Christmas: Take 1

The weekend before Christmas, we went to Columbia to celebrate Christmas with my dad's side of the family. It was very fun, but too short! Some of them hadn't ever seen John. (I, being a terrible mother, didn't get pictures of him with them either!) The boys played with their cousins, we had a very non-traditional Christmas meal (but a family favorite nonetheless) of Shakespeare's pizza, and there were presents.

John opening his first present (ever)

Taking it all in (and slobbering) 

Let the fighting begin...

MiMi trying to keep John out of the Christmas tree (good luck!)

John enjoying the wrapping more than the presents

 Tissue paper is the best!

John wants to play with his present, but Noah won't let him.

Matching jammies (Noah, John, Aiden)

The grandchildren: Jenna, Noah, John, Aiden, Taylor

MiMi and Poppy with the grandchildren

Reeeeeeeeeeach

Nothing is safe...

A Picture is worth a Thousand Words

Playing together

John thinks it's funny when Noah sits on him or jumps on him (You better watch out Noah!)

Auntie Judy Saves the Day

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I walked Noah into school instead of dropping him off like I normally do. I needed to take care of something inside the church. When I was getting ready to leave he was sort of weepy and wanted to leave with me. I told him we make a surprise after naps. He kept asking what and I told him it was a surprise so I couldn't tell him. When I left, I thought, I have got to think of something! And then it came to me! Last year after Christmas, my aunt sent a little treasure box nativity that you make yourself. So, Noah and I constructed the nativity that day. Thanks, Auntie Judy!

Snow Day: Take 2

I wouldn't let Noah play in the snow yesterday because I thought it was too cold. You can only come up with so many excuses as to why we can't play in the snow. John got to go out this time. He couldn't move, but he got to "play" in the snow. Noah shoveled the driveway while we were out.

Snow Day!

Saturday night, we got lots of snow. It was the first snow to stick this season. Even though it was only 12 degrees, we let Noah play outside for a bit. This was his very first time to play in the show.

Getting all bundled up

 

All bundled up

Enjoying some "hot" (warm) chocolate

Christmas Pictures

Who knew it would be so hard to get a Christmas card worthy picture? (Note, this is just a small sampling of the rejects. You'll just have to wait to see the winner.)

Fun Photos

Nathan, Champ, and John just hanging out

When John first started "crawling," he only went in reverse. He regularly got himself "stuck" because he hadn't figured out how to go forward. Here, he's stuck (and mad) under his bed. About 5 minutes after this he got himself between his changing table and the wall. Also got mad.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but Friday afternoon, I was fixing lunch and turned around and here came John across the kitchen floor with Noah's frog hanging out of his mouth. He was going for Noah's note he had rolled up and carried around all day.



Noah reclaiming his stuff

Unflattering

You know how certain things just don't flatter certain body types? Well, socks are that thing for John.

And sometimes, we just can't even keep them on...

In the Blink of an Eye

It seems like just yesterday Noah was born. Now he's 2 years and 9 months old and John is 9 months old. It just happens so fast. No one warned me the second one would grow up faster than the first.

John went for his 9 month check up last week. He now weighs 23 1/2 pounds and is 29 3/4 inches. (He's slimmed down a bit. He was 90th percentile for weight, now he's only 80th.)

John's 9 month picture

When Noah was 9 months old, he was 19 1/2 pounds and 29 7/8 inches.

Noah's 9 month picture

John has 4 teeth, 2 on top and 2 on bottom. He's eating avocados, green beans, spinach, broccoli, peas, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, bananas, apples, mangoes, and Cheerios. He loves the Cheerios, I think mostly because he can do it himself. Generally, he's happy unless he needs a clean diaper, is tired or hungry. He just started crawling, Noah style (aka army style). I was hoping he wouldn't until after Christmas...

Both boys are super sweet and always keep us entertained. We are so blessed!

Now I Know...

A long time ago (before Noah), I was watching What Not to Wear. I remember a lady being in the 360 mirror and saying she had breast milk on her jacket. I thought how did that happen!!???!?!

Last week, Noah farmer blew in my face...TWICE! (By in my face, I mean his nose was about six inches from my face.) And somehow, I had poop on my shirt.

What I'm still wondering though is why she didn't clean it off...

Happy Thanks & Giving!

So, just a little late...

Noah had his Thanksgiving program at school. It was so cute! They all had Indian names. Noah was Singing Bird. Poppy and MiMi got to come too. I made "Turkey" Pumpkin Muffins for the party. They were very cute, if I might say...

Noah was the star of the show (says the mother). He got a little distracted every once in a while, but when he was singing, you could pick his voice out of the crowd.

I have tried and tried...and tried to upload the video, but not luck. If I should happen to get it to work, I'll post it later. Just use your imagination.

Poppy with his (very, very tired) boys

We spent Thanksgiving with our sweet friends the Brooks and the Hunters. We had so much fun and lots of really good food to eat. It was quite a large crowd, but the more the merrier, right?

(Someone was looking at the wrong camera...)

My Point of View

"Mommy, do I have enough orange on?"

"I'm looking for some deer."

"You're really big, mommy!"

Lazy Sunday afternoon

My Point of View

All Dressed Up with No Place to Go

Buddies

If you recall, John has lots of buddies who were born just about the same him he was...

John and Nathan (John is 2 weeks older)

John and Champ playing outside (John is 8 weeks older)

You Never Know What He'll Say (or Do)

Today at church Noah made a little megaphone. All day, he carried it around yelling, "We love Jesus. Yes we do!" and "Go, Jesus!" It was funny, but he's loud enough without a megaphone.

Noah has developed this bad habit of taking forever to eat. He'll eat a little and then play with his fork or his napkin or whatever. He looks out the window...the list goes on. I've started setting the timer once he's had plenty of time to eat and he's just playing instead of eating. He doesn't like it. Today, on the way to the bathroom for the second time during lunch, I said I was going to set the timer when we got back and he needed to get finished up or he wouldn't have time to play before naptime. He said, "Relax."

8 Months

Well it's hard to believe yet another month has passed. John is now 8 months old! I feel like he was just born. How could he possibly be 8 months old!?!??!?!???!

He's not crawling or scooting, but he doesn't stay put either. He spins and rolls and gets where he wants to be. And sometimes he even gets himself "stuck" which I think is a little funny. (Does that make me a bad mother?)

He loves to eat. He still acts like I put poop in his mouth the first bite. Doesn't matter if it's something new or if he's had it 800 times before. By the third bite, he's usually okay with it.

And just when we were getting into a good sleep schedule...daylight savings! He was up at 4:45 this morning. I knew he be up early, but really...that was just too early. Once he had everyone up, he had a nap.