Church Christmas Play ‘12

 

For the second year, our church did a Children’s Christmas Play—a short, sweet little program that showcases each of the kids. This year, Andrew was a sheep. He spent most of the time either wandering around on the stage (without his sheep hat, because he would only wear it when he wanted to—because he’s 2, of course) or sitting with us, but he did have one line at the beginning. He was supposed to say “Once upon a time…” The funny part was, one of the big girls whispered to him what he was supposed to say, so he whispered it right back into the microphone.

  

Leah was an angel again this year, which she loved, because she got to wear “fairy” wings. She memorized her 4 lines quite easily and said them the loudest & clearest of all the kids! All the little kids wanted to sing a solo so they accommodated and let everyone sing a little something solo. Leah sang the chorus of “Go Tell it On the Mountain.” Unfortunately I don’t have a  video camera, but it was very cute!

 

  

Apparently Leah’s shoes were hurting her feet. For the first five minutes of the play she sat on the ground and picked at her feet, completely oblivious that there was a whole audience of people. She even announced that she had a boo boo and nearly missed her cue. So here’s the Preacher’s Kids’ Comedy of Errors:

Then Santa came for a visit, and each of the kids got to sit in his lap. I got some great shots. Neither of my kids were shy (of course I don’t think shy is in my childrens’ vocabulary). I think they are just so in awe this year of the big man that brings them gifts. I hope they never lose that wonder!

 

  

Even Abigail smiled for Santa (although I wasn’t quick enough to capture that). She stared at him in awe, too, completely unafraid.

Cody Family Christmas Photos

 

JC Penny was having a promotion for a free sitting fee & $5/ sheet photos, so we tried it out! It took about 20 tries just to get everyone to look at the camera (forget everyone smiling—we’ll take what we can get!). After 30 minutes, this was the best we ended up with—we love how the 1st one turned out, especially.

These of Abigail were actually taken when we did our photo session when she was 2 weeks old—we planned ahead for Christmas. She doesn’t look too much different, now.

And, my personal attempt to get some good ones of Leah & Andrew in front of our own tree:

 

 

 

Christmas Family Fun

 

The month of December is always filled with fun activities for our family. We take a break from our usual routine & “school” work and focus on the holiday season. I always plan to do so many things, but we usually only get in just a few. Here’s what we’ve been up to the past few weeks.

I made a Countdown Chain with one family fun activity to do each day. Numbers on the chains help the kids to see how many days are left. (Thankfully, they can’t yet read, so I have the liberty to change the activity if I don’t feel like doing what I had planned that day!)

We were in the Newton Grove Christmas Parade again this year with our church. We didn’t work on the float at all, but our family got to ride in the little sleigh on the back. (You can’t see the whole float well since it was so long, but we were on a sleigh behind a reindeer.) Everyone thought Abigail was a little doll since she was all bundled up! The float won first place overall in the parade, it was so cute! And Leah & Andrew had so much fun throwing candy to everyone.

 

We made this Gingerbread Tree last year and did it again this year. They helped me cut out the star shapes, then decorate, although they must have eaten twice as much candy as they put on the cookies.

 

   

We also made Christmas-shaped pizzas. I’ve recently started making homemade pizzas & they’re really good. Basically, Leah & Andrew just played with the dough. I made the shapes out of cookie cutters and then let them help me put the cheese on.

   

We did some painting. Andrew loves to paint, but has a tantrum when we have to put it away, so we don’t do it often. Look how focused he is! (And how much water he put in his painting!)

We decorated Christmas trees with stickers.

And, after we watched The Grinch movie, we colored masks of the Grinch!

Abigail @ 1 month

 

I admit, I almost forgot about doing a monthly post for my third-born. I did do her 1 month old picture, though, and it’s only 3 days late!

 

Abigail is a pretty good sleeper. Usually I have to wake her during the day every 3 hours to eat. (I’m trying to keep her on my schedule, not hers’—if it was up to her, she’d sleep all day & play all night!) At night, she’ll sleep anywhere from 3 1/2- 6 hours, wake up to eat, then go back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hour stretch. In the first few weeks, she’d take 1 or 2 hours to go to sleep after every feeding (especially at night!), in order to work out her gas and tummy issues. It’s getting better, and now she’s awake more contentedly during the day for 1 or 2 hours after each feeding, and only 30 minutes or so at night feedings. (So far I think she’s been my best sleeper, even though we did have a few rough nights the first two weeks.)

I accredit her better sleeping patterns this past week to the fact that we’ve been putting her down on her tummy. Though the doctor advises to always put a baby on her back, she sleeps much more comfortably on her stomach, and since she has pretty good head control I think she’s fine! She has slept in her own crib in her room almost from week 1. Like Andrew, she made too many noises to sleep in our room in the bassinet. Her room is only feet away from our room and I can hear her cry even without a monitor. She does like to be rocked to sleep, and I usually put her in her crib only after she’s dead asleep, but I don’t mind letting her cry up to 10 or 15 minutes or so if she wakes up before time, and I think she’s starting to learn!

She is very efficient at nursing, usually only taking 10-15 minutes total. Most of the time she nurses on only one side, sometimes both, but either way, she is quick at eating, just slower at digesting afterward!

Leah and Andrew love to play with her, hold her, kiss her all over her face, and generally smother her with love. If she’s awake, they want to see her and touch her. If she’s asleep, they’re asking when they can see her! I can’t really say they’re helpful yet, but then there isn’t really much they can do at this point to help.

She is starting to not like this bouncer seat or her swing quite as much since she’s been sleeping on her tummy. She’ll only tolerate a few minutes before she starts crying, but I’m trying to get her used to them again!

 

Abigail’s First “Real” Bath- Nov. 12, 2012

Her umbilical stump fell off pretty early, at only 10 days old, so she got to take her bath the following Monday. As you can see, she wasn’t a big fan. She screamed pretty much the whole time! Since then, she’s gotten used to it, but still cries when she initially gets in and when she gets out.

 

One Month Old

She is such a sweet little girl and really has been so easy so far. Though sometimes it is frustrating because she’ll sleep all day until I need to get something done (like cook dinner or give Andrew & Leah their bath) and then need to be held; still, she’ll sleep through church or outings and eat well while we’re out. She hasn’t really smiled yet, she always seems so serious, but she’s very curious—holds her head up to look all around and she stares at me with her huge blue eyes when I hold her. I love our times alone together at night after Leah & Andrew go to bed. I don’t think I’ll ever understand how parents can say they don’t think they’d have enough love to have more than one or two children because I have more than enough for this little third-born!