Can I put a brick on her head?

{Emery at 7 months}

*is finally eating solid foods (just over the last couple days)*

*now loves to go in the car, gets excited when I put her in the carseat*

*won't sit on her own, but can finally roll both directions*

*loves to pull my hair*

*is really learning to use her little voice, tries to scream,but growls at us a lot*

*loves to play with my water bottle*

*has become a total mommy's girl- won't let other people hold her*

*wears some 12 month clothes already*

*still is totally spoiled and adored*

(I am always just a few days behind on this, but I love being able to do it on my blog. I wish it would have been this easy to document all these things when my other kids were little )

For my much older brother

My older brother is celebrating his birthday today. Man, he is getting old. When we were young he used to tease and torment me. Now he just teases and torments my children, except they like it. He is the one that teaches my kids things I never wanted them to know, and that only makes them like him more.

 So today, we did a few things to celebrate, in honor of his birthday

Happy Birthday Todd!!

We hope you enjoy your day.

Food is not her friend

Don't let these faces fool you... they are only a distration technique. Emery is not fond of eating solid foods. She tries everything she can to avoid it.

Some other good distraction/diversion techniques...

...sucking in your lower lip and refusing to open your mouth...

...sticking your finger in your mouth is also a good way to make it hard to get a spoon in there.

She's good, really good. I will break her though, eventually!!

This kid...

Anyone who knows Brendan at all knows... well he is just Brendan. He is beyond stubborn, is very fickle about who he likes and will show affection to ( just ask his grandmothers and Hailey, who have been trying to win him over from the get go), and is all boy. But at the same time he just cracks us up. He always has some kind of action figure/lego something/ weapon or something in his hand or pocket. He is totally convinced that he is 10 and I am constantly reminding him that he is still 5. He really just makes me laugh.

Since I got my new camera, I have been fooling around with it a lot (much to my kid's dismay), but the other day I was taking some pictures of them while they were playing. When I was looking at them later, I had to laugh at the ones of Brendan, they showed his personality to a tee.

...speaking of taking a lot of pictures, I had to post of few of my new favorites...

Of course, I always have more pictures of the girls, they are much more willing to put up with me taking them. Taking pictures of the boys never gets very good results. I can't handle all the whining and complaining.

Cheap Entertainment

Who knew that cleaning up was so funny?

( I actually caught her a little late- she was belly laughing harder than I have ever heard her.)

Birthday Bash

When Kayden made his birthday list this year, he made sure that he wrote that he wanted a friend party. Now I totally admit that in years past, because his birthday sneaks up on us so fast after the holidays, he has not always gotten a party other than just a family celebration. But we managed to have a small one this year.

We had a few friends over for pizza, a movie, cake, and all that stuff. Kayden was also very specific about his cake. He wanted one with blue and yellow diagonal stripes that continued down the sides. We did the best we could with that. Every year, Corey, makes our kids line up for a "spanking machine", no one wanted to be left out on that though. Hopefully, Kayden got all that he wished for this year. I know we all had a great time.

Great gifts

Hailey got a lot of great things for Christmas this year, but my sister-in -law, sent her this great little cupcake baking set. It had a little muffin tin, her own baking untensils, and, of course, her own apron. She was so excited to use it. We broke it out on New Years Eve and made some delicious cupcakes that were covered in red sprinkles. She was really proud of herself for getting every cupcake its fair share of sprinkles.

Pure Happiness

Emery also received some great stuff, but she didn't get this for Christmas. My brother and his wife have a toy company and when she was born, they sent her this great rattle. Custom made for her; she loves it.

(They make some really fun toys- there is a link on my sidebar for their stuff. Little Sapling Toys)

Today

Today, my first born, is eleven years old. Wow, where has the time gone. I don't think I am ready for him to be that old; I guess I don't have a choice. I felt bad that his first day back to school was his birthday, but I did bring doughnuts to help make the day a little better. And we were able to go out to dinner over the weekend, while my parents were visiting. He always chooses Olive Garden. We opened his presents today and he will have a party this weekend. So really he is just celebrating all week.

Happy 11th Kayden!!