pete report

It seems like there is a lot to say, but now that I'm sitting down to "say it" my mind is drawing a blank. Hmmm.

Let's start with Liv. Is anyone tired of me talking about what a great baby she is? Her new trick is clicking her tongue (it's uber cute). She is also scooting forward on her tummy a bit and getting closer to sitting up on her own. She is still going to bed early and waking only once to eat around (5AM). Today I had to wake her up twice (once at 8AM to take Burke to school, and then again at 11:30AM to pick up Hewitt from school). She is so easy going about it (she wakes and gives me a big smile), and when I'm ready to put her down I just simply put her in her crib, walk out of the room and never hear a peep. I've never had a such a great sleeper, eater, and all around "dream baby." Liv is the "tops" and I am so, so thankful for and enjoy her every minute of my day.

Tosh, Tosh, Tosh. He is quite the character and cracks us up all the time. His new "trick" is jumping off of my bed and doing a rolling somersault right as he lands. This was one of those things where Rob yells, "Tamsen you've got to come and see this!" and then Rob says something like, "I know he probably shouldn't be jumping off of our bed, but it's awesome..." Tosh is really interested in trains and so we've been spending a lot of time setting up tracks and watching them run lately. He is officially addicted to milk and would only drink milk, eating nothing else except "candy Halloween" if he had his choice. We even gave him some pudding tonight for family night treat and he had one bite and then wanted milk (granted he was tired). He starts most sentences with "Be-tuzz" (because) and talks all the time. He still gets lots of attention wherever we go and I have all the Young Women begging me to let them babysit for us. If only we had places to go and money to spend, right?

Hewitt had a rough week (physically). A week ago Sunday we had dinner at some friends' in the ward and the kids were in the backyard when all of a sudden we heard this horrible "thud" sound. Hewitt ran straight into their sliding glass door. It looked and sounded absolutely horrible (I repeat) and we were thankful he wasn't injured. Then last Tuesday evening Hewitt was running and tripped and hit his face on the ottoman. His cheek swelled up immediately and he got a horrible black eye! Ouch. An' THEN last night he jumped from the couch to our black bench and jumped too far and ran his head into the wall. Another huge goose egg on his forehead. It's good his hair is long right now, or we'd be getting a call from the state for sure! He must be growing or something to be a little "off" on his coordination. You can really see the bruise pretty good in this photo:

Hewitt and I were chatting during half-time at his soccer game on Saturday and we got talking about how old Liv is. When I told him that she is six months (and reminded him there there are 12 months in the year, etc.), he laughed and said, "Liv is zero and a half!"


I love these photos of the three younger kids. These two love on Liv almost all day long:



I sure don't have many photos of Burke compared to the others lately. He does not like having his photo taken, and let's face it he isn't around as much. When he is around he is wanting to play soccer in our play room or is reading books like crazy (Any book suggestions anyone? He has read almost all the Magic Tree House series, Junie B Jones, Captain Underpants, Jigsaw Jones, A-Z Mysteries, etc.). I'm looking for something more challenging, but not too scary. Ideas?

Burke has been saving his money forever. He took a dollar to school the other day because they were selling pencils ("Smencils" really; pencils that smell) and he wanted to check it out. He came home with his dollar and said, "I decided I didn't need a pencil. I'd rather save my money to buy a game, or actually I should save it for my mission. I can't wait to go on a mission!" This something new that Burke is talking about. He is also getting excited about being baptized which is great because just a year or so ago he told me that he didn't want to be baptized and that he wasn't going on a mission because he never wanted to move out of our house. (My mother would probably like to insert here that I promised my mother at one point that I would never move out or leave her). Anyway, it is nice to see some growth and maturity in Burke.

So here is Burke's school photo (pre-glasses) and his soccer photo. His soccer photo is pretty funny (goofy). We didn't think it was possible for Burke to have a double chin...

We miss you all and will be thinking of you this week. Happy Thanksgiving! Much love, Tamsen