.:Andrus Family:.: August 2015

Thursday, August 27, 2015

.:Sunriver 2015:.

We look forward to going to Sunriver every summer. My parents decided to invest in the house that we usually stay in, so it was kind of cool to be there this year, knowing it was my parent's house! They have done some updating to the house and it looks great!

We loaded up the car, bikes and all, and headed up!

This is how you keep babies happy in the car when they really don't love being in their car seat for too long!

We kicked off our first day with a bike ride to the lodge for cokes. The ladies enjoyed trying out some stunts while we were there.

Sisters...

We ran some errands..

And made our first Goody's run.

This year we tried out a new hike. It was fun to go somewhere new, and everyone loved it. Well, Jabes didn't love it right away, but then he was okay.

All the grandies in their matching shirts!

Twinning!

Love this family of mine!

This group of kids hiked down to the bottom of the falls. It was pretty steep, and they all did awesome. Remi especially was a star hiker! She was just hiking along like it was nothing! I think we need to get this girl into the mountains more often!

Everett was an absolute sweetheart to Jabes the entire week. It was so cute!

We took turns doing a longer bike ride without kids. It was quite the workout, but an awesome ride!

We spent an afternoon at SHARC, where Jabes was in water heaven.

Josh, Reece, and I had a great time riding the water slides, too!

Our SHARC afternoon was followed by a Hawaiian nite! It was super fun, the kids loved doing the limbo!

Every year my parents do a nite bike ride for kids who can ride without training wheels. Reece was so excited to have learned over the summer so that she could go!

Remi was sad to not be able to go, so hopefully that will be incentive to learn nextyear!

My parents take them on the small loop, and stop along the way to tell them some tales about wolves. Then it's off to Goody's for some ice cream!

The boys went for their shooting morning, and then to a movie, so we took the kiddos to see Inside Out. We actually got asked if we were a pre-school!

The next morning was time for favorite things for the ladies! This is one of my most favorite traditions of Sunriver! We ate a yummy breakfast at the lodge and exchanged gifts.

After that we headed out for pedicures! Also another favorite tradition.

The kids enjoyed having an un-birthday party in the park!

We had a Mexican nite, complete with a pinata! The kids all though it was pretty great; they all walked away with a bag full of candy!

More twinning - dads and babies!

Riverbend has a separate apartment that our family was staying in this time around. We had a bat visitor! The kids all though it was pretty awesome, but pretty much it was way freaky! It kept flying all around, and I was guilty of lots of squealing and screaming. It was horrible!

We spent our last day with everyone there blowing bubbles,

riding bikes,

and going to Goody's one last time!

It was an excellent week, and we're so grateful for the efforts of everyone to make it so fun for all of us!

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

.:Rem's First Lost Tooth:.

Remi has been waiting for this day ever since Reece started losing teeth! Her bottom tooth became loose awhile back. She didn't seem super interested in wiggling it herself. I think it makes her a little nervous! Or maybe it just grosses her out like it does for me. We were at my friend's birthday party, and she ended up hitting her mouth on a toy. That got it loose enough for me to pull it out! She was so excited and happy! Her other bottom tooth is very slightly loose, but no immediate ones on the horizon that we can tell. But the permanent tooth is already about halfway up for her lost tooth! Yeah Rem!

Saturday, August 8, 2015

.:Jabren - Ten Months:.

Jabren is ten months old now. Ten months old. That is double digits and I am dying. These months just keep turning over way too quickly!

While Jabes decided to start napping again, his teething definitely got the better of us for a few days this past month. His pediatrician warned us that he would probably get a bunch of teeth all at once and that is proving to be true! As of right now, his two bottom teeth and one top tooth are through, along with a third bottom tooth. His second top tooth is right there and I expect it will break through any time now. There have been some rough days, but we survived and hopefully once this first push of teeth is done, the next ones will come in a little more easily.

Along with his teeth came an end to nursing. He bit me and I told him no - I was firm but not upset or angry. His little lip quivered a bit but he kept nursing. He nursed one more time after that, but then that was the end of it. Honestly, it has been a lot harder than I ever expected it to be. Jabren is our last baby, so as I've said numerous times, I've been trying to savor every little thing with him. I knew that he was going to need to be weaned soon - even within the month - but I wasn't ready for him to do it on his own so abruptly. I continued trying to get him to nurse for about four days, but he would just get immediately upset the second I tried. He has happily been taking pumped milk and formula from a sippy cup ever since. It was a weird feeling, I almost felt disconnected from him for a couple of days. It was very odd and not a happy feeling. But now we are okay again! My pump does not like me and makes me bleed, so I will probably be done with that soon as well. I've been mixing small amounts of my milk with larger amounts of formula to get him used to it. We'll probably switch to cow's milk once he hits 11 months. In all reality, he has done me a favor by switching to a sippy and weaning so easily! I just wish I would have had a little more say on the timetable.

Jabes is crawling all over the place. He loves to follow me and his sisters around and get into whatever he can. He is starting to take an interest in the kitchen and the cupboards. Jabren loves to pull up to standing! He is even getting a little more stable with his balance; we've been able to get him up to 5-6 seconds standing unassisted. He hasn't totally figured out the cruising thing yet, but he is starting to take a few steps and I'm sure it will be happening tons soon! We're working on really teaching the girls what he can and can't have, and how they have to be more careful with what they leave out now.

Jabes learned how to clap this month. He loves it! It doesn't happen super frequently, but it's really cute when he does it. He is still babbling a ton. He says mama all the time, but I'm not sure the association is really there. But I don't care, I still love hearing it!

Jabren is back to taking two solid naps during the day. It is fantastic! One is usually longer than the other, but it is nice to be on a better schedule. We also dropped the 11:00 feeding! It happened totally on accident, I just stayed up too late talking to Dani while she was here, and he slept through the nite. We haven't looked back since! Now he is sleeping 12-14 hours every nite. If only I could get myself to go to bed a little earlier now!

Jabes is a huge eater now! I swear he is a bottomless pit. He loves to eat anything. He loves to eat my food, but still really likes baby food. His favorite is to have the baby food pouches that he can hold and suck the food out of on his own. We do a pretty good combination of baby food and table food. He also loves to have his sippy of water. Jabes is definitely one of us; he loves carbs! Bread, crackers, anything like that is always good. But he still eats his fruits and veggies too, so I figure it's okay. He also really enjoys oreos.

We're about ready for haircut number two with Jabes. His hair appears more red as it grows out, but blonder when it's cut short. It's going to take some getting used to to have to cut his hair all the time. None of the girls have ever had more than two or three haircuts in their lives!