What I would Buy- 3-6 months old

Ok here is round two of my favorite baby items.  These are the items that I love to use with my babies when they are 3-6 months old.  This age is SO fun, but can be pretty heavy in the "baby stuff" department.  Babies get more alert during this stage and want to be stimulated and interactive, but they aren't usually able to get around on their own yet.  SO...many parents get pretty desperate to find things to give/buy their child to help keep them happy around this age.

*Think flashing light up toys and annoyingly catchy songs.*

With Adalyn our house was about as colorful as Toys r us with the variety of toys/colors/contraptions that we had going.  We pretty much tried them all and then proceeded to give most of it away.  lol We have toned things down a bit since then and I think we are all happier.

Obviously you still need a crib/stroller/carseat and many of the other things that I listed on my first post.  But here are the things that I would add in...  

An exersaucer at about 5 months old.  My kids have all loved our exersaucer and use it from about 4 months until they start walking.  Declin is still using ours about every other day.  We use it most when we go outside or downstairs.  I don't love having him crawl around in either of these places so the exersaucer is a nice safe place for him to be when I am getting some stuff done.

A close cousin to the exersaucer is the activity mat.  We have this one.  After boycotting getting one for the first two kids; Declin got one for Christmas last year, and I actually love having it.  Declin really liked playing with it and he used it for a good 4 months.  This is totally not necessary, but if you are thinking you are going to have several kids I would say it is worth it.      

Toys and books.  The fun part right?!  Except when they are ALL over your house.  lol  I really struggle in the toys department.  They always seem to be all over my house no matter what new system I try, but after 3 kids I do feel like I have my "baby " toys system figured out.  I keep all of my baby toys in a box in my basement and I pull out 4-5 toys at a time and put them in a SMALL basket in the living room.  No huge pile, no huge toy box, just a few out at a time and the rest put away.  This system has been really effective with Declin.

Here are a few of our favorite baby toys for 3-6 month olds:

Sofia the giraffe REALLY is awesome even if it is super trendy too.  Declin loves his.
These Lamaze toys are very bright colors, but our babies have loved having them attached to our carseat.  We have a few different ones and switch them out often.

Texture balls are fun for them to look at too
This classic rattle was Declin's all time favorite baby toy and it just looks pretty.
Other rattles are nice too since they love anything they can actually grab on to with their little hands.
Some natural wooden teethers are on my wish list for future babies.  Maybe one like this or this.

That is about all we have for this age.  Really they will play with anything you give them so kitchen utensils work well too.

I usually introduce books about this age, although they can listen and learn from the beginning of your pregnancy but this age they really start looking and interacting more.  Also there are a billion great books out there, but our all time favorite baby books are these tabbed board books.  They have a My First Colors, My First Words, My First Numbers, etc.  These books have real pictures which I think is awesome for babies to help them get more familiar with the world around them.  They also have lots of pictures on each page. My older kids still love looking at the pictures and naming the objects as they are laying in bed at nap time or bed time.  We also like the board books by Sandra Boynton.  They are cute and catchy and I don't mind reading them over and over again.  Anyone have any favorites that they want to share?  Can't have too many books.

If your baby drools or spits up a lot I recommend these bibs since they are a little more stylish then your average drool bib.

That is about it.  We do have a bumbo that TONS of people love for this age, but none of my kids have ever loved it.  So we mostly just use ours as a portable camping high chair since it does have a tray.  But the newer bumbos do look really nice so maybe they are better then the oldies?  I also have a few things on my "to try list" such as a Rock and play and a fancy version of an umbrella stroller, but since I haven't tried them I don't feel like I can recommend them yet.

Such a fun fun stage!    





   

 

 

 

            

Besties

Once upon a time I was a sweet new mother at the tender age of 21.  My prince charming and I (watched too much Once Upon a Time this weekend... sorry!!) bought our first house and moved in with our darling 4 month old baby girl.  We were excited and slightly overwhelmed as many first time home owners are.  You have to buy blinds AND a shower curtain rod!  Good heavens!  Yeah it was ALL new for us.  But we just kept moving forward.  As we got to know the neighbors we learned that there was another young family in the house right behind ours.  They also had a 4 month old baby girl named Hannah, and lo and behold our darling daughters were only hours apart in age.  So fun right!?  These neighbors had owned their home for a few years longer then us so we just followed their lead on pretty much all homeowner responsibilities.  How did you seed your backyard?  When should we do this?  Who did you have do that?  Oh and bonus they babysat Adalyn on more then one occasion.  We also often discussed, sleeping habits, feedings, and first time mom worries.  Seriously the best backyard neighbors.  You better believe that we never wanted to put up a fence.

As our little girls grew they became BEST friends.  They talked about each other all the time.  Waved from their sliding glass doors.  Held hands when they ran, hugged each other like sisters, and cried when they had to leave.  I may sound a bit dramatic, but these are little girls we are talking about.  They are dramatic.  It was SO fun to watch them interact.

This past year we did a little joy school with Hannah and some of their friends and I am so glad that we did so that the girls got to play more.

Recently Hannah's family decided the time had come to find a different house for their family.  They moved a couple weeks ago.  I am pretty sure I was in denial all the way up to the day that they left.  I had tried to warn Adalyn about Hannah moving, but I really don't think that it sunk in.  So when we came back from a trip to Utah and they were all moved out I told Adalyn that Hannah had moved.  She didn't say much, but just went out and sat on their little swing set that they used to play on and just stared at their house.  *tears*  As a parent you always want your kids to have good friends, and Hannah was a really good one and we already miss their family lots.  Obviously we can still get the girls together to play, but it just wont be the same as them running in the backyard together.

A couple weeks before they moved we took our kids to the zoo.  It was fun to let the girls play and run around together.  

Lots has happened since we moved in 3 1/2 years ago including a few new siblings to add to the mix.  So glad that we got to know this sweet family and we will miss them as neighbors.  

      

     

4th of July 2015

A few weeks ago I told you that I wanted to start reading more.  I also told you that I would report back with what I decided to read.  Well I decided to be totally original and read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by: Marie Kondo.  I know everyone is reading it, but for good reason.  It was exactly the kind of motivation McKay and I needed to get our house in order.  We are literally getting rid of a few 1000 items in our house.  It. Feels. So. Good.  "stuff" was starting to take over our lives and with toddlers who can create messes out of thin air, the constant cleaning and straightening was really starting to wear on me.  So less stuff= less mess.  Ofcourse things have to get worse before they get better, so we now have a million little piles all over the house.  Hopefully we will be finished by the end of the summer so that we can enjoy the holiday season with a transformed house.

Anyways that is what we are up to these days... tonight is decluttering McKay's clothes.  Sounds like fun right! ;)

BUT we did have a great 4th of July!  My Aunt Heather and Uncle Brent came with their kids to our house for the Idaho Falls celebrations.  They are so great with helping with the kids and weren't expecting too much entertainment so we just enjoyed hanging out with everyone.

We did go to the parade Saturday morning.  We had great seats close to the beginning of the parade thanks to McKay who went at 6:30 that morning to save them for us.

Mr. Declin was too into the parade to look at the camera for his "first 4th of July photo"

That evening we had a nice 4th of July dinner.  My cousins are gluten free and refined sugar free (for health reasons).  So planning the food for the weekend was a bit different then I normally might have planned for a holiday weekend.  But thanks to their diet we didn't "cheat" a ton over the weekend and just had a lot of fresh fruits, meat (yeah maybe that one isn't so good), and veggies.  Our special dinner for the 4th was grilled Huli Huli chicken (it is SO good), homemade ranch potatoes (even the ranch seasonings were homemade), fruit salad layered with strawberries, blueberries, and real whipped cream made with maple syrup, and a broccoli slaw (which was fun to  make, but wasn't super delicious.)  After dinner we did splurg and have a gluten free chocolate cake with this amazing chocolate frosting. 

After dinner we had a choice to go to the fireworks over the river or just stay home and do our own.  Dayton had been dying to do his own so we opted to not fight the crowds and just stay home.  Yes sparklers just about did me in watching the kids wave them near each other, but only one little burn happened when Jensen touched a burned out one that was still hot so we made it through in one piece.  All the ladies were a little stressed about the flames so of course that only made the men (McKay included) get a little more crazy.  Gah!  Next year we will probably just go see the supervised ones in the sky ;)

But it all ended well and it was nice to just be able to go to bed right after.  

This was my kids first time really experiencing fireworks up close and while they did fine when we were actually doing them I think they scared Jensen because he has woken up a few nights this week claiming that he is scared of something.  Poor little guy is pretty tender to loud noises and scary things.  

our neighbors were also doing fireworks so we shared. :)  

  Happy July!  

Just for fun:

2011 4th of July

2012 4th of July

2013 4th of July

2014 4th of July

  

Hey Kaysville

The weekend before the 4th of July we had a mini getaway to our favorite destination.  But this trip looked completely different then our other Utah trips because my parents have officially moved into their new house.  So our drive down was new as we tried to find the quickest and best route to their new house.  

After arriving we took a tour around the house and checked out the basement that is currently getting finished.  We are sure excited for it to get complete because having our own room with our 3 little munchkins will definitely help when we visit.  After the grand tour we checked out the surrounding neighborhood which does not lack for things to do.  A lake, outdoor concerts, splash pads, parks, swimming pools, eating, shopping...  Yeah I think we will like visiting there.  

We started out by enjoying the closest splash pad that we could find and the kids LOVED it.  Also they pretty much had it to themselves which was nice.  It was a HOT day so we only lasted for about 35 mins before heading back to Grandma's house for ice cream. 

Be very impressed that I got a picture of all of them at the same time, all looking in the same direction.  They were wild kids running/crawling all over the place!  

That night my parents headed out for their life long dream.  They were finally headed to Germany after years and years of planning this trip.  SO glad that they finally got to go and it sounds like they are having tons of fun.  

Sunday morning we went to Kaysville for my cousin, Trevor's mission homecoming talk.  Melanie (his older sister) also blessed her baby that day.  I have been dying for the day that Melanie had kids.  That day is finally here and it was so fun seeing her cute little girl!  There were tons of people at their house after, but I did get to sneak a few cuddle sessions.  Newborns are the sweetest and Melanie and John are the best parents.  Now we just need to live closer.  Oh and I am so glad we grabbed a picture with our babies!  McKay got a few rounds of Settlers of Catan in with Stu and my cousins and I got to hang out with the girls.  

My baby is not so little anymore! :(

Trevor is so awesome as a returned missionary and it is great to have him back.  His talk really blew me away and while he was speaking I kept trying to figure out when he grew up because I swear he was just barely my little cousin and now he is a full grown adult.  

Here is a quick comparison to when he left 2 years ago... 

   And then here he is 2 years later hanging out with Jensen.  

All in all the day was so fun.  I had really been looking forward to seeing everyone and it did not disappoint.  What a blessing family is.  

After hanging out with my cousins, we headed over to McKay's brothers house.  Laron and Michelle are in the middle of moving.  They sold their house super fast and now they are frantically trying to get their new house all fixed up so that they can move into it.  We stayed with them Sunday night so that we could be there bright and early Monday morning to help them as they worked.  McKay and I tag teamed it and while he went to the new house with Laron and Michelle to do projects I stayed back at their old house and watched all the kids.  Their kids were really well behaved and we had a fun day playing, going to the park, building a fort, and getting wet.  Once you have your own kids I feel like you don't really get to bond with your nieces and nephews as much so it was fun to be able to hang out with them all day.  Adalyn and Jensen loved it too.  

These two little ones kept me on my toes! 

Monday night we drove home and Tuesday morning we started prepping for our fun 4th of July weekend.  Family time is the best.  I really needed it that weekend too!  All of the stuff with the recent supreme court ruling has left me feeling a little down about life and society in general.  A good weekend being with family was the perfect way to feel the spirit and gain strength.  Life is good!  

  

  

 

9 Months Old- Declin

I know I have claimed the last few "monthly" posts that I don't really love to write them and that I am getting bored.  Well this one I was actually excited to write and having been wanting to write it, but of course living life got in the way from actually writing about life.  (and now that we are all thoroughly confused by my last sentence, lets move on)

Declin is 9 months old.  This age is of course SO fun, but along with loving all his new tricks and growth I am also a bit terrified.  He is SO busy and has no idea about the many dangers of life.  So far he has only had a few bumps and falls, but there has been a lot of tiny panic moments.  "Where is Declin?!"  "Is the sliding door shut?!"  "What is that in his mouth?!"  Those sort of moments have ruled my life.  I swear he isn't my first child, but I am finding myself more easily distracted with other things, that watching his every move has not been as possible as it was with the first two kids.  So I loose him in the house easier, and he gets into more mischief.

But he is still alive and well today, so things must be going ok.  :)

At his appointment he weighed 16.5 lbs, and is in the wopping 8th percentile.  He wears 6-9 month clothes and his first pair of shoes finally fit him!

After his 9 month appointment we celebrated by playing at the mall playground to beat the heat.  Yes I let him crawl around on the germ filled playground... I am still grossed out that I let him do it.
 

    

Month 8-9 brought more climbing and crawling.  He has perfected the no knees crawl for all hard surfaces and can do this one just as fast as his normal crawl.

He can climb up stairs, but not down.  He can stand up to pretty much all furniture and walk along it.  

He makes really loud noises.  Grunting, growling, and laughing are his favorite.  He also learned to wave and knows dada.  He waves both his arms and legs really fast whenever he sees Adalyn or Jensen.  SO grateful for sibling bonds, they are pretty cool.  

He sleeps through the night a lot, but not all the time.  If he does wake up it is around 5:30 am for a bottle and then falls back asleep until 8:30 am.  We are in a bad routine of late nights, and so all my kids are sleeping in late these days.

He is nursing twice a day and then has bottles the rest of the time.  I have no excuse for why he isn't nursing full time except "I am lazy."  I have not had a break from pregnancy or nursing for over 3 years so I felt like I needed one.  Oh and he bites me now so we aren't loving nursing these days.  He does love the bottle and I was sort of hoping that formula would help him gain more weight, but it has not helped much. He will only drink 3-4 oz at a time.  We try to give him more, but he just pushes it away.

This month he went from wanting us to feed him, to wanting to only feed himself.  This is nice to not have to spoon feed him, but it does increase our daily messes.

I posted this picture on instagram and while I have a pet peeve of recycling pictures and using them in every form of social media, I am going to share this one here also since it describes this month and I want to save it.  It was hot this month and we played in the water a lot.  My kids are awesome about splash pads, sprinklers, and pools.  They also love the our water table.  Declin is excited to join in on the action and has even started taking showers with the kids at night.  Although he does still love a good bath time.  

Something funny about him is that he loves to blow on your skin and make the funny noises.  In the picture below he is blowing on his arm, but he is known to blow on anyone's legs or arms that he can get a hold of.  So funny the things that they pick up on.  We love having him in our family

Happy 9 Months Mr. Declin