Nick Turns 5!

Nick turned 5 on a busy Tuesday! 

I had to wake him up at 6:45 so he could open his presents before Kate and Jack caught the bus.  We had blueberry muffins for breakfast, with hot chocolate (of course). 

He happily opened his presents, finding a soccer ball, money from Grandma and Grandpa Judi, a Cars 3 lego set and a new shirt with a soccer ball on it.

We had preschool at our house after the big kids went off to school.  The theme was Nick's birthday and winter.  Nick's friends brought his cards and gifts. He loved it! 

We read books about snowballs and Christmas.  We played snowball games and had a snowball (cottonball) fight.

 We had chocolate panda cupcakes for snack.  Followed up by pretzels.

 We played freeze dancing games to Frosty the snowman and did the "Reindeer Pookey". 

I bought the movie Cars 3 for Nick to watch in the afternoon.  He played with his lego cars while he watched.

He picked Wendy's for his birthday.  Instead of our usual birthday date, we let all the kids go with us.  Nick had chicken nuggets, root beer and fries. 

That evening Kate had a young women's activity, Jack had scouts and basketball practice.  Nick, Ty and I went to pack meeting at the church.  After 9:00 when everyone got home Nick blew out his candles and had his bear cake.  He helped me decorate it...adding the stomach buttons, hand the decorating candle holes in the stomach.

Nick is my little buddy.  He has matured a lot this last year and I enjoy spending time with him while the other kids are at school. 

• He is an awesome helper!  He is usually willing to grab something for Dave or I.  He likes to help me clean and put things away. He likes to help in the kitchen and is an awesome small towel folder.   
• He doesn't get as frustrated about things as he used to, since he can do pretty much everything on his own now.  
• He can write his name and pretty much all the letters, if I just show him what they look like.  
• He can count to 14, that silly 15 is hard to remember.  
• He likes to make up songs to sing.  
• He loves the color black and when he colors or paints at preschool things end up being black.  
• He loves to play with his friends, but isn't very tolerant of younger siblings coming over to play.  He'll take his friends into his room and leave the younger siblings to play in the toy room.   
• He loves riding his bike.  The faster the better.  
• He doesn't like to walk to the bus stop with Ty.  He prefers to sit on the couch watching a show until the bus comes.  He is a very disciplined person and doesn't like to do things that are wrong.  He follows most rules (except now throwing things or hitting, but he does have two big brothers that egg him on).  
• Nick is a little OCD.  He likes to have things just how wants them.
• He loves to collect things that are special, whether they are his or not.  Sometimes the other kids find their things under his bed or in his dresser.  He usually remembers where they are.
• He has been begging for Nike shoes like Jack and Ty for a while.  He got some after Christmas at the Nike outlet and was SO happy!  
• He loves stuffed animals, especially cougar and his new Teddy bear from Christmas.  He still loves his blanket that he got when he was born, the navy blue fleece blanket I made him for Christmas last year and his "Holy Ghost" aqua blanket he got in CTR 4 this year.  
• His favorite foods are:  his morning hot chocolate, canned peaches, bananas, apples, oranges, jerky, pretzels, lime yogurt, chicken noodle soup
• Dislikes:  cheese
• Friends:  Brecklyn Toponce, Henry and Maisy Medina, Scarlett Gowdy, Levi Frewing, Paisley Stromberg
• He loves preschool and asks every day if it is preschool.  
• He likes to play the computer, with Ty or alone.  His favorites are games on Kizi, Animal Jam and Sesame Street.  He likes to play Minecraft with Ty.  
• He can stay up late like the big kids!  He hardly ever takes a nap.  And on weekends stays up late watching a movie, sometimes falling asleep on Dad.
• Nick gives the best kisses and hugs.  When he realizes that he has made a mistake or was grumpy, he makes an animal sound and nudges at me until he can have a hug and a kiss.  

Favorites according to Nick:

Color:

Food:

Things to do:

Toy:

Show or Movie:

Book:

Friends:

Last Week of August

On Monday,  I took the kids to the pool right to after school.  The kids love going swimming in the afternoon.  

Tuesday evening I went to the open house at the kids' school.   Dave stayed home with the kids while they played legos.   

Wednesday was the usual short day where the kids get out at noon.  We invited four other boys from church that are in kindergarten over for a playdate with Ty.  None of the boys are in Ty's class, but they could still play at recess.  We invited Chase, Marcus, Diego and Jack Daly.  They played legos, played outside, watched a short episode of Rescue bots while they ate popcorn, and checked out the fort behind our house.  They all got along well and had a good time.

Kate went to an audition for the 5th and 6th grade performance for Willy Wonka in November.  They had to sing happy birthday alone, learn a dance and read a paragraph.   Kate gets to be an Oompa Loompa along with her friends, Ada and Annika.  Sophi and Ella are in it too.

After the audition Kate went to activity days at the church.   Jack went to Lyas' house for several hours.  

On Thursday, I went to the school and ate lunch with the kids.  It was really fun!  I love talking with the kids and their friends.  Ty ate the fastest I've ever seen him eat.  He must have been hungry.

Thursday after school was a bit crazy.  I picked the kids up from school and we did homework.  Then at 4:30 we went to the school to the Band Try it Night.  In order to be in band in 5th or 6th grade you had to go to it.  We went and Kate tried blowing in a flute.   She made a sound pretty easily.   They wanted us to try more instruments,  but we had to leave.  I forgot checkbook so I had to go back later and pay.  Luckily there was a guy there that had a bunch of used instruments that I bought a flute for $107.  Kate loves it! She blows into it all the time.  I even remember a little bit from playing it in middle school.

After the band night we went to Ty's first soccer practice of the season.  They didn't have a coach so I volunteered.   There are only 6 kids on his team and only 5 were there.   It went ok.  I realized I'm not sure what all the rules of soccer were.  Kate and Jack helped me along with another mom.  It'll be an interesting season.

Later that evening I went to a relief society activity.  They were doing yoga and having massages.  I was pretty late but it was fun to get out while Dave put the kids in bed.

Friday was Dave's day off.  I washed windows while Dave reinstalled the directv satellite.   It took him several hours to get everything reconnected and wired from the roof to the crawl space and back into the living room to the tv.  

After school we went to the pool for a few hours.   Then we went home so Dave and the boys could watch the first byu football game of the season.  Kate went to sophi's house for a willy wonka party.  I picked her up at 10 pm.

Saturday we actually slept in.   It was so nice not to have huge projects to work on.   We mowed the lawn, changed the oil, etc. Then we headed to Albuquerque to go to the temple.   

While Dave went to a session the kids and I went to Kohls and Target.   Then we got frosties from Wendy's and went back to the temple.  While I went to a session dave took the kids bowling.   

We went to chickfila for dinner.   It was action figure night so there were lots of people dressed up.  They had a climbing wall that Kate and Jack tried.   They also had Bumblebee and the Batmobile.  

Ty was mad because he wanted to go play longer inside Chickfila in the playplace.  Ty wasn't impressed by seeing Bumblebee because "it's not a real transformer.  Just a car."

The Batmobile

Today was just a normal Sunday.   I played the organ.  Nick didn't want to go to nursery. Dave stayed down there most of the time and Nick still cried a lot.

After church we did our usual walk home.  We spent lots of time looking for golf balls by the golf course and found 8 of them.  Then we came home and had big drinks of water (it was hot!), drank orange julius and ate nachos.   Then we played croquet.

Ty was playing on the driveway with the jogging stroller.  It knocked him over and he fell on the cement and got a huge scrape above his eye.  A few minutes late Nick fell down and got an ouchie on his knee.

Since the kids were gone at school all day this week, I spent lots of time with Nick.  He loves walking with the kids to the bus stop in the morning.  He gets his shoes on, folds his arm for prayer in the entryway and marches down the street.  He gets excited when he hears the bus, gives kisses to the kids before they get on, and waves to them as they leave.  

Words that Nick said this week:  ouchie, buckle, stroller (strollo), drink, bus, show, shoe, 

He's also amazing at hiding.  I lost him several times at Kohls.   He wedged himself in the racks and holds really still and quietly.   

Other random pictures of Nick from this week.  

I dried some apples and Nick enjoyed munching on them.

Nick decided to reorganize the bottom of the fridge for me.

Quite a few times this week I found Nick laying down on the rugs in the kitchen.  

I also made some pear fruit leather.  Nick loved it!  He's kind of picky and doesn't eat much, so I'm happy to find something that he'll actually eat.

I ran over to my friend, Teri's house on Monday.  I pushed Nick in the jogger, but I let him walk with his stroller first.

Walk to the canyon

The other day after the mothers day breakfast at the church ty wanted to go on a walk to the canyon.  

This was Nick's first hike where he got to walk.  He loved stopping to pick up rocks and sticks.

Ty loves throwing rocks off of the edge into the canyon.

Nick at 15.75 Months

Nick is a funny kid.  Here are a few random pictures of things he's done in the last week or two.

He likes to stick his head in the shower while other's are showering.  He'll also sit in the bottom of the shower and take a shower.  He won't stand up though. 

Pretending to drink the milk.

Nick's first bike trailer ride.

Sat on Jack's chair at breakfast, pushed him off the chair and ate his oatmeal.

 Loves scissors.  Safe, I know.

 Pulled some bowls out of the cupboard and stood in them (and then pooped).

 Kate took this picture of him in the shopping cart at IKEA.

 Fuzzy, but a picture of his first time standing on his own in the library elevator.  He loved it.

Someone was in the bathroom and Nick really wanted to come in.  He banged on the door and yelled.

Nick at 13 Months

Here's what Nick is up to at 13 months:

• Started sleeping on his stomach and sleeping through the night
• Will take a few steps (usually only for Dad in the evening)
• Likes to stand up and throw things
• Climbs out of his high chair and tries to climb onto the counter or table or tries to eat standing up
• Tries to put his shoes and socks on his feet
• Pretends to talk on phones and uses credit cards for a phone
• Throws things, especially balls
• Pushes a walker toy around the house
• Has four teeth on top and four on the bottom
• Loves to flip light switches

Words:

• old words: ma, da, go, bye
• new words:  poo, ba (ball)

Foods he likes:

• cut up fruit, preferably on a fork for him to feed himself
• smoothies
• hot chocolate (loves a sippy cup of whole milk with a little bit of hot chocolate poweder in it every morning)
• pretzels, crackers, goldfish
• nuts
• yogurt through a straw
• homemade salsa and chips

 

 

A Hair Post

Nick has some crazy hair going on.

And Kate got her hair cut, so it was not crazy. 

Nick at One Year Old

Nick's first year of life has flown by so fast!

Here's a little about One-Year-Old Nick:


Nicknames:

• Nicker-backer
• Snickerdoodle or Nickerdoodle

Loves:

• Blanket
• Binkie
• Biting pretzels and apple slices
• Mommy milk
• Pooping in his sleep
• Splashing in the bathtub
• Playing with the kids
• Climbing onto the dishwasher door
• Throwing things off of edges
• Remotes, phones, computers, tablets, etc.
• Loud noises:  vacuums, air compressors, blow dryer, etc.

Dislikes:

• Car seat forward facing
• Most healthy food (he pulls it out of his mouth and drops it on the floor
• Sleeping all night

Can:

• stand up from sitting down without holding onto anything
• crawl
• throw a ball
• wave and clap
• crawl up stairs (even though we don't have any in our house)

Has:

• four top teeth
• two bottom teeth
• has had one haircut and is ready for another
• weight: 19 lbs 8 oz.
• length: 30.5 inches

Words:

• go 
• bye (sounds like "bah")
• dada
• mama

 Helping Dad work

 Nick has a funny crawl on the hard floors.  He crawls normally on carpet.

 Nick fell asleep playing with his crib music toy one day.  Loves his blanket and binkie.

 Yum!  A pretzel.

 He got to eat a cookie.

 Loves the unload the dishwasher (and the fridge too).

 Post nap picture.  Nick didn't sit up in his crib until he was over 11 months old. 

 Putting his binkie back in.

Love this little buddy!