10 Months!

Jason,

I recently said that you have gone from my sweet little baby, who is by far the easiest child in this house, to Nate's evil (and louder) twin.  It might not be that bad, but it is close.  Now that you can move, you always want to be moving.  If you are at all contained (like in the jumperoo that you used to just love) then you scream and scream until we finally set the caged animal free.
You sit in your high chair and scream a high pitched scream letting us know that you are all out of food.  If your demands aren't met within seconds, you scream more and then start hitting yourself on the head. 
You also think the stairs are a fun place to play and head for them any chance you get.
I think people are skeptical when I tell them about the new you.  That's because if you are being held and have scenery or people to look at, you are pretty happy and well behaved.  So when I take you places, you are a gem. 
We went to Lagoon last week and you sat in the stroller and barely made a peep the 10 hours we were there.  You had plenty of people to look at and were happy to just be outside.  It was so nice. 
You enjoyed the rides that you could go on and were just such a good boy.
As for new things, you have a cute little tooth.  There's just one on the bottom and it makes me happy every time I see it. 
Like I said, you are crawling, and you stand up on everything.  You are starting to let go of props and stand on your own.  It won't be long before you can get even more control and will start to walk.  Believe it or not, I look forward to that day because it will mean that you won't be as intent on finding every small and choke-able object on the floor.
As much as I might complain about your new screaming habits, I have to praise you for your new sleeping habits too.  You are a wonderful sleeper.  Now that the kids aren't waking you up from your every nap, you take two good naps and go down for the night at around 7 or 7:30.  Then I don't see you again until I wake you up with the other kids.  I love it.  It's not that I don't want to see you,
You are quick to smile and quick to laugh.  You love your brothers and sister and could hang out with them happily all day.  I'm sure you miss Allie while she is away at school. 
You are just a good kid and I love everything about you.  Happy 10 months!

 You did not want to lay down for a picture.

 Or stay still for too long.

Here's one of you hitting yourself in the head.  You seriously do that way too much.

 Nate wanted to show me that he could sit still by the sign.

You are a good kid Jason and one that I love to squeeze and kiss every day.  Thanks for being my boy.  Love you!
Mom

Click HERE to see the others at 10 months.

School

The last few weeks, Allie and Jake would shriek and point to me every time I said "school" and they'd tell me I just swore.  Allie was concerned about it and kept asking me if it was really a swear word because her friends were telling her that it was.  I told her that it was just a figure of speech...that it wasn't really a swear word, but that in the summer, saying "school" was an awful thing.  I was right there with them in thinking that the idea of school was an awful thing.  I wanted summer vacation to go on forever. 
Then, the boys started giving me nap time fits.  Nate, who has always been a wonderful sleeper, climbed out of his crib and it was game over.  Suddenly bed times and nap times were a total joke.
Jason finally got on a good schedule, but laughing and playing children woke him up mid nap every day.  Now, the idea of school was less of a bad idea.  I began to count down the days and look forward to the quiet days when Allie and Jake would be at school.  I have guilt, even as I type this, but I know they will love the change up too.
So...here I sit.  For the first time in a really long time, both boys are sleeping and there isn't another kid to worry about until school gets out.  The lunch (and breakfast) mess is put away and I won't have to fix another meal until dinner.  As much as I miss seeing my Allie girl and hearing about Jake's fun adventures, I think this will be a good thing for all of us this year.
So...here they are...

 Nate wanted in on the pictures...

  
I hope they love their classes.  I am not looking forward to homework, piano, and bed time wars.  For now, I guess I am just grateful for a few minutes to myself.  It might sound selfish, but I know it makes me a better mom when they are here.

oh hi?

Gum

Yep.  That's the title of the post because that's what I found on Jake's bed side table.  I was just doing my end of the night walk through the house when I remembered that I hadn't taken a picture today.  Remember how I made the goal to take a picture a day?  Well, I was thinking that I'd just have to miss it.  I have plenty of pictures of the kids sleeping and wasn't feeling like tempting the sleeping fairies that have cast their spells on Jason and Nate the last few days.  They have slept in their own beds without too much fuss for a few days now (more on that later).  It's wonderful.
Anyway, back to the gum.  Allie was in my bed and I had to move her into one of the bunk beds so I could get some sleep without her feet in my face.  On nights when it is really hard for her to fall asleep, she comes into our room and falls asleep and then we just transfer her to the bunk bed in Jake's room.
So, as I put her in the bed, I looked around at all the junk that has accumulated since the last cleaning and spotted this thing that I thought was a chunk of play dough.

I gathered up a few surrounding pieces of trash and then picked it up thinking I would toss it without Jake looking and letting me know that I couldn't throw away his "art".  The squishy texture told me that it wasn't dried out play dough.  It was a big hunk of gum!  Allie gave him a pack of gum that she had gotten at a birthday party and it looks like he ate it all in one sitting.  Gross!

 

Conversation in the car

Jake: What do you think would happen if you tipped a car upside down...without denting it...just lifted it up and put it upside down so the tires were on top.  Then, you took the rubber off the tires and pushed on the gas?
Me: (what the heck?)  I don't know.  It wouldn't go anywhere.
Jake:  Then, what would happen if you took some zucchini and put it on the tires that didn't have rubber and were spinning.  I bet it would shred it up fast.
Me: Dude...you are weird.

More of the spotlight on Allie

Grandma came up and took Allie shopping.  She picked out some new school clothes and got a walking dog that she has had her eye on for a long time.  When my mom was unloading the new clothes onto the counter, she told me she had gotten her a pink sweatshirt because Allie told her all she has is boy hand me downs.  I had to laugh because it's true.  I do make her wear Jake's old sweatshirts.  What's wrong with that?  I always wore boys clothes as a kid. (I guess I was older than her, but still...)

Anyway, last year, as Allie was putting on her jacket, some boy in her class told her it was a boy's jacket and she came home sad.  

Seriously?  Since when is a red and black jacket only considered a "boy's" jacket.  Oh well, she's all hooked up with pink for this year.

They came home for her requested dinner of stroganoff.  She ate more than Mike.  That girl loves stroganoff.

She got phone calls and cards of people wishing her a happy birthday and she loved it all.  I'm sure it's hard to come back to reality after all that attention.  She is one lucky girl.

Birthday Bash

Allie had a great birthday.  At least as far as I can tell.  She got to see all of her grandparents within a few days of her birthday and they all spoiled her rotten.  Here are some pictures from all the birthday joy...

 She chose Cinnamon Toast Crunch for her birthday cereal.  Her brothers were pretty happy about that too.  When Nate walked into the room as I was blowing up balloons, he said "happy birthday to Allie?" and was very excited to go wake her up and show her the decorations.

 She loved the balloons and chose to watch a show in her birthday chair.

 Lily came by first thing in the morning to give her a birthday card.  They are acting out what she drew...Allie and Lily holding hands.  It's pretty cute if you ask me.

Allie chose a purse for her cake.  She came in to watch me make it and all throughout the process, she was a bit unsure of what I was doing.  She couldn't imagine how two round flat cakes could turn into a purse.  She loved it in the end.

 We had Grandma Bonnie over for dinner and cake.  We lit the candles twice because her friend Nate wanted to help her blow them out each time.  He pretty much rules the roost around here.

There's my cute little 7 year old girl!

Then came the real fun.  We put the boys to bed and invited Lily over for a late night.  Allie didn't have a party this year and some of her friends were out of town anyway, so we just had Lily come over for a spa night.

 They soaked their feet and I gave them a pedicure.
That's when Nate crept in and stripped off his footy pajamas so he could have a foot bath too.

 Here they are...all pampered up.

Grandma Bonnie gave them some things to add to the spa party, so that took some added primping.  I should mention that this whole time, the Taylor Swift music was blaring.  Allie had that part all planned out before too.  She makes me smile.

 So...there she is.  The girl that I love best.  She makes me laugh every day and I love her more than I could have ever imagined.  I'm glad you had a happy birthday Allie!

Stats

I took Allie in for her 7 year old well child visit and Jason in for his 9 month appointment.  Things look good with these two cuties.  Allie needs to go to the eye doctor because she hasn't done well on the eye exam in the office for at least 3 or 4 years.  I have made excuses (like she was too shy to do really well on telling what she saw), but now it's time to just go in.  I hate to have her not seeing things well.
Other than that, these cute kids of mine are growing right on track.
Jason is 21 pounds 10 ounces.  That's the 70th percentile!  Poor Jake was almost 4 pounds smaller at that age.  Nate was 2 pounds lighter.  Jason is right on track to be a big Schwab boy.  He is also 28 inches tall.  The other boys were within an inch of that.  Jake was smaller and Nate was taller.  We'll see how they all turn out in the end.

Allie is still hovering around the middle of the road like she always has.  She is 53 pounds and 48 3/4 inches tall.  Those are the 50th and 60th percentiles respectively.  I always think she is a tall giant because all of her friends are shorter than her, but I guess she is just a little above average.

Jason came away from his appointment with a shot on his chubby thigh, but he barely even whimpered.  Nate, on the other hand, fell and hit his head against the cupboards and required about 3 suckers to make him happy.  Man that kid has a loud cry...

Days 6 & 7

We went to the Belnap family reunion on Saturday and Sunday.  That was the whole reason we were in McCall in the first place.  It was so good to see some of the cousins that I haven't seen in 6 or 7 years.  I loved that we could all get together and pick up right where we left off.  We keep up a family letter, so I even know what most of them are doing with their lives.  I hope my kids cherish their cousins, as they get older, like I do mine.
At the reunion, my aunt had set up a spa.  Allie got all glamorous with make up and nails.  Jake decided he wasn't too manly for the spa when he discovered gel that dyed his hair blue.  Nate is very comfortable with his manhood because he loves getting his "finga nails" and toenails painted and it's still on to this day.

 Even Jason got blue hair...you just can't tell from the picture.

Can you tell she did her own make-up?  My only advise would be to lay off the blush next time.  I kept looking over at her and worrying that something had happened to her face. :)

The only picture I have from the later part of the reunion is one of the marshmallow war.  Jake was looking forward to this all week.  He loved chucking marshmallows at his cousins.
They had a talent show too and Jake was part of a little skit with some other boys.  Allie went up there and did her creepy eye thing.  If you got applause, you could pick out a prize.  Allie came home with a little tennis game, and Jake got a rubber band gun.  Nate was applauded as I walked through the group to go change a smelly bum and said that Nate's talent was stinking out a room and that he does it several times a day.  He got to pick out a green ball.  They were pretty excited about it all.

We had to pack up to leave on Sunday.  We joined the Belnaps for a testimony meeting that morning and then hit the road for a long drive home.
Here we are in our number shirts.  Sam 44, Jason 62, Nate 50, Allie 30, Jake 25, me 8, Mike 8A

Mom's family minus Steve and Alana who had to leave early that morning, and Lori's family.  We missed them all week.

The family is getting so big we don't even fit in my camera...
 
I come from good stock.  My kids come from good stock.  I am so grateful for this family of mine.  I look at that picture and it seems like such a big crowd.  I'm grateful to say that I know and love each one of them.  We miss the ones that aren't there.
A highlight of the Sunday for me was when Heather (number blue 27 on the front row) got her Personal Progress award.  All of us participated in some way to do a goal or project so we could earn the award for her.  They gave her my grandma's necklace and a scrap book with all of the write ups of our goals and projects.  It was pretty neat.  My little family did Faith value #1.  We read scriptures about Faith for FHE and then chose a few people to focus our prayers on and talked about faith as we prayed for them over a few months time.  I feel like we were able to see miracles from our faith and our family grew from that experience.

We took off and made good time all the way home.  The kids were tired and slept some of the way.  That's always nice.
We got home and back to life.  It was a really fun break for a week and we were so lucky to be able to go.  Now we wait until next year...

Day 4 &5

We woke up to rain on Thursday morning.  By the time we made a plan B and packed up the car, it was clearing up.  It did rain on and off a bit all day, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Anyway, we went to these hot springs in Bergdorf.  It was such a cute little spot tucked away in the woods.  The hot springs made the rain feel good and we all had a good time soaking.

 We filled up the pool with our family and then some of my cousins.  They were camping at McCall the same week we were there, so we got to see them a few times.

 I thought this was a cute tub and made everyone pose for pictures.  Now that I'm looking at it in these pictures, it looks pretty gross :).  Oh well, we're home now and we all survived without getting some gross disease (at least that I know of).
Anyway, we stayed at the hot springs until we were too hot to stay longer and we went back.  It was cold, but wasn't raining anymore.  So the kids just played on the beach, and swam in the pool.

 When I said that Nate drove his monster trucks on these rocks, I meant that he did it EVERY day.  Mike was good to sit out there with him and this was my view as I cooked dinner.

Friday brought more sand play.  The kids weren't water logged yet.  I skied in the morning and now that Allie and Jake are skiers, they appreciated it more.  Jake said "I didn't know you could ski too!  You are good!"  First of all, he's easy to impress because I ski on one ski and he is just getting up on 2.  Second of all, I have skied every summer of my life and of his life...except my pregnancy with Allie and last summer when I was pregnant with Jason. Does he really not remember 2 years ago?  Sad.

The real "Captain Johnson" manned the boat for a few boat rides.  Warren has always been "Captain" and even has an official "Captain W" hat.  But now that Steve is in the Army, he really is a Captain and has taken his rightful position as the real Captain Johnson.

More sand play...

Jason also learned how to pull himself up on things.  He is so stinking cute!

We did s'mores that night too.  We all ate our fill of treats.

 Nate got in the water willingly on the first day and had a scary incident where he went in too deep.  After that, he kept clear of the water.  Here's Warren tormenting him...

 There's also a hint of the beautiful sunset that we got to see.  The cabin is on the other side of the lake so we didn't get to see the sunsets while we were over there.  That's one thing I love about this side of the lake.  Such a pretty spot...did I already mention that?