Christmas Morning

We were at Grandma and Grandpa McKee's for Christmas. It was a lot of fun.

Fun in the snow

Here are some pictures of our snow fall and playing in the snow on Christmas day.

Lauren can walk with assistance

Lauren loves standing and walking along the furniture. Tonight I gave her the little activity walker and she just took off. She walked all the way down the hallway from the living room, into the family room and right to daddy in the den. She was so proud of herself.

First Snow

We had our first snow of the season last night. It was not a lot, but it was enough to enjoy for a few minutes before getting too cold.

Our Gingerbread House

We built our first gingerbread house this weekend. It was quite messy, but it was fun. We had to build it twice since it collapsed the first time. I guess I need a little training in home architecture and cake decorating.

Santa came to the kids concert

At the end of the kids Christmas concert, Santa came to say hi to the kids and give them a treat. Each of the kids had a chance to sit on his lap.





I was surpised at how well Lauren actually sat on Santa's lap. She wasn't happy, but she didn't freak out either like I thought she would.

When she had to share Santa's lap with her brothers she was not quite as happy.
Actually, this is what I expected when I put her on Santa's lap because this is what she does when anyone other then mommy, daddy, or her favorite daycare teachers hold her.

Colin enjoying his candy from Santa.

Christmas Concert

The boys participated in a Christmas concert through their daycare. Colin was so excited to sing for us and kept saying he was going to sing loud. I was really looking forward to watching him perform, but I didn't really know he was going to perform so well with so much energy.

Here is a video clip of just a small part of his performance:

And here are a few pictures from the performance:

Colin and Charlie singing out.

Jordan in the back row

Colin and Charlie wearing their sheep ears.

This morning as we were getting in the car, Colin said that he wanted to sing again tonight. He asked if I was going to come tonight so they could do the concert again. He was a little bit sad that the concert was over and he only got to do it once. He must have really enjoyed himself.

Reflecting on last year...

Just one month after the boys started going to this daycare they had their annual Christmas concert. You can see that 1 year ago in the concert, Colin was not nearly as excited to be participating. For most of the concert he sat staring at all the people, but then broke out into a full cry in the middle. It was hard for us to watch him be so upset, but now I look back and just kind of chuckle because his performance last year compared to this year are like night and day.

Swimming Lessons

The boys have continued to take swimming lessons and they are on their 4th round. Colin is in the second class and Jordan is in the third class. I have been amazed at how much they have both progressed in being comfortable in the water, especially Jordan. Here are some videos of the boys doing their thing.

I just wanted a simple picture...

Sometimes just getting a picture in our house can be a challenge. Well, I wrote about Jordan's lost tooth last week, but now that I finally got our new camera I can document the milestone with a picture...or maybe I should say five pictures of my silly boy.

And finally, I got him to sit up and give me a nice smile.

In the mind of a 3 year old...

When our kids are babies we are always wondering what is going through their mind. Then they begin to talk and we can get a feeling for how they think. I just love hearing some of the things they come up with and talk about. Sometimes I wonder where it comes from, but they never cease to amaze me with the thoughts they share.

So this morning Colin came into our room, jumped up on our bed and began to talk...
"I'm going to sit criss-cross applesauce.
See, I'm sitting criss-cross applesauce.
At school when we sit on the rug my teacher says to sit with our legs criss-cross applesauce.
At church we don't sit criss-cross applesauce.
We sit on chairs.We can't sit criss-cross applesauce on chairs."

One more Halloween picture...

Tim and I went to a Halloween party on Nov 1. We went as Mario and Toad from Super Mario Brothers. I made the costumes and had fun doing it. The party was fun too. The food included deviled egg eyeballs, string cheese fingers, tortilla pumpkins, lil smokies toes, mummy pizza, etc.

Backseat Driver

A few weeks ago I switched Jordan's booster seat and Colin's carseat in the van. Jordan is now sitting in the way back and Colin sits up with Lauren. It is nice because it is easier to buckle Colin up now and I can actually hear him when he is talking. However, I have seen a new side of him since he changed places.

We were on our way to the store two weekends ago and Colin started questioning me about how the car goes. I explained to him that there were pedals on the floor that I had to push to make the van start and stop. He found this quite fascinating and then all of a sudden said, "Mom put both your hands on the steering wheel." Wow, what good advice. Hopefully he can remember it when he starts driving.

It seems that whenever I am going anywhere now with Colin, he is making comments.

Here is some of the dialogue we have had on the way to swimming in the past week.
Colin: Mom why are you stopping?
Mom: Well, the light is red.
Colin: Mom, its taking too long. Go.
Mom: I can't go because the cars in front of me are stopped.
(Light turns green)
Colin: Go! The light is green.

Colin: Mom the light is red. Why did you turn?
Mom: When I need to make a right turn, I can turn on red. I just have to stop and make sure no cars are coming, then I can turn.
Colin: Mom, put both hands on the steering wheel.

Colin: (slight distraction as we were driving by the high school) Mom why are they playing football in the dark?
Colin: Mom go faster so you don't have to stop.
(Light turns red)
Colin: Its taking too long. Go.
Mom: I can't go the light is red.

Colin: Mom the light is green.
Mom: Yes Colin, the light is green.
Colin: Hurry up. Yeah we didn't have to stop.

Mom: Colin what should I do if the light is yellow?
Colin: Slow down.
Mom: :-)

Jordan's Lose Tooth

Jordan lost one of his top front teeth last week on Thursday night (11/6). He first showed me his loose tooth on Monday when I picked him up from daycare and by the time we got to the car he was crying (practically uncontrollably). I asked what his problem was and he said he didn't think another tooth would grow in when this one fell out. I told him not to worry about it, that there would eventually be another tooth that grows in. Then he continued to cry and said his tooth hurt. (I am sure it had nothing to do with the sucker he had just eaten in a matter of 3 minutes. He had probably bumped it while biting the sucker.) So by the time we got home he said he couldn't eat dinner. I told him he could have something soft and I suggested that he could start with some yogurt. Then he cried some more because he was worried it would fall out and he wouldn't be able to find it in the yogurt and he would swallow it. Then I mentioned that he had swimming and he continued to cry because he was worried he would lose it in the pool. I told him not to worry about it and everything would be alright. So moving to Friday morning...Jordan wakes up and comes into the bathroom where I am getting ready for work and he is crying. As soon as he opened his mouth I knew what the problem was. Jordan had lost his tooth. The problem was he lost it during the night and he didn't know where it was so of course he assumed he swallowed it. I tried to lighten the situation as Tim was searching his bed and covers to look for the tooth, but it was not found. I told Jordan not to worry because if he swallowed his tooth or we could not find it that mommy and daddy would talk to the tooth fairy and she would still come. That helped him feel a little better, but I think he was still pretty nervous that he had swallowed his tooth. The good news is when I searched his bed later and lifted up his mattress, I found his tooth. Jordan was so happy when I told him.

My newest hobby

Well it is not a new hobby as I have been doing it for about 5 months, but it is so fun...

I love making hair bows/clips. You could say that Lauren has been my inspiration so I created a store at http://babyldesigns.etsy.com/ where I can sell some of them since I have more then Lauren could ever wear. I haven't listed too many, but I plan to list a few more in the next few weeks...(once I have a new camera to take pictures since Jordan broke our camera this past weekend.) I do have to admit that Lauren has something to match nearly every outfit and she is almost always wearing a clip or bow in her hair. I have also used them for baby shower gifts and I sold some to the daycare teachers of the kids. Here are a few samples:

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. The boys were red dragons and Lauren was a beautiful butterfly. We went trunk-or-treating in the church parking lot and then I took the boys to several houses in the neighborhood while Tim gave Lauren a bottle and put her to bed. She was so tired. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was nearly perfect for Halloween night...not too cold or wet even though it had rained a good part of the day.
I guess Jordan decided he wanted to be darth vader dragon for this picture.

Jordan

Colin

Lauren

Colin and Lauren

Our pumpkins have been carved!

On Saturday we carved our pumpkins. It was fun for all of us and we have some mighty fine looking pumpkins if I do say so myself. Of course I forgot to get the camera out while we were carving, but I got the final product.

And here they are:


While we carved the pumpkins, I had the boys remove their tops so we would not get them dirty/stained (especially since Colin started with coloring his pumpkin with permanent markers and I learned last year that permanent marker will always get on the clothes no matter how careful you are). So when we went outside we told the boys they had to get dressed and this is what we got...Colin wearing the hat from daddy's Halloween costume and Jordan wearing two masks (just like the two faces he put on his pumpkin), a shirt that was inside out and daddy's sandals.

Jordan was kind enough to take a picture of us with our pumpkin too.

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch with Grandpa and Grandma this weekend. We couldn't have asked for a better day to pick out pumpkins. It was sunny and not too cold.


Here's Daddy Goat, Lauren Sheep, Jordan Horse, Grandpa Cow and Colin Pig. Driving the tractor.
The hayride down to the pumpkin patch was a little of fun. The scowl on Jordan's face was because he didn't want his picture taken. Lauren had lots of fun on the ride.
In the pumpkin patch.
It didn't take long before Lauren fell asleep.
Colin got tired walking through the pumpkin patch so he decided to sit down and rest.

In the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins.

Lauren woke up from her nap so we had to get more pumpkin pictures.

And finally, all the kiddos together.

We had a lot of fun at the pumpkin patch and can't wait to carve our pumpkins.