Morning Musings by Ian

Cute Bob

Rachel got a free haircut today - thanks JCPenney! She's all ready for school now and is excited about her new shorter hairstyle.

Rachel's Got Talent

Professional Pics

 

Any grandparent who would like a printed copy of Miss Rachel can leave a comment and I'll order some for you... :)

6 months

Ian is 6 months old today. Andy and I have often said that we'd probably have a lot more kids if we didn't have to do the 0-6 month age range. Well, that's not the case with this little one. I would do these 6 months over in a heartbeat. I can't believe he's ready to start solids. Before we know it he'll be crawling and talking and eating big people food. Craziness!

Ian had a check-up with the doc this morning and all is well. He's 16 pounds, 5 ounces and is 27.5 inches tall. He's right were he needs to be and doing all the things he needs to be doing. He's getting better each day at sitting up. I think tomorrow morning he's going to have a lot of fun with his first taste of rice cereal! For several weeks he has been watching us eat with quite a bit of interest. And if he happens to be sitting on my lap while I'm eating he's a bit disappointed that the food doesn't make a pit stop at him. We'll see how tomorrow goes... Ian only has a few 6 month outfits that fit him. He's mostly wearing 9 month clothes. There have been a few outfits that I have waited too long to pull out and he wasn't able to wear them for long. I've had to shop the clearance racks for 9 month outfits - definitely a bonus of living where it stays warm through November and they still put all the summer stuff on clearance quite early.

This little guy knows how to get around when he wants to. He kind of drags himself or rolls when he wants to get to something. It's not like he's getting across the room, but we definitely have to be more cautious of what we leave laying around. Just the other night he had found a piece of paper (I promise I had only left him for about 5 minutes) and had a pretty big wad of paper chewed up and stuck to the roof of his mouth. Thank heavens it was stuck up there and not down his throat! Anyhow, we are all going to have to be more careful of what we leave accessible to him.

He still loves his bath. As a matter of fact, as soon as he hears the water running he gets all excited and starts kicking like crazy. Sometimes he's a bit disappointed to find out his sisters are taking a bath before he is... Luckily he's a pretty good sport about it though. I've been a bit surprised at how casual his is about the pool, since he likes his bath so much. He doesn't hate the pool, but he doesn't love it either. Although when we went last week he really enjoyed trying to grab bubbles as he sat up in the really shallow part. So maybe we're already done with the baby float...

Ian is still taking 3 naps a day. He is sleeping through the night. He usually goes to sleep around 8:30 pm, wakes up around 7 am, takes his first nap around 9 am, another nap around 1 pm, and the a final one around 5 pm. His schedule is flexible since we are on the go quite a bit. Once he's been up for about 2-2.5 hours, he's ready for a nap or to go to bed. And you just put him down and he goes to sleep with some minor moaning and groaning. He eats usually 5 times a day, every 3-4.5 hours (just depends on how long he naps).  

We certainly enjoy our little boy and are so grateful that he's healthy and growing and happy!

4th of July

We had a very busy, fun-filled 4th of July this year. We had so many different activities to do. And instead of picking and choosing, we just did them all... We are usually out of town on the 4th, so it was fun to be in town and be able to do some of the local activities. We started off the morning by Andy taking the girls to a 4th of July activity that our neighborhood puts on every year. Ian was still sleeping, so they went on without me. The girls were definitely excited to show their patriotic spirit and join the parade:

They were pretty proud of their unicorn and flower:

  

As they did the parade around our neighborhood, Andy cut out by our house and by that time Ian was awake, so we all loaded into the car to head to the church for a 4th of July breakfast. We all enjoyed seeing friends and eating pancakes. The children even performed a patriotic number and our girls were very serious about waving their paper flags...

 

After the breakfast we met up with some friends at one of your neighborhood pools. The kids enjoyed themselves!

  

The best part  of all came later in the afternoon when Papa and Grandma Michaelson arrived! We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then had to celebrate Papa's 70th, since it was only 3 days away. The girls were thrilled to help him blow out his candles. 

 

 After dessert we passed time by playing games until it got dark...

Once it was dark we went outside and did some sparklers. Rachel was quite brave and Audrey warmed up to them with the help of Grandma.

 

We definitely enjoyed our 4th of July with many friends and family. It's always fun to spend holidays with those whom you enjoy!

The Joy of Bubble Wrap

Ian was introduced to bubble wrap today and enjoyed playing in it! The girls and I recently read a book where fireworks were rained out so they popped bubble wrap to make the noise of fireworks. Well, we may just do that tomorrow night so we can avoid the mosquitoes... :)

Utah 2012 - Week 2

I really should be better at writing my posts right away. I just have a horrible memory... I really do and I've already forgotten a lot of stuff about our Utah trip. So, I am hoping I can at least remember the highlights through the pictures. 

On Wednesday morning Andy and I were able to go to the temple. It's so nice to have a temple close by and that has sessions so frequently. It makes it much easier when you exclusively breastfeed your babies. So, we always make a point to go to the temple while in Utah. Plus, we also have access to wonderful grandparents who are willing to babysit. Although Aunt Julie even helped out with the babysitting this time. The girls went over to her house and loved playing with Presley and all of her stuff. Once we got back from the temple, got Ian, and headed over to Julie's, this is what we discovered:

The girls were having a blast! They were having so much fun that they didn't even notice my escape with Julie, Brinley, and Grandma to get pedicures. After we got back Andy, Nathan, and Papa went golfing. By then our Wednesday was over.

Ian woke up in the wee hours Thursday morning and was running a fever. Great! We enjoyed about 5 days of everyone doing well. Luckily Ian didn't have any other symptoms with his fever, so we still don't quite know what was going on. He ran a fever for about 4 days. But he was definitely a trooper. We tried to be a bit more flexible around his schedule, since he was not feeling the best. We decided to go up and visit the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. We enjoyed our little visit there and learned a lot from the little video we watched. We were a bit disappointed that the museum wasn't more hands out, but the kids still enjoyed it.

A picture in front of one of the tires that are on the trucks:

The pit:

Where are you taking me now?

Checking out the museum:

I actually purchased a pocket knife for Ian inside the book store. Isaac was looking out for him and found a knife with Ian's name on it. I couldn't pass it up, because it's hard to find things with Ian on them. So, I'm hoping I can find it once Ian becomes a Cub Scout.

That afternoon the men were helping Grandpa Mills move, so we took the kiddos to a splash park while Grandma watched Ian. Rachel had fun at the splash park and Audrey had fun complaining. Not sure why she didn't want to play in the water...

Cute girls:

Thursday night Grandpa Mills treated us all to one of our favorite Mexican restaurant. Then the little girl cousins got ready for a sleepover with Grandma in the trailer. Grandma bought them matching pajamas and they were so excited to have a movie night and then to sleep in the trailer...

Well, let's just say Presley and Rachel enjoyed it. Audrey soon came in and slept in her normal bed. While the girls were bonding, so were the boys:

On Friday we just hung out and let Ian get good naps. The kids went and saw Brave that afternoon. And I enjoyed a nap while Ian was napping! On Friday night the little girls had a sleepover again. This time everyone slept downstairs in the basement. They were going to sleep in the trailer, but Audrey quickly changed her mind on that.

Saturday morning we decided to make a quick trip to BYU. I haven't been to BYU since Andy graduated in April of 2003. So, we decided it was about time. Our main purpose was to visit the bookstore. Rachel was a bit upset that she didn't have a college shirt to wear to school this past year when they had a college day. So, we all got BYU shirts, even Ian. And I've never had a BYU shirt. Kind of odd, but I haven't... Unless, once again, my memory is failing me. We also drove by our old apartments to show the girls where we used to live. They didn't care, but it was kind of fun for us. And then we went to the Monte L. Bean Science Museum. It was great! In some ways it was better than the zoo. It was air conditioned, free, and we were able to see a tons of animals in a short amount of time. Sure, there wasn't much interaction, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We hit the museum just at the right time too, because now it's closed until Fall 2013. We'll have to go back and see what changes they make...

Ian was even thrilled to be there!

After the museum I dropped off Andy and Rachel to join the Kings to hike up to Timpanogos Cave. I can't blame my memory on this, since I didn't go. But here's some pictures they took:

 

Rachel is absolutely thrilled about a butterfly landing on her:

We then all met up in Big Cottonwood Canyon for dinner.

Grandma did a good job of keeping Ian warm:

Ian enjoyed Papa walking him while Mommy got a chance to eat:

A picture of just our family:

Rachel enjoyed exploring with Brinley:

Back home that evening we took a picture of the 3 generations of Smith men. I sure love each one of these boys and am so grateful that Ian has such wonderful examples of the man he can aspire to be some day.

We definitely enjoyed a day of rest on Sunday. We went to church, we all got naps, and just enjoyed one last day together. On Monday we flew home. We had a 3-hour layover (which I believe ended up being a bit longer) in Denver. So, Ian was able to get a good, much needed nap on the airport floor:

Our time in Utah flew by too quickly, as it always does. We enjoyed our time up there so much and look forward to the next time we can be up there again!