A typical morning after they've left for school...

This picture pretty much sums up our boys. Can you tell whose side is whose?  :)

So much to be thankful for

I felt so blessed this Thanksgiving!  Maybe it was hearing about Dad helping with Hurricane Sandy cleanup, or maybe it was becoming aware of some things people around us are struggling with, but I was acutely aware this year of all the things I have to be grateful for.  My sweet kids, a devoted husband, our new home, David's job, our good friends and neighbors (new and old), the gospel, good health, peace and well-being...  I've been given so much.  It overwhelms me.

The kids and I made a gratitude tree (thanks for the idea, Allison) and talked about the things they're grateful for as well.  Some answers were more sincere than others, but it was still a good activity and we displayed our tree during Thanksgiving dinner.

We were happy to have Grandma, Bree and Heather and her family over for dinner!  It was the first year without anyone from David's side of the family, so it felt especially cozy with so few of us (compared to years past).  We were very grateful that Heather's doing so much better compared to how she was a year ago at Thanksgiving!  She has ways to go before she's completely healthy, but she's come so far!  It was kind of fun to try and plan as much of a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free meal as we could to accomodate her current diet.  She brought several yummy dishes that she made that she could eat (stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, a pumpkin pecan pie...) and I prepared the turkey so that it was gluten-free and then we had peas and jello that she could eat as well. :)  (Grandma Willes brought the jello, of course!)  We couldn't not have rolls for the rest of us (namely, Bree), so we just tried to keep those away from anything Heather was going to be eating.  All in all, the meal was a success!  We had more than enough food and it was all really tasty!  In addition to Heather's pumpkin pie I made a chocolate pie, since we're not the conventional pie eaters in our house.  It was delicious!

David was in charge of setting the table and he did a great job.  He's truly a decorator at heart. :)

Cute cousins all ready to eat!

Bryan got all dressed up with a tie and everything. :)  He's quite the fashionista these days!

Relieved to have everything done and ready to eat!

 The adult table.

Kiddos.

Our not-so-big eaters.

Yay for Heather!!  As beautiful as ever with her sweet Jake.

After the meal the boys were so excited to break the wishbone... and Matthew won!

Bummer.

Oh, the goodness of chocolate pie!  Bryan was totally unaware that he looked like this! :)

Yum!

Uh, gross...

And dainty little Ari with a tiny smudge above her lip. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

All about Owen

My baby is growing up!!  And I'm not sure how I feel about it.  These monkey pics were actually taken at 6 months, but he's now 7 1/2 and growing fast.  I think he's around 17 pounds and 27 inches - tall and skinny - but he's got just the right amount of kissable squishiness. :)  I love him.

He's such a good baby!  "Good as gold," like my mom would say.

He continues to be super easy-going, whether at home or on the move, and we're on the move a lot these days!  Thankfully he does well in his carriers.  Almost too well, in fact!  His head's a little flat from this carseat (I'm assuming), so we took him in a few weeks ago to have it measured and see if he'd need a helmet.  They assured us that while it's not perfect, the flattening's not severe enough to need a helmet.  (Phew!)  So by age 5 or 6 his head should be normal...

 Regardless, I need to carry him around in this more often!  He's fun to cuddle.

Owen's had a couple big firsts this last month, one of which is starting solid foods!  I have to admit that I never look forward to starting solids with my babies, and I was especially reluctant with O.  Still, it was fun seeing him try cereal for the first time.  Here he is trying out his big-boy chair.  So far so good.

He actually liked it at first, but then he decided it wasn't all that great. :)  It wasn't traumatic enough to keep him upset, though.  He ended things with a smile.
Since then we've added avocados, sweet potatoes, and bananas.  I'm in no rush to get him eating much!  Some days are better than others.  This was a good avocado day.

Besides starting solids, he's also started sitting up!  This picture was taken several weeks ago at one of his first attempts. 

 He's become quite the little pro at sitting since then.

Cute boy!!

Now the problem is that he won't stay sitting anymore, not because he falls but because he's begun scooting!!  He's mastering the army crawl as we speak, which means he's all over the place!  Gone are the days of plopping him in one place and knowing he'll safely stay there.  I've found him under the computer desk playing with cords, under the newly adorned Christmas tree playing with decorations, in our closet (after passing through our bathroom) playing with hangers... It's a little crazy.

He, of course, thinks it's the coolest thing ever!  He's like one of the big boys now!  If he wants a toy, there's nothing stopping him from getting it!

Thankfully, I have some great little helpers to keep an eye on him for me.  Ari's a great big sister and she's enjoying the fact that he's getting bigger and more fun to play with.

 Cute little buddies. :)

I guess the upside of him growing up is that he's sleeping better at nights.  He'll go a good 8 hour stretch without eating most nights.  If I do have to get up with him I've begun just sitting in the rocker next to his crib and waiting until he drifts back to sleep.  Those are precious moments for me.  Any moment with him is precious!  He's such a blessing.  We love our little O!

P.S.  We just discovered he's getting his first tooth!  This is all too much at once! :)

Little artists at work

Lately I've been taking pictures of the kids artwork so we can remember them.  Matt came home with this one from school one day, and it surprised me because he's never talked to me about learning how to play just yet.  I like how he put the piano at the bottom of the stairs, right where it is in our new house.

Cute self portrait.

 For Halloween he got to create a doll that would look like him all dressed up.  At the time he was planning on being a cowboy again so this is his cowboy portrait of himself. :)

Apparently this is Bryan's latest self portrait!  A little intense, but that's Bryan for you.

I think this one's really cute.  He got the idea from his obsession with Calvin and Hobbes, his preferred bedtime reading these days.

But the cutest of all is Ari's rainbow pic with the dog?  giraffe?  Not sure, but it makes me smile to look at it every time. :)

Happy Halloween!

I'm finally getting around to our Halloween pics!  One of these days I'll get caught up and finally get to blog about what we're doing here and now... 

Here are the kids before our ward's Halloween party and Trunk or Treat.    

Ari had planned to be a fairy but it was freezing outside!  So earlier in the day I'd gone to Old Navy to find a long sleeved shirt for her to wear under her skimpy fairy dress, but I found this instead for just a couple dollars more.  Our cute little cupcake!

Matt really wanted to be a skeleton, so I was glad I found this one that was actually kind of cute and not too creepy...

Bryan, of course, wanted to be a ninja.  (Have I mentioned that he's really into karate these days?)

I love that the boys are getting old enough to carve their own pumpkins.  David and I didn't really get into it this year, so we just let the kids do their thing.  

 I love the cute little smile on Ari's pumpkin. :)

Ari's preschool class did a little trunk-or-treat after her class one day.  Here they are marching out to the cars with Miss Heather.  Ari is the princess hidden by the flower...

 "Trick or treat!"

She was so excited!

We couldn't let Halloween go by without visiting the witches at Gardner Village with Heather and her girls.  Ari looked super dorky in her fairy costume, but she and Matt insisted on dressing up. :)

Handsome boys.

Haha. :)

And I LOVE these pictures of Owen!  Look at those eyes!  He's always just so smiley and chill when we go places.  Seeing the witches was no different.

 Isn't this tree gorgeous?  Hello, colors!

 Halloween morning was super busy with the boys' class parties and parades and programs.  Here's Matt walking with his class...

 And Bryan, as cool as ever...

Bryan's class did a program with all sorts of fun Halloween songs, but halfway through Bryan had to go pee so bad he started dancing like crazy and got this frantic look on his face, so I motioned for him to just go!  He took off and just barely avoided a disaster. :)

After school we met David for trick-or-treating on Main Street in Lehi.  It was busy, but fun.  We're still getting to know our way around her so it was a fun way to get to know some of the local businesses.

After a dinner of mummy hot dogs, string cheese ogre fingers and moster teeth apple slices, we hit the streets in our neighborhood.  Ari insisted on taking her bike until she found out how tricky it was to ride and enjoy her sucker at the same time.  We ditched the bike and picked it up later when we were done.

Bryan had been begging me for weeks to get to go trick-or-treating with his friends, so we agreed to let him go with them around our loop.  We crossed paths with him at one point but he didn't stick around for long!

Matt ended up having a fever and had to go home early, poor thing.  He spent the rest of the night knocked out on the couch.

Haha!  This picture totally epitomizes the crash after a sugar high.  Someone had a little too much chocolate. :)  Gotta love Halloween!