Garrett Allan- 7 Months Old

Dear Garrett,

You turned seven months yesterday. SEVEN MONTHS!! You are growing up too fast and I order you, as your mother, to slow down a little. You are my last baby and I am not ready to leave this stage of my life. I love having babies around and as much as I want to add to our family, you are it. So let me enjoy this time for a bit longer, okay?

I have to apologize for not doing monthly updates as earnestly as I should. You are, after all, the fifth kid and with that comes a smidge of neglect. Not that I am neglecting you, but certain things fall by the wayside and journaling about your every development is one of them. You may not get my full attention in that respect, but the plus side being the youngest is that you have four older siblings who worship and adore you. Ethan never had that! Lauren especially loves you and I think she wants to be your mom. The first thing she wants to do each morning is wake you up. And if you are only a blanket on the living room floor, it takes all my attention to make sure she doesn' accidentally kill you with kindness. And you know what? I think you love the attention she gives you. You always have a huge smile on your face as she walks around with you. You love it, but it about gives me a heart attack each time!

Devin is starting to be more happy to have you around as well. He will now say your name instead of just "Baby" or "Baby G". I'm sure y'all will be best friends and you will be just as naughty as Moo. You laugh a lot, and always at anythiung Ethan says or does. If I am holding you on the couch and Ethan is there too, you stare at him as if you are waiting for him to entertain you. And all he has to do is sneeze or clear his throat and you think it's hilarious. No one can make you laugh like he can.

I can not keep you still. Changing your diaper is a hard thing because you want to roll around and move! When I took your seven month pictures you rolled from one side of the bed to the other and wouldn't stay as I put you. Uh oh, I think we are in for it with you.

Devin's Boo-Boo

Devin is for sure our most accident-prone child. It comes with also being the most adventurous and and fearless one. We joke that he's lucky to live to see five years old, and we're only half joking. He scares us to death on a daily basis with his antics and he keeps us on our toes.

On Tuesday we were in a hurry to get to ballet. Kids all ran out to the van and I clicked the button on my remote to open the sliding door. I then truned to shut the lights off and I heard some screams and then "Devin has blood!!!" {SIGH} What now. I found Devin sitting on the seat with blood gushing from the side of his head, pouring out and dripping off his golden curls. I don't-do-blood. Poop and throw up I can do, but blood makes me faint. I tried not to panic like the kids were, so I grabbed a ton of baby wipes out of the diaper bag and pressed them to his head. Wipes...riiiiight. I couldn't even tell where the blood was coming from because there was so much! I held Devin and called Cody on my cell to tell him what happened. I felt paralyzed. He told me to get to urgent care now! Luckily I already had everyone in the car and we were obviously going to miss ballet.

To make a long story short, Devin did in fact have a 1 1/2 in gash on his head. I still have no clue what happened. but Lauren swears she saw it and that the sliding door hit his head. Nonetheless, we got it to stop bleeding, he had no signs of head trauma, and he got some staples. I did almost faint as I held him down while the doc stapled his head. It was highly embarrassing when one of the nurses had to tend to me, the mom.

Devin goes in to Dr. Allred next week to have the staples removed. The poor guy is going to have a horrible time with it. Hopefully we won't go through this again any time soon. One can hope, right?

Halloween 2011

Halloween was great and we're happen to report that it was uneventful. As in, no illness or accident. Mom was stressed trying to get everything ready and everyone dressed to go trick-or-treating. This year a big group of friends went together, which stressed Mom even more because she was rushed to get people out the door on time as not to hold anyone up! We had the biggest brood and the most to get ready, and she worried that the other families felt annoyed as they waited. Oh well.

This year our new friends, Casen and Aubrey, joined us for our spooky dinner. And it was oh-so-spooky. Mummy dogs, pumpkin barf, human blood and bones, roach and ghost poop, rat guts....it was all nasty and tasted delicious at the same time. This was Devin's first time trick-or-treating and he lasted the entire time with the bigger kids! And we were thrilled that he agreed to wear a costume. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get him to wear something...so a cow it was. And very appropriate!

The Baby Boys

Words can't describe how much joy these two guys bring into my life. Seventeen and a half months separate them in age and although times are challenging, I love that they are close. I love that I have the chance to raise two little ones as "babies" together. I love equal cuddle time between them, and better yet, I love it when I am feeding Garrett and Devin needs love too and climbs up into my other lap to lay his head on my arm and twirl my hair between his fingers. It's often times magical. No mother has ever been so lucky.

Movie Date With Mom

Cody sent me out with the three older kids on Saturday to see a movie. The girls (especially Hailey) have been wanting to see "Dolphin Tale" so that's what we saw. We went all the way out to the Megaplex in Sandy, and as we were driving out there, I realized the last time I was at that theatre I was pregnanct with Ethan! I told the kids about that and they thought it was amazing. They love hearing about times in my life before they were born. Then Hailey and Lauren wanted to know what movies I saw when I was pregnant with each of them. Love memories like that. Love talking about it with the kids.

The movie turned out to be incredible. I cried and wanted to cheer at the end. It's not that often that a REALLY great movie comes out that you actually want to see with your whole family. This was that kind of movie, and you can be sure we'll add this one to out DVD collection when it hits stores.
Notice Ethan plugging his ears in this picture? He does that when he SEES something he doesn't like. I used to and still do the exact same thing! It was a perfect afternoon with these great kiddos.