November

11/6:
Tyson is 9 1/2 months old! We all love this sweet boy to pieces. He is calm and content most of the time. He still growls and makes deep voiced sounds. We love that! He is very squirmy at church now. He loves to eat a variety of foods. He'll still eat pureed food and loves to feed himself finger foods too. I was able to puree a lot of fruit and veggies from our yard over the summer. I did peaches, pears, zucchini, apricots, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin. I mixed banana in some of the less sweet ones. He has loved them and it was so satisfying to fill up the freezer with food for him. He loves to feed himself pieces of banana, cheese, and black beans.
In the last week or so, he has started getting up on his hands and knees. When he sees something he wants, he goes from sitting to leaning forward until he ends up on his knees or his belly. And then he'll roll towards whatever he wants. We've predicted he'll be crawling by Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if we're ready for that! It seems like it's been so long since we had a crawling baby. He already finds all the tiny things on the floor (hairs, paper, crumbs in the kitchen). Tyson's top teeth are starting to come in. We're concerned about the way the first top one is coming in. About a month ago, Dena was watching the kids while we moved. She didn't know how wiggly he was. So she put him in his car seat (unbuckled) and placed the car seat on her kitchen table. He wiggled his way out and fell on her tile floor. It makes me shutter thinking about his fall. Poor sweet babe. She had him wrapped in a pretty thick blanket, which probably saved him from further injury. But he did sustain significant trauma to his top gums. They bled for over two hours that night. They were bruised and looked nasty for the next week. Well now his teeth are coming in. This first one that has come through is coming out midway down his gums. I'm taking him to a pediatric dentist tomorrow and hope we have good news. He's been sleeping pretty poorly. And I'm wondering if his teeth coming in are bothering him.

I went to Annika's school conference last week. She is excelling in every area. I'm pushing for her to go to a 2nd grade classroom for reading time. She is crushing all the tests and obviously not being challenged (ie- she read a story for the first time and read 90 words in minute. The goal by the end of first grade is 47 words/minute). Her reading and spelling skills amaze me. She just picked up on reading so quickly and definitely enjoys it. I often find her reading in the chair next to the book case in the mornings before school. She has taken a few AR tests and really likes those. She has really slowed down on her art projects and chooses to spend her down time reading or doing learning games on Zearn on the computer. She does still enjoy make believe play and building with the duplos. I know she would love legos, and we do have a few small sets. But I just don't want them all over the house. Especially with the stage Tyson is in.

Benson calls Airhead candies "hot air balloon candy." I love it when kids mix up words! Benson still tells us he doesn't like preschool. But he comes home happy and I can tell he's proud of the things he's learning. He is paying attention at school. I think he is pretty quiet there. Today I told him he could ask his teacher if he needs help taking off his sweatshirt. He replied something like, "I only say some things at school." It makes me sad that he isn't comfortable being himself at school. I'm not sure what to do about that. Maybe if I volunteer in his classroom a few times, that would make a difference. He is such a gentle boy at heart. He doesn't always come across that way at home. He gets frustrated and doesn't have all the skills to cope with his emotions yet. But he is making progress and I'm proud of him. Benson is really into nerf dart guns and play weapons in general. He played soccer this fall and it was so fun to watch him become more aggressive over the season. He had games twice a week. At the beginning, he never touched the ball. He just followed all the kids around.  He knows he's fast. And he loves to watch his feet while he's moving. :) So that meant he ran into kids a few times. He became much more confident after a few weeks. He was definitely more into defense. When the other team got the ball, he would run and stand in the goal, even though they don't have goalies at this age. He blocked a lot of goals, but would've been more effective if he'd go towards the ball instead of waiting in the goal. :) By the end of the season he scored a few goals and knew what the game was about. We loved watching him! He is so sweet with Tyson. He loves to bounce Tyson around while he sits or lays on top of him.

Esther cracks us up every day. She is precocious in many ways. We were talking about Gram Pam and resurrection a few weeks ago when Esther said "When we see Jesus again, I think he will give us ice cream before we go home." :) She also remembers things that happened a year ago. Her auditory memory is excellent. I am amazed by her intelligence. She is really into dress up right now. Today, she came upstairs with a fireman jacket and a storm trooper mask. She likes to tell me what Tyson needs when he cries or just whenever she thinks of something. A few weeks ago at church, she told me he was hot and then took off his socks. I'd say moving to our new house has been hardest on Esther. She is sharing a room with Annika, which she hasn't done since she was like 15 months old. Bedtime hasn't been fun with her. She has multiple extended meltdowns daily. She is also the sweetest little girl and I love one on one time. Esther loves doing puzzles with us, playing with her babies, making play food meals, and doing play dough. Her imagination is really developing these days. I love listening to her when she has dialog going for a few characters at once.

My sciatic pain has almost completely subsided! It started improving in September sometime. I still have numbness and tingling occasionally. But I rarely have trouble getting comfortable to sleep and I haven't taken ibuprofen before bed for months (I think I took it every night for 6 or 7 weeks). I am so relieved and grateful. I'm still doing my stretches every day and trying to strengthen my core.

David and I are LOVING our new house. We moved in the first weekend of October, the day before General Conference. We painted all that we could in the month before we moved. I love how it turned out. We took out a wall oven and microwave combo and have a new stove and cabinets in that section. We hired a guy and he finished it today. It looks awesome! We have most things hung on the wall. We still have a lot of work to do in the kitchen (texturing ceiling and walls, painting new cabinets where we took out the wall oven, second coat on cabinets we already painted, put handles back on doors). We'll be getting granite (eeek! :)) countertops in the next week or so. We also need to fill in holes, touch up paint on a lot of trim on the main floor. Zack came and put up new trim in some areas and we repainted the old trim. It looks so much better! I am so grateful for the Lord's timing. We love this house, yard, and location. We are blessed.

we went to the Seattle Zoo with Papi!

I don't think any of our other kids have fallen asleep on the floor before. He was getting a cold so needing more sleep than usual. Sweet little guy.

I love how well she includes Tyson in her play! Fort time!

his first big hair cut. bitter sweet. But so handsome!

eating her apple at Ace Hardware :)

this boy loves the dump truck!

drawing giants in the carpet!

When Papi takes the big kids, we like to go out to eat... with Tyson. :) Usually we go to Time Out.

budding canner!

brother selfies!

we hosted Thanksgiving this year. We just would rather stay home than go somewhere, so we hosted it in our unfinished kitchen. :) Heather and Nathan, Adam and Emilee, my dad, and my grandparents came. Lots of people! But they all brought lots of good food!

Hiking Palouse Falls. It made me so nervous when we got to the top with the kids last time. So we just went to the small falls at the midway point. It's a short beautiful hike!

removing old counters to prepare for granite!!

Gustavo and his guys installing our granite!

We got to handpick our cookies and cream granite!

love the heart shape they make in this one!

I might my dad in Vantage at the rock shop and had to get this shot before we headed to Seattle. haha We had a great time at Pikes Place and REI. It was so refreshing to have a whole day without taking care of the kids and not feeling rushed to get home.

the kids helped Papi decorate his tree!

and he usually takes them to McDonald's :)

and sometimes Costco too :)

posing in Papi's ear warmer