Christmas Recap

I'm beginning to realize I need to adapt--the style of blogging and photographing that served me well for many years isn't working quite as well now. More pictures are taken on my phone and I seem to have less big events that I'm whipping out the Canon for. Also, my arms are generally full of kids and said kids tend to be less cooperative. I generally don't post phone photos here but you know what? Sometimes thats what I have. So here's a hodge podge recap of Christmas related events, and the semi-resolution to try to be a better family archiver next year. I miss writing and I don't want my children to not have these precious memories to look through when they are older! Today is January 1, and Finley has already asked me where our "family year book" is from 2015. Give me a break, kid. But for posterity's sake... here's the 2015 Christmas card. First time in many years I didn't design it!



All the boys had Christmas events--Braden's was the kind where the kids have a treat and the parents stand and watch... so no pictures. Keaton's was a darling little sing a long that was several kinds of cute. He and Elisabeth are in class together for the second year, and still going strong as a duo of silent, bossy, tiny children.



Finley's school had a pretty legit Christmas program. He knows all sorts of Christmas hymns now--including Silent Night in German!



Both of our families came to visit for Christmas. I was so excited to meet my sister's baby girl, Elliot. She's eight weeks younger than Merritt and still was a squishy newborn. Ahh, they grow so fast. It's exciting to have a cousin on the Grimmer side of the family--and one so close in age to Merritt! If she's going to be the only girl, I'm glad she's got a girly cousin in her corner!





And I couldn't pass up the opportunity to put the girls in matching Christmas outfits. I think Laura and I should probably recreate this pose ever year we can manage to hold them up! We also saw Star Wars (spoiler alert: the stars win) and it was a big hit with everyone. The boys wore their Halloween costumes and everyone was remarkably well behaved in the theater.





We spent actual Christmas with Sol's family--and I managed to get everyone in footie pajamas!!!! Well, except Merritt because they didn't make them that small. And we had to cut the feet off Finley's in the morning because they were giving him a blister. But they all matched and were super cute.

Santa was good to the boys--Finley was thrilled to get the Lego Millenium Falcon, which has managed to stay intact so far. And I also got him the Doctor Who Lego set which he was so surprised and excited by! Here's two time lapse videos of him building...

A video posted by Rachel Scott (@solandrachel) on Dec 25, 2015 at 5:11pm PST

A video posted by Rachel Scott (@solandrachel) on Dec 26, 2015 at 5:23pm PST

We got a semi-decent family picture in front of the tree!



The rest of break was filled with playing with new toys, quick trip(s) to Houston to see friends and eat Tacos and trying to knock things off our to do list and keep our kids alive.



We were so blessed in 2015--and can't wait to see what 2016 holds!

Pictures with Santa

We loved getting our photos taken with Santa this year--with our sweet little girl getting to join in! Our pictures from last year were so fun, we had to do it again.







The photographer's set up was so clever-- she had the kids all sit together and be sweet for a minute while Santa snuck out behind them! We didn't have any Santa related fear this year, but Keaton was very suspicious of Mr. Claus. He scooted very close to Finley and was nervous!



He eventually warmed up to him and all the boys gave him a big hug. I seriously cracked up at the pictures of them clambering all over Santa!

Merritt || Three Months

Three months!



This girl is sweet for days--we're so lucky to have her! I think her eyes are for real blue and she's started losing some of the very sparse hair on her sweet head. Maybe due to the typical case of cradle cap we're battling. She's stingy with the smiles... not at all like Keaton who used to (and still does!) gape at you with big open mouth smiles. But the smiles and giggles are slowly becoming more frequent and they kind of make us melty.



Tummy time is rough. She spends a lot of time in a carrier, so I feel like her head control is pretty good. She can roll off her belly and almost off her back.



She seems just so big to me--and she still is for her age. She's a little over 14 pounds--a bad cold set her back a bit when she wasn't in the mood to eat for awhile, but I think she's rebounded. Her cheeks are chubby and her thighs are chunky, just the way I like them. I'm fully aware that we're reaching the four month mark... where my babies thin down and also sleep less. Remind me to cherish month three before it all falls apart.



Merritt is a good sleeper (knock on wood incessantly) and was a GREAT sleeper when she was sick. She's really great in the day time--almost always I can put her down awake and she falls asleep on her own. Maybe I'm just getting really good at reading babies and finding the sweet spot to put them down. Or she's just awesome. She averages just under 5 hours at night... hopefully we can keep improving. But as I'm reminded by the three boys who sleep upstairs--it's fleeting. They all sleep plenty eventually. It's my honor to get to feed her and take care of her!



I love her snotty nose and drooly mouth and still kind of folded over ear and her watery eye. And her soft cheeks and her scaly scalp.



Apparently I didn't get a picture of her two favorite things--sucking on her little fists and bottom lip. But I did get some slightly different faces: thoughtful, concerned and barely entertained.



Love you Mer! (We're still working on nicknames... mainly how to spell Meri/Merri.)

Thanksgiving Parties

Both our big boys had sweet Thanksgiving events this year--and Sol got to attend both with me! First up was Braden--he was supposed to pick an Indian name and after much deliberation he chose... Lego Drawer. Because he likes Legos and he likes drawing. It works. He was a precious little performer--singing sweetly and doing the actions.





We had a traditional meal of trail mix. Everyone was given a little baggie that had a mixture of symbolic snacks in them. I pretty much just ate the bugles.



Finley's event was a true feast--all the families (except us--slackers!) brought a dish and the kids sang a song that I apparently didn't record. Finley and his pals were all very silly Pilgrims.



Proof that Merritt and I tagged along too! That girl is such a trooper--she goes everywhere with us and doesn't put up a fuss. We loved getting some special time with just our big kid and getting to see him in his element. His new school is fabulous and he's learning so much!

Merritt Miscellany

Sometimes I just take pictures of her. Hopefully in 18 years, when she's picking out a baby picture for some graduation related activity, she'll be happy that these are all here. Assuming people still use computers and hard drives and jpgs. This all may be in vain.



She likes looking at the bright windows (like most babies do) and she has chubby cheeks that are super soft and squishy.



She was beginning to fall asleep and making such content, sweet faces in these... she was so tired, and happy to have a full belly and a view of her number one fan (me).

"Pumpkin Patch" 2015

Well, we went to the pumpkin patch on the corner by our house again, and it was silly. It was slightly drizzly--and we waited until October 30th to actually go. We're kind of phoning it in left and right currently.



Part of me has given up a bit on getting the boys to behave like I'd want for pictures... I didn't bother getting them in cute clothes--and Keaton's hair is a mess. They all wanted to be silly on the pumpkins, and so I let them.



For some reason, the main activity we did at the pumpkin patch was roughhousing. I don't know why.



And then I suggested my new favorite photo-op--Sol holding all the boys.



And here's proof that our littlest pumpkin was present. She was.



All of my pumpkins! I can't believe I'm so lucky to have all those little people around.



We ran into one of my friends in town who is a photographer and I sweet talked her into taking a picture of us--Finley is being a zombie in the first one, which he thinks is hilarious. Oh, to be six.



And because it's fun... here are the last six years of pumpkin patch-ing.

2014, 2013, 2012, also 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009.

Merritt || Two Months

Two months! Hooray!!



Month two has been spent eating as much as she can and getting chubby. We don't expect the chub to last, but for the time being, she's 12 pounds, 5 ounces, 23 inches long and her head is 39 cm. All of that is right around the 75th percentile. She's starting to outgrow her 3 month clothes but is still too little for her 6 month stuff.



Her sleep is still erratic--three times she's slept almost eight hours, but most of the time its somewhere between 3 and 5. More often towards the 3 side. Typical Scott baby. I've been letting her sleep on her belly since she has pretty good head control. She does nap really well during the day--so I'll try not to complain about the sleep too much or I'll jinx myself! (I really like these pictures where she's mushing her face around.)



She's easy to make happy--she's just a content little girl. We flew to KC a few days after she turned two months and she was a gem. She slept all but about ten minutes of the flight and was just cuddly and sweet. Sigh.



She sometimes sucks on her hand and sometimes lets us give her a pacifier--not sure what all of that will amount to. But it's something. She's still a bit withholding of her smiles--but if we work we can get a few! Keaton continues to be her number one fan--he was crying in these pictures because he didn't get to hold her.



As soon as I moved her over to Keaton, he was thrilled. I'm kind of excited to see what kind of hair she ends up with. Those boys all have great hair.

Star Wars Halloween

Wellll.... I did my best. It was dark and rainy by the time we made it out to trick or treat. I had really big intentions of sticking everyone back in their costumes so we could get a good picture of everyone, but we literally have not all been home when it was both light and not raining. SO. They were all so cute--so I really do want to try to get a picture sometime!



We were obviously THE STAR WARS. Keaton was the sweetest Ewok and wore that little hat a long time. Finley was (predictably) Luke Skywalker and we kind of tricked Braden into being Han Solo by implying that he was the same person as "Guy Dangerous" the character in Temple Run... good parenting. Merritt and I were Princess Leia and Sol was Darth Vader. You can't tell--but my dress has an awesome hood with Princess Leia buns! And Merritt's hat is adorable as well.



We had a great time--a few friends came over for mummy hot dogs and soup. And a special Halloween brownie monstrosity. We love our community in Beaumont!

Merritt with Flowers on her Head

These pictures were taken over a month ago--when you could sneak around a sleeping baby and take precious pictures of her and she wouldn't wake up. And when a pretty, summery blue dress was still acceptable. Temperature wise, it's probably still acceptable, but we're all pretending it's fall here, even though that means we're hot and sweaty in the afternoons.



I mean she looks like an absolute angel, doesn't she? I just want to kiss her all the time. So I do.



I'm still obsessed with this little flower crown from her sip and see. I had to sneak in a few pictures of it before it's too small. I'm guessing it is too small now. Tear. Tiny baby stop growing!

Merritt's Newborn Pictures

Our favorite photographer and my dear friend, Jenn, came by when Merritt was about a week old to take some newborn photos and some of our family of SIX! There's lots of photos that kind of speak for themselves... so there may not be a ton of words. The most important words are: Jenn is crazy talented and my kids are crazy cute. I may be biased on both accounts.



When Finley stops being so busy being a knucklehead, he's really a cute kid.



And Keaton's basically cute all the time.



I die over these photos of my FOUR kids. FOUR! Dolls.



Braden is just a hoot around her--he says really funny things too. We were around another baby girl Merritt's age and he saw her laying down and said, "Does Merritt have a silly face?" Because he knew it wasn't Merritt's face--but assumed it was still Merritt. He also can't ever call her she--recently he told someone, "This is my baby Merritt. He's a she." We correct him so often... he knows that she is the right word but just can't seem to work it in there.





Minus one point for me holding her in a weird way--plus a million points for everyone else looking like a superstar.





We've never done a mushy newborn shoot before, and I'm in love with these pictures of my sweet husband being in love with our little girl! Seriously.



I'm getting them screen printed on t-shirts to wear every day. And printing them poster size for her college dorm room. I think she'll like it and will probably help her get lots of boyfriends.






Also special--me with the little girl I didn't think I'd ever have. We think maybe she looks like me, but I think people might just be humoring me in telling me that. She does snort a lot... which is something I do.





I'm now realizing that both she and I are wearing clothes that we borrowed--I've since upped my baby girl game quite a bit!



So many sweet details I don't want to forget--her long fingers and toes (perfect for playing the piano or pickpocketing, according to Lorelai Gilmore), her perfect lips, and folded over, floppy ear courtesy of being smashed in my belly.



Ugh. In love. I'm going to go back and stare at her face some more before she turns eighteen and leaves me forever. Having a girl last might be a problem...