here.)
Then it was back outside to enjoy a few more rides before calling it quits for the day. These girls were being so silly- I think it's because they knew I was nervous- but I did it! I managed to ride the Ferris wheel with the girls this year! Last year I deferred my 'responsibility' to my friend Mona. And two years ago I nearly fainted while on it with her.

A Word for 2012

A few years ago I chose a word to be my theme for the year. Among some family & couple resolutions, I have done the same this year. In an effort not to be bogged down by lists of ALL of the things I'd like to change and then thinking about, dreaming of, or trying to do these things, I am simply going to BE. This year, my goal is to BE!! Be is a verb and I'm going to focus on 1 thing to BE each month.

For Christmas my children received a BEE Attitudes game from their Aunt and I've enjoyed the refresher on President Hinckley's admonition to the youth in November 2000 (as referred to here). It has prompted me to think on the action we must take to focus on BEING who & what the Lord would have us be.

Happy Birthday Bill!

We made sure daddy felt especially loved this year! Our celebration stretched out over 3 nights. 1-A cake and game night with our friends, 2- Sunday dinner with Bill's parents, complete with a cake decorated by grandma & the girls, and 3 (THE actual birthday!)- soup for dinner, a SpecialK treat and presents from the girls.

{Notice there is about 3x as much frosting as carrot cake---covered with lots of love!}

We sure love our hard-working, fun-loving daddy!

Dance Recital

For about the past 6 months my big girls have been taking dance from my friend Amy (yes, I do have amazing, wonderful and talented friends!). She had a total of 21ish students and decided to brave a little recital (because she had nothing else to do in DECEMBER). The girls were separated into groups to dance out the nativity. There were stars, Mary's, shepherds & angels.
Madisen and Caitlyn got to perform their dance together, it was adorable! You'll have to take my word b/c I don't have the video footage from my sister in law, yet. I love this picture because they are holding hands. It was taken before the performance, and I'm sure they were relying on each other for some courage before they stepped into the spotlight.
Aunt Christy and baby Lulu were in town so they were able to attend the show. The girls were so excited to show off their new cousin!

Delighted

Caitlyn was delighted to bring home this gingerbread house that she created at preschool. She was justifiably proud of her handiwork.

Piano Recital

Madisen had her first piano recital last night. She was brave and beautiful! She's been taking lessons from my friend Megan since school started and I am pleased with how quickly she is catching on and how much she really does enjoy playing. (And she's good, too!) We got to have the recital in our home, which probably helped with her nerves. She played 2 songs: Deck the Halls, and Round Trip Flights. She got to play each song alone and then we played them as duets. It's so wonderful to be able to share my love of music with her. Soon I shall post the videos...