8 Months Old

It is hard to believe that today is Zuri's 8 month birthday. Time really has been passing quickly. She has changed quite a bit this month and even in just the last few weeks.

On January 7th we realized that she was a full flegde unassisted sitter. She still has the occasional topple but does a pretty great job. She can even bend for toys and then go back in to a balanced sit. She has also been seen scooting forward in an army crawl type poition a few times so I think we might not be all that far off from crawling. I'm not looking forward to the new challenges that will bring us, but perhaps being able to follow me from place to place will help with the separation anxiety we've been dealing with every time I walk in to the kitchen or go to the bathroom. Another favorite trick is waving to everyone and saying "ma-ma". At this point I think "ma-ma" is really more of a sound than a refference to me, but I'll take it all the same. There have been a few "da-da" too, but there are harder to come by at this point.

A few weeks ago we tried puffs for the first time and she LOVES them and hasn't been able to get enough of them since. She can pick those little things up and throw them in her mouth pretty fast. We've offered her a sippy a few times but it hasn't clicked much yet. I like to have the kids 100% switched over around their 1st birthdays so it is something to work on. She's done pretty well with baby food and seems to be getting less and less excited about her bottle. We need to start working on introducing her to more of the soft real foods because she is desperate to have whatever the rest of us do most of the time now.

Right after the holidays we officially moved her out of the infant car seat- we were well past due with feet hanging over the edge, but I hate not having that thing for grocery carts etc. She seems to like sitting in the big carseat where she has a better view of her brother in the 3rd row making funny faces at her. Those belley laughs as we are driving down the road are pretty fun.

Zuri is still taking 2 naps a day- 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon and sleeping at night from 8pm-7am. We love our good little sleepers and are so grateful for them. We work hard when they are little to keep them on sleep track so when it is 8pm and they are all out for the night it is wonderful.

Despite starting off the new year with a double ear infection, a crummy cold/ cough thing, and the her 1st ever throw-ups she continues to be pretty sweet and smiley most of the time. It is a fun age!











*I love this shirt she is wearing. My Mom ordered it for her (and ones in different colors for my 2 cousins baby girls) for Christmas.

Dance Class for Rori

Rori started a dance class today. She is super excited about it and did really well. It is going to be very cute. There are 3 other little girls from Church in the class and we had a few other familiar faces as well. The teacher has been teaching for years and is apparently VERY popular. We really debated putting Rori in the class since it means we will have to pull her out of school to do it, but it amazingly happens to be at the rec center right next to her school and is only for 1 hour every Monday. At school they normally have lunch and playground at that time so that is all she will be missing. We think it will be a great opportunity to have her be with friends that set a good speech example. Her school teacher thought it was a good idea too so we are very excited. Rori and Kai didn't have school today due to staff development so it was a nice way to start. Next week will be more interesting as I try to change her in and out of a leotard and tights, get her to eat something, and transport her back and forth in a small window- with Zuri in tow mind you. Should be fun!

Peeking Through the Glass:


Twninners Kinzie & Rori:


Dum Dum Lolipops at the End Were a Big Hit with All the Girls From Church:

Another 1 "Bites" the Dust

Tooth #2 finally came out. The kids had today off school so Kai was able to get in a lot of extra wiggling on his tooth that has been loose for forever and was just barely hanging there. He's pretty thrilled about it. The look on his face the first few seconds after it came out was great- a little bit of panic combined with excitement. Next up are probably the two top front teeth which should be pretty funny. Here's hoping the tooth fairy doesn't forget about us tonight.

So Far in the New Year

We're slowly but surely getting reorganized with life in the new year. New toys and gifts from Christmas have found spots to live, everyone is back in school (L just this week), the new year to do list is slowly crossing off and adding things, we have a few Valentine decorations up which means our brains are moving forward, and we've even gotten around to starting a few organizing projects around the house.

In the midst of all of that we've....

...continued to have frequent visits from Batman and Batgirl.


...watched rockets full of astronauts take off around the house.






...had dinner with my college roomie Jamie and family. They are expecting baby boy #2 any minute now so it was fun to get in a quick dinner.


...checked out another new playground they put in about 5 minutes from our house. It was a super windy day so we'll have to go back again soon, but this was my first experience with a playground with electronic built in toys????? It also looks like it will have quite the splash pad though which will be great for another option in the heat.







...battled illness. Got to love January for always bringing out the sick. So far this year we've had a double ear infection, a minor case of allergy based hives, the throw-ups, lingering drippy nose, a little bit of eye goop upon waking, and a slight fever - and we're only a few weeks in to the year. It was bound to happen. I've actually been amazed that we've been as healthy as we have with a preschooler and a kindergartner. Last week Kai and Rori had there 1st school absences due to illness. It was the 1st day for Kai from this year and last year. I knew it was coming though when he came home last Monday and vividly told me all about the kid who sits next to him puking all over his white board in class. Colds are annoying but throw-up is what I dread. Thankfully it lasted less than 24 hours for Kai, but looks like he shared it with Rori. Now we just wait to see if it hits the rest of us.

New Primary Classes

We were still in UT the 1st Sunday of the new year so it wasn't until the 2nd week that the kids got to go to their new Primary classes at Church.

Kai moved up to CTR 6. He is excited to be in the oldest class in the JR Primary here. There are two classes of his age group so you always wonder about friends getting switched up, new teachers and things, but as usual no complaints from this kid. He just seemed to happily go with the change.



The big news though is Rori moved out of Nursery and in to Sunbeams. We can't imagine that she can really be old enough to go to Primary, but so far so good. She just followed Kai right in there the 1st day and never looked back. There are also 2 classes for her age group so we were thrilled to learn that she and best red headed buddy Kinzie are in the same class. Being the youngest group she gets to sit in the front row which I think she thinks is great. It is also pretty fun to get to be in there with Kai.



Zuri still gets to be with Mom and Dad until she is old enough for Nursery at 18 months. She is pleased with this as she isn't big on Mom being out of her sight lately.

Christmas 2011- SLC

We had debated going or not going to SLC this year at Christmas time. We love going but wondered if it would just be too much. It is really fun having such great places (San Diego & SLC) to be at during Christmas time, but going to both means a lot of coordination and driving in a pretty small window of time. We also have a baby and a lot going on in life this particular winter, so we debated. Lance's sweet parents had volunteered to come to us in Vegas, but in the end we decided to go and we are really glad we did.

There is just something so special about SLC at Christmas time. This was a bit of a strange trip though because there was virtually no snow. The kids would have loved some to play in, but it did make the driving and overall bundling quite a bit easier which was nice. We got to be there for cousin Kennedy's 7th birthday, go to our old Church in SLC, see a few Salt Lake friends, hang out with Lance's parents and Tyler and Kimberley and the cousins, and just breathe in some mountain air. Kai and Rori also got to check out the new dinosaur museum with Grandma, Grandpa, Kennedy and Jack which sounded pretty awesome. We sure love playing with these cousins and miss living close to them.

Another big highlight was we got to have dinner and go see the Temple Lights with the Wadsworth's (who drove down from ID) and the Reed's (who were also up from Vegas). The Wadsworth's are expecting #3 very soon and it's a GIRL! We are so excited for them. It was fun to see all these buddies jump right back in to hanging out again. Man how we miss the Wadsworth's being in Vegas.

The only bad part of our trip was poor little Zuri was feeling crummy. She started to cough on the drive there from Vegas and I knew that wasn't good. The first night she was up several times thanks to the cough. The second night she never slept for more than 10 minutes at a time for the whole night. One of us had to be holding her all the time in an upright position. Poor little thing was miserable and I was confident I knew the problem since her getting up in the night and especially being fussy was highly unusual. Sure enough after a trip to Instacare the next day we were given an antibiotic for a double ear infection. The only other time we've had a kid up in the night like that was due to an ear infection so I was hoping that was the problem. I say hoping because our experience has been that medicine provides relief from ear infections pretty quickly. It did seem to help her pretty fast and we've thankfully been back on track for sleeping. Poor kid also seemed to be have 2 more teeth cutting through during all of that as well.

We were able to wait until Monday to go back so it was extra nice to have the whole day Sunday to be there and just hang out and visit at Lance's parents. Going to Salt Lake still causes us some strong homesick pangs, but we're so glad we were able to fit this trip in.

Christmas 2011 - San Diego

We headed down to San Diego this year for Christmas. We hadn't been there since July so we were all extra excited to soak in a little San Diego time. The weather was perfect and everyone had a blast. In addition to the Christmas festivites we got in a trip to Sea World with the Holiday Bowl teams, some golf on the putting range, some shopping, and lots of playing with Grandma and Grandpa.

Our kids were more than spoiled with Christmas love this year from Santa and many others. It was the Christmas of Batman, Strawberry Shortcake, and a big suprise. When we got to San Diego on Thursday night they were allowed to open up one present early- an XBox Kinect. The Kinect provided tons of entertainment for eveyone over the next few days. The kids had a blast playing sports and dancing with grandma and grandpa. They would be dripping with sweat from all the exercise since you use your body instead of a controller which is pretty cool.

Zuri was at a super cute age for her 1st Christmas. She was alert enough to watch all the excitement of her siblings and enjoy some good paper tearing. She also seemed to really enjoy having someone willing and able to love on her at any time.

We all had a wonderful sunny CA Christmas which was finished off with an afternoon seashell hunt on the beach!