18 Months

Max turned 18 months shortly before Christmas and I wanted to blog about our sweet Max at 18 months. Here are a few pictures of him at this age. Max loves this outside push toy. The last time he got to use it was late November! Sigh. May spring be here ever so quickly!!!

Christmas morning with daddy

A few things about Max at 18 months: 

• LOVES to be outside.  This harsh winter is killing us!
• He points out the moon and even some stars whenever we are out in the evenings.
• He can make all of the animal sounds.
• He is constantly tripping, falling down, bumping his head, etc. but he is so tough.  He mostly just gets back up again, with nary a whimper.
• He is the first of our toddlers to not being shouting "NO" at 18 months.  He never says no, unless one of the kids asks him to (which I profusely discourage....).  :)  We are certainly enjoying this short-lived stage.
• Even though he doesn't yet say no, he is starting to not want to share sometimes and gets bugged when other kids try to use the same toys or get in his way.
• He doesn't like ANY vegetables, sadly, unless they are in soup.  But he does happily slurp up spinach smoothies.
• He doesn't like any form of pasta either.  Isn't this weird for a toddler??!!  
• Loves to cuddle and wrestle with his dad.  He gets right in the fray with his big siblings when it's daddy time.
• Sucks his thumb quite a bit.  Whenever he is bored, tired, hungry, or riding in the car.  Which basically means I am trying to get him NOT to suck his thumb all day long.  :)  
• Can stack a tall tower of blocks all on his own and is mastering his shape sorter.
• Loves peek-a-boo and hiding games.  He especially loves to play these with his sisters.
• Likes to lift up people's shirts and blow raspberries (we call them "zerbets") on tummies.  This is pretty darn hilarious to watch!
• Knows all of his body parts.
• Has a vocabulary of about 30 words and likes to try saying new words.  My personal favorite is "Costco."
• Really starting to love books and brings them to me while backing up into my lap to read.  Love that.
• Can blow bubbles in the bathtub already!!!  I can't believe he can do it.  Maybe he'll learn to swim super early.
• Loves to get into my makeup (especially my eyeliner) and markers and tries to draw all over everything.  It's lovely.
• He can  drag a kitchen chair over to the counter to "help" me when I cook. 

He is a super sweet baby.  He really is.  He is so tender and loving and gives the best Eskimo kisses.  We love him so much!

Christmas 2012

Grandpa invited us to go to the Festival of Trees in early December. Ben wasn't up to going and so I took the crew on my own and met Grandpa up there. It was very crowded and loud, but very fun. We liked the yummy scones and entertainment and were in awe of all of the many creatively and beautifully decorated trees.

We have to make gingerbread cookies every December! I love them just plain, right out of the oven. So yummy.

Visiting Santa at our ward Christmas party. I think Emma was off at the amazing hot cocoa table when we took this picture. Max was starting to lose it here, but he did sit on his lap without crying for about 30 seconds. I was proud of him!

Grandma Bergin hosted a cookie-decorating party and we all had a good time.

Christmas morning! Rachel's big gift--a cupcake baking set for her American Girl doll!! It is super cute.

Luke's big gift--a Handy Manny crane set. He loves it!

Max sporting his new Superman shirt, courtesy of Granby and Papa. Luke has one as well and they love to match.

Emma's requested Orbeez. I think they are way over-rated, personally, but she was so happy that she actually got some.  Notice the Wii behind her.  Santa got us a Wii!!!  We have had a lot of fun learning to use it.  We especially love the Just Dance for Kids game.  It is a workout!

We invited Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Susie over for Christmas dinner. We made a big turkey dinner and Grandma brought delicious pumpkin pie. It was so fun to relax together and celebrate Christmas at our house.

The kids loved showing off all of their cool new gifts to everyone. Oh, Christmas is so fun with kids!

It was a wonderful Christmas and we enjoyed the season so much. I have to say, though, that it feels great to get back to normal!

November

We had the first big snowstorm of the season in early November! The kids were ELATED! Here they are trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. I could watch it snow all day long; it is so beautiful!

The kids spent a lot of time outside playing in the snow. I thought I'd see what Max thought about it. Isn't he darn cute all bundled up?

Max kinda didn't really know what to do in the snow. I think the falling snow hitting his face bothered him a little bit. He mostly just sat there and watched his sibs play.

The way cool snowman Luke and his daddy built.

Other November news: Max officially began walking! He has taken steps for months now but hadn't converted to full-on walking yet. I was sooooo ready for him to walk. It's so much easier to go outside with him and take him places now.

Max has a fascination with the broom. Every time I bring it out to sweep the kitchen, he has to commandeer it. Too funny.

Luke's cute turkey hat he made in preschool.

Happy Thanksgiving! We spent a lovely Turkey Day with my side of the family. My grandma worked so hard to make a lovely spread for us. It was so delicious! The only sad part was not having enough leftover pumpkin pie. :( We had a lot of fun playing games and talking. Oh, how I love Thanksgiving! And please ignore the fact that Luke is showing us the food in his mouth! :)

Proof that Max and I were there too.

One lovely thing that my Emma has been doing is helping to get breakfast ready! She just started doing it a few months ago, without me even asking her. So nice. After getting up and dressed, Emma heads downstairs to set the breakfast table. Usually I'm still getting ready for the day when she is doing it and I must say, it is wonderful to walk downstairs and see everything all ready to go! She doesn't do it every day, but golly, it sure helps on busy school mornings. What a sweetheart!

October!

My favorite month of October did not disappoint.  The weather was fabulous and we enjoyed it to the fullest!  We headed down to the "red barn" in Santaquin for some pumpkin patch fun.  We'd heard good things about it and wanted to see for ourselves.  It was so much fun!  The kids picked some pumpkins, we played on the awesome slides, and enjoyed some cider donuts and pumpkin pie ice cream.  YUM.

We got "boo'ed" this year and it's always a fun surprise.  We headed out to "boo" our neighbors in our jammies one night and I couldn't resist getting a picture of my cute little pumpkin.  Did you know all four of our kids have worn these Halloween pj's and pumpkin hat?  Pretty cool.

Carving pumpkins! Max was completely enthralled by the whole thing and loved spooning out the seeds and gunk.

My dad came for a super-quick trip to finish tiling our shower and was here on Halloween day! Hooray! I'm so glad he got to see the kids in their costumes.

Can you tell who Ben is? He even won the costume contest at work? We are re-enacting the football kicking scene--I make a great Lucy, eh? :)

My ladybug

Spiderman

My little bee. He was not a happy camper by this time of night--too much dragging around the whole day.

Annual Bergin/Familia kid shot. EIGHT kids this year!

The cute babies.

Rachel and Kaitlyn were both insects and I had to snap a picture of their wings!

Cute girls! Emma was an Indian this year.

It was a wonderful, yet exhausting, Halloween. Now on to Thanksgiving!

Freshly Four

I am FOUR!

Someone turned the big "four" recently. Happy birthday Luke! His birthday is a mere eight days after Rachel's, thus leading to a lot of busyness in the fall around here. We enjoyed a family dinner on his big day (which was Conference Sunday) and then had a little party with a few friends later on in the week. 

Luke's requested birthday breakfast: blueberry scones! Yummy.

Luke's favorite toys right now. It's all about Spidey! :)

Ben rocked it on the cake front again, this time with an Angry Birds cake. Luke was delighted!

Dinner with Grandma and Grandpa

Luke's big gift from us was a new bike. He has outgrown his little big-wheel type bike and we thought he'd immediately take to this new bike. However, he is pretty darn attached to his old bike and still prefers to zoom around on it. I think he likes it better because he can cruise faster and he doesn't have to work as hard. I'm sure by spring he will be ready to move on up in the bike world.

We had a friend party a few days after his birthday. I was quite hesitant to do a friend party for him because he is a rambunctious little boy and I kind of wanted to wait until he was a bit older. Oh, but he begged me to do it and how could I turn him down? I kept the party small and simple and we all loved it! I think this is how I want to do all my parties: simple. We just did one easy craft and played some fun group games I had on hand, ate dessert, and played with Luke's new toys. That was it! And I was surprised how much I enjoyed myself since I wasn't so stressed or busy with elaborate party plans. The kids had a lot of fun too. What a cute group of boys we have in our neighborhood.

 Halloween Bingo!

Being silly

We were a little caked out after Rachel's birthday, so we opted to have birthday cookies and ice cream instead. Nothing like warm homemade chocolate chip cookies!

Luke at four: 

• As I said before, he loves Spider-Man right now.  He's watched the old Spider-Man cartoons from the 80s and loves them.  He and Rachel play Spider-Man all the time, with Rachel being Firestar.  :)
• He is a sweet boy and can be very tender and loving to all of us.  He frequently compliments us and expresses his love for us.  And he's also very affectionate.  
• With that said, he can also be very wild and rambunctious and gets wound up easily.  Not so much fun for me.  But I'm learning what the triggers are and how to channel that energy into something good.  :)
• He LOVES working on projects.  Like all day long.  He colors and draws and digs stuff out of our recycling bin to create things with.  He especially loves when we do fun special crafts together.
• He likes games a lot too and has a good attention span for playing them all the way to the end.  It's hilarious to play Old Maid with him!
• Still doesn't like any meat except for hamburgers.
• Loves munching on big, long carrots.  He likes baby carrots too, but he really loves the big ones.  He reminds me of Bugs Bunny!
• He loves books and stories and songs.  
• Has to have some daddy time every day to wrestle, cuddle, do something fun on Dad's phone, etc.  So cute.
• Has become quite outgoing with other kids lately.  Almost every time we go to the park he makes a new little friend.  It's pretty sweet.  
• LOVES pre-school.  His teacher is perfect for him because she does tons of fun crafts and projects.  And when I ask Luke who his friends are at school, he says, "all of them!"  I love it.
• Loves playing with his siblings, especially Rachel.  He always says how Rachel is his best buddy.
• He is always doing and saying the funniest things.  One of my favorites about him right now is when a song he loves comes on the radio or ipod (usually a fast, rock-n-roll one) he immediately puts on this serious, mean-looking face--he calls it his dancing face--and starts boogying.  That kid can dance!  Makes me laugh every time.

 Luke is a bright, sweet, fun little boy and we are so glad he is part of our family.  And he still melts me with those huge brown eyes and deep dimples.  What a cutie!