In case you were wondering ...

I've decided Kai is my odd child. He is a terrific baby that's been sleeping through the night for over a month. He's easy going, rarely cries and when he does cry, its more of a growling yell than anything. I've never had a really easy going baby nor have I ever had a good sleeper. I figure since I've been blessed with him having so many good traits, he's got to have a few bad ones too right? Well, he's got reflux but as long as he's on his meds he's terrific so that really doesn't count. His only other 'fault' is a pain in the hiney! Little dude is one thrushy kid. My other kids never had thrush. This kid is a walking yeast factory. I have no idea why we are not compatible but its getting old. We were both on a prescription med for almost three weeks with no results so my Ped broke out the old medicine and it works wonders. Only side effect is this:

Bright purple mouth. His face is stained, his clothes get stained as do mine, sheets are ruined, towels are purple ... its a mess. I am now so immune to it that I rarely remember my baby looks like he was sucking on a purple marker. I think this is his third or fourth round of Gentian Violet (old school antiseptic that works wonders). He does terrific for a couple weeks then the thrush comes back then we're back to this purple-people-eater face.

I figured I needed to document this cute time in his life. I think its cute but then again I think most things this little imp does is pretty cute! BTW- check out those chins!

This is another reason why I love this kid ... he's so fat and squishy it makes me happy. I love chunky babies. I love their rolls and dimples, I love that they don't look like they will break, I love that they seem happier than other kids. This doesn't show nearly how fat he is. His thighs make me smile every time I see them. They are roll, on top of roll, on top of roll of cute, chubby fat! Yea!

Christmas Card

This is the Christmas card we mailed out this year. I think this just might be the first year I've ever got cards out. I know in the past I've bought the cards but I don't think they've ever been mailed. I figured we could cover Kai's birth and our recent move all in a Christmas card.

Wow, what a year 2009 has been! It’s been a fun, chaotic year and I am ready for 2010. We started out the year by finding out we’d be getting a new addition to our family. Kai (a Finnish name meaning power) was born September 2, 2009. He is an awesome baby. Luckily he is very easy going and a pretty happy baby. Tony and I have both commented that we’ve never had a baby who loves to talk as much as that kid. If he catches your eye he starts to coo and jibber jabber, and his frequent ear-to-ear smiles are so contagious.

Our other major event for 2009 is that we moved to Houston, Texas. Its sad to admit but each of our four kids have been born in a different state. Taeya=Utah, Aliya=Idaho, Blake=Arizona and Kai=Texas. Tony changed companies and jobs so we relocated to Houston in the middle of July. I’m sure many of you are placing bets on how long it will take before we move again, but we are hoping to be here for a while.

Taeya (7 ½) is in the second grade and is so stinking smart. Tae loves to read and write. She is currently obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie series as well as C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books. She played both Soccer and T-ball this year and has decided that T-ball is her sport. It is fun to watch her personality and sense of style come out. She’s got the little skater girl look down pat.

Aliya (almost 5) is in Pre-K at a nearby Presbyterian Preschool. She loves her friends and comes home ready to share all that she learns. To keep her busy, we enrolled her in an extra class called Science Fun. Each week she brings home a fun new project that they discussed in class. Her ultimate favorite was getting a pet worm (until the next day when her Dad asked if he could use the worm to go fishing).

Blake (2) is a riot. He loves to climb, run and jump. I am amazed at the items he uses to get where he wants to climb (i.e. toaster, laundry basket, toilet paper roll). He loves all things dealing with trucks. In the car he shouts out any moving vehicle he sees. If you are unlucky enough to talk to me while I’m driving you ar guaranteed to hear me repeat “truck, van, bus, digger” etc. He’ll keep shouting until I acknowledge that yes, he saw a digger.

Tony and I are just trying to keep up with the heathens. We are excited to get settled in Houston and finally put down some roots. We love our house and are excited to put time and effort into making it ours. Tony took a corporate position with Triumph Healthcare. He travels more than either of us would like but things seem to be going very well. I am adjusting to being a Mom of four. Our kids can be a handful and some days if they weren’t so dang cute we would have sold them off.

Although we are horrible at staying in touch, we think of you often and appreciate the love and support shown to us throughout the years

Love, Tony, Tami, Taeya, Aliya, Blake and Kai!

Christmas '09

On Christmas Eve after the kids open their Jammie's from Santa's Elves, they get to open a present from whomever they want. The kiddos picked to open it from Papa Bruce and Grandma Nette Nette. As you can tell from Blakers face he was psyched to get a picture of him on a bulldozer on a pillow. He's been carrying it around saying "sleep, sleep".

The girls were also excited to open a present. All day long I had to endure "when can we open a present" and "is it time yet to open one yet?". I love the excitement that having kids brings to the holidays (I say that sincerely)!Kai was content to sit in my lap and watch all the chaos.

Blake's presents consisted mostly of TRUCKS. Little dude loves anything that moves and makes noise! He was the first one of up on Christmas morning and once he saw the presents, it was all over. He immediately tried to open them up. Once I knew there was no holding him off, we went and woke up Daddy and the girls. He woke them up by yelling 'presents'. I don't think he comprehends the whole Santa thing but he knows presents!

We stopped opening after about an hour to eat breakfast. The entire month when anyone would ask Tae what she wanted she'd reply "an iPod". When she opened these earphones she was certain she'd be getting an iPod. Imagine her surprise when:

... Aliya got a MP3 player before her. She was certain there had been a mistake and that it was intended for her. She immediately looked at the wrapping paper trying to find the T intended for Taeya but to her surprise, she saw:

... and A for Aliya. Luckily for her there were still some presents left under the tree. She was super excited to find:

... an iPod. Little stink has a way cooler iPod than I do. No fair but as I constantly tell my kiddos: life is not fair!

Blake got a workbench that Tony had as much fun playing with as Blake. Later in the day, Tony was in the office helping the girls upload some songs when Blakers took his 'mammer' to the keyboard and busted one of the keys. Again there is no doubt he is all boy. He's been carrying around his 'mammer' and 'driver' all day fixing things!

Throughout Christmas Day Blakers would go from one toy to the next. He loved racing cars down this track then using a 'dozer to push his cars around then carrying all the toys in his new carrying case. Its amazing how resourceful this imp is. He cant open the case with his hands so he uses his teeth to pull it apart.

Tony kept saying poor Kai got the shaft. Little dude got a couple outfits and that was about it. He looks okay with the situation right?This is just a cute pic (I have no idea why it is like this). I love their silly faces. If you look closely you can see Aliyas lovely makeup job. Her favorite gift was a Castle shape makeup set. She is going to have hot pink eyebrows for a long time I am afraid! That girl loves her makeup!

Camels, Donkeys, Sheep ... Oh my!

Aliya's preschool has a tradition of bringing in a bunch of animals that were common during the time of Jesus' birth. For weeks prior I had to listen to Aliya talk about the live nativity that was coming to her school. The day finally arrived and she was so excited. The kids were able to ride the camel and donkey then pet and feed the sheep and goats. I forget how much my kids love animals.

Yep, Aliya was just a little bit excited! I love this age because there was no complaining that "I didn't get to sit on front" or "Nikki was smooshing me". They were just so hyped to get to sit on a real, live camel!

Aliya absolutely loved this little sheep. I assume he was so tuckered out from all the kids that mauled him earlier. He was fine letting these kids pet and scratch him. Yep, Blake tried to pick him up by his head and he wasn't too thrilled then but otherwise, he was a content little sheep!

Blake loved getting to pet the animals. He was really cute with them.Blake got to go for a ride on the camel too. He was so good to stand and wait his turn for the ride. He was so excited to sit on the camel but once it moved, he was done! Ah well, maybe he'll be better next year!

Not this year either!

Last year was Blakes first real experience with Santa. It went something like this:

Not a good experience but he survived. This year I had slightly higher hopes.

It went something like this:

Which morphed into something like this:

And ended like this:

And that is what we call progress! Mercy, I think next year he'll actually look the big guy in the eye and say Hi!

Finger Painting

I will openly admit I have been a slacker mom for the past 9 months or so. You'd think I would have been preggers, moved and then had a baby or something! Poor Blakers has unfortunately been a rather bored kid (which led to him becoming rather adventurous in his effort to find entertainment). So I decided to try to win the Mother of the Year award and to start letting him do some of the stuff his sisters did when they were his age. Unfortunately I have forgotten a majority of the fun things we used to do but finger painting was one I remembered. The kid loved it. Yep we had paint everywhere but it was worth it to see the excitement in his eyes. Any other suggestion on fun things I can do to keep my precocious child busy will be greatly appreciated!

Only a small amount was eaten. Guess its a good thing Crayola makes non-toxic paint!

This kid is a NUT! He is so much fun! His personality has exploded these past couple months. He is obsessed with trucks. Driving down the road all I hear his him screaming TRUCKS, TRUCKS. He will continue to shout it out until he gets a response from me that I see the truck. It doesn't matter if its a pick-up truck, delivery truck or a semi, he loves anything truck. He is also fascinated by diggers, tractors and any construction vehicle. It is so nice that he has developed a love for something because it has really help in keeping him occupied.

In addition to trucks, he has also developed a talent for climbing. He climbs on any and everything. This upside down pretend ironing board is one of his favorites. One day he has used an inverted laundry basket to climb on my desk then try to climb on top of the fridge (in an effort to get to our cell phone chargers). I took that away and put up all the laundry baskets. The next day he figured out he could do this with the ironing board and I again caught him trying to climb on top of the fridge. He's also used mixing bowl, pumpkins, phone books etc to help him get where he wants to go. As I've said a million times before, each day is a new one at our house!

2 months

Wow, where have these past two months gone? I cant believe our Kai is already 2 months. He has been terrific lately. There was about a month where I was ready to trade him in. He had a nasty case of thrush that took over three weeks to clear up and during all of this we were trying to get his reflux issues worked out. Finally he is healthy and a whole lot happier. I love it when my babies finally start to smile and respond. He has been such a fun kiddo!

Kai is our little peanut. He was born smaller than the girls but bigger than Blake. At two months he is my smallest kiddo by far. He is only in the 25% for weight. Tony and I are both rather large people so who'd have ever guessed we'd have such a featherweight. I sure hope he outgrows it! Of course his head is significantly larger ... shocker I know!

I love this picture. It makes him look at chubby and squishy. He is chubbier than he was but compared to his sisters (especially Aliya) he's a bean. Chunk up little dude!

Halloween

This Halloween was a ton of fun. I wish I had gotten pictures of our wards Trunk or Treat party because that was when the kids were in their full costumes and the cutest but I was in charge of the activity so no pics were taken (I could put blame on Tony for not taking pics but I figure he got the kiddos all dressed AND to the church relatively on time so he did more than enough)!

Aliya wanted to be a cowgirl, Blake was a cowboy and Taeya was Selina Gomez (one of Disney's pop stars). For our trunk or treat Blake had on his boots, Wranglers, chaps, belt, hat and cowboy shirt. Unfortunately his butt is so skinny the weight of his chaps and belt kept pulling his pants down. It was pretty cute to watch him walking around w/ his diaper hanging out. Tae had on a full black wig that she insisted on (she also picked out her costume ... again I tried to nudge her in a different direction but she loved this red plaid outfit). And lucky Kai had on a pumpkin hat.

On Halloween night we had a houseful of adults and few kids. My parents had just flown in for Kai's blessing, Tony's mom and brother Matt had been in town since early Thursday a.m. and Colby and Steph came to enjoy the kiddos.

Colby and Steph were the only adults fun enough to dress up. Frankly I was too tired to dressup by the time I got kids ready!

For weeks Steph and Aliya had talked about being cowgirls together. Aliya was so excited to be 'twins' with Aunt Steph!

For Halloween night we decided to forgo Blakes chaps and just wear the hat, boots, belt and Wranglers. I was shocked he left the hat on but he looked darling. I think it helped that the kid had a sucker in his hand the entire time!

Blake ended the night in a rather festive costume! Tony had taken Blakers to give him a bath and later he came streakin' out dressed like this. Needless to say this was the highlight of our evening. Too stinkin' cute!

Are you ready for some football?

I had some of Tony's old jerseys out for Kai's photo shoot w/ Steph and the girls had fun trying them on. It was fun to see how HUGE they were on the girls yet how well it still fit Tony. Seeing them in his jerseys brought back so many fun memories from early in our marriage. It is crazy to think that one day our little boys may be big enough to fit in their dads old jerseys (I am hoping they'll be bigger than their dad but so far our boys are runts).

WWF nights are frequent at our house. I dont know what Tony will do when he cant wrestle all three (soon to be four) at once. Our house is loud and chaotic during these episodes but a ton of fun!