Saturday, December 29, 2012

Christmas

Christmas Sunday:  I got a few pictures of Little Lady in her Christmas dress, but the boys were already changed out of their church clothes by the time I got the camera out.




Christmas Eve:  we always go swimming.  It's a tradition that started when Ty was probably a year old, and we have been doing it ever since.  Kind of unconventional, I know, but it works for us.




After we swam, we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (another tradition for us), then came home and did our family Christmas program.  The evening always ends with the opening of Christmas jammies.






I sure do love these babies!


Christmas morning:  the usual fun and craziness with little people:




We had a wonderful holiday!  Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Oh What Fun it is to Ride...

...in a one-horse open carriage!

In keeping with Marchant family tradition, we headed downtown this evening for our annual Christmas carriage ride.   
Ready to go--my first time!
Waiting with Mom
The boys waiting
And it's go time!  Annie and Daddy
Mommy and the Boys
Marchant Family Ride 2012

And just for fun, let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

2011
2010
2009

I have to admit, it's a lot of standing around in the cold for a short ride in the carriage, but it's a tradition that we love and probably will be sticking with for many years to come!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Snow Day

On Tuesday night we started getting warnings that a blizzard was on its way.  When I woke up on Wednesday morning, the snow was just beginning to fall.  I headed out to the gym, but when I returned home an hour later, the roads were already pretty slick.  School wasn't cancelled, but as the morning wore on and the snow continued to fall, I decided I was going to declare my own snow day.  Ty had yet to miss a day of kindergarten this year, and he is doing remarkably well in school.  So I emailed his teacher and told her I was keeping him home for the day.  Matt was out of school by 9:30 AM, too, since it was a finals day and he just had one to take.  I stayed in sweats all day and never even put on makeup.  So the four of us (Matt, Ty, McKay and me) spent the entire afternoon playing board games together while Annie napped.  It was super fun!  
Then I told Matt I was "letting him" be in charge of snow removal, so he shoveled and the boys "helped."  It was the perfect scenario for me--the boys got to play out in the snow and my driveway got shoveled, and I never had to leave the warmth of my home!



When they came inside, they warmed up with graham crackers dunked in hot cocoa.


What a fun day!  I might be ok with snow if I can do this every once in a while...

Monday, December 17, 2012

Six Months

Guess who turned six months old yesterday?  That's right--this girl:

We sure do love her!



And this is how you will usually find her these days, feet to mouth.  She starts every day with socks on, but they usually only last a matter of minutes before she's got them off and is sucking on those cute little toes.

Six months is kind of a big milestone.  I feel like the first six months are the hardest, and then it gets fun after that!  In fact, I have repeatedly said that I would be happy to have more kids if I could get them when they are six months old and raise them from there.  I have a friend who told me she makes herself a cake to celebrate her children's six month birthdays, as a congratulations to herself for making it there!  Yesterday I followed suit and we enjoyed birthday cake last night.  Thanks for the great idea, Beth!  :-)
What can I say about Annie at this age?  She is an absolute delight.  She is an incredibly happy, mellow, good-natured baby.  She rarely cries, unless she is tired.  She ADORES her big brothers, and thinks McKay is especially hilarious.  He can get her to laugh harder than anyone else.  She is at her happiest when he is around, and is completely oblivious to the danger that she is in every time he is in her vicinity!  ;-)
The bad news with Annie is that it seems as though she is always teething, but never getting teeth.  She has been working on her front bottom two for, no kidding, like 2 1/2 months.  We have actually seen white twice now, but somehow the teeth always recede back into the gums.  We never had that problem with the boys, at least not that I can remember.
In conjunction with that, her night sleep has not been so good.  She has been getting up at least twice every night for probably the last six weeks.  We have been pretty tolerant because of the teething, but I think I have had about enough!  Sleep training here we come!  But I have to say, as bad as her sleep patterns have been lately, I am grateful that the teething hasn't seemed to bother her during the daytime. She is as pleasant as ever!
I have recently started Annie on solids.  She seemed to like rice cereal well enough, but then she started throwing it up in the night whenever we gave it to her.  So we backed off, took a break from solids for a bit, and then started again last week with some new stuff.  I am making my own baby food this time around, and so far she has tried pears and avocados.  She is certainly not a voracious eater, but she is tolerant.



While I'm at it, I  guess I'll post a couple pictures of Annie around five months, since that has never happened yet.




Annie seems a lot smaller than my boys were at six months.  Part of that is that she actually is, physically, a lot littler than they were.  But developmentally, she is just a little slower, too.  The boys had way more hair and at least two teeth each by this age.  They were sleeping a good solid 12 hours at night; Annie's best so far is 9, and it's only happened a few times.  They were rolling like barrels, using rolling as a mode of transportation to get where they wanted to be.  Annie can roll over, but again, has only done it a handful of times.  I'm not necessarily concerned about her development; I honestly think it's more personality than anything.  She is just more content and less busy than they were.  And believe me, that's not a bad thing!  I can leave her on the floor on a blanket for an hour or more if I need to!  It's just interesting to see how babies, even siblings, can be so different!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Marchant Madness

The Friday after Thanksgiving (I know, I know, I'm totally behind!), four of Adam's five brothers made the trip to Colorado for the Utah/CU football game in Boulder.  It was a quick trip for all of them, but we SO loved having them all here.  And an added bonus was that the Utes won the game!

Ty and Dad at the game

Ty and Jenna

Spence, Michelle, and Bry

What a turkey!

The whole group that went to the game

Another bonus:  our kids, and Annie in particular, got all sorts of love and attention from their aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Annie and Emma

We didn't have tons of plans on Saturday, which was awesome.  The weather was pretty nice, so we headed down to the elementary school to let the kids play on the playground.  We also had some pretty intense games of ultimate and football on the field.

Annie chillin' at the playground

Emma

Mason

Miranda, Jenna, & Ty

MaryAnn loved on Annie while the rest of us played ultimate.

Cute Kiddos

The Ladies
Saturday afternoon everyone went downtown to the 16th Street Mall.  I opted to stay home with my littles to let them nap, but we met up with the group later that night for dinner.  I can't say I have ever been downtown at Christmastime, and it was really lovely.  

We had a super fun weekend with the Marchant clan!  Thanks to everyone who made the trip out!