Nathan started waving and saying "hi!" a whole bunch yesterday. I love it! I'll try to get a better video (maybe one where he isn't playing with my sports bra...), but I wanted to make sure I got one before he stops doing it, like happens so often with cute little things they do!
I loaded these pictures a few days ago, knowing I'd have more time to do the typing during Spring Break. Right now Katy is playing outside, David & Ryan are playing Monopoly, and Nathan is eating a cookie in his high chair. Life at Grandma & Grandpa's house is good!
So, birthday parties are a constant source of disagreement in the Morrill household. Pretty much I always want to have them, Dan always thinks they shouldn't. Sorry, Honey, I'm not ready to back down. Probably as the kids get older, but for now it's so fun!
I had seen some Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party stuff around Pinterest, and since we love that book I thought it would be fun for Nathan's first birthday party! Since first birthday parties are more for everybody else than the birthday child I decided to invite 3 families that have little ones. It was fun to have the entire families involved! I made invitations using this idea:
I made the leaves a bit bigger and glued the caterpillar on them instead of putting them in jars. They were really cute! I wish I'd taken a picture.
I printed out some VHC coloring pages, and they were a big hit! I thought about doing more involved crafts, but didn't get around to doing the prep work. It was easier without them anyway, and the kids loved just playing.
Here's the guest of honor! Yes, he has a whole apple. He takes them out of the fridge if he can get over there fast enough when someone else has it open. I've been buying baby apples so he doesn't waste so much, but clearly he didn't get one that time.
Who knew a paper plate could be so fun!
Here's our low class VHC cake. If I was a better person I would have displayed it on something prettier than 2 upside down cookie sheets, made the frosting before people got there (thanks for taking over on that Danny love!), split the frosting better so we had enough green, taken more time decorating so the cupcakes looked prettier, and done a better job on the face. Oh well, they sure tasted delicious!
I tried to tell people that Nathan really, really didn't need anything. It didn't work. But they did do a good job of not just adding to the clutter! The Slaters gave him these super cute short overalls. I can't wait for it to be shorts weather so he can wear them!
The Hamsleys gave Nathan this adorable duckling. It quacks and sings the abcs, and is remarkably non-annoying! I love seeing him hug it and carry it around. :-)
After everyone left I finally thought to take pictures of the food. I was really happy with how it turned out! I downloaded some clip art and made these cute signs. On Monday he ate through 1 apple, and so forth. It was nice to not have to think about what to serve, and everyone ate a lot of healthy stuff in addition to the usual cake & candy!
These are not jelly beans, gummy worms, and gummy butterflies, they are eggs, caterpillars, and butterflies. On the far right are some watermelon taffies for the slide of watermelon the VHC ate on Saturday. On the far left of the other picture is some cheese for Saturday, although we did cheddar instead of swiss. We had chocolate cupcakes, so that took care of both chocolate cake and cupcakes, and the kids got lollipops in their goodie bags. That was enough of the Saturday stuff, it did give the caterpillar a stomach ache, after all! Katy insisted on having "nice green leaves," so that's what is in the upper right of the picture. My kids actually like spinach pretty well, but with all the other yummy stuff the leaves didn't get eaten. :-P
Here's my attempt at nice picture of a leftover cupcake. Yum! I got a bigger tip to pipe the frosting on. I'm excited to make cupcakes again sometime without the rush of "all the kids are anxious for cake, hurry, hurry!" so I can make them look prettier.
Remember how I said I should've divided the frosting better? I ran out of green, but we had quite a bit of red left. This is what happens when you add red to the bag that already has green. Pretty cool!
Here's Nathan's other present - some cute Cars jammies! He actually really needed some, so it was a great gift! I tried for a while to get a good picture of him in them. I got lots of blurry ones while he walked around. He finally sat down, but of course wouldn't smile before he was up and about again.
I also got a couple like this. Sigh. Getting a good picture of this 1 year old is hard. He sure is busy!
I was really pleased with how the day turned out. The food was good, the cake was yummy, the kids all had fun, and the husbands even seemed to have a good time! :-) Oh yeah, and I had fun, too! I'd say it was a success.
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!
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!
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.
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!
Hey, this is pretty good!
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:
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).
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!Nathan is a lucky little guy. He's the only one of my children to have a Smith cousin close in age. It's really fun to have the two babies at the same time! Of course, the size difference being much less than the age difference makes Nathan look a little dumb, but that will pass in a few months.
See, Sidney can sit up all by herself. Nathan needs a bumbo. What did I tell you? It looks like he should be able to do everything she can!
This progression of pictures cracks me up. Here they are sitting nicely next to each other. Now watch what happens next:
Sidney has scooted around kind of in front of Nathan...
"I like your face, it's really soft"
"Can I use this thing too?"
"Mama, save me! This girl is in my space!"One of our favorite things about Grandma & Grandpa's house is the hot tub. This holds true for every single member of our family (with the possible exception of Nathan. He doesn't really seem to care, which is surprising when you consider the utter joy he shows about being in the bathtub!) Not being able to go in it while I was pregnant was really, really sad. Sure glad I never have to go through that again!
Katy likes Sidney. 1. She is a baby. 2. She is a girl. What more could you want?
Chubby babies! I just want to squish them!
Nathan was born 6 days before Sidney turned 5 months old. In this picture Nathan is 1 day shy of 5 months, so just barely over HALF Sidney's age! Wouldn't guess it from looking at them!
Most of the Morrills! Including Molly. Stop dropping dog toys/rocks/sticks in the hot tub, ya dumb dog! We aren't out here to play with you!
Posts
All Comments
