The gravitational pull of babies: a thesis

Someone should do their graduate research on the well-known, but un-explained theory that babies are mini centers of gravity. Everyone feels the need to get closer. I would like to assert that this law also include the fact that the closer a baby is to the ground, the more gravitational pull s/he has. Writing this thesis would be easy, I even figured out the title.

Its 100% predictable that if I lay Gwendolyn on the floor, her brothers immediately follow. Sometimes even myself or Chris depending on how much weight other responsibilities have on us.

See, its starts like this:

(and I didn't even get time to take a single picture of her by herself! It works that quickly...)

And then this happens:
Which leads to this:
Which, after some biggest brother bossy-ing, ends up with this:


Eventually turning into this:


After all the excitement dies down the boys eventually get desensitized to Gwendolyn's magnetism and I can get a cute picture of the Center of Earth, herself.

This old man

I did a decent job of cleaning the house one day a while back and the next day found myself without any obvious household work to do. So, the kids and I decided to make a movie. I tried to think of a theme that was simple and easy and the song, "This Old Man" came to mind. We made/gathered some costumes and props then began shooting. Three quarters of the way through, Alec got tired of doing it, but by then we'd attracted the attention of our courtyard friends and they helped us finish it. A few hours later (after Chris came home to offer (technical) support), we had a movie and invited those friends over for a big fancy Movie Premiere. The movie is having trouble loading, but here is a pictures of the Premiere.

I'll see about getting the movie somehow. Its pretty big I think. Ok, so I had to compress it to 1/15 of its original size, lets see how it looks:

UGH! the resolution is terrible, you can't even see Charlie's awesome expressionless face as the Old Man. Oh well, I'll have Chris try to fix it when he gets home.

last bit of summer weather

A week or so ago, we had some crazy hot weather (for this area) like practically 100. I was happy to get a chance to break out the hose and pools one last time. We combined a few hoses to make it reach all the way to the sandbox so the kids could make rivers and puddles in the sand. They LOVE this. The next day we filled up a big patio pool and tried to compare how much water each activity actually takes up. The pool filled 550 gallons of water, and it took shorter to fill up than we let the kids have the hose on in the sand. So... yes, its pretty wasteful and yes, I'll stop it sooner next time. Good thing we don't live in Arizona or some other place that can't sustain its water usage (Maybe I should've started that sentence with "hopefully" since I actually don't even know where we stand on that issue here). Environmental impacts aside, these activities meant I could put Gwen in her swimming suit for the first time, even though she didn't get wet a bit. A-dorable!

playschool

Its playschool time again! Even Charlie gets to join in on the fun this year. Alec does a 2 hour, twice a week rotation between our house and two friends' houses. Charlie does a 1 hour, once a week rotation between our house and two of his friends' houses. I've taught both groups once already and enjoyed both of them. I'm reminded by doing Charlie's group, how young and little they are. (Also, how CRAZY we were with trying to do playschool for 2 hours, twice a week with 6 kids when Alec and his friends were Charlie's age... even with another adult helper. Eek! Well, we live and learn). Charlie just LOVES the fact that he has his own playschool to go to. He is so excited for it and seems to already know how to do things. He's had the advantage of joining in on Alec's school whenever its at our house. Also, I love First Day of School pictures.


Here is my other little angel. She does so well with tummy time, and is so strong. She does relatively well at night and always has a smile. Oh, I love her.

Fun with Great Grandmas

I love having Grandparents. With the death of my last grandfather this past summer, between Chris and I, we have 4 grandmothers living. They have so many great stories and experiences and seem so patient and just good people. Their personalities are so well established; its fun to love and know them. I have a lot to learn from those hard working mothers and wish I lived closer to any of them. I want my kids to be around their great-grandmas as much as possible to get the kind of experiences you can only get with interacting with people who have lived for so long. It was great to have some one on one time with my grandma and with Chris' grandma while we were in Utah. I hope I can take advantage/create those opportunities more often.

Digging up potatoes with Grandma Archibald:

Washing them off for our lunch!
Showing off all the raspberries Alec picked! (he did it happily for almost 20 min!)Movie and pictures of the boys (that includes Chris) playing with her awesome old school toys:

Gwendolyn's Blessing

Chris gave Gwendolyn a name and a blessing, with the help of LOTS of family members. Its a first for us to have so much family for a blessing and it was really special and fun. Every sibling was there except one brother on each side (Justin and family on an airplane, and Edward on his mission). We even had two great grandmothers! It was all so wonderful... a beautiful baby, sweet spirit, yummy food, and lots of hugs. Big thanks to my mom who found and bought the dress for little Gweny. She looked like a mini princess. Oh, I love her.

And so it begins...

The catch up, I mean. There is lots to be caught up on because 1- we were on vacation, 2-we recovered from our vacation, 3-we brought home sickness from our vacation, and 4-unrelated to the previous three, I've been trying to get in better habits with using my evening time (= less blogging).

So with a cute picture of our totally comfortable car ride out to Utah, lets begin.
Our tri-annual trip to Utah was super fun and was the vacation aforementioned. The main event was my immediate family's yearly reunion. We played it low-key this year and stayed at each other houses and met up for daily activities and evening fun, including one night of babysitters so the adults could go out to dinner! No one, but a Betteridge would believe all that we packed into those 3+ days. Hiking, backyard play, beach fun, girls/boys nights, eating out etc...Maybe the most memorable activity was our day at a near by church building. We opened the overflow to the gym and brought in couches, tables, chairs, TV etc, and set up camp with crafts, movies, tents and toys. We brought in balls galore and paper airplanes for the gym and finished the day off with a little impromptu play on the stage. There was plenty of small rooms for napping kids, plenty of bathrooms, and plenty of running space. Great Idea, Chris, I think it will become a Betteridge Reunion tradition!

Of course, it wouldn't be a reunion without some family pictures. This year, my mom and dad (THANK YOU!) paid to have someone good take them. It is so awkward for me to try and "act natural" when I know someone is taking pictures, even when it was OK to actually look at the camera and smile. But however weird I was with it, I am glad it happened because I love to have family pictures.

So this everyone. My parents and all my siblings and all their kids, and since no one is expecting its at least going to be current for the next 9 months.Crazy to believe that all those people grew from this, my parents and siblings.

Just the grandkids:

My sisters:My little family:

I love being with my siblings and enjoy any time I can have with them. I love doing things with them and watching our children play together. I can't wait for the next one.

I also love being with Chris' family. It has a whole different, laid back, food-centric, if anything happens its spontaneous kind of feel. Although this trip, we did plan to do stuff together, which I thought was great and worked out nice. We walked to a park and fed ducks, swam at an indoor super fun/loud recreation center, went to the Monte L. Bean museum and out to lunch at the Cougar Eat, adored the newly-born-super-cute-Baby-Mia, celebrated birthdays, and BBQ-ed with the extended Woodward Family. We played games, talked, ran around in the backyard, laughed, and watched the kids play with the same awesome toys Chris and his siblings used as children. Also, it wouldn't be a stay at the Archibald's house without free babysitting so Chris and I can go to the temple, shopping at Down East, and eating out as a family at Bombay House. I love my Archibald family and trips to Utah.

The Archibald grandkids:This is the only picture I took at the Archibald House. Just seconds before this picture, baby Mia and Gweny were looking at each other

We seriously vacationed it up and completely ruined our kids and their schedules for the next month or so. At least it seems that way now that I'm in the midst of Vacation Recovery. But don't worry family, it was totally worth it and I'd do it again in a heart beat, or few months... which ever comes later.

Coming up next...a blogging special: Gwen's Blessing! and then a blip about Great Grandmas. (this is mainly a reminder for me)