Addie Lou- 6 months

This little girl has stolen our hearts.  She is quick to smile and laugh.  Adeline is happiest when she is being held by mom or dad, watching Teagan and Eloise jump or dance around the living room.

Adeline loves food.  Somedays I feel like I spend most of my time in the kitchen spoon feeding her or preparing meals for the rest of us.

She sits in the bumbo and if I don't give her a bite quick enough she starts grabbing at anything nearby.  She grabbed a colander full of grapes the other day and dumped them out.  Eloise was laughing so hard she couldn't stand.  

Adeline loves to snuggle, she will lay her head on my shoulder for a long time, I love it!

A couple months ago I was canning and she had been sleeping for about 20 minutes and she woke up screaming.  I was up to my elbows in beet juice and needed about 5-10 minutes to finish.  I kept working for a minute, but she was so hysterical I thought something must be wrong.  I had the thought, "babies are always staring and smiling at the ceiling, there must be Angels talking to them.  I just need 5 minutes, Angels, just entertain her for a few minutes for me."  Immediately after I had that thought, Adeline went from screaming to cooing and babbling.  I hurried and finished and then went to get her.  She was lying in her crib, staring at the ceiling with a big smile and was babbling to someone that I couldn't see. I was so amazed.  It was a testimony to me that angles are around us.  I wondered who it was.  Maybe a passed relative or future sibling.  It makes me realize how special and perfect little Adeline is, that she can see what the rest can't.  Too bad she can't talk and give me advice.

 She is the sweetest, squid heist little girl and we love her so much!

Family Prayer Giggles

So tonight we were just getting ready to say family prayers and just as I begin, Eloise and Teagan burst out laughing.  I stopped and looked to see that Adeline had grabbed Teagan's blanket and started chewing on it.  For some reason it was hilarious and everyone started laughing so hard.  Then the big kids had to be "cute" too. 

 I've decided that having a good laugh with your family is just about the best way to spend your time.  

Halloween

For Halloween this year Teagan wanted to be Darth Vador from Star Wars and Eloise wanted to be "a dress" which translates to Rapunzel from Tangled.  Adeline wanted to be a pumpkin, and she was, but we never took a picture.  She ended up sleeping through trick or treating...whoops.

We found out that Teagan wouldn't be able to bring his lightsaber or mask to school so I painted his face like Darth Maul, a Star Wars villain, for school.  

He wasn't thrilled about the process...

...but he LOVED the end result!  He went around scaring everyone all morning.

Eloise got some pretty princess dresses from her cousins Sasha and Lily so she picked Rapunzel.  And what Rapunzel costume is complete without a blonde wig made from tulle?  The hair didn't last long, way too itchy!

Here is Addy pre-costume, sweet as ever, snuggling and smiling as usual.  

This was just before we left to go trick or treat at Great Grandma Packer's house.  Unfortunately, Adeline was asleep inside getting geared up for a big night.

 We found out that Kai and Jax were Darth Vador too so we stopped by for a picture, so fun that all these cousins have common interests!

Eloise was in pure amazement when people started giving her candy.  She was so excited just to run from house to house, the candy was just a bonus.  Teagan was delighted because our neighborhood gives out great candy.  He got plenty of full size candy bars and was most excited for the can of pop.

In the past I've hated Halloween, but this year was so different.  We went in our own neighborhood for the first time and it was so fun!  We loved getting to chat with our friends and people in our ward. Instead of feeling like we were begging strangers for candy, it felt like we were enjoying a fun tradition where neighbors see each other and kids get candy from people we know.  It was also great to feel good about eating the homemade donuts and popcorn balls...who am I kidding, I always feel good about eating donuts and popcorn.  

Eloise Anne

Eloise is at such a fun and crazy age!  She says and does the funniest things and she likes to scream a lot.  So much passion in that cute little body.  

She loves to help and sings while doing any chore.  This morning while clearing out the silverware she sang "I love my mommy, I love my daddy, he's at work now, I love my Teagan, on the bus, no I can't go, I love my baby sister, Adeline."  Her invented songs are my favorite.  Her and her buddy, Jordan Heath, will swing forever and sing together.  It is so sweet.

We asked if we could help with her pajamas..."NO!!! I can do it all by myself, see?"  That one had us laughing.

Eloise loves Adeline, and that love is returned.  Nobody can get adeline smiling and laughing like Eloise.  They are already best friends

Eloise got her first big girl haircut!  

She seems so big now, where is time going.  She was telling me stories the other day and I just stared at her perfect  toddler face and fingers and felt sad knowing that in a few short years, all traces of that baby face will be gone.  I want her to stay little forever.

Eloise loves to say our family prayers, sometimes they are pretty entertaining, here are some of our favorite lines:

"We're thankful daddy is home, (then, in a whisper) yay! Daddy's home!"

"I'm thankful for my Jordan and Boston and play with friends, and Teagan outside too."

"And bless mommy be happy and Teagan be happy and daddy be happy and Adeline be happy."

"We're thankful for mac'n cheese"

Eloise loves to sing and dance and twirl, she is girly and we love her so much!

Teagan

Teagan is having a great fall.  The highlight was his first year of flag football. Dad even got to coach!

It was hard to stay focused at first because his two best friends, Eli Heath and Mason Murdock, were on the same team.  But as the season progressed teagan got better and better.  He was best at blocking on offense and being the quarterback. 

Teagan is so excited to play again next year!

When he's not playing football, Teagan is busting through his homework so he can play outside with his friends.  He is their imaginative leader and would spend all day with his friends if we let him.

We went to Jeff and Julie's house a few weeks ago and I let Teagan bring the light saber we got for his Halloween costume. It was time to go and we couldn't find It anywhere.  Teagan had probably been looking for it for 30 minutes and I had started helping.  I suddenly got the idea to look under the bed in my mom's room and it was there.  I ran upstairs to show Teagan and he was on his way down with a huge grin.  "You found it! Was it under grandma's bed? I said a prayer to help me find it and the Holy Ghost told me that's where it was!"

I'm so proud of him, he has such a strong spirit and is really learning to love and trust his Heavenly  Father.  We are sure lucky to have him.

Our First Orchestra Concert

My cousin, Megan, gave us tickets to the orchestra that she had won on the radio. I thought that our family could use a little culture so we decided to all go together. We knew that we wouldn't be able to last the whole time but we were hoping to at least make it to intermission.  

The kids loved clapping at the beginning when they were thanking the sponsors. And then the music started, and they were amazed, both kept asking "what's that noise mom? "There were several musical instruments that they had never heard before and they wanted to know what they were.   The chairs were also really squeaky so every time they moved it echoed in the entire auditorium. After about 20 minutes of trying to keep the kids from asking questions are moving an usher asked me to take Eloise out.  So we all just left and gave up. It was an A for effort though, better luck next time.  :)

Carving Pumpkins 2014

We had a great time carving pumpkins this year. Not having fence proved to be a little challenging. The whole neighborhood thought that carving pumpkins was a fantastic idea so we had to keep sending people away.  ha ha

Zac broke out the power tools this year I think he had a little too much fun!

Teagan did a freestyle Pumpkin, his creativity can't be contained.

Eloise decided that she wanted to paint a pumpkin. She wanted it to be all purple, so beautiful!

Rachel chose an extremely intricate pattern online and spent hours making her work of art.  I chose an easy one from the book and had to follow the directions, no surprises there. :-)

Carving pumpkins is always one of my favorite activities of the fall time, and these ones all came from our garden, which I love!