My Sweet Boys

Seth went to his 15 month appointment and here are his stats. 

Weight: 20.11 lb (19%!)
Length: 31 inches (43%)
Head: 46.75 cm (48%)

I was happy to see he is higher than 9% for weight! He had a ruptured ear drum a couple weeks ago and it has healed up ok but there is still a lot of fluid in that ear so he has to take antibiotics for another month and then hopefully it will clear up or he'll need tubes, too.

He is running all over the place and really likes to climb. His favorite is to climb onto the piano bench. We added another railing to our stairs so he can't fall off the side so the gate is down and he loves going up and down to keep up with his brothers. I still panic a little that he'll fall down them because those stairs are hard! He only says "mom" and "boo" but the doctor says not to worry yet... he's just so different than his brothers! They both had a tons of words at this age.

Getting ready to read scriptures. 

Dean got ear tubes and has been a different kid! So much more energy, so much happier, and so much less whiney. He never really wants to go to preschool but always says he loves it when he goes. We do preschool at home, too, and I think he's learning a lot! He knows all the letters and is getting better at their sounds. He has been able to write his name for awhile and loves to count and sing. 

Some of his home preschool work.

Brennen is doing great at school. He seems to really like it and tells me he's the smartest one in the whole kindergarten. He really loves to read and is reading at a 2nd grade level (at least). It's awesome to listen to him reading scriptures. He has learned to recognize the tricky words that are fairly unique to scriptures. He really enjoys playing the piano and is getting really good at it! In typical Brennen fashion, he memorized the note names pretty much the first time he saw them. He can just look at a song and play it (it takes him awhile to really get it down of course but unlike my other students who struggle at even knowing if the notes are going up or down or which hand plays them, he just knows what the note is and where it is and plays it). He is as loud and energetic as ever and he and Dean love making up games together. 

Before school piano practice.

Sometimes I forget how little they are, especially Brennen since he's so smart and the oldest. I took Seth to the school and we ate lunch with Brennen today. He was SO excited that we were there and looking at him compared to all of those other kids made me realize how small he is! I just wanted to hold him and not let go. He's young for his grade anyway and he just looked smaller than most of the kids in his class.

I never posted anything about Christmas but I'll just briefly say that it was wonderful! We spent Christmas Eve and day just us at our house in Newcastle. It was definitely different not being around a lot of family but it was just amazing and I'm happy that we're at that place in our life with our little family. We did travel to see all of our extended family after Christmas and that was wonderful, too! Dean LOVED sledding at Grandma Hope's. 

Christmas morning!

Christmas morning!

Post-sledding red cheeks and smile!

Matt and I also "celebrated" our 9th anniversary about a month ago. We didn't really do much in the way or celebration but we are very happy and glad to have 9 great years together! We went on a double date with my sister Christena and her husband while we were in Lyman and then on our anniversary we were in Laramie and went for some quick frozen yogurt. And I do not even have a picture of us together! We need to work on that...

That's all for now!