Benjamin Henry is 6 months old, as of last Wednesday. We haven't had a well child check up yet, but I bet he weighs around 15 lbs. He is a happy guy. He seems to be a thrill seeker. He loves it when his dad throws him in the air. We have been giving him some rice cereal and some fruit, but he gags on it. It is very sad. He always has a scowl on his face while we are trying to feed him and he gets the shudders after each bite. Poor guy! He has turned into a big talker, always making noise. Another of his favorite things to do is click his tongue and stick his tongue out and spit. He sits up by himself and can almost roll over. It is amazing to see how fast babies change in 6 months. The girls are still pretty helpful with him, but Jessie has a tendancy to love him a little too much.
We have been up to the usual. Some spring cleaning, school (for the kids), we are getting up earlier so we can make & eat breakfast with Jer. We are excited about visits from Janni and Caleb as well as Grandma Tina, Teresa, Elizabeth and Sophie. We are excited too for all the march birthdays!!

update...

Once again we find that time has slipped by at an amazing rate. Everyone enjoyed Christmas, of course! We started the festivities off by having Rich, Krista and Bailey over on Christmas eve for dinner, Krista's ever so yummy rolauden (correct spelling is questionable)a few sides and a beautiful yule log, Krista's family tradition that we are so lucky to enjoy! We exchanged a few gifts and had fun watching a few movies. Santa came and the girls were so excited that we had to wake them up at 8. Their favorite gift is a doll house. We then went to other Grandmas had brunch and more gifts, our favorite from her is the food storage kits. Big Grandmas was the last stop. Dinner was fantastic and there were too many presents from her to pick a favorite.
So between then and now we have been lying low. Jer had a few days off of work, we just hung out, but man it was fun. The girls are back to school, which they are glad about. Abby has been experimenting on the potty chair. She went for the first time the other night!! Ben seems to be growing by the minute. He is our chubbiest baby. He tries to sit himself up, he has become fond of toys and he is constantly making some kind of noise. He also has cut his napping time back. Now he is awake a lot and takes a few cat naps during the day. We have been battling his eczema type rash thats on his cheeks and forehead, it looks pretty good right now. He got his first hair cut yesterday, its a buzz cut, but the patchy look was driving me crazy. Jer is staying busy with work and Elders quorum stuff. We are approaching 8 years of marriage next month and I cannot help but think how lucky I am to have him as a husband and father to my kids. He is AWESOME!

She has been spotted

Abby has spots. Do not worry, they are not contagious and don't seem to bother her too much, just an occasional scratch or two. It should be gone in a few days. The doctor says it is a reaction to her MMR vaccination. Great. As many of you know I have been on the fence the last few years in regard to the safety of vaccinations that are "required". So Abby only had her two month old vaccs and has been on hold ever since. At her 1 year well child I decided maybe we should talk to the dr (who of course is going to encourage them) and get her opinion. Well I decided maybe I should get the majors, polio, mmr, and a few like that. Well folks here we are with a rare reaction to the mmr vaccination. My thoughts can't help but go to the original reason why I was hesitant. It could have been a different rare reaction, one that won't go away and one that could have permantely affected abby's well being. It is a hard decision. I would feel terrible if my children got sick and died, when it could been prevented, but I would feel awful if my child got sick from the vaccination too...So we are now back on the fence.

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the time of year

We love this time of year! All the holiday fun and food. Thanksgiving was very nice. We help big grandma the day before preparing as much as possible, and eat our hearts out thanksgiving day. We had an extra special thanksgiving this year. We not only got to visit other grandma we spent some of it with Rich and Krista. Poor Krista had to sacrifice on my behalf and be in the hospital, and so we took her some dinner and visited. She is much better and my home, and I' sorry she couldn't spend it with her family in Utah, but I am glad we got to spend a little time with some of the people we love the most.
Cassie turned 6 on 11/19. Where does the time go!? We kept it very low key. She had birthday dinner, stroganoff, opened presents and had ice cream. She got some new clothes, & a necklace with changeable penants. She is so excited to finally be 6.
We have decorated the house and been listening to christmas music. I love it but when the kids want to listen to the same ones over and over, it makes me want to use the cd for target practice. We haven't put up a tree yet, that is the plan for this weekend. We visited Santa yesterday. Abby was super exited, until it was time to climb on his lap. She started to cry, but we arranged the kids so she would sit next to him and that seemed to make her happy. When the picture was done, she said bye and thankyou. It was pretty cute.
We have some of the nicest family. First Connie made all the girls scarves. Cassie got pink, Jessie blue and Abbie pink and white. They are beautiful. Then in comes Grandma Tina. She had made Ben a few hats when he was born and made one for me too. They came up to visit Krista and she brought some for the girls. They match the scarves and are super cute. Thankyou!!
Yep, its Ben, He is almost 4 months old! Jessie and Abby can make him laugh, we had the same problem when Abby was a baby, only Cass could get her to laugh. He still sleeps a ton, but he is growing like crazy.

tooth

Cassie lost her first tooth last night! She is so excited and I think she was suprised how little it hurt. I was trying to wiggle it back and forth, it didn't seem too loose, but out it popped, landing in my hair! She (and I) were shocked that it came out. She didn't cry even after Jessica told her it was bleeding (the typical reaction to any sight of blood is the 'my arm just got cut off' scream). The tooth fairy paid her a visit and she is excited about her dollar. She was showing everyone at school today and said her teacher was going to sing her a song. Another step to her growing up too fast!

A new name

As most of you know, as we have had our kids we have given them formal names, ie Cassandra and shorten them to cuter nick names like Cassie. Well Jessie got a trophy from soccer which has Jessica on it. She is starting ot read some and came up to me confused as to why they put somebody elses name on the trophy. So I explained the situation and she seemed to understand. I went to make a new chore chart the other day and she says "momma, can you put my real name on the chart?" I said "your real name?" She said "yeah, Jessica. and can you call me that too?" She is sticking to her request. Every time I call her Jessie she says "mom, my real name."