Jackson at 7 months

 Our little guy is growing by the minute! He is now 7 months old. Little cutie.

He loves to stick out his bottom lip! It is so funny. He does it often while eating. But sometimes he'll just stick it out for fun :)

"Don't make me sit up and smile!" He doesn't sit up by himself yet, but he is close. He just always tips over after a while. Hopefully soon he will! I feel like they are more entertained when they can sit and play. He still always wants to be held.

 You can see his 2 bottom teeth here. That's all he has so far.

Recently Jackson has started to be aware of me, especially. If he's tired or hungry and sees me, he usually will whine until I take or get him. His sisters continue to make him laugh. He continues to do "the banana" as grandpa Val calls it. He lifts his head and his feet while he's laying on his back. It's so silly. He should have a six pack in no time!

He's pretty much done with baby food now that he's had real food. I can still get him to eat some of the fruit baby food, but veggies are a no go. We usually give him what we are eating and that seems to keep him happy. He still eats all the time. I nurse him every 2-3 hours still in addition to feeding him when we eat too. At night he does better than that, but man, this boy can eat! He sleeps at night for a 6-8 hour stretch usually but I'm hoping pretty soon we can make it 12 hours!

Christmas Day 2012

We began opening gifts at 7 am with the whole family on Christmas day. Checking out the stockings from Santa.

 Jackson found a hammer rattle in his stocking!

 The girls got Lalaloopsy dolls from grandma and grandpa.

 They were pretty excited about them!

 Jackson opened a tractor from grandma and grandpa.

Justin and all of the boys opened guns from his parents. They were all REALLY excited! And pretty surprised too, I think.

The girls got The Princess and the Popstar Barbie dolls. They have really liked the new movie and sing the songs from it all the time! They love these dolls. 

Ali got a Dora dress up! She was so excited and immediately put it on. She was running her fingers through her brown wig. It was hilarious! She wore it over her clothes and jammies til the next day.

Jackson also got some cute dog puppets. He loves to eat them :)

Molly with her spoils. Her gift from Santa was a LeapPad. We are sending it back to Santa to get it fixed since it has a problem, but she has really liked it! She says it is her favorite gift.

 Ali with her gifts. The girls were thrilled with everything they got.

It was really fun watching everyone open their gifts. We had such a big group and it was hard to organize everyone, but in the end we were all happy and had a great time. Everyone was spoiled and we are grateful to have so much!

Here's a view of outside from the front door. It was beautiful while we were there.

We did a lot of fun things while we were there. We saw some movies we hadn't seen yet, ate lots of yummy food, played games, went snowmobiling and on the sleigh ride and just relaxed. Justin's aunt and uncle and their family came and stayed at their grandparents house nearby and so we got to spend time with them as well, which was fun. Thanks to everyone who helped make it so fun!

Celebrating Ali's birthday

Look at these 2 cute boys!! This is Paxton on the left and Jackson on the right. Paxton was the first grandson, born to Justin's brother Mark and his wife Ashley. We celebrated Alison and Paxton's birthdays. Pax will be 1 on January 5th and Ali's birthday is January 10th.

Some of the girls eating cookies and ice cream. Left to right: Carly, Mckenna, Reese and Laney. There are 7 granddaughters and then the 2 boys. Finally we got some boys after a big run of girls!!

Ali checking out her birthday gift with grandpa. She got this darling purse with candy and a neat flashlight inside. She slept with her purse for about 3 nights in a row. I think it's safe to say she loves it! Thank you grandma and grandpa!

Sleigh Ride

We were lucky enough to get to go on a sleigh ride while in Wyoming. It's the real deal! 4 horses pulled the sleigh and we sat on bales of hay (that we covered with blankets).

It was a sunny, beautiful day and I went with the girls. Justin stayed at the house with Jackson. Before we left for Wyoming, Jackson got sick with croup. He was miserable the first 2 days we were there. It was the first time he's been sick and he was so sad. Poor little guy! We felt so bad since he is always so happy and he was acting so unlike himself.

I love this picture of Molly and Grandpa Val! He would take turns holding each of the grandkids up in the front so they could see the horses.

Ali was pretty quiet during the ride, but I think she had fun!

I loved going on the sleigh ride! We have done it once before pre-kids and I knew the girls would love it and they did. Thanks Val and Shelley!

Molly's Christmas Recital

We anxiously anticipate Molly's recitals and had a lot of fun at this one. Here are all of the girls in their opening song, "Welcome to Trio". Trio is the name of the singing and dancing company.

Molly is the second blue girl from the right. She did a great job on her solo and dances, even if it wasn't perfect :) They sang "Let it Snow" and danced to "Jingle Bells".

I tried to get a picture of her after and this was the best I got! She was really excited to get to wear stage make-up for her performance and said she had fun! We were way in the back so I'm not too thrilled with my pictures, but oh well!

Pre-Christmas fun

 I'm pretty behind in posting, but here goes!!

We went as a family and saw the lights at Temple Square. It was the perfect night. Not too crowded, pretty warm because of cloud cover and we ended by a treat at Farr's Ice Cream. The kids were all great sports!

 We had a special visit from Santa at our ward Christmas party. Molly sat with Santa, but when it was Ali's turn, she wasn't interested! We had a fun time at the party though.

We made a "Rice Krispy Cottage" for fhe one night.

Unfortunately the next morning it had caved in, but we had fun making it!

For our Galbraith Christmas party we played some "Minute to Win it" games. It was fun and entertaining! Here Justin and the girls are building a pyramid with cups.

We also played the game where you put a cookie on your forehead and have to get it into your mouth without hands. More fun to watch everyone else on this one!! We had a few other games as well.

After we finished the games we found the girls building pyramids. If you want to keep your kids entertained, this is a great idea! They loved it!

 We had the girls open their presents from my parents since we left the next morning to spend Christmas in Wyoming.

They were so excited about their puzzles! Ali opened up her Dora puzzle and said, "This is what I wanted for Christmas!" It was so cute and funny.

 They also got these cute sweatshirts and an outfit.

gettting ready

So here we are, getting ready for Christmas. I'm sure that's what you are doing too.

Just yesterday I realized, ah! I need gifts for Molly's teachers! (dance and preschool) If you are a slacker and almost forgot like me, have no fear! Thanks to pinterest and google, I found this idea via www.howdoesshe.com/.

It's a chocolate orange, turned into an apple for a teacher. Clever! Thank you! I am totally doing this today (or tomorrow). 

We will be heading to WY for the big day and so we are trying to make our lists and check them twice to make sure we remember everything! It is very tricky to pack up Christmas and travel somewhere else, but we know it will be fun! Justin's whole family will be there and we have some fun things planned. 

I'm practically done with my shopping except for a few things. Again, I grabbed some gifts early on. Do you get things early or wait til the last minute? Last year I got too many things too early and forgot and that was bad. This year I have really stuck to my budget for the kids and done a pretty good job. Justin on the other hand has needed a few things that have been gifts for him, but he's had to use them (boots, shaver, etc) so Christmas might be kinda lame for him. 

Do your kids do this? Like 2 weeks before Christmas they suddenly are way into a certain toy that before they cared less about? And that's what they ask for? Yep, that's what has happened with Molly especially. But I have to remember that no matter what, new things are new exciting things and they will be happy with almost anything. But it definitely makes me second guess myself and my choices!

Jackson has his 2 bottom teeth in! He has actually acted very well with no fevers and about the same amount of drool as always :) He has woken up a bit earlier, but who knows if that has to do with the teeth.

Molly's singing and dance recital is tomorrow night, Justin's office party was last week and we leave on Friday. Oh and our family party is Thursday night. It definitely feels like Christmas, especially this past Saturday when we got 6 inches of snow! We've watched Elf, done some Xmas crafts, had yummy treats around the house, etc. etc! How about you? What have you done that is Christmas-y to you??

What could be better

 ...than bunk beds if you are a little kid? We needed a real crib for Jackson (the pack 'n play is getting a bit small!) and we had converted it into a toddler bed for Ali. So we decided on bunk beds for the girls and they couldn't be happier!

 It took Justin and I about 3 hours, but we put the beds together ourselves. The mattresses came in today and I bought new bedding for Ali since she didn't have any. They each have a blanket that they usually sleep with, but she needs to sleep like a big girl in her big girl bed! We kind of hurried and got them ready before a xmas party tonight so they could sleep in them tonight.

 So happy with their new beds!!

They have been so excited as we set them up and Molly even said she would take a nap today in her new bed! Unfortunately the mattresses weren't here in time for that to happen. Hopefully it will be a quick adjustment for all of us and they will stay where they're supposed to!