Exciting Updates!

Gabe is officially taking steps on his own without the persuading of mom and dad! He's so busy and cute. He is our biggest climber and loves standing up in the rocking chair which mommy has to hide sometimes so he doesn't kill himself. He also would like to go down the stairs walking forward like the big kids (Matthew did this too), so we really have to watch him. He has luckily only taken one nose dive so far down the stairs and mommy was there to catch him at the bottom!

That is probably the most exciting news around here besides the fact that we have officially announced (or should I say Emily did the announcing!) that we are 14 weeks pregnant with baby number five expected in September.

Oh, the other exciting news is my children who have been sick for almost a week are finally starting to get better, so I just might be able to clean up this disaster of a house today and move on with life with healthy children for the most part (minus the teething and still poor sleeping habits of Gabe!)

Valentine's Day Fun

Last year for Valentine's Day we did a candlelight lunch with the kids and they remembered, so this year to keep up with tradition, we had a candlelight dinner as a family. We let the kids pick the menu--hamburgers and tater tots (romantic, huh?) It was yummy and fun. We had to continue lighting the candles for several meals afterwards and take turns blowing them out. It was cute.

We also made heart shaped cookies and had intentions of taking them to some of our friends, but they were just too yummy and we ate too many and I didn't feel like making more--sorry :( We did however share with the cousins on date night. I wrote the names of all the kids on their own cookie and then called them downstairs to find their cookie and eat it. They thought that was pretty fun. Daniel ate his cookie by licking off all the frosting first. I didn't think he would actually eat the cookie after licking off every inch of frosting, but he did and was cute!

I let the kids make Valentines for some of their friends and then we delivered them as a family on Sunday. They had a great time and it was cute to see what they wrote and how they spelled it :) Emily got a little mushy in her first Valentine to her secret crush. It went something like this: "Happy Valentine's  Day Aaron, I love you. From the girl that loves you." We told her it was way too mushy (she of course asked what "mushy" is), and I told her that if she gave that to him, he would never talk to her again. Her response was "Why?" then "Mom, he doesn't really talk to me that much anyways!" She ended up giving him a much toned-down version.

Jim and I were somewhat lame as far as actually celebrating the day. We have been so busy lately that neither one of us did a card or gift. Fortunately, it has never taken either of those things for us to know that we love each other and this year was no different! Jim did bring me home a plant yesterday and I brought home a box of chocolates (can't pass up that after Valentine's Day clearance!) I love you, Jim! 

My Kids are Growing!

Emily is always coming up with some paper creation. Her latest yesterday was a paper growth chart where she could keep track of how tall she is getting. She taped it up on her bedroom wall and drew a line to mark how tall she is--it said "Emily's Hite" (we haven't learned how to spell "height" yet, and although she can read that word, she obviously doesn't know how to spell it--still cute for a seven year old!) Along with the line, she also has some sort of a little paper cutout that she can move up the chart as she "grows."

First thing this morning she came running into my room and told me that I had to come into her room at that exact moment to see something because she had "grown overnight!" I chuckled, got out of bed and went to look at her chart. She had indeed grown several inches overnight compared to yesterday's marking. I'm not sure how that happened, but my kids are growing (and apparently really fast!) She had to wake up Spencer and Matthew this morning to show them too, and they had to stand there to be measured. I wonder how many mornings we will get the wake-up call that Emily has "grown overnight!" I also wonder what will happen when she stops growing four inches in one night--oh, the disappointment!!!

Sunday Challenges

Taking four kids to church by myself always presents a bit of a challenge. We have done great about getting ready in the morning and going to church a little early. We have even done great at sitting on the bench for the most part. Today presented a different challenge. It is always a little tricky to make sure four people get the sacrament when I am the only one I really like to hold the trays for fear that if I receive "help," that "help" will equate to the sacrament trays being tipped over and the entire contents on the floor--has that ever happened to anyone? I'm sure in the history of church-going it has happened to someone, but I really try to avoid that person becoming me! 

So today I had all of my children strategically placed on the bench with Emily on my right so that she doesn't try to grab at the tray. Matthew and Spencer were on my left and the baby was on my lap. It is always a little challenging with a baby that grabs at things to be sitting on my lap, but especially challenging when the boys aren't paying attention. With one hand holding a baby and pinning his arms to me so that they can't grab, and the other holding the sacrament tray, there is no option to tap a shoulder to get attention. 

Today after the bread was passed, I quickly whispered in Matthew and Spencer's ears to pay attention and watch the tray so that when it came to them, they would be ready. So, on to the water . . . 

Spencer and Matthew were paying attention. The problem came in the fact that the family sitting in front of us has a baby just a little older than Gabe. He is also at the stage of pulling himself up to things and had pulled himself up to the back of the bench with his hands hanging over on our side--ready to grab at anything that might be put in his way.  With four little hands ready to grab, passing the sacrament tray through a small space right in front of these little hands presented a huge problem. At that point I needed to be an octopus! Do you see where this is going? 

Before I could pass the tray to the boys on my left, at least two hands had reached out to grab sacrament cups and knocked two on the floor. While trying to grab those two little hands and keep them from doing any more damage, I let up a little on the baby whose hands I had previously had pinned. He was now dipping his fingers in several cups of water. At this point, Matthew was crawling on the floor trying to gather up the lost sacrament cups, and I just gave up trying to safely pass the tray to him and just handed the tray back to the deacon passing the sacrament all the while grateful that the whole tray had not been dumped out! Then I took a deep breath and tried to keep myself from bursting into laughter realizing that if anyone had caught a glimpse of this catastrophe, they would be grinning ear to ear as well.

When Jim got home tonight I told him of this experience and asked if he had ever been in a meeting where the tray had been dropped. He then proceeded to tell me that his very first time passing the sacrament he dropped the tray because he thought the person taking it had ahold of it. I asked him what he did at that point "Did you just pick up in bread?" and responded "No, it was the water!" Okay, I think he wins!

Gabe's First Tooth

Gabe has his first tooth! He is almost 10 months old now and some of you may be saying--isn't that a little late to get teeth? Not for my kids, and can I just say I am grateful they don't get them earlier :) I guess we will be saying goodbye soon to our cute little toothless baby and hello to a whole new look. For me, they just start looking so different and more grown up when they start getting a mouth full of teeth :( 

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Matthew turned three yesterday and it was a great day--except for the wonderful messes he managed to make a couple of times during the day. He was really lucky that he decided to make these choice messes on his birthday, or he may not have made it to three :) We sure love him and are glad he is part of our family. 

When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said "cars" so we ended up with a car cake. Grandma and Grandpa Taylor, and Amy, Drew & kids came over for cake and ice-cream. When Amy, Drew, and boys arrived we were just sitting down for dinner at 7:00 if that is any indication of our crazy day. All in all it was a great day and it doesn't take much to put a smile on Matthew's face! 

Either we are in trouble, or we are going to be!

Gabe is crawling!! He has been moving himself around and starting to pull himself up to things for a couple of weeks now, but he hadn't quite figured out the continuous crawl movement until last night. I guess it's time to move into the really clean floor stage since he puts everything within his reach in his mouth. This stage gets increasingly difficult as we have more children to put those little things on the floor. Can I just say Legos and I have a love/hate relationship--I think they are a great learning toy and I get excited seeing the kids build cool and creative things, but I hate finding them all over my house! Do you think Legos go through kids like pennies? 

This whole trouble thing reminds me of Gabe's birth announcement. Boy, do they grow fast. Maybe I'm especially mindful of this as my sister is working on bringing another one into the world right now . . . Hurry up, Anthony! We need more trouble!!