Finnick's turns 1

 This was little Finny a year ago! His hair was so dark. this is the only baby of mine that started out with dark hair, then turned blonde. my others were pretty consistent with their hair color. This is my favorite picture of him below. It was when he had just started opening his eyes-a couple hours after he was born.

Finnick has been 1 for a while! I don't remember much from his birthday. which is why I should probably keep up to date on this blog. But I felt like as soon as he turned one. I had this easy baby! Yes he is walking and into everything. and he's a little daredevil. for example-he can climb on all chairs and then climbs onto the tables & boys dresser. he knows how to take all the babyproof things off the outlets and was shocked a little bit the other day. he's crazy! But he is also a great eater, sleeper, napper, always in a great mood, just a good little guy in general. I started him on whole milk right when he turned one, he loved the taste but it gave him lots of tummy problems. the twins drank almond& rice milk so i just switched him to that. it seems like he suddenly had all these little curls on his head around a year old too. when its wet, it looks as curly as Embry's. I should put some gel in it to see if the curls stay. Finnick makes little dinosaur pterodactyl screeches and can be pretty violent with his brothers. sometimes we say "and we thought Embry was a creature!" Finnick is defintely a little character. we like him!  

renaissance festival

almost a year

-Finnick loves balls. He loves to throw it back and forth (or at least try to:) i have a good idea for his first bday cake theme:)

-He has taken a few steps from the couch, or to Steven and I. But he still prefers his little mowgli crawl.

-He loves to eat food! He basically loves anything i give him. we introduced pb&j sandwiches, loves them. one thing he will eat a whole cup of that my others would never touch is cottage cheese. he also loves those little squirter baby foods, and doesnt mind if i feed them to him now, either. i buy those baby brekkies from target, they have brown rice and yogurt added to the fruit. he will suck those dry!

-he takes 2 naps during the day and is usually tired by 7:30pm. he doesnt wake up anymore in the middle of the night. (but then he hasnt popped out any teeth lately-i'm scared for that to happen again:) he wakes up really early-like around 6:30am. which doesn't bother me since i have to be up by 7 anyways to get Bastien ready. But Saturdays and Sundays I feel a little differently. i cant complain though-he is sleeping so good right now.

-he gets so mad at his brothers (jasper mostly) when they take a toy away. yesterday when i handed him back the toy he screamed so frustrated-ly to let me know how mad he was at jasper. he also tackles them and is pretty rough with his older brothers. i didn't think much of it until he started doing it to his friend Jet.

He is so full of energy and so much fun to play with!

He also has these little clusters of curls in the backof his head, but not all the time. I dont think it will be like Embry's hair. But maybe he'll have some wave in it.

"it was like there'd been a drought, and every word He spoke was rain"

I was preparing tonight's family home evening lesson, and it's about when Jesus Christ came to visit the Nephites. 3 Nephi Chapter 17 is a lot of peoples favorites in the Book of Mormon, I know. It's mine, too! I always think of that song from the Women of the well CD-"He came for me" whenever this story comes up. It's always been a favorite song. The song is about a mom telling her child what it was like to see Jesus when he visited them. When i was 19 & engaged to Steven I was asked to dress up like a nephite girl and sing this song for both Junior & Senior Primary. A lady in my ward had a bunch of costume stuff -kind of Easter Pageant looking stuff. I wish i had taken more pictures during this time of my life.. At the time my hair was shorter than its ever been so i couldn't braid it, but i found this dress & headpiece that did the job of making me look sort of Nephite-ish. In the primary room they had cleared all the chairs and had me sitting with my legs sideways on the ground. Before they brought the kids in they talked out in the hall about how Christ came to the Nephites and visited the children. . When the children came in the room- they came in so quietly and sat down and the beginning music to the song started and it has that flutey-indian sound. I remember trying to keep it together because when i saw those sweet children's face i thought about how i would really feel if I met Jesus and was telling my child about it. I was also reading all of those "Tennis shoes among the Nephites" books at the time and had just finished the "Kingdom and the Crown" series. I felt very close to this story and I felt the spirit so strong both times I sang it for those kids. I hope I did the song justice, but I remember feeling very at ease while I was singing in front of them, thats not usual for me. Well I youtubed this song for fhe and Finnick had just woken up from his nap. I sat at the computer and sang along with it and it was so sweet holding my own sweet baby & remembering singing for those kids when i was just a teenager. I'm so glad I had that experience, it was very sweet.

Come close my precious child Listen to the words I'll say Many years ago, before you were born Jesus came, and He changed my life forever It was dark for many days The storms had taken all we owned I'd been driven to my knees Longing for the warmth of my home When a light appeared above me He had comeKing of all Kings Ruler of Worlds For His other sheep I felt His hands I touched His feet I'll forever rejoice He came for me It was like there'd been a drought And every word He spoke was rain Bringing hope into our lives And life to the promise of prophets Passed down through the ages Then He called the children close He loved them just as I love you He let them touch the marks He let them kiss His cheek Any they knew. We all knew!

listening to this song makes me want to watch the end of the "Testaments" movie, too! :)

broken bones, stitches & tree climbing. you know,boy stuff.

Jasper slammed the door on his own finger. as we pulled in to the urgent care parking lot Jasper said "All these people?!" i was like "Huh?" and he's all "All these people have smashed fingers?" it looked pretty yucky but i took him to urgent care first because last time with Embry's tongue the ER just told me it would heal together. But Urgent care did xrays and found it was broken on top of needing stitches. the doc kind of freaked me out with saying how if infection got in the cut and the bone, the top of the finger couldn't be saved. they sent me over to Cardon's children's ER and 4 hours later he was all stitched up! Its funny cause the doctor asked me if he was a nervous kid. and maybe she could tell but i was like 'yes, his fingers are always in his mouth'. well i guess because of that they gave him this medicine to make him sleepy so he wouldnt freak about getting stitched up. the medicine made him so funny. he was calm and fine but when that medicine kicked in he all the sudden kept trying to slide off the bed and laughing when i would tell him to stop. also the finger pulse thing started bothering him and would keep trying to pull it off. earlier some girls had brought him a bear he could take home. but every 2 minutes he would grab his finger pulsey thing and say "can i take this home?" it was making me laugh so much. mickey mouse clubhouse was on and at first he said"why are there 2 mickeys?" but then he'd say it about all of the characters. the nurse said it has a cyclops effect. it was pretty entertaining. when the doctor was stitching his finger she wondered at first if the nail came off with it. but it didnt. jasper bites his fingers SO far down its scary. i remember him showing me that finger the day before and thinking it was freaky how far down he bites. guess i need to buy some of that nasty tasting nail polish or something. well she had to stitch through the nail because he had a cut under the nail bed! that made me squirm seeing her stick the needle in the nail:/i was pretty paranoid about the infection thing after the ER but every night when i cleaned it it looked really good. yesterday he had a checkup with a plastic surgeon and he said it looks awesome and apologized for having boring news:)

it was wrapped like this to keep it clean and out of his mouth for the first 5 days. but now he only needs the splint to cushion the break. he handled everything so great & never really complained about it hurting.

Steven and the boys were outside climbing in my parent's tree, so me & Finny joined them. This is the same tree that my friends and i were obsessed with climbing and building clubhouses in.

this would be such a cute pic of Embry but i just cant get over those boots. my mom bought them all boots and she let Embry pick out girl ones. why?

i love steven with glasses! its so funny that he wore them almost half his life but got contacts a few months before he met me (almost 12 yrs ago!) and he never wore glasses again until after Finnick was born, crazy. steven can definetly pull off the glasses.

10 months-Finny

I wish I had thought to do these monthly updates for all my kids first year, i kinda did for the twins..but especially Bastien since I started this blog when Bastien was 2.

I love going back on here and reading about them!

Finnick is 10 months! He is so playful and full of energy. he cant stand being contained in anything for too long. He cries as soon as you start to buckle him in his carseat..its lots of work trying to distract him on the drive home-handing him everything i can find in the car to chew on. old cups, my hairties, lotion bottles-they do the job!

He walks on all fours really fast like a gorilla! I need to get it on video. you think you can get in a room and out before he gets in there, but nope he's too speedy!

His nightly routine is to go in the boys room to snuggle and hug them before he goes to bed.

He has been sleeping so good! its been amazing! i havebeen trying to give up naps lately (only during the weekdays-everyone should have a sunday nap:) and he has made it so much easier knowing i can count on 8 hours of sleep!

one thing i know helped him with us not waking him up if we need to go in the room was white noise. i bought a white noise machine, a baby one at target. then i got the idea from camille to use the humidifier without the water, mine is pretty loud and works great! i took the noise machine back and got my 25 bucks back. its so great having the white noise during naptime, i dont have to make sure the kids dont get too loud. i dont know why i didnt do this sooner.

He eats 3 meals a day and wont have any skipped meals. i was lazy about meals when he was just picking at his food and seemed like he just wanted his milk. But it was like one day his taste buds came in and he demanded food! It seems like he likes everything but bananas, its the slimy texture (me niether, finny )he loves cheese, peaches, apples, pears, peas, bread, crackers with strawberry cream cheese spread on it, gogurts, black beans, rice, broccoli, carrots, anything! i am trying to always base it around the fruits and veggies, cause my older boys are such stinkers about all veggies (except bastien loves broccoli) and some fruits. finnick also eats sandwiches-cheese, lunchmeat. my other boys never liked them as babies.

He loves to wrestle with Steven. He lights up when he sees him come home from work. He's a tough baby cause Steven wrestles with him pretty hard, and he just laughs and gets him back. I love seeing how much steven likes Finnick. while he playing with him once he said "i'm so glad you decided in Oklahoma that you wanted to have this guy" -he had fought me a little on wanting a 4th so soon.

but i usually always win those conversations:)

I think we all have a favorite and his name is Finnick!

two four year olds=fun

Embry and Jasper have been looking forward to this day for so long! i've heard "how many more naps until my birthday?" or "when i wake up it better be my birthday" comments since their last birthday was over. I think this is my favorite age for the twins. but i've felt that way at almost every age so far. they say and do the funniest and cutest things all the time. yesterday in the car steven and i were talking about where we wanted to move.

and Embry interrupted and said "Can I live in my own house before my brain espwodes?"

this birthday we skipped out on the party..they didn't like that idea until we told them we'd make their day really fun. and we did! we woke up early to go to Bastien's soccer practice. then we went to Joe's Farm Grill for breakfast. then we went to san tan mall and let them play in the play area. we acted like it was time to go. then we said close your eyes and follow us to the next surprise. we walked over to build a bear and let them choose a stuffed animal and one piece of clothing. they were SO excited. I think Build a bear is ridiculously overpriced, especially times 2?! They've never been inside before. But i figured they are not going to love stuffed animals much longer and the build a bear experience is really fun. (Their stuffed animals are their Favorite toys these days-along with the batman imaginext toys) I'm glad we did it. cause i could tell they just loved it. Embry chose an army camo bear with a skeleton tshirt. Jasper chose a monkey with a white build a bear tshirt. then we came home and the boys gladly took a nap cause we were up so early. then we woke up and went to dinner with my parents. then came home and sang happy birthday and opened presents. Embry got 2 batman figurines (his request was "I want a lot of batmans") and jasper got a blue flash superhero figurine and a cookie monster figurine, too. (He said he wanted a "blue superhero") i like that they love figurines so much.. it's fun listening to their little imaginations when they're playing.

bastien rubbed all the balloons on the carpet then put them on walls

we dont usually serve cupcakes on the ground, but the lighting in the kitchen is so bad. cupcake toppers are my new fav bday thing. i'm so done with having meltdowns the night or 30 mins before their parties. (like bastien's ghostbuster cake & embry's brobee cake-both which steven saved) Embry wanted batman cupcakes & jasper, cookie monster. i found the topper rings online, and they were just as excited about them.

soccer

Bastien started his soccer practices this morning. Bastien wasnt too sure about wanting to do soccer for a while. I told him he could try it and see if he liked it. and I didnt talk about it again because that's never a good idea with Bastien. If you act too excited about somethings with him, he tends to even it out by acting the opposite way. A Bastien-ism he's had since he was a little guy. But yesterday, he saw i bought him shin guard socks & a ball and has been super excited ever since. He had so much fun this morning playing sharks & minnows and he even played some more soccer in the backyard for a while after we got home. He has practices the next 5 weeks, then 6 weeks of games. His teams name is The Tigers. The kids all voted on it. I could tell Bastien liked being apart of a team.

this guy doesnt happily last very long at parks. he spent most of the time trying to eat all the grass.

oh and right when we got there the twins both said they had to pee. i didnt say anything and then they asked "can we go to that tree?" and i just kinda quietly said "mmhmm" and then turned around and acted like i didnt see them do it. i never know the rules with this. i figure they are still really little, we're at a park with no bathroom, we just got there and i'm not going to pack up everyone, and it's super fast & easy cause they're boys, right? don't they have a free pass while they're little? :)

Embry & Jasper

steven bought me a camcorder before the twins were born, so we have so much footage of them! it makes me wish i had more of Bastien when he was a baby. i squeezed it all down to a 15 minute video for the boys to watch..they love watching home videos. Here's a 5 minute shortened version-i cant believe they will be 4 this month!

blueberry oatmeal buttermilk pancakes

that's a mouthful to say! when we went to my step mother inlaw's cabin last summer, she made some yummy blueberry pancakes. she said they were the kind where you let the oats soak in buttermilk overnight. i love me a good oaty pancake! i searched online for a similar recipe. i found one but tried to make it more healthy since there's really never a good reason to eat pancakes. these ones have about 150-175 calories per pancake but maybe less since i changed the butter to half and used applesauce for the rest of what it called for. i doubled this and put the rest in the freezer for the rest of the week. try it! you're gonna like it! :)

2 c. oats

1/2 c. wheat flour

3 T sugar (or splenda)

1 tsp bak soda

1.5 bak powder

1/2 tsp salt

2.5 c lowfat buttermilk

2 eggs

1/8 c. butter-melted

1/8 c. applesauce

1.5 tsp vanilla

1 bag of frozen no sug added blueberries

cooking spray

1. Large bowl-combine first 6 ingredients

2. small bowl-whisk buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, applesauce, vanilla

-add to dry ingredients

3. thaw bag of berries, before opening-smoosh blueberries to get it more juicy. (optional)

4. add blueberries to mixture.

5. cover and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

6. spray pan with cooking spray and drop 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake

makes 15 pancakes

about 150-175 calories a pancake

tips..

-the first time i made these i burned half the batch. but i found that if you start the heat out somewhere between the low& med setting they turn out best.

-also the batter is thicker than usual pancake batter so make sure you spread out the pancake really well..or they wont cook all the way in the middle.

boys first helicopter ride

New Years Eve day Steven and Andrew were doing 15 min rides for family/friends. The boys were so excited to ride with Steven. They werent even scared one bit. The paranoid in me had to think about it for a while before i agreed-but felt okay especially since its their daddy! my sister Ana, her husband and 2 oldest boys got to ride as well.

my camera was being weird-i wish i got better pictures of Jasper right before and right after he rode because he was SOO cute. he was saying "I'm so excited!" before he got on and he skipped back to me after Andrew got him out of the heli. his face was the best.

Bastien got to go 2 times and we switched out the twins in the middle seat. Embry asked to take his bear. Steven said during the flight that he said "Daddy-my bears having fun"

jasper deep in thought about what just happened-while embry and bastien take off.

we were there from 9am-1pm and Finnick slept for about half of it. He slept through every windy/loud landing!

one of Steven's past students sent the boys wrapped christmas presents! helicopters with landing pads for the twins, a stuffed plane for finnick and a really nice remote control helicopter for bastien. that was so thoughtful and sweet of him.