Moms Favorite Five: 2009

Ok, since we are now into December I thought I should probably get everyone caught up on our very busy November first. We have had such nice weather over the past month(with the exception of a few hot days). The kids have really enjoyed all the outside time and I love how all of that fresh air helps everyone to sleep so well:)

The Month started with a Party! Yes, we had Abby's birthday party (well one of them) on Nov 1st. It was a good time, she only had a couple friends over but they had a great time playing outside and eating a ton of cupcakes. I can't believe she is 4 already! She is so smart, a very talented little artist, great singer and dancer, and my best friend. I love her so much!!!
On Nov 5th (her actual birthday) Daddy and I along with the babies picked up Abby from school and went out for a great birthday dinner. That Sunday the rest of the family came over for yet another birthday celebration. Does this family know how to party or what! Anyways, here are some pics for you to enjoy.

My little daredevil on the swing

Birthday Princess

Yahoo!!! every girl knows, money=shopping

one of her birthday cakes

picking up candy

outside fun

Daddy with his big 4year old

Mommy with my favorite 4year old

Of course as always the babies are changing by leaps and bounds everyday. Tanner has finally decided to give up on crawling and is walking everywhere now. He is very jealous of the other babies and gets very upset if you are paying more attention to the others. He has started giving the best bear hugs and it is so cute because he tickles the back of your neck while he is hugging you. He talks allot, but by far his favorite things to say are "whats that?" he says this all day while pointing at different items and of course (every kids favorite) "NO-NO", he scolds the other babies when they are doing something he disagrees with and he also scolds everyone else whenever he feels it is necessary ( it is actually pretty cute:)He is looking more like a little boy and less like a baby everyday.

My handsome boy in bluejeans

Love my lion

Gimme your food!!!

Look mom no hands:)

One sleepy boy

Wyatt has been changing so fast these days, I can hardly keep up. And BIG NEWS, he took his first real steps this morning!!! He will be running around with the Tan man and Sophia in no time. He started standing on his own about 3 weeks ago, and has been cruising around on the furniture. He has started babbling a lot more as well.Most of it you can't understand, however the one thing he does say well is "watch ya got". He still likes to play on his own allot, but is getting better at interacting with the other babies. It is cute to hear all four of them playing and giggling together. He loves to play chase with us and especially his big sissy. I have to say that the kid can EAT like a horse! He will eat anything and everything you put in front of him. He is not picky at all which is great, seriousley he will eat everything(spam, mushrooms, all veggies ect....Everything). He is growing fast, I am not sure exactly, but I think he is around 22lbs.

Walking with grandma

Peek-a-boo

Standing on a chair:)

My sweet little man

Joel-my happy little boy! He is doing great as well. He can now stand on his own and is cruising while hanging on to furniture. He is still draging his foot a little, but therapy is helping. I think it will still be a while before he starts walking, but you never know with him, he likes to suprise you. He talks all the time and has the most understandable words of all the babies. He may be little but he is tough and just loves to wrestle and chase his sibblings. The nutritionalist started Joel on very high calorie formula last month. We are hoping this will help him put some weight on, he is so tiny(only about 18lbs). The good news is that he no longer needs speech therapy,as he is eating well, just not enough--he is VERY picky about what he will eat. He has started to get angry when he doesn't get his way and has started throwing major temper tantrums, and he is very stubbron (wonder where he gets that from--Great Grandpa Joel:). Most of the day he is smiling and happy and he loves to have dance off's with Sophia. It is the cutest thing to see them sitting across from each other and be just dancing away! I love Joel's smile, it just melts your heart. I am not sure if it is just his big goofy teeth or those big blue eyes but it is just the best smile. Here are some pics.

Beautiful Boy!

A new way of riding

Playing with Wyatt

I LOVE riding my horse!

Happy, Happy Boy!:)

My sweet Sophia is now running around all day:)She is always on the go, so much that it is hard to even get a good picture these days. She has no problem keeping up with her rough and tumble brothers, in fact she can sometimes be quiet a bully. She loves her big sister and likes to mimic the things Abby does. It is so cute to watch them at night when I tuck them in Abby likes to read a few books before going to sleep, and now Sophia must have her own book too. The two of them sit next to each other reading books until they fall asleep. So cute!!! Just like a girl, she loves to talk and dance all day. She loves to ask "what's that" and her other new word is "pretty". She is growing like a weed, I think she now weighs about 21 lbs. She has a ton of hair and unlike her big sis, she doesn't mind if I put bows and pig tails in it. She is still my early bird waking up everyday anywhere between 4:30am and 5:30. I wish she would love sleep as much as her mommy does:) She just got her first molar, which means she now has more teeth than the Tan man. I think she may be the class clown someday, as she just loves to be silly and make people laugh.

Walking with Grandma

Loving her brother (Tanner)

Playing

Mad at mom for dressing her like a boy!

Silly Sophia

Sleeping beauty

I forgot to mention that Abby is now attending a new school. She is loving it and making a lot of new friends. It has been hard for me because she is now going to school mon-friday and it is hard not having her at home with me. Her class put on the cutest show for Thanksgiving. Here are some pics.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family. Myself and the kids spent Thanksgiving at Doris and Chuck's house with the rest of the family. I was so happy that my Uncle Dan and Aunt Amy were able to make it here for the holiday. Thank you again everyone for such a wonderful day, and all of your help with the babies and Abby. Kevin had to work on Thanksgiving so we had a little celebration of our own on the following Sunday. It was a very nice dinner with turkey and all the fixings. We were happy that my Grandma and Kevin's dad were able to join us. I put some pictures of the events in a short video.

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Here are some other miscalaneous pictures from some of our adventures in Nov. My parents and I took Abby and the babies to Jungle Gardens for a visit. It was the first time the babies had been there and they just loved looking at all of the animals, especially the alligator that I got to hold right in front of them ( Tanner was even able to pet it:). Kevin and I also took all of the kids to the reading day at The Childrens Garden in sarasota. It is a magical place for kids, if you have never been there, I highly recomend it, your kids will LOVE it. After the childrens garden we took all of the kiddo's out to eat at the old salty dog in sarasota, the weather was beautiful and we had a great time watching all of the boats on the water.That same week my mom helped me to take all of the kids to a childrens festival in North port, Abby especially had a great time getting her face painted, jumping in the bounce house, and she even got to ride a horse! We were also able to get our christmas tree decorated and all of our other holiday decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. I just love having the house all ready for the holidays. I hope you enjoy all of the pictures, I know it has been a long time since my last post, Sorry!

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I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!!!

Hugs--- Sarah and Family

Ps..Dont forget to leave us a comment, we love to hear from everyone:)

Ok, I know most of you are dying to see some updated pics of the kiddo's, so I will keep my updates short. With the exception of a few bumps we have had a great month. The kids are growing so fast everyday is somthing new. We had a few big events this month, the biggest of which is that Sophia and Tanner are now walking!!! Sophia started about a week before Tanner and is all over the place, now that she can walk she refuses to crawl anywhere, she may fall a hundred times,but she always stands right back up and keeps walking. Tanner on the other hand can walk, but he still prefers to crawl(it's faster and less work). Sophia is our little dancer, everytime she hears music(even my cell phone ring)she starts to wiggle. She has 4 teeth now and it is so funny,she looks like a little vampire because only her top two eye teeth are in and she loves to give you huge smiles to show them off. Tanner has 7 teeth now and they are deffinatly used alot, he eats everything in sight! He is now way off of the growth charts, he is 31 inches long and 27lbs, our Dr said that he is as big as a normal 2year old. Hard to imagine that only 15mos ago he was 2lbs 13oz. They are all getting bigger though, here are their measurements Sophia is 28in, 20.8lbs. Wyatt is 27in, 20.12oz (yes now bigger than Sophia!), Joel is still our little man at only 25.5in, and 18.7lbs. Joel and Wyatt are doing great in therapy. They are both now standing while holding on to somthing and they are both just starting to move around furniture a little. Wyatt is still our quiet man, he just loves to cuddle and not complain to much. He eats like a champ, he usually can out-eat Tanner which is amazing. Joel we have now found out is a complete daredevel and totally fearless, he doesn't let his size hold him back at all(I see many broken bones and stitches in his future). We had our first official play date earlier this month at a local water park. The kids all had a great time, but(and this is the short version of the story) Joel decided that while we were saving Wyatt from choking on a leaf, he would try out the stairs! Well as you can immagine that didn't go so well for him, I caught him after he had already managed to roll down about 6 stairs. You would have thought that he would be screaming, but he wasn't, in fact I think if I had let him he would have been happy to try to go down the rest of the stairs. He did get a large scrape on his forehead and some minor brusies, but overall he was just fine. Abby is doing great as well. We are looking forward to a few cool days so we can get outside a little. She is doing great in dance class and likes to show off all of her new moves. She is getting excited about her upcoming birthday. I can't believe she is almost 4! Wow how time flies---

On sept17th we celebrated the second Birthday of our beautiful son Ben. It was harder this year for some reason. We all went to the cemetery to bring him flowers. It was the first time the babies came with us. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful angel watching over us.