Going down!

Nathan learned a new skill yesterday, and since I happened to have the camera in hand today (working with Ryan on a school project to photograph a stuffed monkey in "interesting, unusual, or humorous poses"...perhaps worth a post?), I got it on camera today! Prior to this he was very good at going up, but would only go down if he had climbed up a couple and changed his mind. Now he knows how to get started!
Getting ready to kneel down...
Ready to turn around...
Fully in position (love the feet!)...
And GO!

I love how his pants are hiked up to his knees by a few steps down. :-)

Nathan is one!

Well, one of the most happy-sad things that ever happens to a woman has happened to me. My baby (as in last child, not just current youngest child) has turned one! He is no longer a baby, he is a toddler who toddles all over and makes many messes. He is super cute and sweet and really fun to have around. But gosh darn it, what happened to this guy?I need to start making friends with all the pregnant ladies at church so I can get my baby fix.

So, for the first time ever, I was quite successful at keeping the birthday experience from getting out of control. We did have a small party (which I will hopefully blog about soon), but I did a very good job of not overindulging the birthday child! He got some sand toys from us (more because we needed sand toys than anything), a present from each sibling, and a baby swing from Grandma & Grandpa Smith. It was nice!

Katy got Nathan some board books and a bouncy ball at the dollar store. He likes the books (he likes to look at those little board books that are just the right size for his little hands), but he LOVES the ball! He had tested it out before his birthday, so as soon as he got it in his hands he knew what it was!

This was the first time he really unwrapped presents (Christmas was 3 months ago, he couldn't really unwrap then and probably doesn't remember it anyway), so we had to teach him. He started off just taking tiny bits...
Then he got the hang of it a bit better.

There it is! I want that!

And he immediately tried to walk away to play with it! It took some convincing to get him to open any other presents!
David gave him a pretty neat ball that opens and has some different things inside. Okay, that's a horrible explanation. Just trust me, it's a fun toy!

Next it was cupcake time! Since I knew we were doing a party on Saturday, I didn't do anything all that special. Just vanilla cupcakes with blue buttercream frosting. Mmmm!

Now, Nathan has certainly had more sweets than many babies have by their first birthday. But he was still a little uncertain.

Testing the frosting...

Hey, this is pretty good!

Yum!

It wasn't all that much frosting so he didn't get good and messy like a baby is supposed to for their first birthday. Oh well, he didn't seem to mind!

Nathan is such a wonderful, sweet dispositioned little guy. He loves his brothers & sister so much, and is such a joy to have around! Happy Birthday, Nathan! We're glad you're in our family!

Taaaake oooon meeee!

Got Just Dance 3 with the free Redbox game deal going on. Probably not going to return it tomorrow. Too entertaining!

Oh, and Nathan walks now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcC-ptIbDbk

Look! It's a post!

I'm pretty sure I have adult ADHD. I've suspected as much since David was diagnosed 4 years ago, but never got around to going to a doctor or anything. I've taken an anti-depressant most of the time since having PPD when Ryan was born (these topics are connected, I promise). When I went to my doctor last December for a well check (the last one before stupid Aetna no longer accepts our beloved Dr. David as "in network"), we decided to try adding a new medication - Wellbutrin. Then over the course of the next few weeks I changed A LOT in my ability to be organized, clean the house, get around to things like doing Katy's hair, be on time (two weeks in a row to church!), etc. I didn't initially remember the medication, because there are a few other factors that have changed - I'm also taking Calcium Citrate to help with low vitamin D levels, and I've been eating healthier lately to try and lose that darn baby weight. I don't remember what made me think to look, but I checked the info on Wellbutrin. It's mainly prescribed for depression & smoking cessation, but also for a few others, including adult ADHD! So I'm now pretty confident that we have accidentally treated my undiagnosed adult ADHD, and that's why I'm finally able to be a decent homemaker! Hooray!

I'm doing a good job of not trying to do too much and burning out, so I've been making slow and steady progress in the overall organization of the house. The office has long been the most cluttered room in the house, and I finally started to tackle it yesterday. And I found the cord that connects the camera to the computer! It's been missing for months, and I hate using the card reader instead. So I uploaded pictures for the first time since September or October. I have quite a few I'd like to post (although I did go quite a bit of that time only using my cell camera and the "fancy" camera, which I have not uploaded yet), but for tonight we just have a few from today:


I had the boys take a picture right after church today, mostly to remind me of something that happened during Sacrament meeting. In our ward we sing Called to Serve as the closing song whenever someone leaves on a mission, so we were doing that today. I had a really nice moment while we were standing there singing. Ryan was directly to my right, and David was to the right of him (Nathan was actually behind Ryan, being held by a young woman). I was looking at them singing, thinking about how they're future missionaries. Then I looked to my left at Katy, who was standing on the pew with her arm around me. I was feeling so happy with them all.

Then I looked back to the right, and Ryan was swinging his scriptures at David. Of course. Well, it was nice while it lasted!


And, because we should include the other two offspring in case I don't get around to blogging again soon:

Testing the Blogger app!

I just found out that blogger has a smartphone app! I've spent so much less time on the computer lately (and that's not going to get better any time soon, Nathan pulled to standing today!), being able to blog from my phone should make it a lot more likely to happen! It looks like I can load plenty of pictures, but they all go at the end without writing in between. That's sad, but better than nothing!

So here is a set of three pictures I took while making dinner this evening. Nathan had just taken a short nap and needed cuddles, so I plopped him on the couch with the other three who were watching Pink Panther (and luckily David cuddles were enough so I could go make dinner!). I love the progression of Nathan not seeing me, looking over, and grinning at me. He sure is a sweet guy. :-)

Okay, I've tried three times and it keeps posting the pictures out of order. Which doesn't show the cute progression. That's disappointing...

Happy Halloween!

As with all things in my life (especially cleaning), blogging comes in fits and starts. So it's been two months since I blogged last. Oops. So here is the obligatory Halloween costume picture (only a week and a half late!). Hopefully I find the time, energy, and motivation to blog again before two months pass this time!

Every year since Ryan was born we've had coordinating costumes (with the kind of exception of the year the boys were knights and Katy ended up being a strawberry fairy by day and pink bunny by night...she was supposed to be a princess to coordinate. I say "kind of" exception, because it could be argued that the strawberry fairy fits the theme of Fantasy with the knights...and at least the boys matched if that's too much of a stretch).

Pooh & Tigger

Dash & Jack Jack

Buzz & Woody

Tinkerbell, Captain Hook, & Peter Pan

Princess Leia, Darth Vader, & Luke Skywalker

Princess Peach, Mario, & Luigi

It's been fun, but it's getting harder! Not so much because of the extra person, but because the kids are getting old enough to have strong opinions about what they want to be. Oh, and I'm not forcing them to coordinate, they really want to. We have a few ideas left that will probably work (expect "super heroes" at some point). This year we ended up settling on the theme "Classic Halloween" - we have a jack-o-lantern, a witch, a skeleton, and a spider!

You can tell this is my fourth baby. I found his costume for $2.50 at Once Upon a Child. The head part was way too big and kept falling over his face (despite me having safety pinned part together to make it smaller). As long as I kept adjusting it he didn't mind it, though, and was pretty darn cute!
Smile?

Getting there...

Big smiles!


Dan took the pictures (at my command), so I'm only guessing that she's sampling our candy here. Seems a pretty good bet though! Katy is a pretty witch (easier on the girly girl & her mom than a scary witch). I made her costume (sorry boys, I swear I love you all too!), and it took two very late nights. And I indulged in putting make up on my little girl. Look at those lashes!!! It's a good thing she has so many brothers to watch out for her!

She's a little happy, don'tcha think?

David borrowed this super cool spider costume from my mom. Aunt Hannah wore it when she was his age! He really liked how the costume arms moved when his did.

Ah, Ryan, the hardest one to get to decide. He finally settled on skeleton thanks to his love of Minecraft (a computer game). It glows in the dark! And guess what - so does his face! It was pretty cool looking!

Here we all are, ready to go out! We got a decent haul - everybody still has plenty of candy (especially David). It was fun!

School!

It's that time o' year again. Time to buy a bunch of name brand school supplies because that's what the list says to get, even though I rarely buy name brand anything. Time to buy the boys nice new clothes and hope they like them better than some of the ugly things they've been wearing lately. Time to start getting up early every day in exchange for many hours with only 2 children. Oh yeah, and maybe time for the boys to learn a thing or two! Maybe. David starts full time Excel this year, so chances are better than they were last year that he'll actually learn something!

Here's the big 3rd grader! I can't believe how grown up he's getting. He has really matured a lot the last few months. Who woulda thought David would ever be the easy one?

There was some ball dropping in the transportation department this year. Rather than contacting us prior to the first day of classes as it stated in bold in the letter, they didn't contact at all. So I called at 6:45ish the morning of, and was told a 7:09 pickup down the road a little ways. So David & I went out at 7:04 and waited. And waited. After a little while I went back to check up the baby, and he was awake so he got to come out and wait some more. Finally after about a half hour we walked back home, I woke up Katy & Ryan (never something I like to do!), and drove David to school, ending up leaving at 7:47, 2 minutes after his class started. I've only been to his new school once, so that was a little adventure in and of itself (my phone sent me into a neighborhood and told me my destination was on my right. Um, no). I walked David in (hadn't brushed my hair or teeth...), and his teacher was really happy and nice about everything. When he was dropped off he brought me a note that said "Pickup between 6:58 and 7:00." So, either she had come but 10 minutes earlier than the time I'd been given, or she hadn't come and was just planning that for the next day. Either way, this morning she picked David up in front of our house at 6:59. Phew!

And here's 2nd grader Ryan! Interestingly, they both wore those matching fleeces for their first day, when it was just a quick random purchase at Old Navy last weekend (on sale, of course!). I didn't think they'd need such warm clothes for August 31st. Silly me.

Well, today was the second day of school, and as far as I know things are going well! Cross your fingers & toes that they keep going that way!