Diagnosis for Ethan...

At Ethan's 4 month check up I had the doctor check out his forehead and scalp.  He's got really rough skin there and is always scratching himself.  The twins have pretty bad eczema, so I was afraid Ethan was showing signs of it.  The doctor took a look and this is what he said...

"I'm not sure about eczema yet, but I can diagnose him with Glitter!   

Apparently all the glitter I've been using for table centers for our ward Christmas party is taking over our home...  Tom's coworkers are getting in the habit of checking his jacket for glitter every morning. (Did I mention I married a very patient man?)  And now it's an official diagnosis for Ethan.  Glitter.  Welcome to the family First Son After 4 Daughters (He really doesn't stand a chance. Poor guy...).

These pictures are a little old, but they're really cute and I wanted them in the blog book...

A little Rogaine overdose

 This is his love face that he makes at his sisters

 This is the face he makes at me when I'm making breakfast

And his four month stats are - 16 pounds 11 oz (75%) and 27.5 inches (Off the charts for length).  He doesn't roll yet, but he can sit up by himself for a minute and he can jump in his jumper so the dr. isn't worried about him.  He seems very, very strong and certainly has a personality.  ;)  So far (and hopefully never) we are seeing none of the signs of mitochondrial disease that Sam had.  We feel amazingly blessed and have faith that our Heavenly Father knows and loves our family.

Another of my finer moments...

Monday was Brooke's birthday (more on that later...) and I had a CRAZY busy day.  I got the kids off to school and ran to JoAnn Fabric for the fabric I needed to finish Brooke's blanket.  Then I had juuuust enough time to run to Winco before my visiting teachers came.  Then I had to finish the cake pops for Brooke's class, run to McDonalds to take to her for lunch, then finish her blanket before she got home at three... Whew.  And I still had her birthday dinner to make.  (But she's worth it...)

So anyhoo.  I'm rushing through Winco and get in the checkout line only to start laughing when one of my visiting teachers got in line behind me.  We're laughing and chatting as I check out and rush to my car.  At my car, as I'm opening the back, my phone rang.  "That's weird.  It's Elizabeth.  I was just talking to her...  I must have forgotten something on the conveyor belt..."  Then I turn to load my groceries.  And see an empty cart.  I didn't just leave an item on the conveyor belt.  I left EVERYTHING.  I hadn't bagged a single thing.  Awesome.  I guess a few workers had commented on it while I was gone, so I got to walk back in to a lot of laughing people.  Myself included.  "If only I had a brain..."

And these pictures show pretty well why I don't post more of myself... I only have ones me being silly for the girls...

That moment...

You know.  The one where you are walking toward Little Caesar's Pizza and there is a crowd of teenagers right there.  The one where you don't notice that the side-view mirrors on a giant monster truck are just at the level of your forehead.  That moment when you walk right into the mirror full speed.  And hit it hard enough to knock yourself flat on your bum.  And see stars for awhile... Not embarrassing at all...  

 "What?  Is this a wall in front of me?  Why don't I walk into that too..."

Quote of the Day...

I was getting after the girls for something they'd left out and wanted to know who hadn't put their stuff away...  The twins were denying, Brooke was blaming and Sam had this conversation with herself in the background...

"Those girls are wasting time.  I'd just blame Ethan..."

Loudest mimes on earth...

I love Halloween season.  The girls and I start planning our costumes months in advance.  Brooke gets credit for the mime idea...  

Tom, Ethan and I at our Halloween party

The whole crew.  This is my favorite party I throw all year.  And the costumes just keep getting better...

 This is the next night at our ward Halloween carnival. Which I was in charge of.  Never again will I try to throw two huge parties back to back... With a three month old baby...

Erin, Sam and Alix.  We watched mime videos on YouTube for months and they were really funny to watch. 

 Brooke had basketball practice and came late, so she only got the black of her makeup done...

 The Monday before Halloween we finally carved pumpkins.  Do I have a picture of the done pumpkins?  Of course not. That would only make sense... Alix did a unicorn, Erin a "Franken Frog", Brooke a basketball, Sam a face she drew herself and I did a crazy face for ET (That's one of Ethan's nicknames from his sisters...).

 Supervisor for the evening...

 And on actual Halloween?  He was stuck moving around from one spot to another because we were all too busy getting costumes done to hold him... Sorry E Man... (Another nickname...)

 Alix 

 Brooke and Alix

 Erin - I sort of had to force convince her to be a mime with the family for the party, so I let her choose her Halloween night costume.  She went with vampire again.  Her favorite.

 Sam chose Butterfly Fairy fun for Halloween night...

 We have so much fun together.  I'm glad my gals like to get in the spirit of things with me...

 And Ethan was a bee.  Thanks Aunt Karen!  But do I have a picture?  Nope.  Cuz that would also make sense...  He really did take a back seat to the girls on Halloween. I guess that's fair, he's usually the one running things around here...

Quote of the Day...

Sam found a dime on the ground and asked if she could have all my coins to add to her "collection."  I gave her the change from the ash tray in the Suburban...

me - "Be careful and don't lose all that money..."

Sam - "It's not money, mom."

me- "Um. Yeah it is..."

Sam - "Mom!  Everyone knows cents aren't real money!!"

Guess who....

   Is sleeping through the night...  

(I waited a couple of weeks to post this so I wouldn't jinx myself...)

Ethan goes down around 9-9:30 and sleeps until 6:15ish.  It's amazing how good of friends we are now...

Here is Ethan helping Sam clean her room... He's working about as hard as Sam did...

  

 Sam, Ethan and Alix just hanging out...

 And here's the handsome guy awake... And his hair really isn't orange. It's just this picture, but it does have a little bit of red in it...

Monkeying around...

First of all, please pretend my house is clean... That's what I do...  I just pretend I can't see the trail the girls leave as they come in the door from the bus...  Is it really that hard to just put your jacket away AS you take it off?

We have these columns in our front room.  They are much more than just decorative... The twins have been climbing them for years.  Sam has been practicing and practicing and can now get all the way to the ceiling.

Funny story about the column... Brooke and her friend Adrienne really wanted to climb it like Erin and Alix.  But they weigh a significant amount more and couldn't do it.  So they pulled the piano bench over and were launching themselves off the bench at the pillar.  They knocked it out of the ceiling.  It was just free floating for a while until my dad and Tom moved them in to the lower ceiling and really anchored them in there.  That's one way to get a project done...

And it's funny to have the girls show their friends that come over and hear them say, "Well, first you have to lick your feet..."

FAIR-ly fun times...

We made our annual pilgrimage to the Puyallup Fair.  I'm not a super fan (in my opinion, you might as well just light your $$ on fire...), but we really had a great time.  Grandma, Grandpa, Wes, Camille and all her kids joined us this year.  I took surprisingly few pictures for the 12 HOURS we were there, but here are some of them....

The gals on the tilt-o-whirl

 Once it got going, Sam wasn't totally sure she loved it...  But by the end she wanted to ride again

 Brooke and Alix loved the roller coaster

 This isn't a great picture, but I wanted to include it because Erin was really scared, but tried the roller coaster anyway.  She did cry her way through it, but I'm glad she was willing to "make sure" she still doesn't like roller coasters....

 The super swings... This is (weirdly enough) what scared Brooke

 The Tornado - You're spinning in three directions as fast as you can...  It was fun to ride with the girls and all three of the older girls loved the spinny rides.  And I love any ride at all...

 Brooke and I out for a hang gliding ride...

 All five kids checking out the mini-horses

 Petting zoo - Erin really loved this and we had to drag her away

 It's funny to me how many looks we get when we go out as a whole family.  Out here, there aren't too many families with five kids...   

Another great year at the fair!

Little Mama

Sam and I have Ethan to ourselves in the afternoon after she gets home from kindergarten. She loves the time that she gets as his only Little Mama...

 He's getting big - it's a little harder for her to carry him.  But look how great she is at supporting his head...

 We have a deal - she feeds him lunch while I make her lunch.  Everyone wins...

I can't believe my "baby" is now taking care of my baby.  It's pretty great.

Kale Me Crazy....

I tried making our morning green smoothie with kale the other day....

I don't think the girls liked it.....

Say "Yes" To The Dress

Chain of events...

Watching "Say Yes To The Dress" with Brooke and her friend while feeding Ethan...

Which led to... me mentioning I still have my wedding dress...

Which led to... me finding said wedding dress...

Which led to... trying on the wedding dress by all the girls...

Brooke...

 Erin...

 and Alix... (and all the friends that were over at the time...)

 Finding the wedding dress led to finding some old prom dresses...

Which led to... trying them on...

 Which led to... much rotation of dresses...

It just wouldn't be fair if everyone couldn't try on every. single. dress...

 Which led to... mock proposals...

 Which led to... dead brides...

 Which led to... weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth...

Silly girls.