Jensen- 9 Months Old and a Family Update

Why don't we make today a family affair alright?  It has been awhile since we have done an update, especially on Addie girl.  So I thought we would just include everyone.

Lets start with the youngest:

Jensen is 9 months.  This month we started seeing a small sign that toddlerhood is in the near future.  Not too close since he is not really anywhere close to walking but still close.  Adalyn was taking her first steps at this point, but I am happy to announce that Jensen is not.  Walking is a whole new ball game that I can be patient for. :)

He is eating us out of house and home.  He ALWAYS wants to eat, unless I try and nurse him then he is not interested anymore.  Ok that is a little dramatic, but he has scaled back to only eating every 4-5 hours and mostly only when he is tired or in the middle of the night.

He naps GREAT and goes to sleep wonderfully since we started our new schedule.  No more 11 pm parties at this house.  YAY!  BUT still wakes up 2-3 times a night to eat.  Hopefully it is just a growth spurt....

Loves to smile at the camera.  So we have a lot of pictures like this... So cute



Drools and runny nose are signs that he cut his first tooth.  A week later he cut one more.  And now I have officially decided that the teething necklace that he wears DOES actually help.  We weren't really sure at first because he wasn't cutting teeth and then he was always wearing it so we didn't know if that was how he normally acted or if it was because of the necklace.  So we took it for a few tests by having him wear it and then not.  Overall he is not a mild teether, he definitely lets you know what is going on, but he is not quite as fussy when it is on.  The necklace takes the edge off of the pain enough that we don't feel like we are constantly wanting to give him Tylenol.  So we consider it a success so far.

Baby led weaning is going better and better each day.  Last month I mentioned that he was starting to prefer baby food, but this month he would not eat it for more than a couple bites.  Such a drastic change, but we are happy that we don't have to buy too much baby food.  He does still love the squeezable ones so we get a few of those still.  He loves that he gets to feed himself and even though it makes a huge mess we love it too.

 Hates having his diaper changed.  Huge wrestling match when ever we have to change it.  Sometimes it takes two of us to hold him down.

Loves being held.  For awhile it has been, dare I say slightly obnoxious to hold Jensen.  He was just SO wiggly.  We would even have to warn people when they would ask to hold him because he would not stop moving and they would end up just giving him back pretty quickly.  Well this month he slowed down a little and now enjoys being held and as long as you are standing he is great to hold still.  I love being able to snuggle him more and enjoy hugs and loves from him.

Adalyn:

Two is fun.  So happy I can say that!  Thus far with Adalyn 15-20ush months was the hardest stage with her.  She was mobile, and fast, but totally didn't understand what was right or wrong.  Those months were exhausting to keep her out of trouble.  But now she is getting it!  She is starting to talk back and no is her favorite word, but you can talk to her and she understands.  Also she can tell you what she wants/needs.  Communication is a wonderful thing.  :)

She is learning SO many words daily now.  Here she is trying to say the apostles names... This was a few weeks ago she is even better now. 

She is getting better with eating, as in she isn't quite as picky.  It is still hit and miss on what she will eat, but we have stopped sweating it if she chooses to skip a meal.  The girl will eat ANYTHING if she is hungry enough so we just wait and keep offering her the same meal, until finally she gives in and eats it.  Even some veggies have made their appearance in her diet.  Slowly...

Puzzles are her newest love and she is getting good at the simple ones.

Books are fun too she likes to pretend to read them on her own.  She always asks us to read her books and then at the end she declares "Addie's Turn!" and then she proceeds to read it to us.

Babies.  They go everywhere with her.  She is the best little mommy. 

Fun age!



  McKay:

He is the Elders Quorum 1st counselor.  Loves the guys that he works with and I do have to say so myself that they make a great team.  He still misses the scout activities, but I am sure come next summer he will be invited to a few of their activities.

Recently with Jensen not sleeping well he has been getting up with the kids on the weekends and letting me sleep sometimes.  Very sweet.

He also has been baking a ton.  Scones, tortillas, bread.  He is also good at substituting ingredients if we are out of something.  Sometimes it works out ;)
 

Super busy at work!  Usually he has every other Friday off, but he stopped taking his Friday off for a while.  I told him this does NOT get to last forever, just for a few months.  We will see...

Unfortunately because McKay works for the government we are facing the very real possibility of him being furloughed until the government re opens.  For now they are paying them off of savings, but if things don't turn around in a week (ish) he will be furloughed.  Not a fun thought right now even though having him home for a week would be REALLY nice and fun.  But the bad part is that it could last a lot longer than a week and then things just get tough financially.  But I know McKay is a excellent provider and will do what needs to be done until he can go back to his real job.

We love our daddy!


Me-

You hear about me all the time.  Not much to tell.

Finally getting serious with piano practicing and lessons, since Jensen was born.  Only took me 9 months.

Rereading The Work and the Glory Series, or at least the first book.

Enjoying Adalyn's loving attention.  And McKay's... and Jensen's   :)

Getting excited to be done nursing... is that bad?

Well that concludes this humongous blog post!  Life is good.  Pretty slow, but good.  We are trying our best each day.  Making LOTS of mistakes and learning some lessons (even the ones we didn't want to learn) the hard way, but growing from it all.  Our kids are happy and bring us so much joy.

Painted Kids Table

Wow DIY projects have taken over my blog!  Promise I am not trying to turn this into a do it yourself blog, this is just what we have been doing these days.

I am always on the look out for my next house project and sometimes when I am at the store I will pick up a can of spray paint or a new picture frame if I see that it is on a good deal.  But, then my projects just sit at my house waiting till we have a spare Saturday or evening to get things done.  This past Saturday I FINALLY painted Adalyn's little play table.  Only after McKay pushed me out the door to do it!

We bought this little table at a garage sale when Adalyn was Jensen's age (so it has been awhile).  My original plan was to paint it to match our dining room table and then it would serve as a fun place for the kids to eat their lunch.  Well after months of it being in the dining room I realized that it made the room feel cramped and crowded.  Especially because we already had 2 high chairs (took one of those out too) in there so I decided it needed to just be put in Adalyn's room along side her play kitchen.  I am very happy with this arrangement now! 

I decided to paint it a soft yellow so that it wasn't the main focal point in the room.  I also decided to try my hand at the trendy "dipped" leg look on furniture.  While I feel like I might have "dipped" a little too much for such a small table, I really like the subtle interest that it brings. 

 

This is the second kids table that I have painted and I hope this one's paint holds up longer than the first one.  We even sealed the top of the table and chairs so that hopefully the paint wont chip with all on the rough housing  playing that is going to occur on it.  Then again this table will only have 2-3 kids playing with it, not 20+. 

 

Have a great day!

 

   

Jensen's Gallery Wall

Ok that is the lamest title, but I didn't know what to call it.  McKay recently finished hanging some pictures in Jensen's room.  I love how his room has turned/is turning out.  It is nothing like what I had planned, but I still love it.  The new plan that we are doing is more budget friendly than the original idea so McKay likes it too. 

When I was trying to come up with what to put on his wall I went through lots of ideas.  The idea stage is one of my favorite parts so I had lots of different options going through my brain.  But then in the end I realized we had tons of silver frames left over from Adalyn's old room so I decided it would be best to use them.  Here is the final product...

I printed all of the pictures in black and white.  I seem to be doing that a lot these days because I feel like when they are in color then they all need to "match" and that sounded way too stressful to find that many pictures that all had similar color schemes.

 

As you can see we hung them along an invisible horizontal line.  I think it turned out pretty cool and is a little different than the normal frame collage. 

 

Someday I might add a few more frames as I collect them (or make another trip to Ikea) but for now I am loving the less is more idea.  Here is one last close up

 

I think this will be my last Gallery wall (is that what they are called?) for a while.  Up next... Painting!

 

 

Labor Day and Other Ramblings

I am writing this post while Jensen is crying in his crib.  He has been up for a while and the only way to get him to go to sleep is leaving him alone.  Teething babies are hard.  Adalyn was a mild teether, and Jensen...well these are his first teeth so we will see.  I think it is therapeutic for me to write, so here I am.

I really want to tell you all about my sister's lovely wedding on August 31st, but we will save that for another day.  hmmm.... lets see what does that leave us with to talk about?  not much because the wedding has been a big focus in our lives for awhile.  We loved getting to go to Utah a lot in August.  Months like that are fun and full of memories.  But now we are back home for a while and it is good too.

Last night we went to the park and ate dinner.  While there we convinced Adalyn to go down the really big slide, and she did it as long as one of us was near her the entire time.  Her daredevil side is about as big as mine...non existent.  Jensen just liked being outside and being held.  It is amazing how babies can go from screaming their heads off to completely fine in a matter of seconds when you pick them up.  I didn't know that I had super powers, but I guess they come with the whole mom thing.

McKay is in the middle of hanging some pictures in Jensen's room.  I am so grateful that he is willing to do stuff like hang pictures for me.  He does it so much that I now believe I am not capable of doing it.  As in I have not hung one picture in our house....  I am sure it is not that hard, I just love having him do it.

Our grass... Oh how I hate planting a yard.  Listen to me, don't ever do it!  You didn't know we planted grass?  That is because it drives me so crazy that I can't even talk about it.  Weeds, dirt, and rocks everywhere!  Maybe I will show you our back yard next year when it has grown in more.  Although I do have to say last weekend we worked a ton in our yard.  We pulled lots of weeds, and now if you look at the back yard from a certain angle you can almost see what it will look like in the end.  Yay for progress!  Ok that is pretty much all the yard talk that I can handle.  moving on...

Adalyn is the cutest thing these days.  Pretty much all day she is awesome and is so clever.  I am really enjoying having her around.

McKay got released from scouts/ young mens a couple weeks ago.  I think he was going to cry he was so sad.  I was secretly happy because now he can watch the kids while I go to piano lessons.  selfish I know.  But don't worry they didn't let him rest too long he is now in the Elders Quorum presidency.  He is still trying to be excited about it.  jk it will be a good calling and he will probably start doing his home teaching more.

Besides the wedding we had an eventful labor day weekend.  It started off on Friday before the wedding.  We drove from Idaho Falls to Provo with a few stops in between.  We are sort of, kind of looking for a 2nd car and so we checked some out on our way down.  Once in Provo we visited McKay's mom then picked up Mykelti from school a.k.a. BYU.

Then on Sunday after the wedding the morning started off on a scary/sad note.  My parents church was canceled because the neighborhood was on lock down.  There was a shooting around 6 am Sunday morning a couple blocks from my parents house.  A police officer was killed.  He was young and a very dedicated officer.  I feel terrible for his sweet wife and son.  Two other people were injured and they first thought that a 4th person was involved so they locked the neighborhood down.  Later they realized that the three people injured were the only ones involved.  In the end the story came out that a man and a woman got in a car accident, the officer came up to the suspicious scene to check it out and the man shot the police officer.  The police officer tried to drive away while the man continued to shoot at him and then the officer crashed a block or so away.  Then the man shot his girl friend in the back and then shot himself.  Both the man and the woman were still alive last I heard.  It is just a terrible reminder what drugs and alcohol can do to a person.  Sad sad day.

Monday we played at the park and tried to find a tennis court that was open to play on, but none of them were available.

Monday afternoon we made a trip to Great Grandma and Grandpa Pace's in Wanship.  We happened to be there at the same time and McKay's uncle Eric and his family.  Funny that we have to go to Utah to see them since they live 5 minutes away from us.  Eric cooked some yummy dutch oven and it was a nice visit.  Adalyn hoped right up and sat next to Grandpa Pace on the swing and I had to grab a picture of the cute moment.  After the picture she started pushing grandpa, because I guess he wasn't going fast enough.  :)

All of us at dinner

Eric being funny...

 

So we had to take another one and Claire had to hold his hand down :)

After this picture we started our long trek home. 

Well Jensen finally went to sleep and Adalyn is sitting on my lap begging to go see Grandma and grandpa so that she can play with their baby dolls. :) so there you have it folks, get baby dolls if you want Adalyn to come because the girl is obsessed! Here she is in her post wedding coma surrounded by her favorite things...

 Happy Tuesday Everyone!