Six months old

Cute little Echo turned six months old today! I can't believe its been six months already. She's so cute! She's super happy all the time, and she loves everyone in our family. She's just barely started to show some minor amounts of separation anxiety when someone else holds her, but she warms up easily. She went to the doctor yesterday and we found out that she is in the 50th percentile for weight, height, and head size! How weird is that? Its so nice to not have to worry about her weight gain! We love this girl!

7 birthdays

7 things about Corbin

1. He is very even tempered and is totally a peacemaker.

2. He is SUPER smart. He's the top reader in his class, and I often joke that he's smarter than me. In a few years, it won't be a joke anymore.

3. He loves IHOP! Every year for his birthday he forces us to eat dinner there....even though Scott and I both hate it!

4. He is an amazing brother. He is everyone's favorite person to play with, and he is so good with all our kids.

5. He is ridiculously shy. It is torture getting him to talk to people he doesn't know...and even sometimes people he does know.

6. He has always been my easiest child by far! Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent Corbin first instead of Dexter!

7. He is a super star at video games. I can't wrap my brain around half the stuff he can do!

Now, in honor of Corbin's 7th birthday, here's a look back at his other birthdays.

Technically Corbin is 2 months old in this picture, we didn't have a camera when he was born.

First birthday - he seems to really be enjoying that birthday cake!

2 years old. What a cutie!

3 years old. I remember this day like it was yesterday, I can't believe its been 4 years!

Oh my gosh! Is this the cutest kid ever or what! We celebrated his 4th birthday back in Utah.

5th birthday he was loving toy story (still does, but maybe not so obsessed anymore).

6 years old-missing his first tooth, so cute!

Here's Corbin now. He has really grown up! Gone are the chubby cheeks and baby face of years past. I want to cry.

Happy Birthday little dude! Thanks for being such a great kid for the past 7 years! I hope you never change.

Here is a video made by Scott documenting Corbin's first two years. There will be more to come as they are completed til we catch up to present day.

To go directly to youtube, click here

or watch it below:

You gotta show 'em who's boss!

Scott's been coming home from work late pretty often the last few weeks. I needed to let him know that there are consequences for his actions!

Turns out that none of that is true....Our friends asked me to make a horse for their little boy's second birthday. We just thought it would be funny to reference a movie neither of us has ever even seen because I had this cute little horse head lying around. Yes, we're that dorky. Anyway, here's the completed horse. I hope Jonas likes him.

The other side

He's eating the grass!

Ivy's taking him for a test drive....just to make sure he's safe!

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Well maybe you haven't, but I have! This is my favorite part of the kids' birthdays. Scott's video highlight for your viewing pleasure!

click here Ivy's third birthday highlight video

Three years ago

Three years ago today I woke up super early in the morning, more nervous than I have ever been. We headed to the hospital from Marde's house in Sandy to have our baby girl. We didn't know really what we were in for. We just knew it wouldn't be easy. It hasn't been but we've made it this far. Ivy has been through four surgeries, at least 3 catheterizations and MRI's, countless echo's, and RSV and she is still going strong. We are so grateful for the miracle that greets us every morning with a smile on her face. She is a giant ray of sunshine in a sometimes bleak world, and a constant reminder of how blessed we are, and we will never forget it. We love this little girl more than word can say, and we are so happy to have her in our family.

Here's a look back at Ivy's previous birthdays.

Ivy on the day she was born. She was still so innocent-being surgery free!! She is our biggest baby at a whopping 6 lbs 14 oz, (although just 18 inches long)!

Here she is a year later. Happy and healthy and cute as a button! If memory serves me correctly I think she weighed just under 16 lbs on her first birthday. I don't know how tall she was. She's wearing 3-6 month old jammies in this picture!

Another year later, and you would never know she has heart problems. Last year on her birthday I think she weighed somewhere between 20 and 25 lbs, although I don't really remember. Once again I don't know how tall she was, most of her clothes at this time were 12-18 months.

And now-three years old she still brightens everyday! She now weighs 26 lbs. She finally made it to 2 year old clothes! She's such a cute, petite girl!

We love you Ivers! Happy 3rd Birthday!

Awesome Possum

I just finished my second etsy order this afternoon. Its a possum (or opossum, I don't know the difference). Its based on a pattern from someone else (don't worry, I had their permission to sell it). Anyway, it turned out very awesome (except that it freakin' creeps me out and gives me nightmares! I won't miss it).

So anyway, its been a year of doing amigurumi now. I thought I'd show a recap of all the things I made in the last year (Not counting hats, scarves or blankets because I've done at least one blanket and scarf, and nearly a dozen hats). Here goes:

1 - The Monkey

2 - Auntie Christine's Bat

3 - Wheezy the creepy penguin

4 - Bullseye (aka Zombie sock) not pictured because I do not want photographic evidence of such a monstrosity

5 - Stinky Pete

6 - Link

7 - Tinkerbell version 1

8 and 9 - Tinkerbell Version 2 (I made two of them)

10 - Cinderella

11 - Belle

12 - Rapunzel

13 - Ariel

14 - Pablo (the backyardigans)

15 - Wall-e

16 -The Medic

17 -Awesome (O)possum

I think I've improved a lot in the last year! Such a fun hobby!

Candy, Costumes, and Cuteness

October has been a busy month. I'm so far behind on reading blogs that I see no chance of catching up. So if I haven't commented, that's why. I promise to start reading them again, but for all the ones I missed, I'm afraid there's no turning back.

Anyway, yesterday was Halloween. It was kind of a stressful day for me. My to-do list included:

Get Corbin to School, Clean the house, Make a grocery list, Feed the kids lunch, Get Dex to school, Go grocery shopping, Carve the last pumpkin, Clean up the junk pile of Mail/school papers, Pick kids up from school, Make Chili and Cornbread, Greet our Guests and eat dinner, Trick or Treating/Pass out candy.

It didn't quite go as planned. I was able to mostly clean the house (but it took every second of spare time I had, and I was still working right up til our guests arrived), and I didn't de-junk the mail and school papers. I got a little stressed by the end, but everything worked out and we had a super fun Holiday (we also had a fun weekend leading up to Halloween, finishing costumes and carving pumpkins). Here are the pics.

The kids in their hats, it doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, I just thought it was cute.

Corbin cleaning the seeds and goo out of the pumpkin. He designed the face, and I carved it up.

Echo sat in that little chair super happy while I carved pumpkins. She was so adorable, I couldn't stop taking pictures. It took an incredible amount of self control for me not to post them all too!

The kids pose with two finished pumpkins.

More adorable Echo

Scott won the costume contest at work...He's a Rubik's Cube (in case you couldn't figure that out).

The kids ready for trick or treating (Echo pooped all over her costume, so she sat the pic out. We'll have to get more/better pics later) Ivy is Mickey, Corbin is Wall-e and Dex is Eve. Aren't they adorable!

The lit-up pumpkins. Scott was so busy with the costumes that I had to carve all of the pumpkins this year. Stupid pumpkins!