Christmas 2017

There is so much I should be doing right now...laundry, dishes, packing lunches for school tomorrow, putting the final coat of paint on our cabinet doors, picking up the house, etc., but sometimes I just can't, even though I know I'm going to regret it later. Plus, Graham keeps crying (poor baby has another cold), so I really can't start the painting project until I know he's asleep and the other stuff is just so unexciting. So, for now, I'm going to write a quick blog post about our Christmas.

Overall we had a great Christmas despite the fact that Micah and I both had terrible colds and coughs. We caught the sickness from the kids, of course, but they were way less affected by it than we were. Oh well, such is life as parents of littles! 

We had plans to travel to Micah's parents' house for Christmas, so we decided to celebrate our own family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning before we left for Colorado. I wrapped most things in advance before I started feeling sick, but it was still a struggle to find the energy to put the presents out and pack, and Micah spent a lot of time putting the kids new bikes together despite feeling low on energy himself. If only the kids knew the sacrifices we make for them!  

These stockings are hand-me-downs from my parents' and there are only five, so we'll have to buy our own set if we want to do stocking stuffers for ourselves in the future! We put small, inexpensive things in the stockings like books, notebooks, markers, and socks. This was the first year we've done stockings for our kids.

Everything ready on the night of the 23rd!

The kids patiently taking pictures before diving into the presents. We "wrapped" the bikes under a blanket.

Faith opening her 'dancing fairy jewelry box,' which is something she wanted

Alexis REALLY wanted a jack-in-the-box, so she was thrilled when she opened it

Jack opening his super hero action figures

Books are always worth the break from present opening

Graham with his new bibs. We didn't buy him much this year because he really didn't need anything, and we spent enough on the other three kids. He'll benefit from toys and bikes being passed down someday.

Jack got this light saber from his Aunt Emily and Uncle Kent, but I promise he's actually taller than it. He loves it.

The kids playing with their new toys while we packed for our trip

Bikes!

We left for Monte Vista around noon on Christmas Eve and we arrived just after 4:00. It felt a bit strange traveling on Christmas Eve, so we'll probably do it differently in the future so that we can actually go to a church service. The kids don't know the difference yet, though, so they didn't mind.

On Christmas morning we opened presents with Micah's parents.

Jack was thrilled to get the pirate ship that he saw at Costco

Graham checking out his new toy

Faith with the pink convertible she spied at Target

 No one was more excited than Alexis was when she opened her Paw Patrol Cars though. She saw them at Costco and talked about them for weeks!

Playing with new toys at Grammy and Grandpa's

Christmas Day 2017

Graham seemed to enjoy his first Christmas! Of course the big kids' toys are always more exciting.

Graham's checking out his new toy

No snow for Christmas (except for the tiny amount leftover in the yard), but we couldn't complain about the mild weather and sunshine!

Of course, the kids had to drive their cars

It's so cute to see them drive around on these things. It's like we are seeing glimpses of what they'll be like as teenagers, which is both cute and scary.

This really doesn't have anything to do with Christmas, but Micah's mom found this photo of Micah at age 4.5 and I think the girls look so much like him!

Micah at 4.5 compared to Jack. I think Jack takes more after me.

Reading bedtime stories with Grandpa

Micah and his parents took the kids skiing at Wolf Creek on the 26th. Graham and I stayed behind and enjoyed a quiet day in Monte Vista since he naps twice a day and that would be hard to do at the resort.

My parents flew in late the evening of January 4 and stayed until January 9. Although it was really late for a Christmas celebration, we still made the best of it! I had frozen some of our cookies so the kids decorated them with my parents. We then enjoyed opening some presents under the Christmas tree and fireplace on the TV. I wanted to get started on our cabinet painting project so I hadn't left our tree up, but the TV one was sufficient for the evening.

Grandpa has skills!

Excited for more presents

Graham got his own car!

Who knew three kids would get so excited for transformers!

Photo under the "tree"

The weather was beautiful and although we didn't get out much because we were busy painting our cabinets all weekend, we did get to the park once so the kids could ride their new bikes.

Farewell Grandma and Grandpa! See you soon!

Graham 9 Months

This past month has been extra busy. We traveled to Monte Vista for Christmas, both sets of grandparents came to visit in the last month, I started a part-time accounting job for a church (about 10 hours a week from home), we started our kitchen remodel project, and Micah and I both spent about half the month getting over the sickness that we caught before Christmas. Yikes. I feel like we have a lot going on right now, but I think I'll feel better about everything when I get more acquainted with my job, and I just have to keep reminding myself that it will take all year to get our remodel project done, so we have to pace ourselves. Of course, Graham continues to grow and develop too! Somehow we are already less than three months away from his first birthday!

Did anyone notice that I changed the title of the blog?? I did it last month as I didn't feel like it could just be the "Howard Trio" with the addition of Graham, so now it's "Howard Trio Plus One."

Age: 9  months

Weight: 16 lbs 4 oz (+11 oz)

Length: about 26.75 inches (+.75 inch)

Faith really wanted to help with the photos this time, but it was really hard to get his number on since he wanted to play with it!

With Alexis

With Jack

With Faith

We were trying to take more photos but Graham was done

Size Clothes: I’ve officially put almost all of the 6 month clothes away as he is growing into his 9 month stuff now. Some PJs are still a little big on him, which is the opposite of our other kids as they were always long and skinny so they outgrew PJs before outfits, but Graham is more proportional.

Night Sleep: This last month has been all over the place when it comes to sleep. On a good night he goes to bed between 7 and 8, I feed him before I go to bed between 10 and 11, he wakes up around 3, and then he’s up for the day around 7. On a bad night he wakes up 1-2 more times during the night and has trouble falling back asleep. This past month has been a little difficult since we traveled for Christmas and then he spent a little time sleeping in our room in the pack n play when grandparents were in town, and he doesn’t sleep as well in the pack n play.

Naps: I’m happy to say that naps are going great! His morning nap is between 9:30 and 10:00 and he naps for 1.5-2.5 hours. His afternoon nap is between 2:00 and 3:00 and he naps for 1.5-2 hours. This has been great, especially since I took on the part-time job and my plan is to work from home while the kids are at school and Graham naps.

Nursing: Not much has changed here as he still eats about 9 times a day. I’m hoping to cut out some of the nursing and replace it with solids in the next month.

Solids: Graham hasn’t shown much interest in solids. We’ve tried some purées, teething wafers, and food cut in small bites, but he hasn’t been very excited about any of it. I’m hoping he’ll start to catch on in the next month.

I even borrowed this device from a friend and tried putting purees in here so he could be in control, but despite the fact that he looks interested in this pic he really wasn't

Food Intolerances: I slipped with dairy recently and he seemed okay, so after I get him to start eating a few more foods I'm going to test dairy through myself again.

Milestones: Graham continues to do the army crawl to get around. He has gotten from seated to his belly several times, but he isn’t doing it consistently. He gets up on all fours and rocks, but then reverts to the army crawl. Kisses! They are wet, open mouthed and sloppy, but totally sweet at the same time.

He looks like he wants to crawl!

Teeth: Graham has cut three more teeth in the last month for a total of seven teeth! He is literally always teething, but thankfully he doesn’t seem very bothered by it.

Toothy grin, but his top teeth don't show when he smiles yet. There are four up there though!

With teeth comes toothbrushing!

Likes: He loves to take off a sock, chew on it, and play with it. Watching his older siblings continues to be great entertainment, so if I need to make dinner or something I can just sit him on the floor near them and he is content for awhile. He loves all of the big kid toys and will always go for those instead of his own toys.

Yummy sock

All four kids swinging at our neighborhood park

We tried the swing a couple of months ago but he wasn't ready. This time he LOVED it!

Dislikes: He does not like getting saline in his nose, getting his nose wiped, or getting his nose suctioned, which is hard when he's fighting colds!

Speech: He definitely says “mama” in reference to me (when he’s crying in his crib, sitting on the floor, etc.). He has also been saying “bababa.” I’ve also heard “ya.” He makes this noise when he’s being silly where he sucks in his breath and kind of squeals at the same time.

Places he’s been: Micah and I went to the mall one day when we hired a babysitter (he had a gift card to spend and he wanted to scope things out at the store), and we took Graham along, so he had his first mall outing. Micah and I don't enjoy malls that much, and Graham didn't seem too impressed either, but he was content sitting in the stroller and people watching.

Things he does that makes us smile: He’s such a happy, mostly content, baby that he makes us smile constantly!

The big kids like to take turns riding on the front of the Bob when we walk around the neighborhood

I found a great "new to us" stroller on Craigslist. I needed a nice single stroller that was lightweight and folded up small for the car. I'm excited about this one!

The big kids were sitting down to watch a show and Graham thought he got to watch this time too. Nope..nap time Graham.

With my boys at the park

Graham and Grandma

Everyone in footed PJ's!