Catching up with Miss Bekah

More often then not, strangers stop me in the store to comment on our children. I'd like to think it's because of their beauty and perfect manners. But it's probably because they're crazy hooligans that crave attention. Usually the conversation with such strangers include, 'Oh, your children are so cute.' (as our kids run screaming down the grocery store isle)...'I had (insert number of kids) sons and goodness did they keep me busy'.....'My, you have your hands full'....'How old are they? They're all so little?!' (this is really them saying 'You're crazy for venturing out on your own' )....

You get the point. But the one comment that always sticks with me and we hear just as often as the other comments is 'I remember when my kids were this little. That was twenty years ago. Now my kids are off in college or married. Goodness time flies. Make sure to cuddle your little ones as much as possible and appreciate this time because it ends too quickly.' (Comments like these are not good for someone like me that cries during hallmark commercials or Disney movies.)

So here I am finally blogging about Bekah. It's been 3 months since I last updated about all her little 'firsts' and such amazing cuteness that only Miss Bekah can produce (I'm bias, I know). And when it comes down to it, I honestly do not know where the time has gone. I think with each kid the days go by faster, the kids are growing up quicker, and I am left with less time for cuddling. Take Bekah for instance...she's almost one! It's so cliche what others tell us but I know just like them that in 20 years I'll watch those young, new families and think 'Where did the time go?'

But enough of that, time for the amazing cuteness update that I promised :)

Since the last update at 6 months, Bekah is a full on mobile, teeth grinning, crazy, almost 10 month old. She weighs 21 pounds and is 29 1/2 inches long. She's like her Daddy and really tall in the torso. In fact, if we sit her next to Cael she's only a couple inches shorter from the waist up.

In October she started getting teeth, four all at once. She now has six.

Bekah's an amazing eater. She doesn't ever stop, and throws a tantrum if we try to eat without sharing.

Her strong personality is already showing through. Just yesterday she made a fist and hit me because I didn't give her something she wanted. It wasn't her hitting me so much as the glare and smirk that followed that made me realize we might have a little diva on our hands.

She loves to clap and wave (first clapped on 11/10 and first waved on (12/06)

The week following Thanksgiving Bekah started crawling. We were actually relieved when she finally became mobile. She was getting so frustrated not being able get around. Now she loves to crawl all over, follow me from room to room, and find ways to get into the older siblings toys.

Nicknames-
Bekah Lou-Who
Toola
Bella-Lou
Tookie
Bookah
Bekah Boo
Tutu
Toolie

Loves-
Eating paper
Cuddling
Music
Dancing
Eating anything in sight
Musical Instruments
Playing outdoors
Squawking

Says-
Dada
Mama
No
And many words that only Cael and her understand. They have quite the conversations.

 

 

This is the look she usually gives for pictures. She'll have a beautiful smile until she's sees the camera, then she just glares. It's pretty funny.

(7 months old)

 

At the park-

(8 months old)

 

 There's that beautiful smile :P

(9 months old)

 

Soccer, Anyone?

I love soccer. Chris loves soccer. So naturally Hannah should love soccer, right? ..not so much. BUT what she does love is standing on the field holding hands with her bestie and trying not to get to close to the ball. Pretty dang cute! So soccer wasn't her thing. For now though she's loving swim lessons and can't get enough of them. Anyways, I still have Cael (who can dribble a soccer ball like a mini Pele) to live vicariously through when it comes to soccer. :)

Go Coach Chris!

Hannah and Kate

and...Hannah and Kate 

Which reminds me of this picture from a few years back-

Team Avengers!

I love this picture. This is Hannah waiting for the ball to be thrown in. She's yelling, 'Me! Me! Throw it to me!' Such a team player....or was she bribed by a promise to get a Donut?! 

 Such cute besties!

Halloween Marathon

So this holiday season was CRAZY when it came to Etsy. We're talking working 45 plus hours a week. Needless to say once I was done with all the Halloween orders, I closed up shop and we celebrated Halloween pretty much everyday for a week! We went to Frontier City's Frightfest and Booville, Bass Pro's trick or treating, our church's trunk or treating, Dorm trick or treating at OCU, Haunt the Harn's (our yearly tradition), playgroup's halloween carnival/party, ymca halloween carnival, and then of course our annual Halloween party and trick or treating! It was SO much fun to have time to take the kids to all of the different activities. Halloween seriously kicks off the holiday season for me. It along with the whole month of October is my favorite time of the year!

 

 

OCU dorm trick or treating

 

 

 Moments after taking this picture our poor Hannah couldn't hold the pumpkin anymore and smashed it into the floor, lol.

 

 

 

 

 At Bass Pro

 

 

Trunk or Treat at church

 

 

 

 

Trying out her fairy costume-

ymca carnival- love Cael's expression as he's biting down on the table...interesting kid, lol.

Frontier City.

 

Hannakins is 5

Crazy as it seems, our Hannah turned 5! We had way to much fun celebrating her birthday. We have a tradition of Chris taking the birthday kid to IHOP for breakfast. Then for dinner we invited a few friends to go with us to Ghattitown. There we devoured lots of pizza, had birthday cake, and played tons of arcades.  Later that night after we arrived back home Hannah opened up her presents from family. Usually Hannah is very delicate about opening gifts and takes a really long time. But not this year! She tore threw them like a crazy Oklahoma tornado. Seriously, that's what she reminded me of. Within seconds she was done, lol! Later that week, as a family we went to Golden Corral (Hannah wanted to go somewhere with unlimited dessert) and to Toys R Us to buy her very first bike :)

Our Star Student

Each month Hannah's school has a little assembly where the teachers acknowledge a student that's done well in their class. September was the first assembly and Miss Hannah was picked to be the star student. The school called us before hand so that we would be there but we were to keep it a secret from Hannah. She was very surprised to have her name called. She received a certificate and ribbon along with several goodies. After the assembly we took her out for ice cream to celebrate. We are so proud of her. She's always wanting to learn and do well in class!

6 months old

Our little Bekah Lou turned 6 months old on the 8th. She is getting to be so big!
*At her checkup she weighed in at 18 1/2 pounds and 28 inches.
*We're pretty sure that she is going to have brown eyes. I think they'll be lighter though than Cael's...maybe more of a hazel.
*Her hair is getting really thick (thanks to her dad's good genes).
*She finally rolled over from her back to her stomach at exactly the 6 month mark. Now she doesn't stop :) I can tell she's just dying to learn how to crawl!
*She's back to sleeping good through the night. That's mostly thanks to our wonderful doctor who assured us that letting her cry it out at night was a good thing. Not that I didn't already know that but it's good to hear it from a professional. Anyways, two nights of some fussiness has in return given us our good sleeper back and she now sleeps about 11 hours a night. Wahoo!
*She loves to blow raspberries, especially during really quite moments such as sacrament prayer.
*I know you could claim me as being biased, but she seriously is the prettiest little baby! She has the most beautiful eyes and smile. I love it!
*At first we couldn't figure out who she looked like the most. Just in the past few weeks though she has really started to look a ton like Cael- same smile and chunky cheeks.

Back to School

Last year Hannah went to Pre-K at a private day school twice a week. I really wanted to do that again this year, but budget wise it just made more sense to have her go to the public school near by. She was so excited to start back. I'm not the biggest fan of school and so I was sad to see her go. At least it's only half days. Next year will kill me!

Nice Diaper Cael...

Hannah loves her class and her new teacher. Although I think it's been kind of an adjustment going from a small classroom of 7 to more than double that.

As you can tell she has to wear uniforms. Not my favorite thing, but at least it's easy to get ready in the morning.

5 months old :)

Random Updates of Our Bekah Boo:
I just measured Bekah and she's 28 inches long, yikes! I haven't weighed her yet. She's really not as chunky as she is long. Yesterday I pulled out more of Hannah's summer clothes (we're talking 12 months, which fit length wise...crazy Sasquatch)
Bekah has only rolled over a few times from her tummy to her back and never from her back to her tummy. Although she's trying really hard.
This girl LOVES her baby food! She's already up to eating a couple times a day and is really good at it. I think she's cleaner than her 2 year old brother.
For some reason the past few weeks Bekah has been waking up at night. It's so hard going from sleeping through the night to having to get up once a night. :-P
Some of Bekah's many nicknames:
Bekah-loo
Bekah Boo
Tookie
Toolah-loola
Bekah-loo-who
Bookah
Bekers