Random Dec.

W likes to wear things on his head, whether it be hats, his sisters undies, or head bands.

The boys are learning to feed themselves with a spoon. How do you think W is doing? (I think the saying on the bib is very fitting here)

Here is how I entertain the kiddos while I get ready for church on days that Erik has to work - apple juice and a cartoon.

We stopped by Barnes and Noble to get a couple of books for J to give her school teachers for Christmas and they just happened to be having story time so we stopped and listened.

They were also passing out candy canes so the boys enjoyed a treat with their story.

The kids got to see Santa at our ward Christmas party. It was themed a night in Bethlehem and the kids put on a production of the nativity. J was a sheep (thus the all black), somehow I didn't end up with any pictures of her in full costume, I'll have to see if I can find one.

Here are the boys, W (in white) isn't sure what to think of Santa and C (in grey) is fascinated with his gloves.

I'd put a package of graham crackers on the table in the hallway because I was going to take it out to the diaper bag. Later when I went to get it again, it looked like this. The boys had gotten to it and decided that they wanted some crackers so they started to chew the package open.

Here is J being. . . well, she's being J.

I was going through the shoe basket looking for a pair of shoes and found all of this instead. Looks like we have some pack rats on our hands.

Here are the boys enjoying some crackers and their pretty necklaces. (W has the firetruck on his shirt and C has the monkey)

Last spring we planted cilantro in our garden, when the summer heat came it quickly went to seed. Now that it has started to cool down, we have cilantro growing not only in the garden but all over the grass as well.

Christmas

This year we really tried to simplify Christmas and focus more on the birth of Christ than on the gift giving - not that you could tell by the looks of our tree. (don't you just love the black garbage bag?) In reality I think we did pretty good. Santa got the kids 1 big gift and a few things in their stockings and then we got them each a smaller gift and their Christmas jammies. Erik got me a new bread machine and a bike trailer so I can pull the boys while J and I go on bike rides. Erik got a new shotgun for work.


Here are the boys' stockings and their Santa gift - the little people zoo. Santa made a BIG mistake and got the boys squeaky dog toys. (he cussed himself all morning long)


Santa was sneaky and hid J's big present under some blankets so she couldn't sneak a peek.
Here is the excited girl in her new Christmas jammies. Her doll got matching jammies for Christmas. She was excited about the new Barbie movies in her stocking.
The unveiling of her gift.Santa got her a "Loving Family" doll house - BEST GIFT EVER. She has played with it every day.

Here are the boys enjoying their morning bottle (I finally weaned the boys earlier this month).

The boys in their camo Christmas jammies and their morning milk. (C is sitting up and W is laying down).

After opening gifts we were able to spend some time at church and then went to Erik's parent's house were most of his siblings and their kids had gathered for Christmas dinner. The boys loved being held and J loved playing with her cousins (the closest ones live 3 hrs away so she doesn't get to see them very often). Over all it was an enjoyable Christmas.

December Projects

Since December tends to be a busy month anyway, we kept the projects/crafts to a minimum this month. In fact, we only did one. We bought some wood light switch plates from the local home improvement store. We then filled one of the screw holes with putty, primed them white and then let J go to town with her paints. Inside each plate we glued one of the kids' Christmas pictures and put a ribbon through the remaining hole to make Christmas ornaments for part of the Grandparents' Christmas presents.


I also got a set for myself which I spray painted a barn red color to match our tree/home decor. I also wrote the kid's names on the bottom of each of my ornaments.

Goose Eggs

Remember that mishap I told you about? Well, C was trying to climb onto the bench we have at our kitchen table and slipped and hit his head. This is the initial picture that I took and sent to Erik right after it happened.



About an hour later it looked like this.

And the next morning like this.

Sad thing is, this isn't the first time he's done this. Here is one from October where he slipped in the tub.

And November when he fell out of a cupboard in the kitchen.

And all of them are in the same spot, poor kid. Fortunately, it's never been anything serious and after he calms down he acts like nothing has happened. In fact, the pictures in the previous post where he's climbed onto the table were taken not long after this most recent bump.

Climber

I have a climber on my hands, funny thing is that he can climb up just about anything, but he's not walking yet. Here is C showing off his climbing abilities.

On J's stool in the bathroom.

On top of the table in the playroom.

He pushed all the chairs down after he was on the table and then he was stuck. To prevent this from happening again, the table was moved downstairs to the office.

Christmas Pictures

We took the kids to see Santa at the mall (Erik knows this Santa and the kids seem to like him as well). This year instead of just getting a picture of the kids with Santa we got one of the whole family. The package we bought let us get 3 poses so we also got one of all 3 kids and then one of just J - a little something to make her feel extra special. These are the best 3 we got (don't mind C's tongue he likes to stick it out). [ C is in the brown/red sweater and W is in the tan/brown/red one]

Since we had a little extra time with Daddy before Santa would be at the mall, we went to the local bagel shop (a favorite of ours) and got some breakfast and then we went to a park right behind it where we were going to attempt to get individual pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, the grass was wet so we didn't dare let the boys out of the stroller so I attempted to get some of them while sitting down.

I couldn't get W to look at me and smile at the same time so this is the one we went with.

J kept wanting to do silly poses and faces, but I got a cute one with half a smile here.

C was the most cooperative. I want you to take a note of his nice clear forehead - he had a big mishap later that afternoon (post coming soon).

Preschool Advent Program

Every year, J's preschool does a Christmas Advent program where the kids sing a few Christmas songs that they learned at school. Erik's parents were able to go with us this year. Here is C with Mimi.

Once J got up on the stage she didn't remember where we were sitting and kept looking for us.

Once she found us she was all smiles.

I got to enjoy the program from the back of the room because W didn't want to sit still.

Random Nov

November brought more warm weather and more playing outside in the sandbox. Here is C chewing on the hose to a ball pump that J thought would make a fun sand toy (we finally had to tell her to stop taking things from inside to the sandbox after over half of my Tupperware was discovered to be missing and later found full of sand - she told us that she'd been baking pies).

W enjoys playing on the park.

W likes to curl his toes under the tray of his highchair while eating. 

J thought it would be fun to play dress ups with her brothers, W sure doesn't seem to mind, doesn't he look cute in a skirt?

C was trying to get a toy out of the papasan stool in the playroom and got stuck.  W has done this on occasion as well.  The stool was finally put away in the storage room - not only because of this, but also because C decided it would be fun to roll it down the stairs.

Here is C trying to get onto Mommy's lap (notice the red spot on his forehead - he bumped it while trying to get out of the cupboard)

W emptied all the stuffed animals out of the cupboard and decided to climb in himself. 

Along with turning 1 comes switching from formula to regular milk, and for us that also meant major stomach issues (apparently the boys haven't outgrown their milk allergies) and C got a major diaper rash.  To give his bum a chance to air out we wrapped it in a towel.  Fortunately, once we switched them to soy milk the issue calmed down.