Suzuki Book 1 Party

Caleb started taking lessons from a new piano teacher one year ago who taught the Suzuki method alongside reading music. It was a tough adjustment and quite humbling. He was progressing so well and playing challenging songs with his previous teacher that it was difficult to hear his new teacher say that he needed to back-up to square one and concentrate on technique. The first Suzuki book has many easy songs (Mary Had a Little Lamb, London Bridge...) in order to learn ear training and also focus on a specific technique or two in each song. He felt really embarrassed to be playing such basic songs that even Carter could play.

Though he and I both got very frustrated at times, today was pay day. He had his Suzuki Book 1 Party: he played all 17 songs memorized close to perfectly. He nailed the techniques for each song (wrist rolls, proper staccato, repeat note legato, phrasing, sequencing, etc.), he had a great balance between his left hand and right hand (letting the melody sing), and played with wonderful dynamic contrast. 

He felt good about his performance and hopefully will have a better attitude as we begin book 2! :)

Sweet Dog

 A sweet dog adopted our family 2 weeks ago. Matt had left the side gate open after mowing the yards on Saturday, and Sunday morning a mid-sized dog showed up in our backyard and seemed content to stay. We gave her water (she was very thirsty), and then got some dog food from our neighbor. She was so well-trained and obedient that we thought surely the owners were out looking for her. (She had a collar but no identification tag.) Instead of shooing her back out of our yard, Matt thought it would be better to keep her in one spot so that the owners could find her easier.

We reached out through our neighborhood website, but heard nothing the rest of the day. Monday morning came around and I dragged 4 kids to the store just for dog food. Tuesday morning Matt went in late to work so that he could see if she had a chip. No luck. The response from our neighborhood site was plenty of people offering to help with dog supplies, but no one willing to take her off our hands. Most encouraged us to keep her since taking her to the pound would likely result in her death. 

As far as dogs go, she was pretty great. I took her running the 2nd day we had her, and she was able to keep up pretty well on my 3 mile run. Because we weren't sure of bugs/diseases and also due to her shedding, she spent the days on the patio under the ceiling fan. The first night she started barking at 3am; I didn't want to disturb our neighbors so I invited her into the laundry room and she did great the rest of the night.

As I mentioned previously, she was obviously well-trained. She would not come into the house unless invited in. She would sit on command and also did well at lifting her paw at the command "shake." She soaked up any attention we gave her running around the backyard, going for walks, or just sitting next to her and petting her. She only seemed to bark when she needed something or if she was scared.

If we were to get a dog, she is what we would look for! The problem is, we don't want a dog. I grew up with a dog, I worked in a dog kennel in high school, and I love dogs. BUT the reasons we don't want a dog outweigh the reasons why we might want one. A big factor right now is timing. I can tell you that it was not pleasant to be woken up by the dog in the middle of the night 4 of the 5 nights we had her. Sleep is too precious of a commodity with hoping all 4 kids make it through the night without waking us up. Finding someone to watch the dog during vacations is another big reason, and I can't handle a dog who sheds a lot of hair, which unfortunately she did. A clean floor is pretty important to me, and I get grossed out by pet hair all over the floor or collected in corners of the room.

It was a stressful 6 days/5 nights figuring out what to do with the dog. The boys enjoyed having her, and we didn't want them to get too attached. After 3 days of not hearing anything from owners, we then proceeded to reach out to people who might want a dog. We struck gold when one contact worked: Matt's newly married cousin who had permission to buy a dog for her birthday. Things seem to be going well and hopefully continue to do so!

Carter could often be found sitting next to her in the grass just petting her.

4th of July

Austin on the 4th of July

10 months old!

At 10 months old, Austin is pulling himself up to stand. This caused some problems with sleeping for about 4 days, but he's back to falling asleep on his own again.

4 boys in a tub

Carter pulled out his tooth yesterday in the middle of my Sharing Time lesson at church! He raised his hand and said, "Mom, I pulled out my tooth."

Wolf Rank

Caleb earned his Wolf in March, but due to baseball practices, he continued to miss Pack Meetings. So in June's Pack Meeting, Caleb finally received his Wolf award!

We've really enjoyed working on more Wolf belt loops this summer. Making mucus was particularly fun for all the boys!

Father's Day 2016

What a great bunch of boys I have in my life!

For Father's Day this year, my sister and I got together for dinner. We let the men be men and grill some steaks while we prepared the other sides/dessert. 

Matt has a special relationship with his boys, and they all love him to pieces. He wrestles with them and plays sports with them. He loves to take them fishing and camping. The boys all love building things with their dad in the garage. Matt knows how to turn their sour moods into laughter, fix all their owies, he's there when they need a listening ear, and he's their greatest champion as they get into sports and other activities. The boys all think the world of him!

I'm so appreciative of how seriously Matt takes his role of fatherhood. He works so hard to provide for our family, and puts family first after the Savior. I value his impressive abilities with babies, his help with babies/children in the middle of the night, and his help around the house. I'm so fortunate to have him as a partner in this parenting business!

Austin at 9 Months

In the last month, Austin has popped out two teeth and as of a few days ago, finally learned to crawl. (He's way behind my other boys.) He still does so well with adjusting to our crazy schedule; even if he's super tired he doesn't complain too much as long as I'm holding him. I love having this special connection with a baby--soon he'll switch to a Daddy's boy so I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts.

He still has very little hair growth. It's funny to me that I was giving hair cuts to Carter at this age. Austin doesn't have much more hair than what he was born with.

There seems to always be a bump or bruise on Austin's head since he is pulling himself up on his knees and testing out his legs and arms, trying to get to a standing position.

Austin's schedule most days:
6 am wake-up and typically nurse first thing
7 am breakfast
8:30-10:30 am morning nap
10:30 nurse followed by a snack
noon lunch
2-4 pm afternoon nap
4pm nurse followed by a snack
5:30 pm dinner & bath
6:30pm bedtime

I wish we could adjust his wake-up time so that it doesn't interrupt exercise or scripture reading time, but even on the nights when he goes to bed later for one reason or another, he still wakes up between 6 and 6:30am.

The pediatrician was concerned at his check-up about his weight. He has leg/arm rolls and a big tummy and a healthy appetite, so it has never crossed my mind to be concerned. She is worried about my milk supply though. Austin nurses heartily in the morning and after his 2nd nap, but the other times I nurse him (after his morning nap and before bed) he is mostly disinterested. I just hoped he was getting what he needs, but most likely not. We're trying to figure out a game plan on supplementing. I'm worried though that 1) he won't take formula and 2) it will end up drying up my milk supply

9 month stats

Weight: 18 lb 11oz (32nd percentile)

Height: 27" (6th percentile)

Head circumference: 48.2 cm

I happen to have my other boys' stats easily accessible for my own comparison

Bryson's 9 month stats:
Weight: 20 lb 2oz, 56^th percentile
Height: 27.5” tall, 16^th percentile!
Head count: 48.5 cm

Carter's 9 month stats:

Weight: 22 lb 12oz, 80^th percentile

Height: 30.25” tall, 95^th percentile!

Head Count: don't have it recorded 

Caleb's 9 month stats:
Weight: 20 lbs. 13 oz., 55th percentile*
Height: 45th percentile
Head Count: 80th percentile for his head count

The boys are all great helpers with Austin. It's so nice! They all shower him with love and attention.

Just like with Bryson, it took 9 months to put on the weight and 9 months to take it off. I'm happy to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Lots of running and exercising!

Summer is Here!

Caleb's last field trip for the school year at a local YMCA that got rained out twice!

Caleb made the All-Star team for baseball! 

This is a huge privilege. They form an American and National League All-Star team of 12 boys each out of over 100 boys. Most boys that make the team have been playing for several seasons; this is Caleb's second season. All-Stars extended his baseball season by 3 weeks, and what a stressful 3 weeks those were! 5 practices a week and games were an hour away. I think we barely survived...

Caleb's All-Star team

Lots of flooding in this area due to all the rain. Our backyard couldn't drain fast enough, and we opened the gates on both sides because the water level was quickly rising. At one point the rain slowed down and there was no lightning, so I sent the boys outside to play. Bryson decided to go commando.

 We had several weather days where school was cancelled towards the end of this school year!

Matt and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary! We always talked about some sort of big get-away for #10, but with a nursing baby and my parents gone on a mission (in other words no one to watch the kids), it didn't happen. Instead, we bought a new mattress.

There are 9 roses and 1 sunflower: 10 flowers to represent our 10th anniversary and the sunflower is an inside joke. It represents one of our dates before we were married where Matt brought me a huge, honking sunflower that I thought was just weird!

I haven't been good in the past about setting a schedule for summer. I resolved to do better this year if only to stop the fighting amongst the boys. We had a family council at the beginning of the summer to set up the 4 things they need to do each day, M-F, in order to earn screen time: reading, school work, piano, and chore. We all agreed on a reward system; so far so good!

We also worked a Friends' day, waterpark, pool day, and library day into our weekly schedule.

Carter got his face painted like Spider Man at the Kick off to Summer Reading program at the library.

We also did a zoo day with cousins!