This & That

 We're anything but organized right now, so here's just some random stuff.

All of our kids are growing like crazy.

Her hair is...a mess.  The bottom half is super curly and the top is a floppy wave.  Thus, the curlers on top.

 Our shy little Erin went through a total transformation when she turned 2.  By the picture above, you may think it was for the worst, but that's not really the case.  She won't go running to a stranger or anything, but she's much more social and even starting going to nursery by herself!  She also talks...all the time.   She likes to "mommy" all of us.  When it's time to eat, she gets after Ben if he doesn't come right to the table.  If someone doesn't have a drink, she tells me to get them one.  If you finish your food, she asks if you need more.  It's pretty darn cute.  We were worried she would think Noah was her baby and maul him, but usually she tells me what to do for him and does the same for her baby doll.  She's so entertaining to watch and listen to.  I love this girl.  Oh, and she'll eat just about anything!  She loves all meat & fruit and begs for things like salsa and pickles.  Last night she had to dip her sandwich in spicy brown mustard!

 

And then there's Ben.  This kid lives in a land of imagination, sometimes it's hard to get him to focus back here in reality.  He's recently taken an intense interest in coloring . Above is his rendition of a T-Rex.  I don't know that he has any exceptional talent, it's just interesting to watch, considering he'd barely spend 2 minutes with a crayon 6 months ago. He also loves to write letters and is trying to sound out words. It's been fascinating to watch this stage of rapid development.  Ben is also a GREAT big brother. He loves to teach Erin how to do things and puts up with her wrecking his Lego creations with a laugh. Whenever Noah fusses Ben comes to ask me what he needs.  Love you Ben!

We've decided that the term "starving artist" comes from the fact that the artist is too busy creating to worry about silly things... like food!

 A mom always worries how her child(ren) are going to adjust to the big change of adding a new member to the family.  I'm still amazed at the fact that it hardly seemed to phase these two.  They love their brother, but aren't overly concerned.  They don't seem to get jealous when I'm holding or feeding him.  I couldn't have asked for a better outcome. I'm one lucky mommy!

Classic Erin attitude face. I'm noticing a pattern of curled hair=attitude!

Sweet kisses for Noah!

Random pics of Noah

 

 

1 month birthday!

I'm posting all 3 kids around the same age to try and figure out the age old question of who Noah looks like.  I should find baby pics of Brandon and I, but this will have to do for now.  We see a lot of Ben in him, but they all seem to have their own look to them.

Erin (obviously)

Noah

Ben

 

And lastly, a shot with my traditional ice cream birthday cake.  It was so good.  To celebrate the day, I got out of the house...and went to primary.

More Noah

As promised, here are more pictures of our new little guy. This probably goes without saying, but please ignore my post labor beauty!

Our favorite day- Go Home Day! This was the first time we got to leave after only 1 day.
Another one of my husband's many hidden talents- newborn photography! One of these days I'll have to get him a camera worthy of his skills.
A little treat from Papa...mmmmmmmm.
I've got to leave it short and sweet for now, but I'll post more on ALL of the kids soon.

Introducing...

More pictures and details coming soon!

Crunch Time

With Baby Noah threatening to come very soon, we've starting getting ready for him. It's such a different experience getting ready for #3 than it was for #1, mostly because of the extra helpers. It's all great fun and I think we're basically ready. Now let's hope Ben and Erin can adjust to sharing a room and start sleeping before the baby comes!

I've been really bad about getting any belly shots this time. Here we are at 34 weeks.

We're still doing a neighborhood preschool with Ben. This month we got to take a fieldtrip back to the Bean Museum. The kids always love this place!

It was basically impossible to get a shot of our full group, plus a few siblings, so here are some partial group shots.

Getting current

Yes, it's been almost 3 months since I updated our blog! Tisk, tisk. I thought about just starting where we're at and keeping current, but I really wanted to go back and catch up for my own records. So, I just posted a little bit from each of the last 3 months. Now, hopefully I can move forward with CURRENT happenings!

December

Let the festivities begin! December is such a fun month anyway, but we get to add Erin and Brandon's birthdays to the fun.

First is Erin's birthday. Unfortunately, both kids were sick the entire week of her birthday. So, we just had Nana & Papa come down for dinner to celebrate with us.

Next, we had 'Breakfast with Santa' at Papa's work. We had pancakes & cocoa, then the kids got to decorate stockings and cookies. They also had a chance to visit with Santa and get a yummy Mrs. Fields treat bag. Our kids weren't too fond of this part, as you can see. Erin at least shook his hand. Ben stood behind me and whispered to me what he wanted me to tell Santa.

Random shot: I borrowed a cape my friend made to use as a pattern to make my kids some. Apparently Ben and Brandon found it and voila, a forever embarrassing shot of Ben in his unders & a cape. Classic.

Then there was the snow...

Lots of snow!!!

This was the first day of Brandon's 2 week vacation from work and we were SO glad he didn't have to go anywhere.

Brandon really wanted to build a fort with the kids after he shoveled, but he ended up spending much of the morning helping neighbors that got stuck on our road. So, I tried to improvise and make them a little cave out of a snow heap.

Erin and I went in to start lunch while Brandon & Ben put together a snowman for us.

These are the cute jammies my parents gave the kids as per tradition. They were so excited about them. Erin thought they were clothes and was begging me to let her sleep in them, which of course I did. I think they wore them most of the next day too.

(Insert pictures of Brandon's birthday here.) I didn't think to take pictures. We just had fun at home as a family. We only gave him a couple of small things since he was putting his birthday budget towards a new computer with 23" dual monitors for Christmas.


Christmas Morning...

This was the best Christmas yet! It was so great to have the kids understand and be SO excited. They loved everything they got and were even pretty good about sharing.

Notice the little black box behind Erin's head? That was my sweet Christmas treat: a laptop! Now maybe I can keep this blog updated!

My parents came down to watch them open presents and brought cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It was great.

A few hours later we met everyone at my parents house. Let the excitement continue!

It was truly a great Christmas. I'm grateful that we were able to see so much family, but we really missed those we weren't able to see this year. Thanks to everyone for your kindness and gifts. Our family was so spoiled! We love you all.