8 Months Old

Corbin has made lots of new developments in his eighth month. One of the biggest things is that he has learned how to crawl. He was getting really close just before Ross left for West Virginia. And it wasn't too long after he got back that Corbin had the skill perfected.

 

Just before he had it mastered, we got a lot of views of Corbin that looked like this...

It was like he knew he needed to get his feet going, but couldn't quite figure out what to do with his hands. Too funny! Now he is crawling all over and getting himself into all kinds of predicaments. 

 

He can also sit up on his own now and will even go from laying down to crawling to sitting up all on his own. This makes diaper changing a real challenge!

 

Corbin loves to play with balls and especially balloons. When he sees a balloon, he gets very excited and will chase it all around the room. I have to watch him closely because he'll grab it with his little fingers and even try to bite it. But so far he hasn't popped any yet.

 These two still love each other so much!

One day Corbin saw Leah asleep on the floor, so he crawled over to her and grabbed her hand. I thought that was so cute. I had to hurry and snap a photo. He definitely loves his sister.

 Taking his monthly pictures wasn't easy this month. So I only got a few of them.

 Every time I put him down and grabbed the camera, this is what happened.

This kid doesn't like to hold still any more.

And not only is he crawling, but he is starting to pull himself up to standing too. Which means that he is no longer sleeping next to me at night in the pack and play bassinet. He's now sleeping in his crib in his own room.

He still has just his two bottom teeth, but that will change a lot in the next month since his poor little gums are very swollen and are sure to cut a number of teeth soon. He has also started eating little puff treats that he can pick up on his own.

Love you Corbin Boy! Can't wait to see what you learn next month.

Halloween 2013

Oh boy! Halloween was a big event this year at the Leslie house. So this is going to be a big post with lots of fun pictures!

 

The week before Halloween, I was in charge of our weekly home preschool group. Our theme for the day was Halloween. So for one of the activities I taught them the song "I'm a Mean Old Witch with a Hat" and then we made these fun witch faces. Getting a picture of them with their witch faces was harder than I thought. One of the little girls is missing from this picture because she had lost interest and walked away.

Ross had the Friday before Halloween off from work. So we went on a mini vacation to my parents' house for the weekend. On Friday morning we were able to go see Kaylynn and Makynlee in their preschool costume parade/program. Leah dressed up too and was a little confused as to why she couldn't go stand in front of the crowd with her cousins. So we made sure we got a picture of the three of them together with Grandpa after the program was over.

The weather was beautiful that day. After preschool, the kids played in the backyard for a while. Lyndsee got out the little bounce house and the kids had a blast jumping and playing together.

That night Ross and Jason went to the BYU football game against Boise State. So Lyndsee and I took the kids and joined Melyssa, Melissa and Megan at the "Witches Night Out" at Gardner Village. It was crazy crowded there, but we had fun seeing all the witch displays and people dressed up in witch costumes.

I love this picture of Makynlee!

Saturday morning, Lyndsee, Melyssa and I took the kids to the zoo for trick-or-treating. Once again the weather was great and the girls had a fun time collecting candy and seeing the animals. But Leah's favorite part was probably riding the carousel. She's loves to ride carousels any chance she can get.

My brothers' families are both big Utah fans. So Clayton's family all dressed up in their Utes gear for Halloween. Except Clayton who wore a White Sox uniform and my cute nephew, Caden (aka Chippy), who is the lone BYU fan. (What a smart kid!) So I got a picture of the kids when they stopped by my parents' house.

Saturday night Ross and I went with my sisters, brother-in-law and a couple cousins to see "Thriller" performed by Odyssey Dance Theatre. It was a fun show. But one of the best parts was going out for dinner and a show without any kids. My parents kept the four little ones and took them to their ward's trunk-or-treat/Halloween party at their church house.

On Monday night we carved our pumpkins. After carving our overly detailed pumpkins last year, we opted for much simpler designs this year. Leah choose "Curious George" and Ross went with the BYU "Y."

On Tuesday, Leah got to dress up for dance lessons. She is in a class with her cousin, Kylie, and best friend, Millie.

At preschool that week, the theme was Halloween again. This time she came home with a ghost she had made.

Wednesday was our annual Halloween carnival put on by the youth in our ward. We all dressed up and joined the festivities.

Lyndsee had given us the idea for the Kermit and Miss Piggy costumes. We tried to get Leah to be Miss Piggy, but she had her heart set on being Cinderella. So I decided to be Miss Piggy to go with Corbin's Kermit costume. And Ross was Leah's Prince Charming. Everyone loved our costumes.

On Halloween, I took the kids to Ross's work. He was at the elementary school that day. So we got to see all the kids parade around the school in their costumes. The school kids loved seeing our family's costumes too. All that excitement wore our little Kermit out! Leah on the other hand was very excited to play in Daddy's office. She didn't want to leave, even when it was time for Ross to go home.

On the way home, we stopped by "The Sweet Tooth Fairy" for free cupcakes. Yummy!

That night it was finally time to go trick-or-treating. We went around the neighborhood with some of our neighbors and then ended the evening with a visit to the Millers.

Right before trick-or-treating, I finally carved my pumpkin. I opted for the "Minion" design because it was simple and I knew Leah would like it. It turned out better than I thought it would.

We had lots of fun this year, but after a full week of celebrating, we were all glad when Halloween was finally over. Halloween is such a fun time of year. Ross commented to me recently that he actually enjoys Halloween more now as an adult than he did has a kid. I agreed. It seems there are so many more fun Halloween things to do now than when we were kids. Plus it is so much fun to see our kids enjoying all the fun activities too. But still, I'm glad Halloween only comes once a year!

While Dad Was Away...

While Ross was away, the kids and I stayed at my parents' house. We did lots of fun things to pass the time while Ross was gone.

 

During the weekdays, my mom and I took care of the four kids (Lyndsee's two kids and my two kids). It was like having two sets of twins to take care of. On Thursday, we loaded up the four kids and went to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Putnam for lunch. It took forever to get out the door with four little ones. And the girls were constantly getting into things at my grandparents' house. But I'm glad we got to spend a little time with them. It's a good thing these two cute boys are such good babies! It helps make up for their rambunctious three-year-old sisters.

Here's a picture of Leah helping her grandpa cook dinner Thursday night. After dinner, I took the girls out to play in the hot tub for a while. When they were done, my dad came out to carry the girls back into the house. He wrapped up Leah in a towel and headed back into the house, but rolled his ankle on a dog toy that was out on the patio and they both tumbled to the ground. My dad tried hard to protect Leah, but she still ended up hitting her face on the pavement and scrapping up her hands as well. She was pretty upset when it happened. She cried all through her bath to get her cleaned up. But overall, she handled it pretty well.

My poor dad felt so bad. He wouldn't admit it that night, but he got hurt pretty bad too. He scrapped up his elbow a bit, but the biggest hurt came the next day when he was so stiff that had a hard time moving. Here's a picture of Leah's scrapes the next day. It took about a week for the sores to go away. But she healed up just fine.

On Friday night I got to enjoy a Tucker girls night out with my sisters, cousins, aunts, and Grandma. We met at a church and had a pot luck dinner and each worked on our own crafts. However, I spent so much time visiting, eating, and feeding Corbin that I didn't spend much time crafting. Oh well, I'll get that project done sometime.

On Saturday, I got to go to the BYU vs Georgia Tech football game. I wasn't sure how to work it with needing to feed Corbin. He won't drink from a bottle and I knew he'd get upset if he went too long without nursing. So I decided to just take him with me. And as it turned out, my cousin ended up getting sick, so he gave his ticket to Leah and she got to go too. This was a first football game for both kids. And they both did great. Corbin slept through a lot of it. So that made him easy to handle. And Leah's such a big BYU fan. She loved the exciting atmosphere. She did get a little bored by the end of the game, but I think the rest of us were getting a little restless too. The weather was great. Overall, I'd say it was as great football experience with two little kids.

Rah, rah. Rah, rah, rah! GO COUGARS!!! It sure didn't hurt that she could go to the game with her Grandpa!

On Sunday, the rest of the family came over to my parents' house so we could have birthday dinner for my dad. Leah was so exhausted by this point that she fell asleep hanging onto my arm at dinner time and was completely zonked out in the chair while her cousins played, ran, and yelled all around her.

Since we had all of the grand kids together we decided to get a picture of all of them for the first time since all the babies were born. What a crazy bunch of kids. But we love them lots! My dad  wanted to get pictures with each of the families of kids too. Here he his with my two little ones.

Much to Leah's dismay, we left Monday night to go back so that she could go to dance lessons Tuesday morning. But right after dance, we went right back to my parents' house to wait for Ross to fly in that afternoon. Here's another picture of the four kids playing together. I call this double trouble times 2!

It was so nice to have extra hands to help out with the kids while Ross was gone. And Leah, who can never get enough of staying at Grandpa's house, had so much fun she didn't want to go back home. For her spending almost a week at her Grandpa's house is the vacation of a lifetime. But it was so nice to have all of our little family back together again and to be back at our own house. Vacations are fun, but all good things must come to an end.