november 2015

November was an eventful month (I'm going to break it up into two different posts).

Truman is changing at rapid speed. He was able to stand and balance holding onto something really well at the very beginning of November:

I let Liv finish off this whipped topping and she said, "Mmmmm. It's almost like I'm going to marry this whip cream!"

Liv has a new favorite book! My thoughtful mom--thinking of her grandchildren before they were even born:

November 6th was my dad's 80th Birthday!
I sure love and miss you, Dad!!! You could always stand out in a crowd:

 Hewitt got to go on his first overnight 11-year-old campout and had a great time. Side note: He had made a list of everything to bring and was concerned that I couldn't find our whistle. I assured him that he would be OK without it...He laugh later that it was just at Skousen Park, right by one of the LDS buildings in Chandler. He thought they would be in the mountains :)

Hewitt and Rob just before leaving for the campout:

Cute little Tru started crawling everywhere and exploring the house like mad in November. Look out, World!

Liv had an assignment to 'disguise' a turkey so it wouldn't get eaten for Thanksgiving. She made a list of about 15 possibilities she was interested in and then decided on Wonder Woman. This one's for you, Merit!

  
We had our friends Sruthi and Sriram and their little daughter, Sia (one week younger than Truman), over for dinner one night. Sruthi and Rob used to work together on the same team and we had a dual baby shower together at Intel. 

Cuties:

Truman hasn't really spent a lot of time and around other babies and got pretty friendly...

...a little TOO friendly! 

Sorry, Sia! She didn't seem to mind and I grabbed him right away--ha!

A photo of Truman pulling himself up to stand:

We had the twins with us on Veteran's Day. The kids spent lots of time playing outside together. August loved taking Truman for a walk. Side note: I tried to take Truman inside to feed him lunch and he freaked out! I ended up bringing the baby food outside so he could eat and still watch his brothers play basketball.

Rob took the four older kids to the Stake Fair (at Skousen Park) and they had a fun time. There were all sorts of game booths, good food, a cool magic show, and face painting:

Rob and I were very amused that Truman would be sitting on the floor but scoot himself around in a circle. It was hard to get a good video of it, but this is a fairly good example:

Truman started eating some table foods this month (he really likes bread!). He loved the cantaloupe that I put in this little strainer/contraption:

He thinks it's so fun to drink water (I had a tiny bit in there) out of this 'big boy' cup:

He licks his lips so cute after getting some.

Tru has always been a 'cat napper' for the most part, but naps became especially challenging this month now that he's so mobile. He would constantly stand up in his crib!

Liv decided to help and created a "play pen" for her busy brother one afternoon--ha! She put him in the laundry basket and game him some things to play with:

Liv is so helpful:

Cute crawling boy at EIGHT MONTHS!!!

EIGHT for EIGHT months:
1. Shakes his head "no"
2. Gives "five"
3. Obsessed with finding door stops and electrical outlets
4. Thinks his sister is hilarious
5. Crawling everywhere
6. Pulls himself to standing
7. Thinks naps are overrated
8. Growing up TOO FAST!!!

We had family photos done by our friend, Mike Sherwood, about an hour before my family arrived in town for Thanksgiving (next blog post). It was a busy Saturday getting the house ready for company, shopping for food, getting the kids to four soccer games, taking Liv to a birthday party (at a 12,000+ square foot house on an 5-acre private island!!!), and trying to get everyone showered and ready for photos--whew!  Here's a selfie in the back seat with the younger kiddos. Can you spy Truman's feet?

Here are my favorite photos back from Mike. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Especially this fantastic one of our fabulous five!

  

 

I'm a very lucky girl, for sure! 

october 2015

We drove back from California on Hewitt's 11th birthday. Our good friends, the Haynies were driving to AZ from Utah the same day. They arrived just in time for Hewitt's favorite dinner of spaghetti and french bread. Sue and the twins were able to join us for presents and dessert. Hewitt received some nice gifts. Our cute birthday boy:

I thought it was hilarious that Hewitt asked for ear plugs for his birthday!

Hewitt was pretty excited to get tickets to the Blazers/Suns game:

Finally time for cake and ice cream!

I love this look on Hewitt's face as the singing started:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEWITT!

There was lots of game playing over the weekend (between General Conference sessions). I got to play a fun game of Clue with these two cuties. Is it just me, or is it usually Miss Scarlet?

Cute kiddos dipping their feet in the pool:

Sunday night S'mores:

Some sweet quality time:

It's always sad to see our friends go. It's a tradition to get a pic of kids prior to departure:

Thanks for the great visit--come back again soon!

Liv made a cool 'mobile' toy for Truman one day...

...and these sweet linked necklaces :)

While Rob was out of town for work, we met Aunt Sue, August and Kiefer at the park for pizza and to play while Hewitt had soccer practice at the neighboring field.

Love these cute monkeys. Sue said that Liv's outfit that day totally reminded her of what she would have worn/looked like as a kid. :)

Truman wasn't so sure about getting his flu shot:

Sweet blue-eyed boy.


His lip in the bottom-left photo cracks me up:

Ahhhh! So cute, this guy:

Finally able to get a good photo of those two little bottom teeth:

Liv wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up and we thought it would be the perfect Halloween costume. She bought this cute (Melissa and Doug) costume with some of the money she earned from her Pearson gig! We picked out this cute paw print fabric together and I made her these "scrubs" to go with it. Adorable little vet:

 We had our friends, the Lundells, over for dinner on Sunday the 11th--darling little Elise's first birthday!

These cute babes looked so sweet in their party hats:

Tosh and Liv had a brilliant plan to sell lemonade one day before going back to school. The trouble is that we don't get much traffic in front of our house since we moved. These prices might be a bit steep too--ha!

Liv found this binky one day and we all thought Truman looked so funny, but darling with it :)

This is a random "throwback" photo. I had this photo taken and then framed it to give to Rob for Father's Day in 2005. I still love it, and the memory of my mom standing next to me when it was taken.

Early morning snuggles:

Rob and I were asked to lead the dance instruction portion of "Teen Elect" for the 12 and 13 year-olds.  I did this a few years back with my friend Angela (we taught parts of Thriller and some other 80's and 90's favorites).  I was feeling a little 'old' to be doing it this year, especially since we have a teenager that would be attending. So, we roped Alecia and Rob Lundell into doing it with us! I did the main instruction and had one of these three come out to introduce each era and then we learned some moves from that decade. After we got the youth warmed up and having fun, we paired them up and taught them how to slow dance. I think it went pretty well.

Showing some school spirit (and pretending that it's Autumn in Arizona):

Two sweet guys enjoying each other and the sunset:

SEVEN months old on 10/20!

Seven Facts for Seven Months:
1. Scooting around on his bum.
2. Says "Mama" a lot.
3. Loves splashing in the bathtub.
4. Loves being outside and going for walks.
5. Has two bottom teeth.
6. He gets sad when we set him down or walk away.
7. We adore everything about this sweet 'bonus' baby and he brings so much love into our home.

Truman started helping me fold laundry on the 21st and then this happened:

 Uh oh-- a MOVER!

And then this:

 Growing up so fast!

I'll be honest that Liv didn't really love playing soccer this fall, but she DID love that her dad was her coach. I'm so glad that she'll always have that memory.

Truman loves being outside and going for walks/jogs with me. We are so thankful for this sweet stroller from Aunt Jana (thank you!!!). I was able to start jogging again in October and Truman gets so relaxed while we are out and usually goes right to sleep. It makes us both so happy :)

Hewitt really wanted to coordinate Halloween costumes as a family this year. They have generally done 'individual' and 'family' prize categories at our ward Halloween party, and Hewitt had his eye on the prize this year. We didn't do a family theme, however this is the cutest duo that you could ever imagine right here:

Turns out that they didn't do awards this year--ha! Aunt Sue was about as bummed out as Hewitt; she spent lots of time making a "Lego Guy" costume for August and a darling "Red Robot" costume for Kiefer. We were like, "What?! No contest???" lol :)

Hewitt and Rob were able to go to the Suns/Blazers game on the 30th of October. Hewitt is so darling. Just love him to pieces. He was way excited that Damian Lillard waved at him during warm-ups.

Our friend, Char, gave Tru this super cute Superman onesie when he was born. It was perfect to wear during the day on Halloween since it was still so warm here. Isn't he the sweetest with that little curl? The kids got a kick out of the fact that we put this "comic" look effect on the photo:

He really is a super baby! Certainly growing up faster than a speeding bullet.

Our neighbors, the Finders, had a neighborhood party on Halloween. Here is photo I got from them:

I didn't take any photos on actual Halloween of my older kids. Tosh dressed up as a robber (he wore black clothes, with a dark grey beanie and he carried his candy in a pillow case with a $ sign on it). He had fun going around with his friend, Dylan, that was dressed as a SWAT guy.

After the party, the Andelins joined us and we went treak-or-treating in our neighborhood. The weather was perfect and the kids got LOADS of candy! October was a great month!