Thanksgiving 2015 & Tree Decorating

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving as just our little family of six. We didn't want it to be a huge feast, but we ended up getting a turkey for free and it was over 15 pounds-- so huge! Brett enjoys doing the turkey and stuffing so he took care of that while I did the other side dishes. It ended up being so.much.food!! And of course the kids don't really appreciate good food right now, so it ended up just being two of us eating most of it. (Leah does pretty good with eating a variety, but still doesn't eat much and didn't really care for the stuffing or brussels sprouts.)

Besides spending most of the morning in the kitchen, we took some time to play outside and to do a little craft: our Thankful Tree with everyone's hands:

Little Jacob was happy and smiley all day, in spite of having his shots the day before. He is always so content. (And as you can see from his hand on the craft, he is thankful for milk.)

 

The day after Thanksgiving has become our traditional Tree Decorating Day. We headed out to a local farm to get our tree. Last year it was snowing. This year it was close to 50 degrees-- a little too warm even for the coats we wore. It was very windy, which proved for an interesting trip home with the tree on top of the car. We seem to always pick the first tree we see, even though we do spend time looking around at all of them. That was the case this year, too!

Jacob slept through his first tree- getting experience!

And then it was time for decorating. Our tradition is to have Pizza Dip with chips for "lunch" while we decorate and watch Charlie Brown's Christmas. The kids love getting out "their" box of ornaments, which grows every year. It's fun to see them get so excited about the holidays!

Even Jacob has his own growing collection of ornaments!

Abigail didn't really care to put her ornaments on the tree but loved going through them and making messes. She has now asked countless times if Santa is coming tomorrow or if it is Christmas now. And I'm sure she'll ask countless more. Oh the challenges of being three!

Even though I still have to rearrange the ornaments a little after they come through, Leah and Andrew were able to help quite a bit this year and now our house looks so Christmasy! They want to watch every Christmas movie we have and do all the Christmas activities now! I can't believe it's that time again.

Jacob @ 2 months

What a sweet and easygoing little (well, big, really!) guy Jacob is. He seems to smile more than any baby we've had. He rarely cries. I can't say he sleeps well or has any sort of schedule whatsoever, really, but he's still easy to deal with and only fussy a few minutes after each feeding.

He weighs about 14 lbs. already, which is about the 95th percentile for his age! His height is average. He is already in his 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. His size is the first thing almost everyone comments on. He's so big! I love his little fat rolls and I know he will eventually grow into it. He definitely likes to eat, and still eats just about every 2 hours, unless he is sleeping. At night he has slept up to 5 hours, followed by another 3 after eating, but he's rarely consistent.

He actually sleeps best like this, with his brother and sisters running around like crazy all around him. The more noise, the better. And he can put up with them picking him up and smothering him and kissing him all over his face.

We may soon be seeing a pulmonary specialist about his breathing condition, which his primary doctor has called tracheomalacia. It is a softening of the trachea which causes noisy or raspy breathing. He often gasps for air when he's eating. Apparently it doesn't bother him much, it just sounds really scary and he does sometimes wake himself up during the day. It is something that will eventually (hopefully) correct itself as he gets older. The specialist probably won't even tell us much new information, maybe just ways we can deal with it. Still, we would have peace of mind that he is okay and we don't have to do anything else for him.

This kid loves playing on his play mat. He will smile and laugh at the flashing star on the top for a long time before getting fussy. He will even tolerate his swing or bouncer for long amounts of time. He is easily entertained. Of course, he still likes to be held before he'll go to sleep, but we'll work on that!

I can't believe how quickly this guy has won our hearts. He is fun-loving and has easily fit right into our schedule. Everyone loves a baby, but he makes it easy to love him!

Abigail's 3rd Birthday

How is it that this spunky, mischievous, stubborn, silly little girl is already 3 years old? Abigail constantly keeps us on our toes. She knows what she wants and can almost always find a way to get it! She is often strong-willed, yet she's not completely defiant-- she still has a sweet spirit and wants to please others. Her vocabulary has been improving greatly over the past few weeks, but she can still be difficult to understand at times. She doesn't eat a whole lot but sleeps well. She's found a way to climb out of her crib now so she'll be transitioning to a big girl bed soon.

She is so strong-willed that, after weeks of potty-training, she woke up one day and decided she did not want to wear diapers anymore, and that was that. She has worn underwear ever since. We still had a few accidents and we're still working on nighttime, but she will rarely let me put a diaper on her. She is fiercely independent-- she has to do everything herself and will get angry if you don't let her try. She even wants to take a shower by herself (not a bath!).

Abi loves to dance (she will sit and watch Leah's entire dance class every week), she loves music, dressing up & jewelry. She's not really into any particular TV character-- for her birthday she went back & forth between Elmo, Mickey & Dora for weeks, yet she really doesn't watch any of their shows faithfully. She loves all things electronic and already knows how to swipe a cell phone. She is all over the place when it comes to toys, and rarely sits down, although she does still need a nap;

We were able to have a fun little family celebration when Grandma & Grandpa were here. She got her Elmo cake, some streamers and some presents. She was a little nervous about blowing out the candles herself (but not nearly as much as Leah was when she had her Elmo cake 5 years ago!). But she knew exactly what to do when it came to presents. She had no sooner ripped one open than she was ready for the next.

And she was so happy the whole time.

And the little brother slept through the fun.

Grandma & I both got her Doc McStuffins toys, and they were a hit. She wore the vest that came with the costume for 3 days straight. And she keeps the doctor kit in her bed every night.

We all love this little girl and I, for one, can't wait to see how God uses her strong will for the good as she gets older!

Fall Leaves & a Visit from Grandparents

This past week Grandma & Grandpa came to visit us! We had so much fun just hanging out and spending time together. 

Even though it rained quite a bit and we missed the peak time for great foliage colors, we did have nice enough weather one day to go outside and take some pictures in the fall leaves. The kids were so excited. And we got some great shots.

See? We have proof Grandma & Grandpa were here. In Vermont (see the mountains?).

They were completely unafraid of being totally buried in the leaves. And we had to do it over & over.

The next day, after our weekly trek to school, we stopped by the pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins to carve. Jacob was not excited about pumpkins (or maybe the cold weather).

Then we took our pumpkins home and carved them! That usually involves a lot more work for Daddy and Mommy than anyone else. But they chose the faces they wanted carved and they did help scoop the guts out.