Here he is on January 13th:

We went to the doctor for his check up last Thursday. He weighed 16 lbs 2 ounces and was 26.75″ long/tall. That puts him not on the chart for weight and in the tenth percentile for height. Tiny boy apparently, but we can’t tell because of all the fat rolls! I am used to being told that I have children on the low end of size; he is fine. And even if other babies are almost all bigger than him he does fit into the “right size” clothes. He is wearing 6-9/6-12 month clothes. Apparently children who are the norm wear clothes that are bigger sizes. Don’t you think that’s odd?

So, at 9 months, Kyler can:

- still not sit up on his own, though he is getting better at balancing. He could probably do it, but I don’t think he wants to. When I put him in a sitting position he just flops over to rest on his hands or tries to get on his belly.
- stick his legs up underneath him in a crawl position, but can’t figure out the arms…
- tries to put everything in his mouth.
- laugh at his sister and brothers all day and it is such a beautiful sound. His favorite is when they blow those little party horns. He has such a big laugh.
- sleep 12 hours at night, almost every night. This is fabulous!!
- eat cereal, and most of the vegetables and fruits. He has even had a bite of cake and a little ice cream. Shhh, don’t tell! And, he loves those wagon wheel baby snacks, but can’t figure out how to keep the puffs in his mouth.
- wave. At Kody. Sort of.
- has had this weird thing where he spits up/throws up every time he poops, since we started baby food. It’s getting better now, but it has been gross. The doctor and nurses all said they’ve never heard of a baby doing that before, but when checked out he was fine. Apparently he just had some issues with his belly working out the new foods. I’m glad he’s not doing it as much now.
-loves to be held or to play on his belly.
-still toothless.
-holds his feet, one in each hand, when he’s on his back. He is so funny!

He is still the happiest baby around and we love him so much. He rarely gets really upset. I love to get him out of bed in the morning because he is just so happy and he kicks his little legs and smiles because he’s so excited to see me. He peeks over the top of the crib bumper, through the bars, to see if I’m in bed too, which is adorable. (the picture from yesterday’s post was of him looking out while I was folding laundry. Usually the side of the crib is pulled up, but we were playing with him.) I just can’t say enough about how wonderful he is.

Here’s the deal: I don’t mind getting older. In fact I embrace each birthday and new year with excitement. I don’t like my children getting older. Not because I necessarily want them to stay little and helpless forever, but because each year brings them that much closer to leaving me. It gives me less time to make memories with them. Less time to hold them and tell them that I love them.

Kristopher turned 10 today…a whole decade has gone by. I think he’s turning out pretty well. I am a bit partial, but I hope that others agree that he is wonderful. I’m having a hard time believing that he is that old. I thought today about where I was ten years ago. A new mom in a hospital room with a tiny baby boy. So exhausted from 21 hours of labor and then a c-section. Drugged and incoherent. Not knowing at all what to do. Surrounded by family, but feeling like I was alone and not supported. Full of love for the sweet baby I was holding. Ignoring all the people who said they grow up sooo fast.

So much has changed since then. Now I know so much more and I want to be an encouragement to others. I know how fast they really do grow up. I am still full of love for my boy, no matter how big he gets. Throughout the day a book has come to mind pretty often. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch is such a good book and I just keep thinking about how I really will love him forever. When you start on the journey it’s hard to imagine and know how much love you really can give. I’m here to tell you it’s a big bunch!

Okay, enough of a sappy long post. I’ve cried some, smiled lots, sought advice from others, screamed, talked, disciplined, laughed so much and been incredibly blessed in the past 10 years. I am so proud to be his mom and I hope that he is happy to have me. By the way he waves and smiles whenever he sees me I know he is. :) Happy 10th birthday to my big boy who is growing up way too fast!

First up, I bought some Lego scrapbook paper [it is even bumpy and has the lego logo on each dot] in red, blue, yellow & green. I made banners to go all over the place by cutting the paper into 6×8 dot blocks. Then I cut up Kristopher’s Lego calendar from 2011. Then I just sewed the papers together on my sewing machine. Easy Peasy and so cute! I used a couple of the larger pictures from the calendar on the walls. Balloons hanging from the light over the table are fun. I put Legos in clear glass containers on tables to decorate as well.

In the living room, I set up this little table to greet guests. I wanted to have each boy sign the card, get a name badge and guess the number of Legos in the vase before doing anything else, but as guests were arriving I got sidetracked and they all ended up doing this in a bunch. It’s much easier to do that sort of thing with adults!

On the wall in the kitchen we also had “Bob”, who had lost his arm. He was drawn by Kristopher and playing that game was completely Kristopher’s idea. He did a great job with the drawing, but he didn’t win. Going first was not advantageous…with the arms the boys just felt for the previous arm and then placed theirs. So the farther down the line the better your chance. Try to make your arms flatter if you play this! Ours were curling up on the hand end. :)

I found a “favor pack” of Lego build kits that came with 4 each of 2 different designs. We had a little contest to see who could build their’s the quickest. The winner got a prize. While they were building they were very serious and it was completely quiet around that table. Totally different than the rest of the party! So funny to see the difference between the kids when they had something to work for.

After all the games I let the boys play for awhile, while I cooked some pizza and finished setting out all the food. My goal was to make Lego pizza like this blogger did. Mine was fine, but the pepperoni’s slid around during the cooking and so the pieces didn’t exactly look like they were supposed to. Still we had small rectangular pizza pieces with round circles. Good enough, right?! I also purchased the silicone Lego molds and we had Lego ice and Lego shaped chocolates. Some of the chocolate men went on top of cupcakes. I made a second cake since I didn’t know how many people I would end up feeding. For that one I used this idea and put marshmallows on top to create the Lego look. Not exactly how I pictured it either, but still a hit. To make the cupcake stand I hot glued some candle stick holders to the bottom of one Lego board and then set it on top of a larger one. The Hot glue peels off easily and it made a cute display. That gray board was actually mine when I was little. :)

Kristopher wanted to blow out his candle on a special cupcake, not on the big cake, so I just wrote 10 on one of the cupcakes. We prayed and then sang to him before eating any of the food. I had ice cream, but forgot to get it out…

After gorging on sugar, it was time for a little present opening. Kristopher got a lot of cool gifts. Several Lego items were included (how could they not be?!) and he got the two things he was most hoping for as well. It was fun to watch all the kids gather around him while he opened his gifts. They were practically on top of him. During this time he said some of the funniest things. He said he could barely breathe because everyone was so close. When he was done opening everything, someone asked him what he wanted to play with first and he replied, “before I play with anything, I want to clean up this mess!” My boy is so funny. This mamma is thankful that he wanted to clean it up though, less cleanup for her!

Near the end of party-time this fellow showed up:

He sounded like Kristopher and he had the same outfit as Kristopher, but he looked a bit older than 10… Boys will be boys. ;)

Everyone left with a little goody bag, containing a Birthday Lego man and some Lego soap, bought on etsy.

He had a great birthday party and tomorrow we are looking forward to a quiet day of church and celebrating his and Kody’s birthdays with a nice dinner and, you guessed it, more cake! Back to talk about how I can’t believe 10 years has gone by tomorrow…

Our four biggest blessings in their matching Christmas PJs that they opened Christmas Eve:

Yes, this is the best picture. So hard to get them all to cooperate for pictures!

Here are a couple pictures of the dedication, sorry they’re blurry.

Merry Christmas and enjoy this last week of 2011.

Here are the gifts we decided that he has: Kristopher is kind and caring. He reads well. He writes good stories and draws funny pictures. He tries to make sure everyone is included (except his siblings SOMETIMES). If someone doesn’t have any of something and he does he wants to share. He is helpful, even when he doesn’t want to be, but most of the time he offers help to others. He gives everything he has and gives with his whole heart. He likes to talk to people and enjoys doing things with little kids. He loves God. He asks questions and wants to learn everything he can about everything there is (except maybe math). He’ll do something goofy to make you laugh. He wants people to be happy. And yes, he is good at games and figuring things out.

A couple of months ago, he said he wants to be a chlidren’s minister when he grows up and what I believe are his gifts would make that a perfect thing for him to do. Of course his dream job keeps changing. Tonight he said he wanted to be a storyteller. He is seriously trying to pick anything that doesn’t involve math right now!

I am blessed to have such a wonderful son and I can’t wait to see what more he will become!

Yesterday I took three of my four children to the doctor for their well check-ups. Everyone is fine, they are just tiny! I already knew that, but it’s still good to know exactly how tiny, I guess.

Taylor went first and she is 43.75″ tall and 43 lbs (I know pretty soon I can’t tell people her weight, so I have to do it while I still can!). That puts her in the 25th percentile. I think it’s funny that she has a pound for every inch. Dr. J said she might actually be a little taller than me someday! While we were there, Taylor told her that her favorite school subject is Science and that she loves Soccer.

Kameron was next and the poor boy is not even on any of the charts – 100% of 3 year olds are heavier and taller than him. He was 26 lbs and 35.25″ tall. And, he doesn’t look skinny, but those measurements make him seem like he is a stick! He spent most of the visit ordering me around which Dr. J got a kick out of. At least she could understand him though and she eased my fears about his speech developement.

Little Kyler was last and he is now 6 months old. At 6 months he:

-weighs 14 lbs 4 ounces
-is 24″ tall
-is in the 5th percentile. So he’s bigger than Kameron, but still a teeny boy. :)
-rolls over well both ways and loves to show you how.
-sucks his thumb when he is hungry or tired.
-loves watching his brothers and sister and looks for them when they aren’t near, but he can hear them.
-still nursing exclusively. We have waited to start solids because he just hasn’t seemed interested and he is doing fine otherwise.
-still sleeping 9-10 hours a night, most nights. I can’t tell you how fabulous this is for Mommy!
-starting to scrunch his legs up underneath him when he’s playing, like he wants to crawl, but so far going nowhere.
-is the sweetest, cutest, baby ever!

Taylor: I want to be a policeman when I grow up.
Me: (after telling her that she’d have to be a policewoman) Jackson’s daddy is almost a State Policeman. And, Payton and Abby’s daddy is one too.
Taylor: I know.
Kristopher: Mr. Ryan is really good at it.
Me: How do you know?
Kristopher: Because he’s still alive.
Me: I guess that does mean he’s good at it. (lots of silent laughing at the logic)

Later that day Taylor changed her mind. Now she wants to be a ninja when she grows up. Kody told her she could be a police ninja. Hahahahahahaha!

Yesterday, Kameron came downstairs with some blue-jeans and told me he wanted to put on some britches like Grandaddy. So we did, and I told him we needed to find his brogans too. So funny that he would just say that. :)

The rest of the above pictures are from her party, which we had last night. I had big plans this year to do a pretty dress up paty with fancy decorations, but Taylor had other plans. She wanted to go to “the bouncy place” also known as Universal Athletics. It is a gymnastics/cheerleading place that has inflatable bouncy things and a party room. So I tried to combine the two parties into one – some bouncing and some fancy. Taylor chose the colors for the party – turquoise/light blue and pink. I made cake pops, which were not fun to make, and the first ones didn’t look good, but at least some of them turned out decent looking. They all tasted good! I also set up a candy “bar” and made some little re-usable snack bags for the kids to take some candy home as favors. For the bags I used Sarah Jane’s pinwheel fabric from her Children at Play collection, with some nylon on the inside. I am loving this fabric! I wanted to make the boys (all the brothers) snack bags out of the rocket fabric, but I ran out of time and velcro. The bags were a hit and, of course, the candy was too! I forgot to take a table cloth, so my table wasn’t as pretty as I would have liked. If we had been at home I would have served the pink lemonade in mason jars and had it in a pretty glass pitcher. I thought I already had enough glass in a place that kids act kind of crazy though. There was lots of bouncing (the great thing about having the party at UA was that I didn’t have to plan games and do much moderating) and some candle blowing out and gift opening. Taylor had a great time and that’s really all that matters!

Kameron celebrated his 3rd birthday on Saturday. We didn’t think he needed a party, since he really doesn’t have many people to invite, so we just had a family day. I did decorate, so that he would feel special, with balloons that he picked out. Yellow, who would’ve thought?! He also picked yellow icing and since I already had the dump truck balloon I tried to draw a dump truck on the cake, but it didn’t turn out well. Should have thought that one out a little better! I also realized the morning of his birthday that none of his gifts were really toys, so I ran out and got a couple of small toys. This birthday thing is hard to keep up with when you have 4!

Anyway, I made Kameron a big birthday dinner and Gram and Grandaddy came over to eat and hang out with us. He had a good day with only one mishap. He was playing on the swingset and got stung on the face by a wasp. Unfortunately his eyes are still swollen two days later, but he was happy again about 45 minutes after being stung.

Since Taylor’s birthday is in two days she is having a party at a place with inflatables. We are kind of telling him that that is for his birthday too (it costs enough!) and one of his friends will be there to bounce with him.

I can’t believe that he is 3 already. I really don’t know where the time with him went. I know I say it quite a bit, but it really does seem like he should still be a baby. He is my big boy now and he is so much fun. The only thing that makes me a little crazy is his lack of “inside voice.” He yells everything! He is still my sweet snuggly boy and always will be. I love to hold him, but those times are few and far between now that he is a little bigger and Kyler is in my arms so much. I kind of wish I could stop time, just for a little while, so I could have more memories of all of them at the ages they are now. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to make as many memories as I would like.

Happy birthday to my sweet boy!