Happy St. Patrick's

We celebrate with green apple sauce and potatoes for dinner.

Gabe is crawling

As of last night Gabe has taken his first 'steps' crawling. He's been moving around on his tummy for months. In fact, I think he wasn't crawling earlier because he could get around on his tummy so well.

Go, Gabe, go!

By the way, we also noticed him start to cut his first tooth on Tuesday. Having a month off for baby bonding time has been great.

Magic Morning

We get in the park an hour early to get on rides with less lines. So far, Peter Pan, Snow White, Dumbo, and the carousel. Next stop? Finding Nemo.

Getting out of the hotel this early was tough but worth it.

Too bad Laura missed it with Gabe sleeping in. We'll see her at the princess lunch.

Disneyland (yes, again)

Here we are at Disneyland again. It is so much fun! Great deals + winter break + baby bonding time = vacation to the happiest palce on earth.

First ride? Pirates - family favorite.

Ugh - closed! Off to haunted house. Collette has brought some stuffed animals to be brave.

We Love Them

Sometimes they get cranky. Sometimes they're sick. So many times they cry for silly things. I often get mad at them (and I probably shouldn't). Regardless, we are so happy to have our children. They're a gift. 

Good Times

This is a bit delayed. Well, almost a month delayed but I just wanted to post about the GREAT time I had catching up with some old friends. Joel and I met in our University Ward in Berkeley. And being that it was a young single adult ward a lot of the friends we made there also married within the ward and we have tried our best to keep in touch with some of them. We actually got four couples together that we've stayed in good contact with and met at our house just after Christmas. It is crazy that each of us were just single people going into that ward and now we're four couples with 11 kids! These are just all great people who Joel and I adore and we were so glad that we got to hang out for a few hours. Thanks everyone!!

Here are Joel, Dan, Keir, and Glen



Lindsay, Sherry, Tammy, and Me


Here's the lot of us!

Bowling

We took our kids bowling for the first time on Monday since we all had the day to spend together-thanks to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (which as a side note we did do our traditional sit the kids down and make them watch the 15 minute "I had a dream speach" before we started the days activities).

So with Joel's brother and his family we went down to the bowling alley and had so much fun. I believe I came in with THE lowest score of the whole group (yes, including Ben and Nate the 2 year olds) and my only strike was when I was holding Gabriel in one arm (asleep) and bowling with the other. Even the group next to us cheered me for that feat!

Here are some pics- albeit horrible because they were taken from my iphone- of our bowling trip.

Here's Nate, Ben's closest aged boy cousin, waiting patiently as his bowl rolls down the lane.


Collette wanted to do it all herself. She did really well considering she didn't want anyones help or any use of assisted devices (see Ben's picture).


Here is Joel setting up Ben's "help". Otherwise it would take 10 minutes for Ben's ball to roll down the lane


And here's Abigail. Enjoying the activities. She did the best of the kids.

Proud Parents

Yes, we are very proud of all of our children but in December Abigail received Student of the Month. We are so proud of her and all the work she puts into her school work. She is the youngest kid in the class and only had a half a year of kindergarten (which did NOT prepare her for her current school expectations!) and she's doing so well. Keep up the good work, Abigail!

Gabriel is still alive

I feel like I haven't posted about Gabriel in a long time. I feel badly. Poor subsequent children...However, it's been so long since I did any post at least I know it's not just him we ignore on here.

He is such a great baby. He deals so well with having to wait. A lot. And he loves to laugh and thinks his sisters are so funny. Unfortunately he is sick at the moment but is still the worlds best baby even sick. I think a lot of the fun of having many children is seeing how different they are from the beginning from each other. Gabriel is his own personality already. In a small way he reminds me of Abigail as a baby, not too quick to smile at everyone he meets but when he knows you, he likes to see your face- even if it's just to stare at it. Collette and Ben were super smiley babies. Collette especially. He definitely looks most like Benjamin and per my mother in law he is a dead ringer for Joel as a baby. He loves his Mom and enjoys pulling on Dad's face. I just can't stress enough what an easy going baby he is. I love having him around. Such a joy and he has such a great laugh! All of us around the house like to do things to get Gabriel to laugh. And the best part? He's chubby.

Here are a couple shots of Gabriel in action (albeit almost a month old now but I'm happy I'm getting a post done I don't really want to have to wait to load pictures off of the camera first).

Christmas letter

Christmas 2009

Hello to our friends and family! We're hoping this letter is finding you all happy and enjoying the holiday season.

This year, like all our letters in the past, brings the news of an arrival to the family - our fourth child and second son Gabriel Dean Headley. Gabriel was born on June 25th and came into this world our biggest baby weighing in at 9 lbs 5 oz. He beat Collette by one ounce. Gabriel is a joy to have in our home. He is happy and loves is sisters and brother. The siblings have all adjusted quickly and very well. Especially Collette, who is my number one baby watcher and helper.

Abigail (6) is half way through first grade and is doing amazing. She is reading to her brothers and sister, enjoying math and doing well at it, and she loves art draws and doodles when there's a free moment. Abigail also keeps notebooks, writing down her thoughts and notes to her parents. She has now come home with two citizenship awards at school which means she is respecting others, helping peers, and following school rules - what more could a parent ask for?! She continues to grow and shows signs that it won't take long before she's taller than her mother. She continues to be such a helper around the house and loves to fix breakfast for her siblings so Mom and Dad can sleep in a bit.

Collette (4.5) is loving her preschool class. She mostly spends her day trying help me out by taking care of Gabriel but when he's sleeping she loves playing with her animals and princesses. Collette is great at being able to entertain herself for a long period of time. When Abigail has to do her homework at night Collette will often ask for her "homework" too (it's a pre-kindergarten workbook that we bought at the store). She continues to make us laugh and also has quite the knack for making Gabriel crack up. Joel will reprimand Collette for tossing Gabriel around on the bed. Collette will respond with, "but he loves it, Dad" and sure enough, Joel looks down and Gabe is smiling away.

Benjamin (2.5) has had a busy past few months. After discovering that Ben had sleep apnea and wasn't getting good sleep at night he had surgery for removing his tonsils and adenoids. Benjamin up to this point has continued to stay very small. What we discovered is that the human growth hormone is released during deep sleep. Ben wasn't getting to deep sleep because his body was always waking him up to breathe. In just the one month since Ben has had the surgery he has gained 3 pounds!! This is HUGE and we're very excited to see just how much Ben will grow in the next year to come.

Laura has nothing to do. She is often found laying around on the couch for hours at a time. Ahhh, how I wish that were true! We often talk about implementing a sarcasm font, so everyone gets comments like these. Life has been non-stop lately. In April, with only about 8 weeks left to go with the pregnancy Laura was called to be the Primary President at church. That means being in charge of all the children ages 1.5-11 years old at church for two hours every Sunday. Luckily, I have great people who help me out. There's a lot on Laura's plate but she's enjoying it, and it's great to learn about and get to know all the kids. Keeping up with all the different schedules at home is also a bit tough. Laura dreams about getting to the gym and back into those 'skinny' jeans. But really, who has the time? She's determined to buy new clothes.

Joel is as busy as ever. The move back to California has given Joel a chance to work even more! At least he's usually working in the same state now. Though these past few months have given Joel a chance to travel to New York, Ireland, and Mexico. Too bad he doesn't get to site see while he's in all these fun places. Also, he enjoys his church assignment - teaching once a month and supporting Laura in primary (someone has got to keep the kids in line).

We certainly hope your enjoying the end of your year, and the holidays while remembering the reason for the season. We're grateful for the birth of our Savior and love that our children have asked, "Did they sing Jesus the Happy Birthday song on Christmas?" We love each of our kids - really can't get enough of them. Visit our blog if you want to get a weekly dose of Headley family fun.

Sitting Up

Gabriel is pretty good at sitting up these days. He leans over, grabs toys, and sits there playing with them. We're pretty impressed. It doesn't take too much at this age :)

In other news, Ben gained three pounds in the last month (since his surgery). This is a big step for our little guy.

Sharing with Family

We try to teach sharing. But, as many of you know kids just don't want to share, sometimes.

This morning, Benjamin was playing with a bunch of toy dogs after finishing breakfast.

Collette: "Ben can I have a dog to play with?"
Benjamin: "Sure, which one?" He selects one and brings it over to Collette.
Collette: "The baby one." After being handed a larger dog.
Benjamin: "Sure." He retrieves the baby one and delivers it.

I'm amazed that with so many disagreements and arguments over who has what, there are still moments where our kids are perfectly behaved and absolutely polite and loving.

Things are changing...

These are not significant changes in life. But things that to me are funny or just strange to see my children growing older. Here are two pictures that show how our house is changing lately:

This may seem just like my 6 year olds bed. Nothing spectacular. But oh, is it ever! Do you see the stuffed animal squished against the wall back there? That, my dear friends, is Piglet. And that, is where he usually stays these days. Which is soooo not normal. Not for my 6 year old who usually takes him places with her and if nothing else would never think not to sleep with him. And yet, there he stays lately. She has found other animals that she is sleeping with these days. Is she outgrowing him or is this just a stage?!


And these next two pictures are what my 2 year old son has taken a liking to lately. Finding some kind of chocolate around the house, getting scissors out of the drawer, and helping himself to some treats. I found these two bits of evidence when I woke up this morning. The door was closed so I opened it to see if someone was still sleeping. Nope, no one was sleeping but this was in the middle of the floor. I think it's funny he tries to "hide" his evidence, not by cleaning up, but by closing the door. Nice thinking, Ben.

Christmas Tree!

On Saturday we picked out the tree. We went up to Santa Cruz mountains to a farm higher than we're used to. It was very windy and cold, so the kids wrapped themselves up in whatever we had in the car. It was fun, but Abigail kept telling us to hurry up and cut down the tree (any tree) so we could get out of there. Of course, Laura picked the perfect tree - almost too big for our place, but not quite.

From Christmastime 2009

Laura and I brought it in on Sunday, and we started decorating with the kids. They didn't want to go to sleep, but we promised FHE would be spent finishing it up. We finished up decorating the tree and house tonight, ending with a lesson on the nativity for FHE (good talk about what a 'manger' is) and ice cream for dessert.

From Christmastime 2009

In the end

We are so glad that Ben is home safe and happy. He is doing great today. He ate a TON of food when we came home from the hospital last night. He ate four eggs with cheese melted on in just a few minutes. He has only complained about a soar throat 3 times that I know of since he's been home.

When the Dr came out to talk to us after surgery she said his tonsils and adenoids were huge and very infected. She said there was puss oozing out of them. Yuck. Gross. I talked to her on the phone today when she called to check up on Ben and she said that of all the tonsils she removed yesterday in children (which were apparently many) she said Ben's were the biggest and he was by far the youngest kid. Poor kid.

They also put tubes back in his ears. He had tubes put in when he was 7 months old. Which is pretty young for tubes. They had fallen out within the last 6 months or so. The ENT yesterday took a look at his ears, removed all the wax build up, removed the old tubes that had fallen out and were just sitting in the ear canal, suctioned out tons of fluid that had built up in his middle ear also known as "glue ear" and put in new tubes. It's like Ben got a shiny new car wash for his ears. Aahhh, sounds nice.

So all in all, I'm so glad we did it. Thanks to you all for your support and thoughts and prayers. And here's to hoping for some great things to come for Ben in about a month (the time it takes for full recovery).