a whole year! - by delaney

we celebrated my first birthday today with a gorgeous sunny 70­° day.

it was a good day!

my new persona.

punk grunge, anyone?

and sometimes i play coy.

i've been eating lots of solid's this month.

i like cheese, yogurt, bread, some crackers, apples (cut up teeny tiny), chicken, bananas (but not too many! stomach troubles!), and apple juice is okay.

but not baby food.

definitely not baby food.

my mom told you a little about this, but sometimes eating solids can make your tummy really hurt.



i love climbing! i climb on everything! i climb up the stairs at least 5 times a day.

see, i'm sneaky too.

and still very helpful. i just love unloading!

i have a few cabinets that i unload every.chance.i.get.



my mom loves it too, she always tells me how helpful i am.

does anyone need a wipe?

i've got extra!

all that loading and unloading can be exhausting.

i had a little bit of a cold this month...

gross, right?

these two have been joining me in my crib lately.

and they bring all sorts of toys that sometimes my mom forgets to take out, so that can be fun. :)

they still love me a lot.

my mom's trying to teach frankie that she can be rough with dad, and gentle with me.

it's not really working though.

i stand all the time!

and oh! i started walking!

well, i took 2 steps, 4 different times.

my first steps were when my mom was at a rs meeting on jan 10th.

ha! teach her to leave me home!

my teeth are still super fun!

my mom keeps saying they'll come together soon, but for now we're kinda jack-o-lanterny.



i'm a major cuddlebug! one day i crawled all around with my minnie mouse.

i wouldn't let it go and i crawled all weird and one handed.

sometimes a girl just wants to cuddle.

see? love climbing.

i wish i had a cool big carseat.

but alas, i'm just the poor 5th child and no ones grown out of their old seats yet.

here i am on the last night of my babyhood.

my mom got all sappy and we had a long "talk."

she's silly.

today we had a bunch of friends over to celebrate bff ellie and my birthdays.

it was all good (ok, i was a little crabby, but no one likes to be woken up!) and then they stripped us down and put us in front of everyone!

and then they started singing!

ellie hated it and i was like "whaaaat?"

i didn't know what to do!

i'm all about solidarity so i almost cried. but then i kept it together.

i still wouldn't touch that weird swirly cake though.

i don't want any cake, please don't make me!

but she just kept trying!

like, oh you cut it?

yes, now i want it.

noooo.

bubba and sissy doted on me as soon as they got home.

they posted a bunch of pictures of me on insty (instagram, duh) and twitter and got tons of likes.

i'm viral, baby.

then it was such a nice day that we went to the park.

i'm not super sure about it, but i think i like it.

so that's me at 1.

happy, busy, fun, don't like eating, or walking, or being still.

i give hugs and kisses and love pats.

i think my only have new word this month was "yes." (people pleaser)

i don't like to walk but i do cruise all around the furniture and stand all the time.

i'm still super bald.

and super sweet.



after dinner my family sang to me and gave me a cupcake.

i squeezed it and crushed it but didn't really eat it.

it was fun to squeeze though.

it was a long busy day, and after my bath i quietly cuddled with mom.

okay gtg, more cuddling to do.

and i have a 10 o'clock bedtime, sooo.

 

love,

 

one-year-old

delaney

weather

we have encountered the strangest and most eventful weather since we moved here.

i checked weather on my phone last night and there's a little bit of everything - cloudy, sleet, sun, thunder, fog, and snow. from 21°-66° - in one week.

cra-zy.

after our 4-day weekend for mlk, the kids went to school for 2 days and then enjoyed another 4 day weekend + 2 hour delay because of the snow.

we didn't leave the house from thursday morning till sunday morning.

and i'm not complaining.

 

i tried to keep the kids occupied by doing more than just watching tv, so i brought up their easel, which they love. it usually stays in the basement, but addie still doesn't love going downstairs without a grown-up.

silly girl.

this little prune eating baby had a rough weekend.

i realized a few weeks ago that days would go by and i really hadn't fed her any solid foods, and i probably should. so i've been making a concerted effort to feed her solids more. it's tough cause she doesn't love 'em, and she and i do love to nurse. but she is coming on one, and she's kind of a scrawny little thing, so we've been plugging away. but then she started getting constipated. at first it was just super cute grunting and red face. then after a few days of not producing much (i know, too much poo info, but that was my weekend!) she would grunt and then cry.

by saturday she was crying a couple times an hour. she'd look at me and just cry and cry, it was so heartbreaking! i started her on prunes, which she'd eat about 3 bites of before she's done, apple juice, and tummy massages on thurs but it wasn't doing much. and then because she was getting out little bits all the time, she was rashed too.

 my poor pooper-scooper.

she'd start to cry and look at me and i'd go to her and soothe and rub her belly.

i finally started vaselining her little bummy after each (numerous) change and that seems to have done the trick.

i am very happy to report that we've had at least 5 decent sized full diapers since saturday night.

ok, enough poo talk.

 

of course, despite the snow, matt had to work thurs and fri, but his class did get cancelled for thurs night, so that's kinda nice. :) that's the first 2 classes cancelled because of weather. works for me!

 

on friday i had the kids help me and we blitzed the whole house. chris did the basement, lex helped me on the first floor and then they both cleaned their bathrooms.

it was awesome.

then sydney came over (i think i'm kinda liking this friends with license thing!) with movies in tow and thus proceeded the great chic flic marathon of '13. they watched (and when i say "they" i mean sydney, lex, chris, and matt and i when we were around) legally blond 1 and 2, bring it on 1, 2, and 3 (and were prepared for 4 and 5, but ya gotta sleep sometime!), the last song, he's just not that into you, and some weird scary one after we went to bed.

 

on saturday matt went snowboarding with his navy group. he got a great deal and it's the first time he's gone this year, so i was glad he could go "fill his cup." christian should have had his ham radio class and addie should have had gymnastics, but like everything else lately, they were cancelled.

around 2 i took him to his friends house and lexi went over to peter's and the girls napped and for a little while it was quiet.

ahhhhhh. :)

 

i got everything ready for church on saturday night - bags packed, clothes ironed and laid out, everything. and sunday morning went really smoothly and we got to church on time. maybe there's something to this whole "preparing ahead of time thing." ;)

jk, that's what i always have to do, i just don't typically do it for church which is prob the most important thing i should do it for.

 

anyway, church was good, then after our presidency we got some training from the stake rs. chris also had a meeting so he stayed with me. as we were leaving i saw that matt had called and they had been locked out. chris and i had left through the front door, so we had left the garage door locked. oops! thankfully lana took them in and fed them lunch. nice to have nice neighbors. :)

and note to self - go to lowes and make like 10 extra keys for all of our keychains.

and maybe give one to a neighbor. :)

 

then we got home taught, matt went home teaching, and then chris went home teaching.

(can you tell it's the end of the month?:)

 chris was in charge of the lesson and he read it and had ideas and then made brownies to give his families and companion. just love that sweet boy!

 

when matt got home at 5:30 i was pooped and asked him to make dinner, but then the girls were so tired that we fed them a quicky chicken noodle soup dinner while matt made chicken parmesean for the rest of us. then after he put them in bed (he's a keeper!) we had a really nice "grown-up" dinner with the big kids.

 

as we read scriptures delaney crawled around to each of us and gave us each a couple of her famous hugs. there's not much that's better than seeing that your children love each other.

and peaceful meals.

and peaceful scripture study time.

 i was just thinking how grateful i am, my heart is full!

my heart is full.

almost one

this little lady is almost one and soooo fun!

she is always on the move, move, move.

i won't put too much about her because i don't want to ruin her one-year post on tuesday, but i seriously can't believe that at this time last year i was 6 days over-due with this little bundle-o-energy.

she is the lovey-ist little baby, she'll just crawl right up to any of us (including sibs, which the other little girls didn't really do) and give us the best hug.

i love this little runt of our litter. :)))

she was totally worth the 10 days late.

all 9lbs 12 oz.'s of her.

snow day!

this morning we woke up to this.

and this.

whoa.

 

right after breakfast we busted out the snow stuff and started layering.

the big kids happily offered to take the little girls out for some play time.

it was sooooo nice.

i love when my kids get along happily, such a blessing!

after the snow playtime we hung out and watched tv (hannah montana movie, anyone?) and then did a whole house blitz, which i guess isn't really a blitz at all, but whateva.

there's still a lot of snow and we're not supposed to get above freezing till saturday, so i'm predicting no school for tomorrow either, but they haven't called it yet, annoying!

in other news, i hate being behind on blogging.

i don't like this once-a-week business i've been doing lately.

i'm not doing good at blogging right now, but i'm doing good at other things.

(exercising and scriptures)

also, last weekend was a 4-day-weekend and it looks like this one might be also.

and it's so hard to get things done when everyone is at home.

for now delaney's new 10 o'clock bedtime is calling.

it's working like a charm.

middle of january



life is busy and good!

i got a new calling (2nd counselor in rs) and i still have my old calling (vt coordinator) so between those two things, + the new presidency *got* to give talks on sunday, it's been kinda busy.

but good, all good.

 

christian went to the dentist. this made up the day that he would have gone with the girls but was home throwing up instead. for our next dental trip i will have *4* kiddos for them to see. little franks is growing up! christian didn't have any cavitites, so today we created a teen savings and checking account for him with his dental $.

my afternoon schedule lately has been to leave to pick addie up from school at 3:30, go straight from there to the hs to pick up christian from conditioning (m,t, and th), get home by 4:30 and then straight outside to "pitch" a few buckets of balls. laney likes to watch us. :)

 my day pretty much ends at 3:30. at least anything really productive. :)

it's been pretty cold! cuddly mornings are bomb.com.

until the giant blond one gets a little carried away.

speaking of carried away, matt and i were reading one night and delaney was crawling around the bed with us. so she totally lunged forward and poked her eye on my book. poor baby and injuring her eyes! thankfully they heal quickly.

i had some disney $$$ so i ordered the girls each a backpack. addie a new one (her zipper's been broken for awhile, supah classy!) and frankie her first ever.

so we head to drop addie off at school and when i get back in the car frankie starts screaming and crying not to leave.

"don't leave! i'm a big girl! i have my backpack! i ride the big girl school bus!"

poor baby thought she had a backpack and she was ready for school.

she was m-a-d that she couldn't stay.

for about 10 minutes and then she did this.

and yes, i am a super safe driver.

yes, those are underwear on her head.

on saturday matt and christian went to a large court of honor all morning.

then in the afternoon i got to drive up to the temple with this fun crew.

this is their awkward family photo. 

the fireside was awesome and as soon as it ended all the boys ran up and shook the general authorities hands. those boys never cease to amaze me. love it!

 

christian and addie made cookies together and it was super sweet.

lexi and frankie danced and frankie's head lost.

it's bruised now.

dancing can be dangerous at our house, what can we say?

we had the missionaries over for dinner on sunday and elder watson taught the kids some pretty rad card tricks. after they left christian got online and watched a bunch of youtube card trick videos.

coolness.

on monday it was our turn to host our second round of kids day out.

we did some valentine crafts.

and had some lunch.

the kids were really good and it all went really smoothly.

the last few days that we've picked up christian from the high school addie's needed the bathroom asap. there's not much that's grosser than high school bathrooms, so i hope we can kick this habit. but in the meantime, potty shots are funny. ;)

and then she can help christian carry his backpack out.

and yes, i'm letting her help dress herself.

biiiig breath.

this morning we had a presidency meeting, dropped addie at school, then at 2:30 took lexi to the dr.

she's been complaining of a sore throat for, like a month, so when she woke up this morning not wanting to go to school (again) i told her (again) that she could stay home but we'd have to go to the dr finally. of course, today was also the one day that frankie actually slept at naptime. always the way for this mom, always the way.



little miss sickie-poo.

thankfully it's not strep. hopefully it will go away soon. sore throats are no fun. being sick is no fun.

but this chic is.

not pictured:

matt's pinewood derby went well - and we're all glad it's over. :)

thursday night rs meeting - so fun.

massage - awesome.

lots of messes - yuck.