Happy Halloween!

A witch, a pea in a pod, a fireman and a Musketeer

Off to fight a fireEvery fireman needs a fire dog

Our little dalmation

Picking Pumpkins

So much love

Here's a little glimpse into life at our house over the last 2 months. The girls spend LOTS of time cuddling, hugging and fighting over their baby brother. They really can't get enough of him and are the best helpers. Matson will have no doubt that his sister's adored him--we have plenty of photo evidence. You will notice there are not many pics of Carter and the baby. He is mostly uninterested and unimpressed by much the baby does. He asks to hold him and after a second he starts yelling, "Get him off of me". It's not extremely endearing, but he does love to talk to the baby during tummy time, and we're all about baby steps right now.

Two Months Old

I took Matson to his 2 month check up today. Here are his stats:

Weight 13.3 pounds (90th percentile)
Height 24 inches (90th percentile)

He is a big boy. He fills out his 6 month clothes already and people are shocked whem I tell them he's just 8 weeks old. It's not really a surprise since all of our kids have been like this but it still makes me sad. I was hoping he'd stay little for awhile. He's growing up too fast for me. Although if he wants to starts sleeping through the night that would be much appreciated cause we are really tired around here.

At 2 months he is spending a lot more time awake and alert. He loves tummy time, cuddling with us, and bath time (he goes from screaming to completely calm when he gets in the water). He is a social little guy and likes to know someone is close by. He is smiling now and his wide mouthed grins delights us all.

Blessing Day

Matson was blessed on October 10th by his dad. I pretty much missed the whole thing due to my 2 year old who was yelling and jumping off the pews. It was certainly not how I imagined the day going, but John assures me that I'm not the first person to experience an out of control 2 year old on their baby's blessing day. :) I am grateful for a sweet lady in the ward who jotted down the blessing and handed it to me after the meeting. I really appreciate her thoughtfulness. It was wonderful to be surrounded by our family and to celebrate our new little Matson and the great blessing he is to our family. Thanks to all our family that came to be with us on this special day!

Our family with four kids--looking so complete!

Grandma and Grandpa Durrant

Grandma and Grandpa Peterson. My dad was in a lot of pain and having a hard day but we're glad he still was able to make it. :)

Here are a few pictures from the get together afterwards. Between our 2 families there are 21 kids under the age of 10 so these joint family occasions are quite an undertaking. We had 15 kids at the blessing and they all ate at the little preschool tables and then headed off in different directions to play. Carter loved having everyone here and wants to know when all of his cousins are coming for another party. :)

Matson

The Backpack

Yip. That's right--this year Emily's backpack was so special it gets it's own blog post. It's a lavendar and lime green tinkerbell backpack with wings and sparkly, fluffy straps. She fell in love with it the minute she saw it and said she had to have it because "it was like a costume" (in her words). And what could be better than wearing a tinkerbell costume to kindergarten every day?!?

I was honestly kind of embarrassed to send her off to school with that thing---it's that loud. I thought kids might make fun of it and hurt her feelings but Kelsie assured me that the kindergartners would think it was REALLY cool. I tried to find a different backpack that she would love just as much, but my efforts were in vain. Finally, she got really frustrated with me and told me "I want the one with wings. Then I can fly home from the bus every day!"

So there you have it. She needed the wings so she could fly home from school. And the great thing about Emily is she truly believes she can! Her imagination knows no bounds.

The above picture is the 1st day of school. She was beaming with pride as she put her Tink backpack on. She headed across the black top to her class and looked back at me grinning and said, "SEE. I CAN FLY!"