The First-ish Snow!!

     The day after I finished typing up the last blog post about Jace and I just waiting for it to snow, it snowed! We didn't get a whole lot of snow. Maybe an inch, maybe even less. But there was enough for us to take Jace on his first sledding experience and see what he thought about snow.
     I think Jace wasn't sure what to think about the snow at first. He liked it, but he tipped over and white washed himself first thing. He was a little hesitant with the snow after that for a little bit. He liked being pulled around on the inner tube, and even giggled a little bit when we pulled him fast through the snow. He also loved eating it. Jace isn't a huge fan of cold food, but he gobbled up the snow we gave him. His facial expressions were so silly. But he ate all the snow that we gave him.

Jace's very first run in with the snow. My apologies for the bad video skills

Jace was a little bit upset because I let him face plant right into the snow. 

He seemed to like being on the tube as long as it was moving.

Jace eating snow for the first time. Don't you even worry, I made sure it wasn't yellow! 

Tasting the snow. Yum

He didn't like just holding still in the snow. We always had to be doing something. 

Has it Really Been 6 Months?

       I honestly can't believe that Jace is 6 months. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was writing up the blog for him being 5 months old. Jace has grown so much this past month! He rolls all over the place without any hesitations. He can pretty easily get from sitting to his tummy. We still have a few mishaps, but most of the time its a success. He has been pushing himself up on his tummy and just a few days ago started planking and working on pushing himself to his knees. He is working on crawling already and I am just not ready! I have a feeling that he could be crawling by Christmas. I hope not, but it is looking like possibility.  Jace is trying to scoot forward. He can sometimes, but he is much much better at scooting backwards. That usually upsets him though, because he gets further and further away from his toys. Jace love his binkey. Sometimes he even has two or three in his mouth. He also loves to play with his toys on the floor. He likes to eat squash, sometimes, and carrots, sometimes, and banana sometimes. He is so silly. Off and on he likes his foods but other times the same food he gobbles up, he acts like he is choking on it and gags it down. Silly kid. We are starting to try baby lead weaning because Jace really wants to eat like a big kid. We will see how that goes over the course of the next month.
      For the past few months Paul has been helping our landlord, (his aunt), build a patio. We decided the easy pavers were just not challenging enough. Instead we have taken upon ourselves to lay a flagstone patio. It has been a rough few months with lot of manual labor, but I am excited to say that we are almost done! I am sad that we didn't take a good before and after picture. We had already started clearing the grass and such out of the way before we thought about taking pictures. We do have some good progress pictures. I can't wait until it is done because then I will kind of somewhat have a husband again. He still has to study for his last CPA test, so I won't truly have my husband back, but I am pretty sure he won't be as busy when he just has to study.
      Jace and I are just waiting patiently for it to snow a good snow. I am surprised we haven't had more because we live right at the foot of big cottonwood canyon. But we really have only had a few sprinkles. I really want to see how Jace responds to the snow, and I really want to have a lazy stay at home because its snowing and cuddle day. Now that I am home with Jace instead of working I can actually do that.
   

Jace loves to do the whole big boy thing. Dad decided it was time he learned how to drive. Start 'em young I suppose!

Aint nothin' better than lounging around in a diaper and no shirt!

And again, the big boy thing. He loves to attempt to drink out of our cups. He does great at getting the water in his mouth, but he is still figuring out the whole swallowing thing. 

I got to babysit for my friend Meagan the other day. Jace had a blast playing with Lyla. He only tried to eat her headband a few times. But after that they played pretty nicely together. 

I can't get enough of those cute cheesy grins. He makes my heart melt every time he smiles. 

Sunday naps are the best! I think its so cute when those two snuggle. I am slightly jealous. But I get twice as many snuggles with Jace as Paul does, so I really shouldn't complain. 

I love how they play together. It is so much fun to see how Jace learns to interact with the world around him. 

The only way to play with your toys, is to get down and dirty and in the toy box itself! Jace likes it best when I let him pick his toys out of the box. 

He was having a bit of an emotional day today. I tried to get some smiles, but it took quite a while. The little mummy that he is eating is one of his favorite toys. He got it while we were trick or treating with Paul's parents, and he has been attached to it almost ever since. 

After some snuggles, and help from Paul, we actually got some smiles out of this guy for his 6 month pictures. 

It is so so fun to watch him figure out how to play with his toys, and see what he does with them.

He is starting to plank and pull himself up onto his knees. While he is on his knees, Jace is also trying to rock back and forth. I am excited for him to crawl, but gosh, I am not looking forward to having a mobile baby! We will just have to see how long it takes. 

Halloween 2014

     Because Jace was so little, Paul said I couldn't take him trick or treating. My parents and I thought it would be fun to do a Halloween party for us older kids that have babies too young to go trick or treating. We decided on a theme, Wreck it Ralph, and planned our costumes around the movie. I decided that Paul would be Fix it Felix, Jace would be Wreck it Ralph, and I would be Candlehead, one of the racers from the Sugar Rush game.
     The best part about was making hair for Jace. Ralph has lots of hair, and Jace has hardly any. So I managed to put something together to make him look a little closer to what we wanted.
    Monday before Halloween Paul and I went to my parents to carve pumpkins. It is somewhat of a Blatter family tradition to carve pumpkins and and make delicious caramel apples. So this being the first Halloween in the SLC Valley in a long time, I thought it would be fun to continue with the tradition. My mom makes the best cinnamon white chocolate caramel apples. So you better believe that is what I pigged out on!  
 A few days before Halloween, Paul's mom, had a trick or treating activity at her work. Which was good for us because we wanted to see his parents, but we didn't want to drive all the way out to their place then have to drive to my parents all in one day. This made it so much easier. We were able to celebrate a Halloween with them and not have to worry about splitting the time. We had fun going around to all of Julie's clients trick or treating. Some of them were dressed up and it was really cute.
     Halloween with my family was really fun, but low key. We all dressed up as something from Wreck it Ralph. My mom was Venelope. Dad was Gene from the Fix it Felix game. Tyson was a little bummed because originally we had planned to do pirates of the Caribbean, so he had grown out his beard to be Mr. Gibbs. But he pulled of a Wreck it Ralph character by being one of the Cow boys from the game Tappers. Tallus and his girlfriend were the game pong.
    We kept everything pretty low key because the younger two sibs had plans to trick or treat. We had dinner together. The younger children left, and the adults played a few games. After that we watched the oh so classic Halloween movie "Hocus Pocus." I know it doesn't sound like a crazy amazing party, but it was just what we needed. We hope to turn this into a tradition. And as the years pass it should get a little more lively because the grand kids will be old enough to enjoy a few games.

Jace trying on his hair hat to show me how much bigger I needed to make it

Jace and Lyla playing at her house. She is so smiley its cute. Jace just does his own thing and takes over all her toys. 

Paul got PRK Lasik and was seriously out for a few days. He is still trying to heal, but he enjoys the fact that his vision is clearer than it was before. (without his glasses). 

Because Paul had just had eye surgery, he didn't trust himself to carve a pumpkin so my dad carved Jace's pumpkin. Jace was so silly. He loved the guts, but of course, he tried to eat them!

Just showing off his pumpkin guts

In Cottonwood Heights there are tons of trees. Jace decided he loves the fall just as much as I do. He likes to eat the leaves more than play in them, but I think it will get better. For now, I guess I will just have to be ok with the leaf eating. 

Sometimes, when I can't get his food made fast enough, I have to keep him happy with the breakfast of champions, nerds and fruit snacks. Neither of them really worked but it made for a good picture. 

Jace all dressed up on the way to go trick or treating at Grandmas work

I was a bad mom and let Jace eat a sucker. He did a great job eating it. Only tried to choke himself once, and that was only because he tried to eat the wrong end of the sucker. There were lots of tears when I told him he had had enough, and took the sucker away. But I think he has forgiven me.

Jace with no hair, but really big eyebrows. He is just so cute. 

The three of us dressed up for the family Halloween party. 

Daddy all dressed up as Gene

Mom dressed up as Venelope 

Paul and I made ghost brownies

Witch finger cookies

They were supposed to look more like eyeballs, but these deviled eggs were the hit of the party. 

Wreck it Ralph enjoying his sippy cup on top of Mimi and Papa's table