Malia is 10 months old

Babies grow up so fast. Here my sweet Malee is almost a year old. She is such a sweet quiet joy in our family. Aren't babies wonderful that way? She calms everyone and when anyone is sad all Malia has to do is smile and hold out her arms and whatever child was sad is happy again holding her. The kids adore her and are such great helpers with her. Her funny little personality is coming out more and more and every now and then we get glimpses where I think she might be just as fiesty as the rest of them. But she is most always patient and calm and happy. Oh how we love her!

10 month milestones:
She will balance a little at a time without hanging on to anything.
She crawls turbo, sometimes with one knee up, but boy can she go!
She love, love, loves Peekaboo!
She plays peekaboo with her bib at mealtime.
She loves chicken noodle soup and soda crackers. Not so sure she's supposed to have that yet but boy howdy it's her favorite.
Her other new favorite thing is to pull all her clothes out of her dresser drawer.
She's growing out of her 'mom only' phase and will let the neighbors hold her without crying.
She's started clicking her tongue. Love it!
She's learned how to point at things.
She is a wiggle worm, never ever still except for when she's sleeping.
She wakes up in the morning and stands up to peek out the side of her bed and if I wave she waves back and thinks it's so funny.
She's almost sleeping through the night most nights.
She is so sweet!









She is so hard to get pictures of! I was clicking away and in most of them she's turned around or upside down trying to get out of that chair.




Only still while she's sleeping! She's never fallen asleep in her high chair before!

She still laughs so funny through her nose with her mouth open. It cracks us up!

Favorite thing to pull out all her clothes.
I was studying my Relief Society lesson one night after everyone except Malee was in bed (I was just called as a Relief Society teacher for our third ward in a row) and after Miss Mia pulled out all her clothes she crawled over and climbed up my knees.
I can't resist this sweet little face! Happy 10 months Lee-lee!

sunsets

I miss the sunsets we used to see over the mountains back home. But we have had some pretty sunsets here too. I love to see the pink hues coming in the window and run out on the balcony to look and soak in a little tranquility.



One night we ran up on the roof to see the sunset and tried to capture it behind us in a photo but it didn't work. I only had one chance and then the kids were off running around again. I still like this photo tho. It caught me in mid action picking up Brenner. The wind was blowing. Lexi's hair was crazy. Malia's hair was crazy. My hair was crazy. Kyler is eating a pear. Porter has a frozen water bottle wrapped in a kitchen towel so his fingers don't freeze. Random. I love my family. I love our crazy moments. I love my strong handsome husband. And I love sunsets at the end of each day when I remember to look at them. What a gift!

Scouts at the Fire House

Scouts and Achievement Days are both on Friday nights at the church. It is so nice so we can go into the city at the same time for both events. Last Friday Kyler's scout troup went to the Fire Station. I tagged along with Brenner and Malia. We rode with a friend who dropped us off at the fire station and took Lexi to Achievement Days at the Church.

It was pretty cool to see a real NY Fire Station. That's where the action is! Twelve men from this company were actually killed on 9/11 and there was a neat memorial to them on the wall. And during our visit they got called out and so we saw them suit up and climb into the truck and drive away, sirens blaring. Pretty cool!

The Scouts.
Trying on a mask.
Kyler and Brenner in front of the fire fighter gear.
Brenner by the fire engine. He has a thing for fire trucks right now and thought that was pretty cool, when he wasn't being a stinker!
Brenner was being such a pill while the scouts were listening to the Fire Chief, so this awesome fire fighter asked him if he wanted to sit inside and 'drive'! That made his night!
The fire engine responding to a call.
The fire station.
A fun scout activity!

down the hall

I'm pretty sure all the people on our floor love us. Love our noise. Love the crying and chaos they hear through the door as they walk to the elevator (too bad we don't live at the other end where no one would have to walk by)! Love hearing my kids yelling at the top of their lungs, "MMMOOOMMM!" down the hall when I go to the laundry room to grab out a load of wash. Oh to have my own laundry room again! Although I do love getting several loads done at once. And I'm sure they love my kids racing scooters and bikes up and down the hall because they're going crazy inside and need some more space!

I'm pretty sure they'll love when we move out of the building in 2 years and their peace and quiet is restored. Oh it's a chore to keep them quiet all day! Impossible!

cannonball!

It's a wonder we don't have more children wearing casts, right?

feeding the missionaries

A couple weeks ago we fed 4 missionaries serving in the New York City North mission. It was so fun to have them at our house. Three of them are from Utah and one from Brazil. I love missionaries! And I love the example they are setting for my boys. They were so nice, we love them!
We enjoyed having them over so much we fed them again last weekend. Such a treat to have the Elders in our home!

NY Yankees Game

Dave got a steal of a deal on tickets to a New York Yankees game at Yankee Stadium last week. The kids were so excited to go. We took the subway to Yankee Stadium and Kyler was in awe. We were in a no-alcohol seating area and some girls behind us had beer. One of them spilled it down Lexi's back and then it kept spilling all down Lexi's chair and it was puddled under all our feet and got all over our jackets that were under our seats. I was so irritated. Dave actually sent an email the next morning telling how disappointed we were and they sent us free tickets for another game. And a care package for the kids with Yankees memorabilia. It was fun to be there and watch the players, like Jeter, although our seats were so high I had to keep swallowing down my fear of heights!









Go Yankees!

another broken bone

Well, Kyler broke another bone. This is his 3rd time to have a cast on his arm! We were out for a Sunday walk and stopped by the swings. He decided to do a back flip out of the swing and his hand got stuck in the chain as he tried to flip around. He cried and cried and his finger looked dislocated so Dave took him to the emergency room at New York Presbyterian Hospital. It was 7:30pm and they didn't get home until 1:30am! Turns out he broke a bone in his hand. The other kids thought it was such a novelty to wake up and see his cast the next morning. They all took turns signing it before school and he came home with it covered in his classmate's signatures. He even had the 4 missionaries sign it when they came to eat dinner at our house a few days later. I still cannot believe this boy is in another cast!

Cirque du Soleil

A couple Saturdays ago Porter and I had a one on one date to Cirque Du Soleil at Radio City Music Hall. Dave took the other kids to soccer and Porter and I walked to Duane Reade's to get some Swedish Fish and Skittles and then on to the subway. Here is Porter while we were waiting for the subway.
And Porter and I together.
Outside Radio City Music Hall.
Inside Radio City Music Hall.



I was emotional this day and almost started crying going inside. Porter thought I was crazy! It is just so grand and old and famous and we were there. I don't know why it hit me that way. That and I've always wanted to go to a circus. I think this outing was more for me than him. He mostly wanted treats! So we had to get him a Sprite and halfway through he was begging for popcorn. He's funny. He could have cared less about all the cool acrobatics! I thought it was amazing! Here are some pictures I googled from the show we saw, "Zarkana."

The spinning thing in this picture with the men inside and on top was Porter's favorite part. I found myself holding my breath hoping they didn't fall when they would jump and flip around as it was spinning. It was pretty amazing!




I enjoyed being with Porter. One on one times are my favorite!