Christmas card pictures

This year I have had a really hard time deciding what picture to use for our Christmas cards. I like different things about each of my three favorite pictures. I sent all three out in an email so they could all be seen. I usually don't do the email christmas cards, but this year I did to reach more people and some people will also get the card in the mail too. I think I am going to go with the one with S's big cheesy grin because it is so funny! I do love the one of them looking at each other too! The other one is just nice because we are all looking. Well we shall see!

We have been baking lots of cookies, decorating the house and the tree, and we got the picture done! I am feeling pretty good. Shopping is mostly done too. I LOVE this time of year! We are getting ready to vist some of A's family for two weeks and we leave the 17th. Hopefully S and K will travel well! :0)

Cute Pictures after Church

A Thankful Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! This year was filled with back to back turkey and family. We celebrated with my father's family on Thursday with all my siblings and then with my mom's family and all my siblings on Friday. Usually my mom has her own Thanksgiving the weekend before, but it didn't work out this year. The back to back turkey time was fun, but hard on our little guys. They were cranky by the end of Friday, but we all had a wonderful time filled with many things to be thankful for.

We are so grateful to have our house. It makes such a difference to own your own place. I also can't imagine life without S and K and the joy outweighs any stress I have with them by far! I am also grateful to be married to such a hardworking man and a caring father to our little guys! I am so glad that all my siblings could be there for both days (it doesn't happen that often anymore it seems). I miss them a lot even though most of them are still living here, we usually don't see each other unless it is a big holiday. One of my sister's doesn't live around here so it was really nice to spend some quality time with her. All my sisters (minus one who had other plans and doesn't really like the twilight movies for some strange reason) went and saw New Moon! It was AWESOME! Much better than the first one! I saw it again last night with some friends from college! It was still so good! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Pumpkins and Pirates

I am way far behind in updating the blog. So here it goes: We went pumpkin picking and the nice orange pumpkins were slim pickings. Lots of nice green ones though! I don't think we will go to that patch next year. Both S and K had a lot of fun choosing out just one pumpkin for the family.







For our Halloween activities, we went to our friends' party on Friday night for couples and kids. We had a great time all participating in dressing up as a family of pirates. On Halloween we geared up to meet some more neighbors while trick or treating. Turns out there are A LOT of anti-halloween neighbors on our street, but we did manage to meet a few more people and S had tons of fun this year! He really got the concept of trick or treating (last year was a little dramatic because he thought we were visiting new people and didn't understand why we weren't going inside to everyone's house) He was so cute in wishing everyone a big "Happy Halloween!" nice and loud as we were leaving each house. K seemed to enjoy the action from the stoller and kept trying to peak at what was going on with each candy deposit. We were lucky and went out early before the rain so we had a great time! Happy Halloween!

Football and No more Binkies!!!

This post is dedicated to a little boy that is growing up! S reached a MAJOR milestone in MY opinion this week in giving up his binkie obsession! Hooray!!!! We have been talking about it since he was 18 months and then we never got around to making him give them up because K came three weeks early. We got into this cycle of letting S have the binkie anytime he needed comfort when K first came, then we went back to binkie restriction for just bedtime and naps. This summer when we were moving and when he started sleeping in a bed, S was having his binkie anytime we were at home basically. I was weak and hated to see him so upset and distraught and not to mention the fact that I hated it if he was whining so loud that it woke up K just over a binkie. So you can get the picture that S was REALLY attached to them.


Here's the "hooray" part: on Monday the binkie had two holes in it from S chewing on them and I had just bought him a new one last Friday so it only lasted about a week! I was mad and I thought "now is as good a time as any to just be done" especially if I was going to be feeding a now "have to buy a new one every week" habit. So we cut the broken parts off and showed it to him and told him "Your binkie is broken and we can't fix it. It's time to be a big boy." He cried really hard that morning for about 30 min. He kept asking us to fix it. Then he seemed okay the rest of the day. He would ask for it and then I would show him what was left and he would whine a little and tell me "broken". I did not give him a nap (but he is phasing those out anyway :0( so I waited for the worst to come at night and ..... to our amazing SHOCK there were no tears, whining, or anything. He asked for it a couple times and we didn't answer him and then he slept threw the night (except for one wake up and then I just put him back and he was fine) We are on day 3 and things are still good. Tonight he asked again for it and he answered his own question with "binkie broken" and a little whimpering. WOW right?

I think it is one of those things that I was anticipating weeks of no sleep and trying to console him, ect. and I am so pleasantly suprised that I was prepared for the worst and got the BEST possible outcome! S we are so proud of you!

The downside to this is the no naps now everyday for him and I am struggling without my two hour lunch, movie, computer, reading break. I really feel "full time" now more than ever, but S goes to bed now without a peep so there are positives. K is now down to one nap that is usually 2 1/2- 4 hours! So that is nice too!

Other fun things about S is that he got to go to his first college football game with A a couple weeks ago! He had a lot of fun and loves to talk about the football game and play with A's old stuffed football. He now sleeps with it too! He is super cute about it! Our little 2 1/2 year old is really growing up! :0)

Wedding!

On Sept. 25 my step-sister got married. She looked so happy and beautiful! It was truly a lovely wedding and reception. Fun was had by all in my family! So now I am not the only married one on my side of the family! Here are some fun pictures to enjoy!

Happy 1st Birthday K!

I can't believe that K is one! His birthday was yesterday but we celebrated with a family party on Saturday. It was super fun to have all my siblings there! Here are some party highlights:














A picture with his Grandpa W


He had a GREAT first birthday! I totally think he got the present thing down better than S did. As soon as he saw each present, he smiled really big, like he knew they were for him. He LOVED the cake that my sweet A made (he has a lot of fun with their birthday cakes) He cried when we finally took it away from him.

Some of his one year highlights include:

loves to climb stairs
eating lots of different things pretty well
likes to hang out in the toy bucket with or without toys in it
loves to crawl in tight difficult places to get him out of (under tables, behind chairs)
loves his big brother and tries his best to copy him
likes to clap his hands and wave
will try to tap beats with his hands to music (only if you do it with him)
wresting with S in his crib
screams for attention, or when he needs more food (not fun in the car :0(
will snuggle his head on your shoulder when tired

He is such a sweet little boy! We are so glad to have him in our family. It is amazing to me how he is sooooooo different from S in so many ways already. It just proves that everyone is unique in their own little quirks in personality. It's funny because I have two boys so I can't say that one thing one does is a gender specific trait. They truly are just their own little beings. Anyways here is a little picture tribute to K's first year. We love that little guy!