Celebrating 7 years and 7 months!

Wahoo!  Its been party time around these parts!  We get a little crazy on St Patricks Day...

 As you can tell from these wild party people...


While we love the Irish holiday, our focus is more on little Miss Katelee, who turned 7 this year.  We sported festive trendy mustaches, but Harrison couldn't get his right.

Her dinner choice was oven fried chicken, the kind that she explained ALWAYS sets off the fire alarm.  It really does, the smoke alarm goes off every time, without fail when I make that.  So, Katelee had the chair and dish towel ready for me to fan the smoke detector.  She races to the doors and turns on the fans for me, but it must be so worth it.  She loves that chicken.  After that, it was time for presents. 


This girl may have a future as an author or illustrator.  She makes books by the dozens.  We have a collection of Katelee McArthur originals and some she copies.  It is amazing what she does.  So, her wonderful aunt Shannon got her a little kit she could make hard back books.  She obviously, was impressed.  She has new roller blades from Christmas that I have been requesting go along with a helmet, but she informed me (in tears, mind you) why she never wears a helmet 'because all we have are boy helmets and it is SO embarrassing.  So she got a beautiful purple helmet to accessorize those blades with, as well as twister, a new book, sand art, and new pj's.  After a few rip roaring times of Twister, all of which I won, except one where Jason called my readjusting, we had cake and ice cream. 


We made a candy land cake, gluten free of course!  We had to remind Katelee not to wish for the same thing she always does when she  blew out her candles.  When it was Brenna's birthday last month, Katelee told us she really hoped when it was her birthday she didn't wish for the same thing she has been year in and year out.  She, apparently, draws a blank when it's is wish time, or she buckles under the pressure, but she doesn't even want the wish that pops in her head.  When we asked what the wish was, we were all dying...every year, Katelee has been wishing (but really NOT wanting) to 'join the circus!!' We reminded her not to...no underage circus performers under our roof!!


We waited til the following Saturday to have her friend party because she wanted to watch FROZEN with her friends and it came out on DVD just before that.  So, we had a pancake and pajama party with these cute peeps:

 Grant and Collin (who were banished to the basement after their sing-a-long to the songs included words like poop and dumb and everyone was going to die), Brenna, Courtney, Katelee, Breanna, Hailey, Brinley, Emily, Pyper, Rian, Capri and Aspen. 

 There was lots of singing and syrup, cups with personal pictures

yea, I know, I'm not artist.  It was a snowflake, frozen wonderland! 

 A special thanks to grandma, who slept over and joined us in her pajamas because Dave was out of town and I needed some reinforcements.  It was a perfect party!  Katelee loves to be goofy and put on a show.  She may have a career there too, as she can manipulate emotions with the snap of her finger!  She may have turned lucky 7, but we really are the lucky ones having this amazing girl in our family!!!

Also celebrating a lucky 7 milestone, is this little dude! Harrison is obsessed with me.  Really, I am not just saying that.  The feeling is completely mutual, except at night.  We still have severe issues there.  He is very active and has moved on from the worm crawl to the stink-bug bum in the air crawl.  Harry loves to pull himself up and got his very first baby goose egg today.  Because he loves to pull himself up, it was time to lower his crib mattress. I don't know why, but this is one of the two saddest milestones for me in a baby's first year.  I love laying them down so close to my arms and face in their crib.  Now, I feel like I am dropping him to a deep abyss.  Really, I can't reach the bottom on my tippy toes, so I do a small drop for sleeping times. 

 

But, at least I still get to see this adorable grin when I walk in his room.  Love love love this boy!

Happy Half!

 Harrison is the only one of our kids not born this time of year, but he did just hit his 6 month mark last week, so happy half birthday cutest baby!!!  He went in for his well child check and lo and behold he lost weight...again.  UGH! He weighs 15 lbs 5 oz and is 26 1/4 inches.  People tell me he looks long, but I think its cuz he is slightly skinny.  He is in the 10% percentile for weight, which really isn't tragic, it's just he has gone down.   But, neither the doctor or I am worried about it because he is at the stage where babies start to fluctuate a little because of their activity.  But, the bad news is he will probably conitnue to eat throughout the night for the next 6 months or so.  He is just too distracted in the day.  So, I am tired, but I am almost used to functioning on fumes now and it won't last forever.  I just hope I stop sending kids to school in pj's when it is NOT pajama day or forgetting to have them prepared for singing/acting class with the music that was fully explained to me in an email, or losing one child as she comes and goes to neighbors whenever it suits her fancy.  Ok, Brenna has always done that, so I am not going to take the blame on that!

 So, the weight issue continues to keep us in a stupor.  See, even Harrison is wondering what to do about it...

 Harrison is a premature hip hop-ster.  He can do the worm like you can't believe.  That is his mode of transportation.  It is so funny.  He can easily go from a crawl to sitting and vice versa and he barely pulled himself up the other day.  But, I think it was a fluke.  He looked at me like this:

 as if to say, "what the what? How is this happening?!"  He is a good natured boy and so fun.  His laugh is contagious and people run from all over the house if they hear it.  It is amazing how every cute thing he does is a huge event around here.

 Grant told me that red heads get mad easily.  It's a fact, he learned it in 1st grade.  (I think Grant uses that as a crutch when he is fuming!).  I would say that Harrison is not angry all the time but when he cries, there is no working up to hysterics.  It is instant screaming.  Brenna is definitely in line with the anger/spunky fact Grant taught me.  She has had lots of priveleges taken away as of late.  She says it is fine because she will just get them another day.  Or she tells me what toys I can take if she gets in trouble.  Then, she will clarify and say that she actually 'doesn't get in trouble, ever'.  I don't know where I have been the last month cuz it sure hasn't seemed like that.  She helped herself to a whole bag of caramels after I had told her I needed them for a recipe and she explained to me that she HAD to do that because they are just so good and I need to go buy more because "it's the right thing to do." 

Here is our 'beautiful disaster' (as dubbed at his doctor's visit) on his half birthday mark.  Here's to hoping he proves the red heads are trouble 'fact' wrong!! 

Brenna's Birthday

 

 While I am a little late posting, our sweetie-sweetie, Lady Brenna McArthur had a birthday just 5 days after Grant. She is officially 4 years old!! She found it a little rough having to wait for her turn to be celebrated!  She would ask multiple times everyday, throughout the days between the 5th and 10th- "what time is it MY birthday?"  Luckily, the time did come!


She had a few little girls from the neighborhood over to have a bash.  We had rousing games of freeze dance, hot potato, musical pillows and don't let your balloon touch the ground.  All party activities seemed to be a big hit!


The girls decorated wands and had hot pink cupcakes, I mean really, what else could a girl want?!  We definitely have to work on the gift etiquette Brenna exhibited at both her friend and family party.  She tore through the presents with hardly a glance as to what was inside and a barely audible thank you escaped her lips.  She just had to get through each one in record time. 



We had Emree, Adi, Keira, Megan, Kinley, Brenna, Madison, and Kate (who is not big on her picture being taken).  Grant and Katelee were huge helpers and made the games extra exciting!  Dave was in charge of Harrison.  With a few minutes left of the party, Dave slipped out to get a haircut.  He told me he had put the baby on the bed in the basement sound asleep, barricaded with high pillows.  Well, just before parents came to pick up, I hear faint crying.  Sure enough, I open the guest room door and the cutest little sad face was looking up at me from the floor.  Somehow, he had taken himself off the bed (I like saying that better than fallen, I feel less guilt!), and crawled towards the door.  He just really didn't want to miss the party. 

 A couple days later, we had Brenna's birthday with the fam.  She requested a butterfly cake and it was delish!

She loves her new scooter!  She had been telling Aunt Shannon and Grandma that they needed to buy her one for her birthday...its what she wanted.  We decided that was good gift from mom and dad!

Brenna rushed into this world and has taken everyday by storm since.  She is a riot, honestly.  We frequently get comments about her 'being a character' or a 'spitfire' or 'she can hold her own.'  Which are all nice ways of describing her strong personality!!  She has adjusted to Harrison well in the past few months and told me that my baby is Harrison and hers is "Heresy."  It just seems fitting for her!  She stands up at dinner nearly every night on her chair turns around so her backside is to all of us and with hand on hip, does an impromptu booty shake.  Her daily dress-ups are one of my favorite from zombies, to bad witches, princesses; each costume decided by the scientific method of "eeny meeny miny HO."  When she was spotlighted at preschool, here is what she said about herself:


I am 4 years old
My favorite colors are pink and purple
My favorite food is chocolate milk
My favorite animal is ostrich
My favorite thing to do is play legos and toys
When I grow up I want to be a singer
My favorite place is camping in the mountains (yea, she has never been, but we have done S'Mores!)
If I had one wish, it would be for a meeting with Santa.

We love Brenna!!!  She makes our world an exciting place!!

Turning 9 and Feeling Fine

 Grant is now on his last year of single digits.  He is half way through his time living at home-that is a crazy thought.  He has been in scouts a year and recently earned his wolf.  Here we are after he pinned me!  I am kind of thrilled saying he pinned me, I never thought I would get to say a boy pinned me since I missed out on the 1950s, but scouts is giving me this opportunity!  Grant is a great scout and always thrilled to go. 

We celebrated his birth with some buddies a few days before his actual day.  It was my kind of party for sure-take them to the pool, no planning, no prep work, they love it, I love it.  We had donuts and presents after.

 Boys are so fun and crazy!  He invited Matthew, Kaden, Braxton, Mikey, Cameron and Easton.  Tyson joined us at our house after swimming.  Brenna and Katelee got to join in the aquatic fun.  Harrison and I watched from the bench.  It was not good planning on my part for the baby and me.  I made sure everyone had nice warm clothes because going into an 85 degree pool when it is 30 degrees outside can be a shock on the system.  Harry and I were wanting to shed our clothes, though, because we were sitting in our winter apparel in the sauna like room.  One of us stripped a little, I am not saying who!  Grant is the most gracious reciever of gifts.  He always is really thrilled with whatever, even if he knows he isn't going to play with it.  He wanted to give everyone a hug or high five after he opened their gifts.  I love it. 

We started this week with a really bad day for Grant.  He came out of school on Monday totally mad because his class didn't get to go outside for recess.  The TA said it was too cold, even though most of the other classes were out playing.  (I'm pretty sure she just didn't want to go watch them!).  Then, he went on to explain he had Spanish (he hates it!) and for PE they had to do jump rope!  Terrible!  So, I was hoping school went better on his birthday, and he said it was a good, so yay! 

We had a hard time thinking of what to buy him as a gift.  I loved when he was little and he would request toilet paper!  Now, for the past few years, it's been all legos and weapons.  That was exactly the phrase he used when I asked what he wanted "legos and weapons"  because he says "you can never have too many!" So, his request was granted.  Grandma and Grandpa gave him a whole ninja getup that he thouroughly enjoy and I forsee will get hours of fun out of. 

 

 I attempted a football cake. He was pleased, so I consider it a success.  Grant requested we order pizza from Papa Johns so he could get the garlic sauce-he is obsessed!  This boy is so awesome.  He is seriously a great person.  He has a tender heart that is manifested when his sisters have hurt feelings or when he picks up his brother to comfort.  He is the biggest tease and so much fun.  Grant is such a mix of Dave and me.  He is picking up the salesman side, as apparent when he approached me with the question, "what is preventing you from giving me more minutes on electronics today?"  My side shows through at times like last night when he was going to bed so sad.  What?  Sad after a great birthday?  He looked at me and explained that he had been looking forward to his birthday all year and then it was over so fast!  Did I not just post about how I feel the same on my birthday?!  We talked it through, but he still came out of bed a few times with those hurt feelings!  This dude is for sure special, not just on February 5th, but every day, every minute. 

Going for Great

Master Harrison is now 5 months old.  Yea, he can sit up and yep, he is pretty impressive.  He also likes to roll both ways and has recently been getting on all fours.  I kind of want to push him down when he does that because I really don't want another premature mover, like Brenna! 

It has been a rough month for baby Harrison (again!).  We have had to take him in for weight checks because he wasn't gaining weight, and then he was losing weight.  I don't supply the sustenance he needs and we tried 3 different formulas to supplement, but that just caused all sorts of tummy trouble.  I cut that out (haven't told the dr that yet, hope his weight check is ok!) and now we are just diving into all solid foods with my low milk supply!  I think things are going better....

 I also had a birthday last week-yay for me! The kids (and Dave) were super excited all week and that made it fun.  Dave took the baby in the basement so I wouldn't hear him cry all night, as a gift to me.  In theory, it was so thoughtful.  However, my body really needed to feed that kid, so I kept waking up, hoping it was nursing time!  I got to spend some time at the spa for a massage and pedicure.  Again, in theory, it was just what I needed.  However, my therapist may have been trying to kill me.  She could have pushed me through the massage table with the force of her arms.  I kept telling myself that I have been through childbirth, I can handle the hour massage, I must need that pressure because my knots were terrible.  We had a yummy dinner out and then cake and ice cream with the kids, my parents and Paige and Jason.  Dave had every detail worked out.  He was very thoughtful!

And so, I start another year of life, and with January, we start another year in the world.  This year our family theme we chose is Phillipans 4:13 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.' So glad we picked this before my massage!  Ha! 

I have been thinking a lot about "greatness."  A blog I came across a girl said she knew she was destined for it because they were packing up their family and moving to a big city and a prestigious career.  I have since thought, what about my greatness?  I have only ever lived in Utah, I chose to stay home with my kids after I finished my undergraduate program, I am insignificant in the eyes of the world...and yet...the best example of greatness I know of is not anyone who sought fame or acknowledgement...it is our Savior who lived the ultimate life of greatness.  I want to be that kind of 'great.'  I want to serve and bring others happiness and to the truth.  I want my kids to know that they are great not strictly because of what they accomplish but because of who they are.  So, that's what we are going for here, and truthfully, a night of great sleep is the greatness that we seem to be most concerned with at the moment!!