Choosing Our Tree

We went to a Christmas tree farm this year to choose our tree for the very first time. In the past we've just bought our tree from Lowe's but this was much more fun! We went during nap time so not everyone was cooperative when it came to picture taking, but I expected that. Jack chose the perfect tree (and the cheapest of the ones we let him pick from) and he was so excited about it!

Measuring the tree.

Standing beside "his" tree.

The middle tree is the one we ended up getting.

Miss Hollywood

This is the tree Anna wanted, but then she forgot which one it was, so she wasn't too upset when we actually bought Jack's tree.

He loved measuring the trees . . . and bopping his sister on the head with the long pole!

Sweet Sam

Watching the guys shake our new Christmas tree to death! It got all of the dead needles out of it - Lowe's should really invest in this contraption!

Loaded up and ready to take our tree home.

Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to spend time with my mom's side of the family. What a blessing! We didn't take many pictures, but here is one of us with Granny, Grandy, & Granddaddy. There are four generations here.

Sam at Six Months

My baby was six months old yesterday. Now that I have the blog, I love being able to go back and see what the others were doing at different ages, so here's the summary on Sam:


- He is generally a very happy baby. He has a huge, open mouth grin that I absolutely love!
- No teeth yet, but he's been drooling buckets for months now.
- He nurses 4 times a day (every 4 hours or so) and eats 3 meals of baby food.
- His favorites seem to be applesauce, pears, and peas. Yes, I have a baby who loves peas - I'm pretty surprised. He hates green beans, though (completely opposite from the other two).
- Will drink water out of a sippy cup, but only if you tilt it back for him.
- Sometimes he sleeps straight through the night (8pm - 7:00/7:30am).
- Sometimes he cries during the night and once I give him his paci he goes right back to sleep. This can happen multiple times throughout the night.
- Sometimes the paci doesn't do the trick and I just end up feeding him so we can both go back to sleep! This usually happens around 5:00-ish.
- Some days he only naps an hour at a time, but will take 3 naps. If his first nap gets cut short, or if we're out an about, then he usually only takes 2 naps a day, but will sleep 2-3 hours in the afternoon (I prefer it this way, because then all 3 kids are napping at the same time - woo hoo!).
- He's had the croup and a double ear infection that we're now on round two of antibiotics for. I'm praying once the ears get cleared up he will go back to sleeping straight through the night.
- Weighed 19 lbs, 6 ounces last time we went to the doctor!
- Big boy LOVES his siblings. They can make him laugh the hardest and are generally pretty good with him.
- His face lights up when we read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" so I will consider that his favorite book for now.

We sure do love our big boy!

Silly Sleepers

Two perfectly good beds . . .

and these silly kids have slept like this . . .

for the past SEVEN days!

That would include both naps and night time sleeping.

My kids are weird!

Pony Rides & Crazy Slides

Our friend, Emma, had a crazy fun birthday party today! She had the party at a stable and all the kids got to enjoy pony rides and play on the wonderful playground. The whole way there, Anna was excited about riding the ponies, but the second she saw them she changed her mind. Jack, on the other hand, couldn't wait to go for a ride. He loved it!

She's saying "I no want to ride ponies!"

Loving it!

Watching from a safe distance behind the fence.

After the pony rides, they had a blast checking out all the different slides on the playground.

This one was everyone's favorite . . .

because it made your hair look like this.

After they announced for the last pony ride, Anna decided she was brave enough to go for a ride and begged to have a turn. The nice girls made a special stop so she could have a chance to ride the pony.

She's concentrating so very hard on holding onto the reigns!

After cake and presents, the kids had to have another go at the fun slide.

Ryan was Jack's BFF today. He called her name at least 100 times and was never far from her side.

We had a great time at the party!
Oh, and Sam was there, too. He did a lot of this:

Jack-in-the-Box

The kids were playing with our various jack-in-the-boxes this morning and having such a good time I had to take some pictures.

I just love Sam's expression here.

The Happy Sitter

Our baby boy is sitting up - for the most part. I wouldn't walk away for an incredibly long time and expect him to still be in a sitting position when I got back, but he's getting better at it every day.

Sitting and playing with his Leapfrog Learn and Groove Table - we love this thing!

Thinking about smiling . . . .

There's my happy boy!

And sometimes he falls over . . . .

but he's usually not too upset over his tumble.

Then he gets back up . . . .

and gets happy again.

Oh, and if you think Sam's shirt looks familiar, check out who was wearing it in September 2007. Here's a little tidbit for you: Jack is 17 months in this picture, while Sam is 5 months. This is the exact same shirt - size 18 months!!