6 months

Can you believe this handsome little guy is 6 months old?



I can't, either! But, he is. Actually, he's 6.5 months old now. Where oh where has the time gone? My baby is growing up way too fast!

He's just too cute. I couldn't narrow down the pics because he is just too adorable. I had to scrap a little something with my indecision to share his cuteness.



Baby Nathan is now 18 lbs 9 oz and 27" long. What a big boy! He primarily wears 6-9 month clothes and has for awhile. He's starting to push the feet of the 6-9 month sleepers. Sad :( It's hard to find footed 12 month sleepers that aren't fleece - I'm going to miss the lightweight footed sleepers!

We moved him up to a convertible car seat. He technically can fit in the infant seat for a bit longer, but we're moving and the infant seat expires before we plan to have another baby. We gave the infant seat to Adam and Victoria since they'll [hopefully!!] need it before we will. We then moved Emma up to a 5-point booster [Graco Nautilus!] and put Nathan in her old seat - rear-facing, of course.

Now that he's 6 months old, we started feeding him solids. I can't believe he's old enough for baby food already! It took him a few tries to get the hang of it, but now he's mostly got it down. It's taken him longer to lose the tongue thrust instinct. His tongue has a bit of a heart shape to the end from being tongue tied at birth [he's not anymore - we took care of that before we left the hospital], so maybe that has something to do with it?

So far he's tried rice, carrots, bananas, sweet potatoes, and pears. He wasn't too keen on the rice or carrots, but I think that was mainly because he wasn't used to the idea yet. We aren't as consistent about giving him baby food each day as we should be. Meh, he gets plenty of milk from me; that supplies him with all the nutrition he needs at this age. Baby food is more for the experience and learning anyway.

He's such a great sleeper. He usually sleeps through the night. Love it! He takes good naps during the day, unless he's sick or teething. Then it's a challenge. But generally, Nathan is a fabulous sleeper. His naps sometimes coordinate with Hyrum's. They haven't as much lately, but that may be sick/teething related.

Nathan is extremely adept at rolling both ways now. He's starting to scoot a bit. Thankfully, he hasn't gotten very far...yet. But he can move around a little. He's desperately trying to crawl. He's getting so close! I hope he holds out just a little longer - long enough for us to get all set up in our new home. Then he can be mobile.

He can sit up, but only for brief periods of time. I have to sit nearby so I can catch him. He gets upset when he falls over. Nathan loves to sit upright and look around at everything. He prefers to be sitting up rather than laying on the floor with toys. He often sits in the booster/high chair with a toy while I clean or pack. He loves sitting in the shopping cart, too.



Nathan loves to put everything in his mouth. And of course, he loves tags...seriously, why do kids like those so much? Silly babies. He's really good at grabbing things. I don't particularly like when he grabs my hair...he does that to Emma, too. Ah well, he doesn't mean any harm. He can also move items from one hand to the other. He gets upset when someone takes something away from him.

He "talks" all the time. I love his little coos! He laughs a lot, especially when his brother or sister do something silly. He adores them. Lately I've noticed a special brotherly bond between Nathan and Hyrum. He loves to watch them and they love to entertain him. They always want to help take care of him. I love all the love!

Nathan started giving us kisses a few days ago! It's the sweetest thing ever! ♥ At first, I was the only one he'd give kisses to. But he quickly branched out and will now give all of us sweet little baby kisses.

He's a very smiley, easy-going, happy little boy. He's super cuddly. He loves it when I sing Primary songs and other kid songs. I adore this sweet little boy!

The last few days have been rough for him, though. Poor little guy has a cold :( And he's teething. I don't know if the teeth are coming anytime soon, but I hope they do for his sake. They keep going up and down under the gums. He's been extra clingy since he's not feeling so great. Which makes it hard to pack up for our move...but oh well. We'll get there. Taking care of my baby is more important. Thank goodness for the help of friends and family!

Nathan looks soooo much like Emma to me. But he also looks a lot like Hyrum. And yet, he has his own unique look. And he's still a redhead :) Just for fun, I put together another comparison:



Aaaaw, so cute! ♥ ♥ ♥ Such cute babies. We truly are blessed with the cutest kids ever. We love them so much!

Prepping to Move On

As many of you know, John graduates this semester. Graduation is 3 weeks away! YAY! I'm so glad this chapter - more like 1000 page novel - of our lives is finally coming to a close. I'm so proud of him for all his hard work. He's had to juggle school, family, church, job - way more than I had to worry about when I was in college. And I think his accounting classes are way harder than any of my English classes. I'd much rather write a 10 page paper than do complicated accounting equations, any day.

So what next? Grad school!! John got accepted into the grad school program he wanted! We're so excited! We heard about this specific program a little over 2 years ago. As soon as we learned that they had a Masters of Accounting program that allows students to take one extra semester and get a joint MBA, we just knew it was right for us. Apparently they thought so, too ;)

Graduation + grad school = moving. We knew this day would come. We're thrilled. But at the same time, there are things I will miss about this place. We're leaving friends behind. Our children were born here. We have a lot of memories here. And...I'm not too excited about all the packing and cleaning and driving that moving will entail. But it's worth it.

I will not miss the wind, the snow, the insanely cold temps, and the 6 month winters. Not at all. We'll see snow in our new location, but not nearly as much and not as cold.

I can't fully express how excited I am to be moving on. We've watched countless friends graduate and move away; now it's finally our turn!! Finally!!! I need about a billion exclamation points to convey my excitement.

We also already know where we're moving! We have a place to live! Yay, we won't be homeless! We literally had it lined up the very day after we found out John got accepted. Seriously awesome. We can't help but feel amazingly blessed.

How did we get a place so fast? It all started when my friend Lori called me in January. Her adorable family moved out of our ward in July. They actually moved to where we're going. They're from there. Well, Lori called me to tell me about a neighborhood of duplexes in their ward boundaries. They're really nice; 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage, and a yard. And best of all, they're subsidized. We'll be paying $50 less than we are now. For like double the space. And we've got a 50-50 chance of being in the same ward as our friends! So awesome!!!

We immediately called and got on the waiting list. In January. Because we got on the list when we did, we were able to grab the April 1st opening. We're not moving till the 9th-13th, but we didn't want to risk not having a place to move into. So we'll start paying rent for our new place a week and a half before we move in.

Thankfully, our current apartment is pro-rating the month of April. They usually don't pro-rate, but since a semester ends early in the month and another starts mid-month, they chose to pro-rate just this April as an incentive for parting tenants to move out in time for the newbies to move in. So fabulous! Could we be any more blessed? Everything is falling perfectly into place.

Now to hope all the packing and end-of-college schoolwork can fall into place...I know it will; it just takes a lot of work and faith to make that happen. I'll do the packing and John will do the schoolwork. Win win! At least for me ;) I can't do his homework anyway. I've already started packing. With all the stuff we have and taking care of 3 kids, I need to start early! I've packed 11 boxes since he got accepted. I have more to pack, but first I need to buy more packaging tape.

The packing part is not so bad...it's the insane deep cleaning that I dread!! I got a little head start on that, but...well...we'll see. It'll get done, just not much in advance. Thankfully, my mom is flying out for graduation and to help with the move. Thank goodness!! We are so incredibly blessed. Life is working out beautifully. Time to move forward with our lives!

New Computer :D

My first blog post from my new computer! I've had it for 2 weeks now. I spent the first week getting everything all set up. Installing programs and personalizing my settings and such. And the second week I found myself preoccupied with Pinterest...I finally got around to exploring it and, of course, became obsessed.

But! My new computer! It's here! It's beautiful! It's fast! It's quiet! It's toddler-proof! I am totally in love ♥



How can you not love the prettiness?

So, a few system specs for the other nerds out there: 3.3 gHz dual core processor, 8 gb RAM, 3 internal hard drives (250 boot, 160 and 500 slaves), DVD burner, Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit graphics card, and Windows 7 (64 bit).

Love love love. And I love that my 2 year old can no longer push the power or reset buttons on me.

Just for kicks, here's a shot of the innards of both my old and new computers:


The old one no longer has hard drives since they're now in the new one. And, as I expected, the hard drives were perfectly fine. Yay for no data loss!

Adjusting to Windows 7 was super easy. I had XP on my old computer, so it's definitely different. But, I've used John's Vista lappy enough to be familiar with the visual changes. I love the prettiness of 7 :D

I love how fast my new computer is. Photoshop is sooooo much faster than before!! Love it!

I've had some issues with importing my Sims 2 neighborhoods. Lisa figured out a way to make it work, but it's a long tedious process. We've only got one neighborhood working so far. We'll get there; it just isn't my highest priority.

Ooooh how I love having my own awesome computer again! Thanks to Lisa for building it and to Mom for paying for all the non-Lisa-hand-me-down parts :D I'm so super blessed. And spoiled. I think I'm pretty spoiled. I sent Mom and Lisa some pretty flower clips and a thank you card.

Now that I have a working computer again, I'll be able to get back into posting more. More to come soon!

On the Way

My new computer is finished and on the way!! YAY! Lisa finished building, testing, and installing programs on Wednesday. It should be here Monday. I'm soooo excited!! I've been computer-less for far too long. 4 weeks is a long time to be without a computer...at least for me.

I'll finally be able to share more pics of the 3 cutest kids ever! It will take me at least a few days after it arrives to get to that, though. I'll need to do an XP transfer and install Photoshop, Office, Sims 2, and other necessities. Lisa already installed Firefox, AVG, etc. She also ran about a billion tests. According to PC Pitstop, my new computer is in the top 23%. Sweet! Better yet, the graphics card is in the top 5% :D And it's one of Lisa's hand-me-downs. Yep, my sister loves fancy graphics cards. She's a little OCD about it. Not that I mind; I always get her old ones when she upgrades!

Yay!!!!! I'm finally going to have my own computer again!! Soooooo awesome! I can't wait!

Computer-less

I am still computer-less. The building process is taking longer than anticipated, due to a flaky motherboard. It wasn't playing nice with the graphics card or the RAM.

On the plus side, this means I get a new motherboard...and a new processor!! It'll be twice as fast as the one I was going to get :D

The downside, however, is that we had to order those parts, so I have to be computer-less for longer. It's definitely worth the wait, but...I'm more than ready to have a computer of my own again. Especially since I am now craving to scrap and play Sims 2. Why does lack of accessibility cause such cravings? *sigh*

But, life has a way of keeping me busy, whether I have a working computer or not. I've been trying to keep up on cleaning. I started working on our bedroom, but I didn't get as far as I wanted to. At least I got my clothes all hung up and put away. But the clutter? Still got a long way to go.

And, of course, kids definitely keep me busy. Since my last real non-computer post, Hyrum said his first official sentence: "Mommy, I love you." <3 Best first sentence ever! He picks up on more and more words and phrases each day. He totally repeats everything he hears. He also discovered that he can open the fridge...and doors, with or without the plastic knob covers. Good thing we keep the front door locked at all times!

Nathan rolled over since then, too. He's getting soooo big! He's 17.5 lbs and 27.25" long. What a big boy! He's getting close to growing out of his infant car seat. Nathan is such a sweet, cuddly baby. We love our adorable little redhead!

Emma is such a knowledge sponge. She's going to do so great in school! What a smarty. She loves doing at-home preschool each day. It's so fun! She always asks to learn more, and she remembers extremely well. She has an amazing memory. Clearly, she takes after me ;)

Speaking of school, John applied for grad school. Yay! We're still waiting to hear back; we probably won't hear until March since the deadline is March 1st. We're also on a waiting list for an awesome duplex near our grad school of choice. It's exactly what I'm looking for: inexpensive, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage, yard, and only sharing walls with one neighbor. Yay!

Graduation is coming up in less than 2 months and we couldn't be more excited! It'll be sooo nice to have that behind us. I can't wait to move to a bigger place. We so desperately need more space. I even have a list of organizational projects to do after we move. It's pointless to do all of it now since I don't know what kind of space I'll have to work with yet.

OPKMJHNBGVZW

[Emma typed that and said, "don't take it off, ok?" So...I'll leave it just for her :)]

So, overall, life is good. Stressful, what with kids and school and everything, but good. I am very excited for my new computer to be done and here. In the meantime, I'm going to work on other non-computer things. The kids are clamoring at me, so this will have to be short. Time to make dinner! The life of a mom. Always busy!

Computer Failure

One of my goals this year is to blog and digiscrap once a week. Last week, I was going to blog about Christmas (yes, I know it's late). This week, it was to be Hyrum's birthday celebration post. How ironic that my computer decided to die just a few weeks into the new year...

I've been computer-less for a week and a half, and it's driving me crazy! I'm currently using John's laptop. However, sharing John's computer doesn't really work well. For one, it's a laptop. I don't like laptops. I use them as rarely as I can. And it runs Vista. Blech. Secondly, John's homework trumps blogging...or scrapping, or Facebooking, or Sims 2. It's kind of in my best interest to let him do his homework...I kind of want him to graduate in 2 months ;)

Thank goodness for my Android! It's let me keep some semblance of sanity while being computer-less.

As for what's wrong with my computer, we (meaning my super techy-nerd sister Lisa and I) think there are several issues. First, the graphics card seems to be dead, as well as the DVI cable (cord that connects computer to monitor for the non techy-nerds out there). We borrowed a VGA cable (another kind of cord that connects computers to monitors) and a monitor from a friend so I could test things out.

The most success I've had is routing the borrowed VGA cable to the craptastic on-board graphics. Windows started to load, but the computer randomly shut itself down. This happened on multiple occasions, at different parts of the startup. So, now we're thinking that the motherboard and/or the power supply are dying as well.

Thankfully, my hard drives seem fine. They better be! Especially the slave drive I just replaced a few months ago when its still-under-warranty predecessor had bad sectors. I have a fairly recent backup, so I wouldn't lose everything...but I would lose a bunch of Nathan's baby pictures :( I'm pretty sure my hard drives are ok, though.

Rather than try to replace out-dated old parts, we decided it was time for me to get a new computer. After all, my current motherboard and processor are 7 years old...I've upgraded other parts in the meantime, but most of what I have has been there for 4 years or more. So, it's time.

The good news is, my sister is building my new computer! We've actually been talking about it off and on for almost a year now. Like as a, "when you need a new computer" thing. Ironically, we were literally talking about it moments before my computer randomly shut down; the first of a series of computer-dying-ness. I did a full virus scan one of the times it was working and it came back clean. No virus; just old dying hardware issues.

Some of the parts for my new computer are Lisa's hand-me-down parts. Like the motherboard, processor, graphics card, RAM, and power supply. None of them had problems; Lisa just likes to upgrade. When we first started talking about building me a computer, we decided that a locking Hyrum-proof case would be necessary. He has this thing for power buttons... I tentatively thought of naming my new system The Childproof, but Lisa pointed out that'd be like calling the Titanic unsinkable...

My new computer won't be top-of-the-line, but it will be substantially better than my current one. Of course, a working computer is always significantly better than a dead one. I'm getting a dual-core processor, a better graphics card, more RAM, and SATA capability. I'm also getting a bigger boot drive and Windows 7 :D And a pretty black case that locks over the power button. No more Hyrum pushing the power or reset button on me!

So far, all the parts have shipped and some arrived already. The case came yesterday, so I wouldn't be surprised if Lisa installed the hardware she already has. Once it's all together and set up, Lisa will send it to me. Then, I'll get to install necessary programs like Photoshop and Sims 2.

I'm so excited!! I can't wait to play with my new computer! But first...it needs to be built. I hope to be up and running again soon!

4 Months

Baby Nathan is 4 months old!! I really can't believe how fast it's gone. How could he be 4 months old already?



I have been horribly negligent in posting updates on our sweet little Nathan. He truly is a joy. He brings so much light and happiness into our home. He smiles, giggles, and laughs all the time. He loves patty-cake, peek-a-boo, and Primary songs. He loves to watch his older siblings play. Emma and Hyrum love to hold him, entertain him, and give him hugs and kisses.



Nathan is growing so super fast! At around 3.5 months, he started growing out of his 3-6 sleepers. Seriously. My 4 month old needs 6-9 month sleepers! He still wears 3-6 month onesies and such, but he needs the length of the larger sleepers. He's been in size 3 diapers for a month or so now. He's bigger at this age than his siblings were - even his 9 lb 12 oz birth-weight brother!



Maybe he has the random tall gene? [He comes from an exceptionally short family; I'm 4'11" and John is just under 5'5".] He's already got the random red hair gene, so who knows? And yes, he is still a redhead :D His eyelashes and eyebrows are red/strawberry blonde, so I think it's here to stay. I hope so. We love his red hair!



Nathan loves to eat. He smiles at me mid-feeding. He doesn't usually fuss about being hungry until I'm literally pulling his food out. He now gets distracted during feedings. Having 2 older siblings makes his meals interesting. Thankfully, he remembers that he's more hungry than he is interested in their antics and goes back to eating pretty easily.

He is now interested in our food. He watches us eat and it looks like he wants to try some, too. Ha! Not a chance! In a couple of months we'll let him try baby food...



Nathan rarely spits up. In fact, sometimes when he overeats and starts to spit up, he forces it back down. Funny baby. And he drools a lot.

He's a great sleeper! He typically goes to bed around 11 or 12 and stays asleep until like 7-8 ish, then eats and goes back to sleep until around 10. Awesome. The best thing? He pretty much sleep trained himself. I'm not even kidding. As long as his diaper is clean and his tummy is full, we can put him in his bed and he'll fall asleep all on his own without even fussing. All on his own. We didn't have to do anything. In all honesty, all my babies have been great sleepers. At least at night; Emma and Hyrum had to nurse to sleep for naps. And we had to help them learn to fall asleep in their own beds. But this self-sleep training Nathan does? Best thing ever.

Add to that the fact that the boys take coordinating naps 90% of the time, I am one incredibly blessed mommy!



Like his big siblings, Nathan hates tummy time. Once again, tummy time is referred to as "crying time" in our house. As such, I haven't given him enough tummy time, so he's not quite rolling over yet. Any day now. He has great head and neck control, though. Our kids seem to be born with that. And, believe it or not, he's almost sitting up. He can definitely sit supported. He can also rotate himself around on the floor.



But tummy time to help him roll over? Not so much. I try, but his cry is so sad when he's on his tummy that I just can't stand it for long. He's so sweet and sensitive. The tummy time cry is a "you're abandoning me! Please hold me!" cry. How could I resist that?

Overall, though, he hardly cries at all. He's generally content with life. He's more of a squirmer when he needs something. He squirms like crazy when he needs a diaper change - especially if it's poopy. But once it's changed, he's all smiles.



Nathan has no qualms about hanging out in his swing or on his playmat. Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes he really just wants to be held and snuggled - especially after his 2 favorite entertainers go to bed. He's such a sweet little boy. He loves being a part of everything with the whole family. He likes to look around at everything. I love when he looks right into my eyes and smiles.



Nathan loves to suck his thumb and fist. Looks like we've got a little thumb sucker! He hasn't used a pacifier in like 2 months; he prefers his thumb. We haven't offered a pacifier in awhile because he's just so content that he doesn't need it. He self-soothes with his thumb or fist instead. He's almost gagged himself a few times when sucking on his fingers, though.



Speaking of baby hands...Nathan likes to grab things. He'll grab toys, but mostly he loves to grab hair. I usually have mine pulled back during the day, so Emma is his primary hair-pulling victim. He loves to hold my hand while nursing. So sweet!

Nathan loves bathtime! He really enjoys being in the water. He's so smiley during baths. Sometimes he gets upset when we take him out, but it's mostly because of the temperature change.

Nathan now looks more and more like Emma did at this age. Except, of course, bigger, male, and with red hair. Check out the 3-kid comparisons:




[Poor Hyrum had really bad eczema at 4 months.]

Here's some fun size comparisons: at 4 months, Emma was 9 lbs 5 oz (yes, she was teeny tiny - and still is for her age). Nathan was 9 lbs 6 oz at 2 weeks...and Hyrum was 9 lbs 12 oz at birth. My boys are definitely much bigger than their sister!

And what baby update post is complete without lots of pics? Most are scattered throughout the post, but here are a few more for your cuteness-admiring pleasure.







We love our sweet little Nathan! We are so grateful he came into our lives when he did. Such a sweet, adorable, loving, happy baby!