Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving at my brothers home in Salt Lake. Chris and I switch families every other year. We had a really yummy meal and lots of fun. The boys even ate a decent amount of food. I made the rolls, which tasted pretty good but ended up looking kind of funny because I didn't roll them out right. My brother made a yummy pumpkin cheesecake that probably was about a million calories.

We had a hard time pulling Tanner and Dallin away from there handheld games. We couldn't even get them to look away long enough to smile at the camera.

Overall, it was a nice relaxing Thanksgiving. On black friday, Chris and I got up at 4:00 am to go to Walmart. What a madhouse, but we got what we wanted.

Update.... Finally

I guess it's about time for an update now that I am getting over the embarrassment of the last post of donating my breastmilk to my brother-in-law.

Life hasn't been too exciting lately besides the sleepless nights from our little boy who doesn't like to be left alone to sleep. We have been working on helping him sleep through the night or at least to go more than two hours before he wakes up (okay so let's face it I need to get a good nights sleep to remain sane in a house full of boys). Getting Colter to sleep through the night has consisted of alot of crying, not just from him but from me also. It has been so hard to let him cry. Thanks to Chris's help and Dr. Weissbluth's book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", Colter seems to be sleeping better. It's only been a couple of nights, but he is doing much better. Hopefully, it will continue to do better so that I can catch up on all of that lost sleep.

Colter is now five months old and is growing so fast. We love his smiles and giggles, but he has a really cute pouty face as well. He babbles all the time, and has learned to scream (not cry), which can get pretty loud and annoying. He drools non stop and we are constantly changing his clothes because he soaks them. We can tell he is going to be a trouble maker because he is so curious about everything. It is about time to childproof the house.

Tanner and Dallin have been busy with school. We try hard to keep up on their homework. Tanner gets so much homework some nights that it can take up to three hours. Chris and I personally feel that this is too much homework for a 9 year old. I am planning on talking to his teacher about it, but I don't want to offend him so I haven't yet. We feel that this amount of homework is taking away from family time. Tanner just keeps plugging away with it though. We are so proud of him.

Dallin is learning to read, and he reads to us for twenty minutes everynight. He is doing amazing in spelling. He has gotten 100 percent on every spelling test, which we don't study for at home because he says that he already knows them (and apparently he does). At parent teacher conferences his teacher said she couldn't beleive that he has gotten 100 percent on every spelling test.

Chris is busy finishing up his last year of grad school. He works three days a week at his intership and is in school the other two days, and on the weekend he works at his regular job. On Fridays, I am lucky if I get to see him for an hour. Sometimes I meet him for lunch just so I can see him. This pictures shows how exhausted he is. He even has a highlighter in his hand.

I am grateful to be able to be at home with the kids and I'm having fun working on improving my homemaking skills. I am trying to lose those last 5 lbs. (well maybe 10) by going to the gym at least 4 days a week. I just can't seem to give up the chocolate and goodies. Since I have been nursing, I have used the excuse that I could have the extra calories, but now that I am only breastfeeding part-time right now I need to start doing better. Hey I am eating a yucky "Healthy Choice" meal right now for lunch, and I'm doing this while feeding the baby and writing this blog. That should burn some extra calories.

We hope all is well with everyone and hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

The Annual Tippets Family Halloween Party

Well, we had our pumpkin carving contest again. My Grandparents are farmers and they have a pumpkin patch and so each year we go select our pumpkins and bring them home for a contest. This year there was the added twist of my sister Amber bringing over her new boyfriend. You must know that in the past when she has brought boyfriends over they usually appear once and never return again because they think that we are either obscenely strange or just down right offensive. Apparently, this year Amber sufficiently prepped "Han" for what he was in store for because she informed everyone that she had "warned him." I choose to believe that all of her previous boyfriends were weird and that we are the normal ones.

Any how, the party was a success we carved our pumpkins, played spooky music, and ate lots of good food. Then we put the kids to bed and introduced Han to a long standing family tradition of playing Rook. He got schooled, and so we decided to bring out another family favorite...Sequence. If you know our family very well then you are aware that we are all addicted to gambling. I am currently in recovery and have been clean for almost 2 years. Any how we don't just play sequence we have to make it a little more interesting with a little friendly wager. This time we came up with the great idea of making the loser drink a cup of Andrea's breast milk. We had 3 teams; Breanne and Judge, Chris and Nick , and Amber and Han.

And the losers were........................................................Judge and BreAnne. Luckily for BreAnne, Judge took one for the team and devoured it before anyone could do anything about it. Apparently he liked it.

Also, you may find it interesting that Han liked our family he was quoted as saying the next day that "it was one of the funnest nights of his life." He also told Amber that it was going to be very difficult if they break up because he is still going to come hang out with her family.

Finally, a normal guy for Amber!

Is This a Courtesy Laugh?

I think he might just giggle out of courtesy so that we don't feel so silly acting life goof balls. Just so you are aware---the silly laughing and tongue clicking is Grandma Tippets.

Colter at Four Months

What can I say about our sweet little Colter? He is still a little runt weighing in at 12.5 lbs, which is under the 9th percentile. He is 26 inches long, which puts him in the 86th percentile for his height---tall and skinny. He is definately a handful. He wants to be held all of the time; we can't walk out of the room without him crying. It is really hard for me to get things done. I have to take him to every room I go, and make sure that he can see that I am close by or the screaming will begin.

On most days I enjoy the little guy, but there have been occasions when I get overwhelmed and need a break or some sleep. Colter isn't sleeping through the night anymore. He wakes up everynight between 1 a.m and 4:00 a.m.. I think that he wakes up just so he knows that someone is close by, because I try to feed him and he just snoozes through it. I'm not sure what happened because he was sleeping through the night better at 2 months. I need to let him cry a little more when he wakes up to see if he will go back to sleep, but since his crib is in our room I don't want him to wake Chris up. We can't find our portable crib so that I can put him in the other room for a few nights. I am definately ready for a full nights sleep.

Colter hasn't been able to start solid foods yet because of his gas problems. His peditrician said to wait another months to see if his gas issue would improve. He is able to roll from his tummy to his back, and he loves standing up. His legs and his neck are really strong. He is beginning to smile and giggle, which is something we all love. We are always acting goofy just to get a smile out of him. Oh, and this kid can drool, his shirts are always wet.

Colter got his first cold this last month, and was extra cranky for about a week. I forgot how hard it was to have sick babies; especially when they can't tell you what is wrong. We are looking forward to the next month to see what new things Colter will learn to do.

Happy Birthday to the Awesomest Mom & Grandma Ever!!!!!

It my mom's birthday today. She is one of the greatest ladies that I know, and we are so grateful for her, and for her wonderful example. We truly are blessed to have her in our lives.

Happy Birthday to the best mom, grandma, friend, and mother-in-law in the whole wide world!!! We Love You!!!

Family Night at Hee Haw's

For family night we went to Hee Haw's. We went through the corn maze, went on a hayride while candy was thrown at us, rode the go carts, went down the big slides, and saw the biggest pig ever (the batteries in the camera went dead so now pic). It was a lot of fun. We are looking forward to Halloween.

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