7 months old!!

I just love, love, love, this little guy! Carder is our sunshine and smiles! He is so much fun! The kids are still so excited about him! They just love to hug, hold, tickle, kiss, snuggle their baby brother!! And Carder loves all the attention!

Carder is not like our other children! He is so different in many ways from his siblings! He doesn't love his binky, he goes to sleep without it and he goes down without crying! He wakes up quietly usually without a peep and lays in his bed until someone notices his eyes are open! Sometimes he will talk and babble to let us know he is ready to be out of his crib!

Mr. Carder is one cool dude! (even without the sunglasses!!)

 

Mr. Mover! He is a rolling machine! He does not stay in the same spot for very long! He rolls all over the floor and even scoots on his tummy! 

Mr. Handsome! He looks so cute in his Sunday best!

Mr. Noisy!! Carder says dada-dada-dada and mmmmama and bobobob. He makes other sounds too but he is constantly making some sort of noise--cute noises that is!!

Mr. Fuzzy head! I love Carder's fuzzy hair especially when he just wakes up. He has such blond hair compared to the other kiddos who all have darker hair!

Mr. Mimicker!! He does this cute big wide mouth laugh bwahahaha when he sees me!!

Mr. Dimple! I just love that Carder has one cute little dimple on his left side!

Mr. fussy-pants hates driving in the car! He hates his car seat, he hates sleeping in the car--another thing different than our other three kids! The other kids would sleep as soon as the car started and wake up when the car turned off--Carder will not sleep in the car even if he is tired. He fights it, he hates it. 

 

Mr. Sleepy-head! Carder loves going on walks! Whether it is in his stroller or the front pack Carder loves going for walks. He loves being outside. He loves swinging in the swing and watching his siblings play outside. After being outside in the fresh air Carder usually will fall asleep!

Nerd day!

To celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday the kids' school celebrated everyday by dressing up, or wearing something a certain day. One day it was nerd day! I don't know what Dr. Seuss and nerds have to do with anything nor do I really like the idea of classifying kids as nerds! But they wanted to participate so we did the best we could! Ty woke up and said "Today is nerd day, what is a nerd?!" I found a few images online of 'nerds' and this is what we came up with!

I think they are too cute to be nerds! You can't tell from the picture, but Mara has three piggy-tails! 

Caleb wanted to participate too although he didn't try dressing like a nerd, he actually wore mismatched pajamas to bed!

My funny kids! I hope they never feel like real nerds as hey get older! I hope they always feel good and confident and proud of themselves! I sure think they are great kids!

Ah nuts!!

Not too long ago my 3 oldest kids were making peanut butter bird houses to hang in our tree. Not too much longer after they had finished Carder broke out with hives all over his face, and arms. We gave him a bath, some benadryl, and covered him in cortisone. I wasn't sure if the hives and peanut butter were a coincidence or not. A couple days later the kids had peanuts for an after school snack. Once again where ever Carder had been kissed or touched was a hive! So I decided we better get on top of this quick! I called the allergy and asthma clinic and made an appointment for Carder. (The funny thing was the same doctor was my doctor when I was younger!)

This was the scratch test they gave Carder. They tested him for nuts, milk, soy, wheat, rice. Although he has little red marks all over his back the big ones on the left side told us what I was pretty sure I already knew--Carder is officially allergic to nuts! NOOOOOO!! Darn it! We were doing so good to have 3 kids not allergic and now the fourth is! Bummer! 

I was pretty disappointed to find this out, however I am grateful we could find out under these circumstances and not by mistake after eating a nut. It's pretty scary to be allergic to nuts, I think as a parent it is going to be 100 times scarier! We ordered his epi-pens to have on hand. I hope he never has to use them! We have decided to get rid of all peanut products from our house so there won't be an danger in our home. As for me I am off all nuts until Carder if finished nursing. It isn't easy to not eat nuts! It was a good three years being able to eat them! Now for the safety of my child I don't know if I will eat them again! 

My poor baby Carder! I am so sad he can't have nuts. It's really not fun. Maybe he will grow out of this. I can sure hope! I am glad he isn't allergic to anything else. We will be going back in a year to have Carder tested for all nuts.

Caleb's Talk

Jesus wants Caleb for a sunbeam!! I can't say Caleb loves sunbeams, in fact most Sundays he sneaks with Mara to her class instead of going to his class! Caleb does enjoy going to Sunbeams when his mom is the sustitute teacher! And I just so happen to be his teacher when the parts for sharing time were assigned. When I asked for volunteers for a prayer, scripture and talk Caleb was the only kid who wanted to give the talk! I kept asking him "are you sure Caleb you will give the talk? Do you really want to do it?!" "Yes! I will!" he said! So the topic for his talk was: 'The earth was created for Heavenly Father's Children.'

I kept it simple for him, and really I didn't think he would do it. We practiced and practiced. We went to the church several times during the week to practice. The day of his talk arrived and at first he was a little hesitant to go into the primary room, but once he got in there he walked to the front of the room and sat down in the front row ready to give his talk. When it was his turn he stood up and walked to the microphone and in the sweetest most angelic little voice he said:
"The world is so lovely I am happy as can be
For all that the Lord has created for me.
The sunshine,the flowers, the stars up above.
The home where I live and the family I love."

He did it!  He held up a picture for each of the things he said, and he even had it memorized! Caleb really gave his first talk! It was the cutest thing I have ever heard! No one could believe he actually said it! The primary presidency were so impressed! They couldn't believe little Caleb could actually give such a great talk! And as proof of his talk here he is ladies and gentleman:
Caleb Lewis!

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's day is sort of a silly holiday! But I guess I can accept any holiday that consists of flowers, chocolates, candy, and expressing more love to each other!! Valentine's day also means Valentine boxes! And this year we had to make two! What says I love you more than helping your children make their Valentine box?!

 This year Ty chose to make a Pirate ship! He did a great job, with a little help from mom and dad! (It was a family affair this year, we worked on them for FHE!)

Mara made this darling bird house! So cute! She did a great job with her daddy's help! Way proud of Mara Lew!

 Second year in a row for Ty winning an award for his Valentine box! Way to go Ty! The funny thing is that he got the award for "I made it myself" but he did have help on it!

 

This next story is my new all time favorite Valentine's story! Nate came home for lunch on Valentine's day and had a surprise for his lovely wife: flowers and cold cereal! He was so excited because not only was it on sale, but it was my favorite kind of cereal, or so he thought! Actually he was a little confused, my favorite kind is craclin' oat bran, but that's ok I will learn to like this kind  too! The funny thing was, he bought 14 boxes of it! He told the cashier at the store "this is my wife's favorite, I scored big time!" Oh he scored big all right! That was the funniest thing ever! I still laugh out loud to myself every time I think of the 14 boxes of 'my favorite kind of cereal'! I know my husband loves me! I love him too! I am grateful for my four darling children! It was fun to give them little Valentine surprises and tell them how much I love them! I tell them every night when I tuck them into bed: "I love you to the moon and back!" I love my family from infinity plus one!

Half a year old!

How did six months of Carder's life pass so quickly?! How come he is growing way too fast?! It's amazing how much he learned in such a short time. Carder can officially roll over both ways!! He is quite the little mover! Just for fun one day I placed him on the floor on one side of the room, then wet to the edge of the carpet on the other side of the room. I encouraged and cheered him on to roll to me! Ten rolls later he successfully rolled from one side of the room to the other!

 Carder had a great six month check up! He now weighs 18 lbs 2 oz and is in the 61% for weight. He is 27 inches and is 68% for height. As for his head 18 inches making that a whopping 92% for head size!

 

This little Lady's man was not a big fan of the rice cereal, he prefers oatmeal!

Carder went in the big swimming pool for the first time! He loved it! 

 Caleb and Mara both had swimming lessons and while they swam I took Carder for a swim! He is going to be a little fish, just like the other three!

The first time we went the water was nice and warm. The second time we went it was quite chilly! He didn't seem to mind, he loved kicking and splashing. It wasn't much different than his bath, except bigger

 This sleeping little angel loves to be snuggled tight! He prefers his crib rather than being held, but I still like to get my snuggles in when I can! No matter how tight I have him wrapped he ends up finding a way to escape his little hand!

We just love this little guy! He is definitely a family favorite around here! We can't imagine life without Carder!

Yummy in the tummy!

It's rice cereal time!! Carder reached 6 months and he had his first taste of real food, if you can call rice cereal real food!! He did ok for the first feeding, not great but he seemed to like it!

Carder was pretty excited to eat solid food for the first time.

 However, his siblings were even more excited about his first food experience!

 Feeding my last baby for the first time...sad but true!

 Daddy giving it a try!

 Babies really are so much fun, especially this baby! 

 Caleb was so intrigued with feeding the baby! He thought it was so cool!

 He kept wanting to grab the spoon and feed himself!

Carder pretty much needs a bath after each bowl of cereal!

 I'm pretty sure more cereal is on his bib than in his tummy!

This is one happy and full baby!!

Second attempt to feeding Carder: This time he started blowing raspberries!

Birthday Buddy!!

Caleb turned 4!! Yay buddy! What a happy, funny, smart, kind, and chubby cheeked kid! He is the cutest little 4 year old I know! Caleb woke up on his 4th birthday at Mimi's house. I thought he would think it was so cool to have breakfast in bed. So I carefully carried a breakfast tray upstairs to surprise Caleb but he didn't want to eat in bed!! Silly kid! 

I found the birthday boy in his bed with a smile on his face! He was pretty happy to be a year older!

So instead of breakfast in bed Caleb ate his favorite cereal (cinnamon toast crunch) in the kitchen!!

Caleb had a really fun birthday playing with his cousins. We had a fun time playing minute to win it games, Lego Bingo, puzzles, art projects! We kept the kids busy-busy!!

Mimi made Caleb's favorite dinner: mashed potatoes with 'bavey' (gravy)! He also had a yummy 'hummingbird cake' it was so tasty! After a fun birthday party Mimi surprised Caleb with a new bike! He was so excited! (I'll have to post pictures of his bike later!)
Happy Birthday Caleb Buddy! Sure do love you! Glad you are our boy!