Four Months Old

Our handsome little guy had his four months check-up yesterday. He definitely remembered the last time we were there because as soon as we put him down on the table and the nurse bent over him with her stethoscope, his lips puckered up in fear and he started crying. Sad but oh so cute!

Noah is getting very big. Here are his stats:
Length- 25 3/4 in (74%)
Weight- 15 lbs 2 oz (49%)
Head Size- 16 3/4 in (52%)

At four months he:

• sleeps through the night
• can roll over from his stomach to his back and from his back to his stomach
• grabs anything that comes near his hands and puts it in his mouth
• laughs when he thinks Mom or Dad are being silly
• can stand up on his feet while being held
• follows Gabbie around with his eyes any time he hears her voice
• kicks his feet like crazy when he is excited (whenever he does this Gabbie will scream "Noah scited')
• sleeps very lightly during the day and is frequently woken up by his big sister playing
• holds his head up high when he is pulled up into a sitting position
• nurses almost exclusively but we have started giving him a little bit of cereal each day if he is still hungry
• loves to snuggle. he grabs your hands and pulls them up close to his face so he can lean against them

We love having him in our family. He is a wonderful addition and we all adore him.

Gabbie's Projects

I love looking at other blogs and getting ideas for things to do with Gabbie. Since that is one of the reasons I enjoy blogs so much, I thought I would share some of the stuff Gabbie and I do together in case it might give some of our readers ideas.

In learning the letters, we drew pictures for things that started with the letter 'A' (don't laugh at the pictures...when it came time to draw, I couldn't think of anything that started with the letter 'A').

This project was a HUGE mess because Gabbie would squirt the glue into a huge pile, put her fingers into it then grab some rice. She probably had more rice stuck to her than the paper but it was one of her favorites.

For this tree, we traced her arm then she did finger prints with stamp ink because we didn't have paint.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of lady's favorite books. This activity was based off the story and the lifecycle of a caterpillar. First we read the story together then we made a caterpillar with lots of colored circles. After that we painted butterflies with watercolors.

This is one example of the monsters we made. I grabbed some of the kitchen utensils and traced them on paper. Gabbie drew on them after I made their eyes.

another very messy but fun activity...finger painting with pudding.

Collages are one of my favorites. Gabbie really just likes the glue aspect but she's starting to figure out that you put the glue on then you put something on top if it.

Clouds...

The newest project...bubble painting. I added some food coloring to our bubbles and then we blew them on the paper to pop. Next time we'll use more than one color of bubbles but you get the idea.

Painting on bread... I took some milk and mixed a little bit of food coloring into it. The paintbrushes were q-tips and the paper was the bread. After painting, we toasted up the bread and Gabs enjoyed it for breakfast.

A lot of these ideas came from books I checked out at the library or information I found when searching for toddler art projects online. I love to get those books that have a bunch of activities you can do with kids because they give me ideas when I am stuck on the same stuff with Gabs. If you have any good craft/learning activity ideas, please share!!

Especially for Grandma Christensen

We try to call Gabbie's grandparents on Kyle's side every week through skype. This way they can see us (and when they get a camera, we can see them). Gabbie looks forward to it very much. Last night she had to wait longer than she wanted to and kept looking at the computer and pouting, saying "Granma Chrisen".

We just had to take a video and share it with you Grandma.

(The VA family should get skype accounts and webcams so we can call you too!!!)

Overview of October

I'm a slacker. Yes, I know. There are so many things to get done during the day that I have to pick and choose what to do. Unfortunately, I haven't chosen blogging. I will try to improve. Promise. Since I hardly posted anything about what we did this month, here is a quick recap of the month. It starts from the end of the month (Halloween) and goes to the beginning of the month in descending order.

We all dressed up for Halloween this year. Each of us were characters from the Wizard of Oz. Our Halloween was actually the week before the 31st. We dressed up and headed out to Zoo Boo at our local zoo with some friends. Gabbie loved it; everyone at the zoo loved us. We kept seeing people take pictures of our family as we were walking past them. I guess not many people get as dressed up as Kyle did.

Our handsome Lion...

Dorothy and Tin Man crawling through the tunnel of fish...

trying to get a picture of the kids and daddy but they were too interested in looking at Kyle and his weird outfit...

Another day this month we went to a volleyball game at Kyle's school where three of his students played. Noah and Gabbie got dressed up in some clothes they hadn't worn yet. Naturally I had to take some pictures of this handsome little guy...

He has the cutest smile...he'll smile at you and then when you talk to him about his cute smile, he will scrunch up his shoulders, bow his head and turn to the side like he's embarrassed. It is super cute.

whenever we tell Gabs to 'say cheese' this is the look we get...

We realized during the beginning of the month that we hadn't been to the zoo in a really long time so we planned to go on Friday night right after Kyle finished with work. There were hardly any people there and all the animals were up close so we could see them really well.

We finally broke down and got a double stroller because it was too much of a hassle for me to go places while trying to keep Gabbie in the stroller and carry Noah in the Baby Bjorn. They love sitting next to each other. Noah almost always ends up with his seat laying back because Gabs likes to sprawl out with her feet and arms over on his side and accidentally hits him if he is sitting up.

The best thing we saw at the zoo was the Daddy Elephant playing with his son. They were hitting each other with their trunks (well actually I think just the son was hitting his dad).

Gabs and Noah LOVE their bath time...Sometimes they take baths together and other times Gabbie begs us to let her take a shower...

beautiful girl...

handsome guy...

Any time she gets into our bedroom, she pulls out my shoes and starts walking around the house in them.

Early in the month we made fruit loop bracelets. Gabbie was showing them off when I took this picture mid-chew...

She was talking to Jesus...

Playing with some toys...

During conference weekend for our church, the first weekend of the month, Gabbie watched a scripture video on the computer while we were listening to the prophets and apostles...

She is so brave now. Any slide she sees is one that she has to go down.

Sorry for the mammoth post. I will update more often. Things are going great in Texas. We miss our family and friends in Utah and Virginia but we are adapting well.

Halloween

Our ward Halloween party was this past Saturday. They were brilliant bringing in a photographer from the ward to take pictures of the families. Thank you so much Kelli.

We dressed up this year like the Wizard of Oz cast. Gabbie was Dorothy, Noah was the Lion, Kyle was Tin Man, and I was Scarecrow. (we were nominated for best costumes but you had to be inside to win so we didn't)

Here we are:

Family Pictures

We have wanted to get some new family pictures since Noah was born and last weekend we took the opportunity to get them taken. A friend of ours in our church ward recommended the photographers and we were very pleased with the results. Here they are for you guys to take a look at (Grandma's and Grandpa's your pictures will be in the mail soon).

Thank you so much to Gilgen Photography for taking some wonderful pictures of our family.

Happy Halloween

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Hope you guys have a wonderful time dressing up and enjoying
each others company.

September Fun

We have had a pretty uneventful September. Kyle has been very busy with work and we are trying to get into a daily routine at home. Gabbie and I have been working on doing things that are productive during the day.

She watches a couple shows in the morning, mostly "Super Why" and "Sid the Science Kid". Each show teaches her some very important reading and science concepts. We were watching an episode of "Super Why" last week and they were spelling the word 'chair'. Gabbie walked up to the tv and pointed at each letter and told me what each one was, except for the h.

Now we are investigating things that grow. Our first experiment is one I used when I taught second grade (thanks Leslie) where we sprout lima beans and watch them grow. Yay for being able to use the knowledge I have about teaching children!

Every night before we put Gabbie to bed, we sing some Primary songs and say family prayers. Gabbie loves singing the songs, especially "Popcorn Popping" and "Once There Was A Snowman" which she asks for every time we sing. However, when we get to prayers, this is what she does...

She knows that we are getting ready to put her to bed and doesn't like it. Any ideas on how to make prayers more reverent?

She is also into princesses lately. Whenever she sees the blue hair 'thing' (can't remember what these are called) she puts it on and says 'Princess Gabba'. Then she wants to make Mommy, Noah and Daddy a princess. I thought she looked like an 80's exercise guru in this picture with her big hair and sweat band.

Kyle is usually exhausted when he gets home from work but has been very good to make sure he plays with the kids so I can have a break.

Gabbie decided that Noah's bouncy seat is pretty comfortable so whenever the opportunity arises, she jumps into it and claims it as her own.

Noah is getting very big and active...

Kyle and Gabbie were doing some work together...

Another fun trip to our zoo...this time we went to the petting zoo and Gabs got to brush a goat.

Earlier in the month, we would put Noah down on his belly for some tummy time and this is what he would do...fall straight to sleep.

One final swim before we took down the pool...

We are super excited that summer is over. There have been a ton of rainstorms lately that have really cooled things off. Thank goodness. It was getting to be ridiculous with how hot it was.

Playing at the Park

The kids and I have been trying to walk some every day. There is a park in the neighborhood that is connected to ours which we pass every time we go walking. Gabbie loves it so earlier this week we made a trip just to the park so we could play. Here are some of the fun pictures from our day playing...

Noah lounging in the stroller while Gabbie played...

Gabs had so much fun!!

Random Pictures of Noah

Sorry we are so bad about keeping this updated lately. We have taken pictures; its just hard to find the time to sit down and blog them. Here are a bunch of random pictures we have taken of Noah just because...

He loves our bed...

Noah is getting very big. He is on a pretty regular schedule now. He will take a bath and get ready for bed at night, usually before dinner. Then he eats and is ready to sleep at 8. We try to keep him up a little bit longer but the lavender baby shampoo really puts him out. He wakes up for a feeding around 2-2:30. We both end up falling asleep in his bedroom. Then I put him in his bed and go back to mine. If I am lucky, he sleeps until 6-6:30 then wakes up to eat again. Sometimes he wakes up when I put him back in bed and just wants to snuggle. We are staying up more during the day but when we go out for walks or play group, he just falls asleep. Anyway, things are going great, he's growing like a weed and we all love him so much, especially Gabbie.

Birthday Art

On my birthday this year, I introduced Gabbie to a new art medium. We decided to paint with chocolate pudding. She is always so excited to do any art project and she knows the routine. Before we even start, we have to get her art shirt on (one of my old shirts that she loves to wear) and then grab the art sheet out of the closet. We can only do art when we are on the blanket. Seeing her face as she finds out what we are going to do is another one of those moments that make me so grateful to be a stay at home mommy. It is so rewarding.

Anyway, Kyle captured these pictures when he came home.

Gabs didn't even try to taste the pudding until I stuck her finger in her mouth. She was super surprised.

I helped her write her name and draw a flower. She then proceeded to completely cover her name up with pudding (guess it looked better that way).

Umm, yummy!

Noah was just chilling in his chair. He is always so good as long as he can see us.

Too much excitement led to foot painting instead of finger painting. We had to make sure she stayed on the sheet then and had to wash her art shirt and blanket.

Before...

After...

We had so much fun painting and getting dirty. I am trying to be less obsessive about her keeping clean and instead just let her enjoy herself, whether she keeps clean or not. (not so easy for me to do but I'm working on it)

Kemah Boardwalk Again.

When Grandma Christensen and Grandpa Campbell were here visiting a few weeks ago, we took them down to the coast. We went to the Kemah Boardwalk and just walked around while Taylor and her friend Drew rode a couple of the rides there. Of course we had to take some pictures while there...

Both grandparents with the kids...

Daddy and Gabs walking back to everyone else after they finished exploring...

I love when they both smile like this. You can really see how much they love being together.

Noah enjoyed some sleep while we were out. We stopped on one of the benches looking out on the gulf so I could feed and change Noah.

Taylor and Drew took the opportunity during our break to go ride this. (Drew is faking like he wants to throw up)

We also stopped at the photo-op spot and took some pictures...

Grandpa Campbell holding Noah for the first time.

Thanks for going with us guys. We loved having both Grandma and Grandpa come visit us. Hope you guys liked your trip. We can't wait to see you again.