Joseph Stephen - Six Months Old

Joseph,

This month has been a month of firsts. Unfortunately, they have not been very good firsts! To begin, you had your first night away from Mommy this month. I think it was more difficult for me though because you seemed to adjust beautifully. This month, William had to stay the night in the hospital with croup, so I stayed with him. While we were at the hospital, you stayed with Mema. You seemed to really enjoy your time with Mema because the two of you just cuddled all day and night while William was in the hospital.

A few days after William came home from the hospital, you developed your first cold. Fortunately, your cold did not develop into croup like it did with William. You did have a runny nose, congestion, and a pretty bad cough. It is so pitiful when you are sick because there really are not a lot of treatment options available. We tried to make you as comfortable as possible, and you handled your first cold like a champ!

This month, you also tried your first real food. We temporarily introduced you to sweet potatoes and applesauce and you loved them. I say temporarily because we are putting off giving you baby food for a short time because of your eczema. According to the doctor, eczema can sometimes be induced by food allergies. As a result, we are transitioning you from Similac Sensitive to Enfamil Nutramigen which is a hypoallergenic formula. We are hoping that this transition has a positive effect on your eczema. Although you do not seem to like the new formula as well as the old formula, if it will help clear up your eczema it will be worth it! While we are making this transition and seeing if it makes a difference, we are not introducing any other foods into your diet so we can be certain that any changes are a result of the formula and not a different food.

You continue to grow and become more and more active every day! Currently, you weigh 19 pounds, 11 ounces and are 27 1/4 inches tall. One of your favorite activities is scooting around in your walker and follow your brothers around the house. It is amazing how accurately you can navigate corners and doorways with the walker. If you are not able to get to where you are going, you back up and try, try again!

We have been so busy this last month that I did not take your six month photo with your six month sticker! Fortunately though, we took photos with your cousins Madison and Kennedy while they were here for Thanksgiving. You looked so handsome and performed beautifully during the photo session!

We love you so much!

Mommy and Daddy

Purdum's Pumpkin Patch

 

Each year, we try to go to Purdum's Pumpkin Patch to find the perfect pumpkin. Purdum's has an expansive patch and offers free tractor rides to and from the pumpkins which is always fun for the boys. This year was a very special trip because Toby was able to go with us. In the 10 years we have been going to Purdum's to pick out pumpkins, this is the first year he was able to go with us. Although it was a very cold fall afternoon, we had a lot of fun and found some perfect pumpkins to carve!

 



 

 

Ralph S. Mouse

Have you ever read the book Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Clearly? I did, and I hated it. Do you want to know why? Because I hate mice! Even cartoon mice! In my mind, they are dirty, filthy rodents. Despite this fact, there are a million movies and books with mice - Cinderella, Aristocats, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, I could go on for hours. I am not sure what the infatuation is with these hideous little creatures!

Now to the real reason for this post. On Sunday, Matthew and I were up at about 6:00 a.m. I was working on block sets (yay!) in the kitchen and he was reading a book in the recliner. All of a sudden, I saw a MOUSE skitter across the kitchen floor and under the refrigerator! I immediately was disgusted and wanted to move out of my house. Yes, when I have a mouse in my house, I literally want to move out. I hate them that much! Since moving is not really an option, I whispered to Matthew to get a mouse trap and set it by the refrigerator to see if we could catch the gross rodent. While he was walking to the refrigerator with the set trap, the damn mouse ran from the refrigerator to the stove. So, Matthew got another trap and proceeded to set one on each side of the stove. Our plan was to catch the mouse regardless of which way he came out.

Throughout the day, we continued to check the traps and no mouse. Then, I checked and the trap was GONE! No, I am not joking - GONE! At first I thought that Matthew was trying to pull a prank on me and that we caught the mouse and he had disposed of it without me knowing. However, to this day he pinky swears that he did not do it. You know, to a fifth grader pinky swearing is serious stuff! Matthew and I have concluded that one of two things have happened, and they are both bad! Option 1 - we caught the mouse, he was still alive, and he is somewhere in our house dragging the trap behind him. Gross, I know, but better than Option 2. Option 2 - William found the mouse in the trap and did something with it. The thought of this happening absolutely horrifies me!

On Sunday, Matthew was convinced that Option 2 had happened. As a result, he started interrogating William. This was pretty comical.

Matthew: William did you find a mouse?
William: Yes.
Matthew: Where did you put the mouse?
William: The mouse is on the t.v.!

William was watching the movie Aristocats - and of course it has a mouse in it! Matthew continued to ask William about the mouse and the trap all day without any luck.

Today is Tuesday and we still have not found the mouse trap. However, this morning while Toby was getting Matthew and Peter up for school, he saw a mouse. I keep telling myself that it was the same mouse and that we only have one mouse in our house. Positive thoughts right! All I know is if we do not remedy this problem quickly, Toby is on his own - I am moving out!

Family Photo Shoot

In August, O2 Photography in Boise, Idaho held a contest on Facebook to find their 2012 Model Family. I knew that they took excellent photos because they had taken the photos and my sister Tiffany's wedding. As a result, I decided to enter the contest by submitting a short description of our family and the reasons that we would be a good choice for the 2012 Model Family. A few days after entering, I received a message that we were chosen as one of the top 10 families to receive a free photo shoot. After the 10 families were photographed, O2 Photography would choose the Model Family and that family would receive a complete photo package free! I was so excited at the opportunity to receive a free photo package, so I started selecting outfits for the big day! As you can probably imagine, Toby was less than thrilled; he really does not enjoy family photo shoots.

In late August, we drove to Eagle, Idaho to meet Jerry and Jennifer from O2 Photography. The location they chose was perfect; there was an old milk barn and old corrals in the background. The setting fit our family's lifestyle perfectly! It was miserably hot, but everyone performed beautifully!

A few weeks later, the 2012 Model Family was announced and it was not us. Even though we did not win the huge photo package, we did receive a free photo shoot and 8 x 10. In addition, we purchased a couple of prints to display in our home.

Joseph - 3 Months Old

William - 2 Years Old

Peter - 8 Years Old

Matthew - 10 Years Old

Halloween

We had an eventful Halloween this year with a Halloween party and traditional Halloween trick-or-treating. Since William was two, I thought that he would love Halloween, so I purchased him this golfer costume:

No, that is not William in the costume, it is a model because William refused to put the costume on. I purchased the costume a few weeks before Halloween, so Matthew and Peter kept trying to get him to wear it around the house because it was so cute. We could never convince William that wearing the costume was a good idea.

A couple of days before Halloween, we were at Wal-Mart and they had this costume on clearance:

William was so excited about this costume because he LOVES Thomas the Train. He was even trying to open the package in the shopping cart! We thought that we finally had found a costume that William would wear. Again, he would not put on the costume. He simply enjoyed looking at the costume instead of wearing it.

The weekend before Halloween, we attended a family Halloween party at the McGourty's house. Everyone was dressed up except for William. He refused to wear either of the costumes I had purchased for him. Peter went as Dracula, Matthew went as a hillbilly, Joseph went as a skeleton, I was Little Red Riding Hood, and Toby was The Big Bad Wolf! We had a lot of fun visiting with friends and playing games.

By the time Halloween day arrived, Matthew and Peter did not want to dress up. It was a long day because we had school and then Peter had basketball practice until 5:15. Due to the fact that it was a school night and we got a late start, we only went to a handful of houses. Again, William would not wear his costume, so I called my mom and asked her to pick up some Halloween shirts for all four boys on her way home. The boys all looked very handsome in their shirts! Maybe next year William will be a little more interested in Halloween and we will be more festive. Trick-or-treat!