Snow Snow Snow

Isn't it pretty! I'll post more pictures from Timothy playing in it later...just wanted to give the "before" shot of the deck and backyard before he demolishes it! The ones below are from a couple days ago, we only had an inch or so then but we have about 4 or 5 inches now and we're supposed to get more this weekend! Hopefully it'll stick around for Christmas and then melt off really fast so Brandon and his dad can have a safe drive through Washington, Oregon, and northern California!!

Timothy Michael York

So I felt bad that I was giving regular monthly updates on Charlotte and not saying much about Timothy because so much is going on with him as well.

He is picking up on the fact that something is changing in our house and things are different and I can't leave a room for more than 10 seconds without hearing, "mommy...where are you?"

He has such an imagination and I love to hear him play with his toys. He mostly plays with his red and blue Lightning McQueen cars and sometimes Chick gets to play too and we usually hear, "hey Lightning you ok? yeah, I fly away. oh no, you hiding? you all better now?" or some variation of that conversation.

He LOVES Star Wars and we have to play "light sabers" almost every day. Today when we were playing he told me I was Darth Baber and he was Luke Skyburger. It was so hard to keep a straight face.

He sings all the time and I love to hear his little voice. Yesterday morning in church he was just singing along through the service and most of it didn't make sense, but was pretty good at the "holy holy holy" part. His two favorite songs right now are Take Me Out to the Ball Game and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town.

He talks almost non stop. On the way to the airport when we were coming home from visiting Brandon's family he was talking and talking and talking and talking so much I had a headache. At one point we passed a lake or something and there were a ton a birds and he said, "Look at all those birdies mommy, let's count them...one, four, three, five, six...".

He is learning his letters and can point out a T whenever he sees one. He always says, "T for Timothy" and he can now recognize M for Mommy and sometimes D for Daddy. He has a puzzle that has all the letters and it has a picture of something that starts with that letter, for instance, the G has a picture of grapes, but he thinks G is for Grammy so instead of saying, "G for Grammy or G for grapes" he says, "Grammy for grapes". It's too cute to correct right now!!

He also loves to do puzzles, he will sit for hours putting puzzles together. Brandon's parents got him some 12 piece puzzles for Christmas and he has to do them every day and of course, he doesn't want any help...did I mention he's incredibly independent and wants to do everything on his own? He's getting pretty good at the puzzles now though and it's nice that he doesn't get so frustrated with them.

He is very concerned with who everyone is...he tells me at least three times a day that I am mommy and he is Timothy Michael York. He has to go over to the Christmas tree every day and tell me which presents belong to him and then he points out everyone elses' presents as well.

He's a big boy. When I took him to the doctor a couple weeks ago he was 33.7 pounds and he's well over 3 1/2 feet tall. It's nice that he's so big (and freakishly strong) but it's hard to find pants long enough for him that also fit him in the waist. I guess I should just get used to that, I already have that problem myself!

He is such a sweet little boy and he loves to cuddle and snuggle and hug. I have to remind myself every day that he is only two years old and he's still my baby boy and I am going to hug him as much as I can while it lasts! Love you buddy!!

Merry Christmas!!

I finally got a video of Timothy singing and I wanted to share it, but blogger won't let me add it in yet...my friend Candice made this adorable tutu for Charlotte and I got some really cute pics of her in it by the Christmas tree...enjoy!!

What to Say?

Read this article http://www.newsweek.com/id/172653/page/1 and let me know what you think...I cried, I don't know how people can think this way and it's obvious that they know nothing about the Bible. What made me the most sad was one of the comments at the end that said how Christians are committing a sin by refusing to accept homosexuals and the writer of the comment can't wait to see us on Judgement Day when that sin is revealed. I just hope that God will have mercy and grace for these people and somehow someone will show them what the Bible and Christianity is really all about.

Holiday Stress

I get horrible tension headaches so for the past few days I haven't been able to turn my head because my neck and shoulders hurt so badly I can barely move...I have fifteen days left to pack up this house and I feel like I have a million things left to pack. We sold Brandon's car today so I am going to have to get up early and take him to work from now on if I need to use the car during the day (very relieved that we sold the car though). I only have one gift for Charlotte and two for Timothy for Christmas and I have to wait until next week when we get paid again to finish up shopping. Timothy has been strangely sick for the past few days and I don't know what's wrong with him and Charlotte has started coughing and I really hope she's not sick too. Yuck, stress stress stress...

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6

There was a Christmas song on the radio the other night and it was a song I had heard a million times but it was a different arrangement and they kept singing over and over again something about "falling asleep counting your blessings" and that one line has been stuck in my head since then...so here are my Christmas blessings to help me remember to not be stressed:

I am able to get my children what they want for Christmas
I am able to spend Christmas with my family and do all the traditions we've had as long as I can remember
I get to see my children smile and laugh everyday
My husband loves me and takes care of our family
My children have grandparents that spoil them rotten

I know that God is blessing my family everyday. I love Christmas, it's my absolute favorite holiday ever and even with all the stress in my life, I still smile every day when I see Timothy talking about Santa or dress Charlotte up in a pretty Christmas dress. I guess that's what this season is all about, right? Haha, I'm just hoping that next year I won't be moving at Christmas time...that will be a first for our kids! Anyway, I know this was a little random, but wanted to remember this time in our lives.

Thanksgiving Memories

Well I meant to blog about this sooner, but we've had a crazy week. We got back Saturday night and spent Sunday doing laundry and resting and then Monday I had to run some errands with the kids and then we drove up to Silverdale for Tyler's 10th birthday dinner...still can't believe he's really 10 years old...all day Monday, Timothy kept complaining that he had an owie in his mouth and he kept pointing to the same side of his mouth so Tuesday I took him to the dentist to make sure it wasn't a cavity and thankfully his teeth looked great.

Tuesday afternoon my mom came over and gave Charlotte her first real bottle!!!! We decided it might work best, since Charlotte was asleep when my mom got there, if she just went in and picked her up out of bed and started giving the bottle to her before she was really awake and it worked and she did wake up while she was taking it and drank a whole 3 ounces!! You can only imagine what a relief that was for me, and I think her new thumb sucking habit may have helped!!

Tuesday night I took Charlotte and we went out to dinner with some of my friends from Weyerhaeuser and Brandon stayed home with Timothy and when I got home he told me that Timothy had been limping...well he was still limping Wednesday morning when he woke up and wouldn't really walk on his left foot at all and cried whenever I touched it and he has this bruise on there that he's had for at least a month now so I called the pediatrician and she said they wanted to see him, so I took him in that afternoon and told them what had been going on, he had been running a 102 temp earlier that day as well but of course by the time I get him there at almost 4pm he's had a nap and the Motrin had kicked in so the fever was gone and he's walking around just fine so the doctor said he looked fine and not to worry...he did say if the bruise is still there next week and it's not healing that the will want to look at it again and possibly do a biopsy so please pray that it goes away between now and then!!

So this morning he woke up saying again that he had a owie in his mouth, but I think it's just a sore throat. Once he drank some water and Grammy bought him a smoothie at the mall he was just fine. So as you can tell, we've had a busy week. I haven't packed anything and I feel like I've wasted four days. Oh well. On to our Thanksgiving week in Texas...

We got there on Saturday and went straight from the airport to Cracker Barrel...yum, just what I needed after a flight with an almost three year old! Sunday we went to church and had lunch at Brandon's aunt's house, Monday we got to drive back over to Houston to see our best friends the Thompsons and their three girls. We had so much fun visiting with them (even though it felt like we were yelling over three little ones the whole day - oh wait, that's exactly what we were doing) and we're so excited that we're going to be living closer to them now. We've really missed them a lot. Tuesday we did some Christmas shopping and Wednesday the guys went fishing and we went to church. Thursday for Thanksgiving the whole family came over to Brandon's parent's house. There must have been about 30 people there, it was a big crowd, but it was a lot of fun. Friday we went to the mall and out to lunch and that night we let the kids decorate a gingerbread house and opened presents. It was a fun week and of course went by too fast.

Anyway, I would love to say more, but Timothy's crying and I think "quite time" is now over...here's pictures from last week...hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Pictures with the family

Timothy LOVED to ride the tractors!

Charlotte fell asleep rocking with Papa almost every night that we were there!

Playing with the Thompsons

Aren't they a cute little family?

Making the gingerbread house

I'm sure I don't remember what was so funny here...

Three Months Old

So we made it back from TX safe and now the marathon packing and Christmas shopping and all of that begins...but before all of that, I need to blog about Charlotte now that she is three months old. So here's what the little girl has been up to this past month!

I am three months old now and I'm so much fun to play with!

I found my thumb and I love it and it helps me fall asleep and makes me happy when I am sad.

I like to hold up my head so I can see everything and I get mad if I can't sit up.

I love mommy more than anything else and I sometimes get mad if she's not holding me.

I sleep through the night now that I've found my thumb and mommy and daddy think it's the best thing ever!

I love to look at my hands and feet and I'm almost sure I know how to use them.

I still hate my car seat, but I don't cry as badly about it now that I have my trusty thumb to get me through :)

I don't like to wear blue jeans and I become very happy when I'm just laying around in my diaper.

I love to smile and everyone thinks I look just like my daddy when I smile, I laugh out loud when things are really funny.