Beatrix's First Food

We officially gave Beatrix her first food the other day.  I say officially because I know she has gotten snippets of food here and there off the floor a few times before now.  Anyway, it was homemade greek yogurt.  It went ok.  She is over nine months old, so older than we fed any of the other kids. I really just don't see the point in it right now and I don't have a lot of extra time to be dealing with baby food.  But I know that eventually she will need to transition into eating table food with us so we do need to start sometime.

Keeping Busy

Life has been so busy lately.  This is sort of a random post from pictures on my phone from over the last few weeks.  Enjoy.

Penelope wither her awesome sequined scripture bag that her grandma made for her.

Roller blades have been a big hit, even though they couldn't get the timing down right for this picture.

 French fries in a can... who knew?

Calista can now pic the locks!  I locked her out of my room one day so I could feed Beatrix in peace and about three minutes later the door popped open and this was my view.  She used a quarter and she was so happy with herself.  She has since locked me out of my own room a few times, which is really annoying.  Oh and notice the dress?  She insists on wearing it every day.

 We made elements with marshmallows for science one day. 

 Tucker brought some mermaid cookies to his final cast party to celebrate the end of their play.

Beatrix is such a sweet baby.  She now has started to lay down on the floor randomly when she gets tired.  It is really cute.

We had our ward primary program so here are the kids parts.






Baby laughs


Calista and the neighbors dog that she loves.


And a song to finish it out.

Beatrix Crawling

She's Mobile!

Update

While walking to church one week the kids noticed seven dollars in a drain.  They were actually 100 yen coins, which are about a US dollar.  So I told them to see what they could come up with during church and on the way back if they were still there we would try to get them out.  

After church we had a stick and 3 pieces of tape.  The kids were semi successful and got one coin but ran out of tape.   

It was fun so we went home and I told them to make a contraption to get money out of the drain.  I personally loved Scarlett's straws all stuck together, even though all attempts to suction them out did not work.  The best was just the broom handle with tape on the end.  We were able to get six of the seven dollars out.  Just enough for all the kids to each have one.  The kids had so much fun using their imaginations and being creative with a goal in mind.

Tucker built a little fortress for Beatrix.  She really was liking it until she saw me.  She does this thing now where she will play happily by herself or with others until she hears or sees me.  Then she starts crying until I pick her up.  Babies are the best.

Penelope had a couple away soccer games that she needed to ride the bus on with the team.  She was very nervous about the lunch part.  I guess she has never ordered her own food before.  She can walk to the grocery store and buy her own food, but she says that is easier because you don't have to talk.  So we went to McDonalds and I gave the kids each money to order while I sat down and watched.  They probably need a few more practices to feel comfortable (except Tucker).

Beatrix was not a fan of Ronald McDonald.

Tucker's 11 Year Video

I'm officially caught up on videos, at least until Penelope's birthday in September!

The Princess and the Pea

All last week the four older kids went to Missoula Children's Theatre and put on a play.  They auditioned on Monday and went to practices all week then had two performances on Saturday.  The audition on Monday was pretty scary for the kids.  They didn't need to have anything prepared ahead of time, but the directors would ask them so say specific lines and do a couple different things.  I was really proud of my kids for just doing that.  It was hard for some of them to say lines in front of people.  I heard from others that in the past lots of kids get cut, but thankfully this year they had room for everyone who tried out.  I hate the idea of kids getting cut from activities they want to do.

Scarlett was a Winter Wind Worker.  Penelope was a Blizzard Bringer.  Tucker was a Grinder, and Leon was the cutest dust bunny ever.

Practices were at different times for different kids so it was a lot of back and forth to and from base for me.  Leon also had the least practices so we got some time together without the older kids.  I had most mornings all week with just Beatrix and Calista.  Having only two kids at home was soooo easy.  I got a ton done!

Another cool thing about they play was that everyone had speaking parts.  My kids each had three lines and they were nervous.  But they didn't forget them and I could even hear them!  Great job guys.

Here are a few videos from the play

Beatrix Rolling

Beatrix  can official roll over!  She has done it a few times now.  This isn't a video of her first time.  I actually didn't even see her first few rolls.  There were a couple times when I put her down for tummy time only to look at her a minute later and see she was on her back.  She doesn't do it on purpose yet, but I think she will soon.

Scarlett's 7 Video

I finished putting together clips of Scarlett from when she was seven!

Calista's 1 Yearly Video

I finished another video!

Leon's 5! Yearly Video

I told myself I'm going to get all the kids yearly videos done this summer (except Penelope who's birthday is in September) so here you go.  One down four to go.

Penelope's 8 Year Video

The last video of the kids yearly compilations was Penelope's eight-year-old video.  It probably would have been much easier if I did each video right after their birthday instead of waiting until the end of the year to get the majority of the work done.  I'll try to do better this year.  Enjoy.

Tucker's 10 Year Video

I finished Tucker's ten year old video and I still can't believe that Tucker is eleven.  Check it out!

Scarlett's 6 Year Video

I also finished Scarlett's six video.  It really feels great to not be behind on these.  I spend hours going through videos and putting things together.  It is a ton of work but I love looking back at the old videos so I know all my hard work is paying off.

Calista's Baby Year Video

This video compilation of Calista's first year was so fun to make.  I had way too much footage but she is so adorable I really couldn't help it.

Leon's 4 Year Video

I caught up on all the kids yearly videos.  Wahoo!!  Here is Leon's 4-year-old video.  I now have a couple months before I need to do his five-year-old video.

Calista's First Steps

Ok, so this feels really late now but here is a video of Calista's first steps. They took us by surprise and it was funny how many steps she took all at once on her first try.   She really wanted that drum and seemed unaware that she was walking.



This happened when she was about 13 and a half months old.  She then went a few more weeks of mostly scooting around.  While we were gone in the states though she transitioned from mostly scooting around to all walking.  So now at 15 months she is full on walking.  She seems so much older, I cannot even handle it.

She Scoots

Calista has started scooting around the house.  She can also do a very slow army crawl but she started about two weeks ago and she tends to scoot for her mode of transportation.

And now that she is mobile she gets into all kinds of trouble.

New House

I've been so busy moving into our new house I haven't had time to post.  I want to get back to posting again so  here is a video Bob and Tucker took of our new house before we moved in.  Check it out.

Kannonzaki Park

We found our new favorite park here in Japan!

Kannonzaki park is pretty fun.  The kids love the playground the the roller slides are the fastest and best we've experienced so far.

Aside from the playground the park is pretty huge.  There is a lighthouse we went up and lots of trails and places to explore.

We've gone twice now, once with our hiking group and once with Bob.  I'm sure we will go again once the weather warms up a bit.