Pinewood Derby

Dante participated in his first Pinewood Derby in January. We both learned a lot about designing and building Pinewood Derby cars. It was kind of stressful for both of us but he had one of the faster cars in the pack.

Mechanical Keyboard Fun

I purchased a mechanical keyboard for home and work and I've been having fun with them. I prefer the feel of the mechanical switches over the typical rubber dome contacts that are included in most cheapo keyboards that most people use. Recently I also purchased a "grab bag" of keycaps that fit on the switches that my keyboards use so I could customize the look of my keyboards. Here are some pictures of them.











Here's my keyboard at home. I didn't swap out all the keys because they are backlit and I wanted to be able to see them in the dark.


Here's my keyboard at work.

Tae Kwon Do

Dante has been taking Tae Kwon Do this year and Ella did it with him for the first month. Dante is currently a gold belt and will move up to the next belt this month.

Here are some pictures of Dante and Ella getting their first stripes when they were white belts.






And here are some pictures from Dante's gold belt test.

Easter egg hunt

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. Our schedule has been crazy as we prepare for the move to our new house.

I took some pictures of Juliet during the Easter egg hunt in our city. I hope you like them.

January 2013 Solo Ensemble

January 2013 Solo Ensemble

Valerie performed in a solo ensemble this week and I was able to capture it on my phone. I think she did a great job. She has really come a long way in just a couple of years.

11

Here are a few pictures from the last few months. The kids started school, so we took pictures.

Juliet is 11 months old now. She is trying her best to walk, but only will take one or two steps before she sits down again. She has great balance and will stand up without holding on to anything. She also is a climber and can get on the couches and chairs and climbs from one couch to the other. It is a little bit nerve wracking when she tries to go over large spaces between them. She likes to jump on the couches and chairs too, so we watch her very carefully. She can go up and down stairs now too. She really is a joy to have around. Most of the time she is so happy and joyful. She love love loves her siblings and daddy and can't wait for them to get home from school and work. She imitates sounds she hears, like daddy snoring, water being poured into the tub, other ones I can't think of now. John and I don't remember any of the other kids doing this. She isn't as coherently verbal as the other kids when they were her age, but she does say dada, mama, something like hi, I think she has a name for Echo that sounds like go, and probably some others as well. She babbles all the time. She will also sing with me (I wonder if it is related to the imitating?). She has started to "read" books now instead of just eating them. We had some blood work done on her to figure out allergies, and she is supposedly ok with milk, but we found out she has problems with wheat. I read that babies can outgrow wheat allergy, but I'm not sure how long we will have to keep it away from her. So for now, no wheat. She does not like pickles. We tried to give her one to chew on tonight, and she kept pushing it away, or throwing it down, I don't think she ever even put it in her mouth. She loves to munch on celery though. She still only has her bottom two teeth, the top two are trying to cut, but they are being so stubborn. I can't believe a year has almost gone by, it has been hard and worthwhile.

Juliet climbed in the bucket herself and was so proud. She couldn't get out by herself though.

This one is from when we visited new baby Mitchell last month.

We went to the Tracy Aviary in October and had fun. Here are some of my birds.

Happy Anniversary!

Wow, we are celebrating our 18th anniversary! It has been great getting to spend these years with John and our kids. Love you! It's also Juliet's eight month anniversary too! She has been progressing so fast lately. It seems like in just the last few months she has gone from barely being able to sit up without falling over to now almost a full crawl. She can get back up to sitting when on her stomach, doesn't mind being on her tummy for long periods, can pull herself up to standing pretty much on her own. She is still really unstable balance- wise though. She says mamama like a pro and is adding more sounds like dada and baba. Dante can make her laugh the best, she likes it when he startles her by popping up out of nowhere and making silly noises, but she loves everyone and will sometimes cry when one of the girls leaves the room. She is a terrible sleeper, but the last 3 nights she has slept in her own bed for 4 1/2, 5 1/2, and 7 hours! I'm hoping she keeps it up. She still only naps in my arms and always wakes right up if I try to lay her down in the day. She has been known to sleep in the car and will sometimes transfer to the stroller and stay asleep. She also can scream in the car for 20 minutes before she crashes if it is too late and she wants mom. She has her two bottom teeth and is probably teething again, I'm trying to get her to stop biting me when she is done eating (OUCH). She loves the cat and tries to grab her, so we need to be really careful around her. She is super fast grabbing stuff, when I have held up beans or sweet potato fries for her to eat, she rips them out if my hands so fast and right into her mouth. She is really starting to love playing in water when bathing or swimming, it took her a long time to get there. She loves splashing now and has fun. She is most likely going to miss the kids when they start school next week (me too). We have had a pretty fun laid back summer this year. It has now gone by too fast.

Scarlett and Juliet are buddies!

Pictures in February

Juliet turned 2 months on the 13th. Here are some pics from this month. The first 2 are from the 13th.

January 2012

We had a good month in January. Juliet came home from the hospital on the 1st and everyone was really excited about that. The kids got to see and hold Juliet for the first time.



My mom came to help us for a few weeks, and I am so glad she was able to come. This photo is from the 5th. Liz also came for a few days, so we spent those days playing with friends and staying up too late. It was a lot of fun and I'm happy she could be here too.




We blessed Juliet at home on the 10th of January. John's parents, my mom, and the Bishop were there for it.





Juliet having tummy time on the 20th.




Sleeping on the 25th.



Of course we also had 3 birthdays this month, but we haven't been going out much, so they were all low key.