Seven Months Old

Braden is seven months old, and he has grown up so much in the past couple of months that I really shouldn't have skipped his six month post.

• He has two new teeth on the bottom that both came in at the same time. I've never seen that before, but I'm not complaining. Two new teeth in half the teething time works for me.
  
  
• He likes to do this fake laugh whenever he gets excited:

He especially likes to fake laugh at his brother and sister.

• He is by far the earliest of my kids to attempt any kind of crawl.
  
  

The other two weren't mobile like this until about ten months. He'll pull himself from my bedroom to the playroom, so I already have to keep an eye on him around the top of the stairs.

• He's finally eating solids. He eats one pack of fruit or vegetables a day. We tried rice cereal at four months, and he kept throwing it up, so we gave up on solids for a little bit. I tried straight bananas with him at six months, and he didn't throw them up, so we just don't give him cereal.
  
  
• He's almost completely a bottle baby now. I'll probably only nurse him two or three more times until I totally run out of milk.
  
  
• He's sleeping in his room that he shares with William. About a week ago, I put them both in the room for a nap at the same time, and they both went to sleep, so now they nap together and go to bed together.
  
  

I can't believe my baby is already seven months old. He is still a dream baby, and I'm so happy that he's here.

Ten Years Ago...

...I graduated from high school. This past weekend was my high school reunion, and even though there were a few people I wanted to see who weren't there, I still had a blast.

Here we are - Chaparral High School class of '99 (those of us who showed up anyway). I was cool enough to hold the the sign for the picture. I feel like everyone got better looking in ten years. As people were walking in, I kept thinking, "Wow, he/she looks great!"

After I got there I realized my camera was dead, so I stole these pictures from Julie's blog (thanks, Julie). I was a little horrified to see that they decided to put our senior picture on each of our name tags, but at least the picture was small. And I was disappointed that Brandon Flowers the lead singer of The Killers didn't show up. He graduated with us, but to be honest, I don't remember him in high school. It was after someone told me he went to Chaparral that I went and found a picture of him in my senior yearbook.

Our graduating class really was a lot of fun. I was reminded of that at the reunion. It was so great to see the people who came, and I hope it's not ten years before I see them again.

Announcing Mr. and Mrs. Shane Black

Now I'm the only Emily Bowman that I know. Congratulations, Shane and Emily!

Private Lessons

Almost every day this summer Rebecca has told me that she's ready to go back to ballet. After having the entire summer off, she finally started back yesterday with Mrs. Stephanie. So far Rebecca is the only student signed up for her class time, so yesterday she got her own private lesson.

She's loving preschool. She was lucky enough to meet her teacher Mrs. Hone before school started. And I had no attachment problems when I had to leave her on her first day. I think meeting her teacher beforehand helped a lot.

And I am loving the uniform. I think the elementary school she is zoned for requires the students to wear uniforms, and I'm kind of excited about it.

Just looking at these recent pictures of Rebecca, she looks so much older to me. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! I wish I could make it stop.

Visitors from far, far away

Two weeks ago, my friend Rachel called to let me know that she was in town from Colorado. She also let me know that our good friend Jake was in town from GERMANY!

We tried to meet up at Macayo's, but they had sent most of their help home for the night, so we walked next door to Metro Pizza. Here we are, the Bishops' kids from the Mtn. View/Mtn. Vista Ward (from left): Ryan (his dad is the current Bishop), his wife Katie, Rachel (her dad was Bishop after my dad), Jake (his dad was Bishop after Rachel's dad), Julie (her dad was Bishop after Jake's dad), me, Kevin, and Braden (not pictured).

Jake is living in Germany with his wife and son studying for his PhD. I've really enjoyed spying on his family through his wife Jasmine's blog for the past couple of years, but I have to say that it was nice to see him in person and find out firsthand how things are living in another country.

A week later we got a visit from Jessica all the way from her med school studies in Atlanta. It's too bad the timing wasn't a little better - I know Jake and Jessica would have loved to have seen each other.

Here is where the three of us got started - freshman cheer.

Here we are four years later at graduation with Jeff and Chris.

And here we are ten years after graduation with Julie's sister Jessie and my Rebecca.

I've had so much fun getting caught up with Jessica this week. She's been great to do kid-friendly stuff with me so that my kids are entertained while we talk. She is in her fourth year of medical school at Emory University in Atlanta. She hopes to become an anesthesiologist. She loves Atlanta, so I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up settling there, although I would love her to live closer to us so that my kids can stay close to their Auntie Jessica.

Good luck with residency, Jess. I hope you find a fun place to do it in. I can't wait for our fun trip together!

Five Months Old

Braden is five months old and full of personality. He loves his brother and sister and is always trying to talk to them. He likes to try to sit up, and he rolls all over the floor. I'll put him on one side of the room and leave for a minute, and when I get back he is on the opposite side of the room facing a different way.

He is taking a bottle once a day since his mama started working this week. I started a teaching job yesterday at American Heritage Academy which is a small LDS based private school on the other side of town. I'm teaching Algebra to eighth graders, high school kids, and one advanced seventh grader. The job has been pretty ideal for me so far since I have three kids under the age of five - I teach two classes on Tuesday through Friday, and I'm finished and ready to leave by 9:35 am every day. My kids stay with my sister Jodi in the morning, and they seem to barely notice that I've been gone when I pick them up. Rebecca will start preschool at American Heritage in two weeks, and her tuition will be covered by my salary. On top of that, I will make a little bit of extra money. This is not a life change I was looking for, but I think it will be good for me. Sometimes I feel like my life needs a little bit of a shake up.

So that's where we are right now. We'll see where this new adventure takes us.

Bring It On

What's better than a princess dress?

A cheerleading skirt. At least he's wearing it with a manly baseball shirt. My poor son.