Cute pics of Elody

Elody is crawling now. She was 7 months, 1 1/2 weeks old. She use to get on her hands and knees and rock and then plop on her belly and army crawl. Last Sunday night, she looked like she was really concentrating moving her hands and knees and then it clicked for her. She crawled under the stool and stood up and got trapped. She also likes to crawl over to where someone is standing and grab onto their pant legs and stand up. I have to make ita habit to look behind me when I am working at the counter before I move back. She can sit and move to crawling; but she can't go from crawling to sitting, so she goes up on her knees.

This little girl loves to stick out her tongue. One of the kids took this picture of her; but it captures her tongue well, so I included it.

She still primarily nurses. If we are having some steamed veggies for dinner, I'll feed her some. She also likes pancakes, whole mixed grains. She is still waking up a couple of times at night to nurse. Her crib is next to my bed with out the bar there. It is the same height as my bed, so she just crawls over to me, I latch her on and go back to sleep. That is how I survive.

Talon in his spare time

Talon spends his spare time listening to books on cds and swinging on a rope swing in the front yard. He has listened to over the past couple of years: The Harry Potter series, The Charlie Bones series, The Fablehaven series, The 13th Reality series, Fairest, The Alchemyst, Magyk and is currently listening to Flyte. His Grandma got him an MP3 player for his birthday last August and has loved it to it's fullest. He has been through 3-4 pairs of earphones. Thank goodness for Walmart. (By the way, Jileigh is the one who filmed this and is the one talking.)

Talon is really enjoying 11 year old new scouts. Matt is his leader as well. That really helps.

Talon is doing pretty well is school. The school district has an internet program called Power School where we can go see all of their class assignments and grades. The schools each have their own website where each teacher has a calendar. Only 1 of his teachers keep up on his calendar. These sites have been a life saver in trying to keep Talon caught up with his classes and grades. In PE, the kids have to run the mile every Monday. Talon's fastest time is 7 minutes and 15 seconds. He started the year out running the mile in just over 10 minutes. It has been fun to watch his improvement.

Jileigh's way of being funny

Jileigh loves the predator and the prey and thinks she's funny when she not only puts them in the same house, but the same doll house. She took extra pre-cautions so that the cat couldn't get anywhere near the pigs. O:)

Elody at 7 months old

This is a video of Elody doing sit-ups. She has some strong stomach muscles!

Elody the day before turning 7 months

Elody, the day before turning 7 months, pulled herself up to a standing position. She was so proud of herself. I'm in trouble!

Beau and the beloved guinea pigs

Beau fell asleep holding the guinea pigs. It was soooooooo cute that we had to take pictures.

Canned Chicken breasts

On New Years Day, Matt and I canned chicken breasts for the first time. It was so easy. I only bought 10 pounds to experiment with and wished I'd bought more.

Elody at 6 1/2 months, finally sitting without support

Finally, on Dec 26th, Elody stayed sitting up without support, playing with a toy while we were separating laundry.

Christmas 2009

Christmas week was a hard week. Beauchene and Elody were both sick and very needy. Matt was working in the garage
on Jileigh's shelves and the girls' doll house most of the time. I missed being able to go to Matt's family dinner party, which was emotionally hard on me. Matt did bring a plate of yummy food for me. I spent the evening holding my two babies. I am grateful to my parents and Candy for calling me regularly checking up on me and the kids.

Christmas day was nice with the kids. Matt's mom came by but we were asleep and the kids didn't wake us up. I missed being able to visit with her.

Ward Christmas dinner

Matt stayed home with Beau since he was sick and I took Talon, Safia and Elody with me to the ward Christmas party. Angelique and Jileigh went to Mesa with Matt's mom to see Grandma J (Matt's Mom's mom )and Grammy (my mom). Shari is my friend that has been Elody second mom at church while I lead the music. Shari held my Elody so I could pay attention to the nativity play and take pictures. Talon was Joseph and Safia was an angel. Shari has really been a good friend to love my baby. After this evening is when Elody started getting sick too.

The kids each got a turn to sit on Santa's lap. That's when I really was able to find out what the kids wanted. Talon asked for a nerf gun, Jaren a basketball, and Safia a doll.

Snow day at Matt's mom's house.

The Saturday before Christmas, we went to Matt's mom's house to play in the snow. She got about 9 inches of snowfall in her large yard. Matt and the kids made an igloo. I went out and helped for a little bit while Elody slept. I started a snowball fight. We had a nice day together.
Beau and Elody stayed inside the whole time.

Elody at 6 months old with her bear

I just can't seem to take enough pictures of her!

Thanksgiving 2009 at the ranch with Matt's extended family

We spent Thanksgiving day with Matt's extended family at the Ranch. The kids enjoyed their day playing with their cousins. We all enjoyed our visiting. Grandma always requests that the men in the family sing together, "We Elders of Israel." It sounded so nice.

Cousin fun

I have been babysitting (Matt's sister) Esther's little girl on Wednesdays. This particular Wednesday, I had Candy's Brandon and Sariah for a couple of hours too. I put the girls in pig tails and took a picture of them together. They really enjoy being together.

Talon's science fair project

Talon did his science fair project on spot remover cleaners with enzymes. He used Awesome, Oxy Clean and Shout Advanced sprays. Oxy Clean came out on top. I use it now for all my pre-cleaning especially baby poop stains.