9 Months

Shelby is nine months and I am finally caught up enough to be writing this post only three days after that happened. I took her to the doctor today and he was asking me questions about her and after we were done talking he said, "So she's a pretty easy baby." I have to say that's pretty much true. I don't know if any baby is really truly easy, but she is a pretty content and generally happy baby. We love her sweet and fun little personality we're seeing come through more and more all the time.

Some things we want to remember about Shelby at nine months:

- 19 lbs. 4 oz. (68%), 28.3 in. (76%), head circumference - 17.84 in. (86%)

- Goes to sleep around 7:30 at night and wake up between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning. She takes a morning and afternoon nap, both a couple hours long.

- She still has no teeth.

- Baby babbles all day (baba, dada, gaga, etc.)

- Dances to any music she hears.

- Loves to have people come talk to her and smile at her. She usually responds very happily.

- She crawls all over and loves the freedom that that brings. After she drinks her bottle she wanders all around exploring for quite a while. She loves to go upstairs to play with all the toys that are usually out up there, and follow the other kids around while they play.

- She is starting to pull herself up on things and climbs up onto our first stair. She usually gets stuck there or tips off and bonks her head on the floor. If I am ever sitting or laying on the floor she loves to climb all over me and pull herself up on me.

- She loves to be outside. Since it's getting colder now any time outside seems like a real treat to her.

- She loves it when Drew and I throw her back and forth or when Drew zooms her around the house or throws her in the air.

- She loves food and is a pretty adventurous eater. She has been happily eating stew, sweet potatoes, kielbasa and veggie casserole, and mostly anything else we offer her.

 She got to go to the track to watch Drew ride motorcycles and loved every minute of it.

She did not want to lay there and hold still for her pictures this month. This was the best we could do for a full body shot.

Halloween

I have never claimed to love Halloween, but my kids love it and that makes it a little more fun for me. For Halloween this year Darcy was a mermaid, Ezra was Darth Vader, Parks was Jake the pirate, and Shelby was an old lady. Originally we went to Target to look at costumes, but I decided they were more money than I wanted to spend for Halloween costumes. As it got closer to Halloween and I wasn't coming up with anything else I changed my mind and splurged for the older kids' costumes since the two younger kids didn't really care as much and had lots of other fun options.

 Parks is normally pretty willing to have his picture taken but he was struggling a little on our pumpkin carving night. 

 I had seen the idea for an old lady costume on Pinterest and thought for some reason that it seemed especially ideal and funny for Shelby. For her hair I glued a bunch of cotton balls on a cheap beanie from Walmart and sprayed them with gray Halloween hairspray. Then I just bought some really cheap baby sunglasses and popped the lenses out. When we got to our ward trunk or treat with her in her costume people were loving it. These pictures of her really crack me up. I was worried that she was going to pull her glasses off or pull the cotton balls off of her hat so I thought I needed something for her to hold onto instead. I went to grab a toy, but spotted this yarn and crochet needle and thought it was so perfect.

 It's hard for me not to splurge on Darcy's costume every year because she gets so excited about them and wears them a lot before and after Halloween. She loved her mermaid costume and the hair and makeup that we came up with. I wish I would have gotten a close-up of her make up. We used fishnet tights to make scales on her face.

 Parks was originally planning on being a shark, but he found this Jake the Pirate costume a week or so before Halloween and quickly changed his mind. He loved having his hair sprayed black. Such a cute pirate!

 I splurged a little for Ezra's costume this year too and he was also very excited about it. I'm afraid this guy leans towards being the villain when he pretends. :) Good thing he's actually such a sweet guy in real life.

I told Drew this picture seemed like a really accurate depiction of the different personalities of our kids. Ezra is kind of quieter and at least outside our house he tends to hide in the shadows a little. Darcy is sitting there sweetly trying to do exactly what she is supposed to do. Parks' pose is full of exuberant personality, and Shelby is sitting there happy to be part of the party. None of those depict their personalities 100% of the time of course, but kind of in general. The differences make our lives so full and fun!

Bills Berry Farm

We squeezed in our annual trip to Bill's Berry farm on the last weekend before Halloween this year. We are so grateful for our great friends that share these outings with us and for those yummy pumpkin donuts that I always eat too many of. :)

 I've been laughing at those three pictures and what it takes to even attempt to get a shot of all eight kids sitting together.

 And then this is what I got after all of that.

 Maybe a little better

 Allison is always so sweet to come visit Shelby.

 Shelby and Peter gnawing on either some pumpkin donut or some leaves. :)

 Darcy and Marley did some really nice posing for me while I was trying to figure out lighting.

 I had lots of pictures to laugh at in this group including quite a few of our family picture attempts. Darcy's face in this one is especially lovely.

Floating the Canal

At the end of August Luke came up with the brilliant plan to float the canal that's just across the road from my parents' house. We did it quite a bit when we were kids, but hadn't done it for years. Luke was in charge of tying the rope up to help us all get out, which I think was always his job when we were kids too. The water was COLD like it always is and Ezra and Parks started to panic when we first got in, but eventually they calmed down and we all had fun. Darcy especially loved it and went a second time with Luke, Nick, Cavan, and Ashley. I love it when my kids get to have hillbilly adventures like this like I had growing up.

 This was maybe when Darcy started giggling and couldn't stop for quite a while.

 Getting splashed by Nick

 We all enjoyed the way Ashley wore her life jacket

 I went to take some pictures of Darcy and Ashley but Darcy was being a jokster and posing in all sorts of silly ways.

The bugs were a little crazy so everyone was holding their hand up to get them out of their face.

Luke's Birthday

I think this is the last boating post for this year. For Luke's birthday we took the boats to the river in the evening and had a great time out there all together. They took a grill and some hot dogs on the party barge and we played and ate on the beach of the island until right before dark. Some of Luke's kids tried wakeboarding for the first time which was pretty fun and exciting. I love that we live here close to my family and that we're all here and get together regularly.