Christmas 2011

This year was so much fun, Charlotte and Timothy were both so excited for Christmas and we had a blast with them.  We actually had a decent night's sleep on Christmas Eve and out of the 8 adults and one teenager (still scary to think that about Tyler) that were at my parents' house Christmas morning, it was Timothy and Charlotte and Caroline that were still sleeping and had to be woken up to go open presents!  Timothy was super excited but it took Charlotte a little longer to wake up.  Once she did though, every present was a huge deal and she was so excited.  Caroline played a bit and snuggled a bit, the first Christmas is always sweet but tiring, she only wanted to be held so we were thankful to have plenty of aunts and uncles and Tyler and Grammy around to help out!  We're excited to celebrate New Year's Eve this year with our Young Adults group at church and hoping the new year brings us more opportunities to bless those around us. 

Rolling out cookie dough to make Christmas cookies, such concentration!

Decorating the cookies...I think he went through a whole tube of frosting and a whole thing of sprinkles on just one cookie...Santa needed some help eating all of that sugar!

Leaving cookies by the fireplace for Santa

And leaving reindeer food on the lawn for the reindeer

One last picture before bedtime :)

All of the "kids" posing on the stairs before opening presents, we wait there while Grammy and Grumpy go "check" and make sure Santa came :)

Charlotte playing with her legos ("wegos") in her princess tent

Caroline pushing around her new walker

And Timothy having a bounce on his trampoline, he told me wanted to ask Santa for a trampoline so we had to have a talk about how Santa knew we didn't have a yard big enough for an outdoor trampoline and Timothy said that a little on to jump on inside would be OK...thank goodness :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

Holiday Fun

We've been so busy this month that it's been hard to find time to actually sit down and write out a post about it all.  Some of the fun things we've done are...breakfast with Santa at church.  This is the second year we've done this, last year we had about 30 people and we more than doubled that this year!  The kids love it!  The day after that we went with the family to go ice skating in Tacoma.  Timothy loved it, as usual, and I thought Charlotte would be fussy and scream bloody murder as soon as I tried to put skates on her, but she actually loved it (as long as neither Brandon or I held her hands)!  Since then, we've enjoyed having Timothy home every day on his winter break and baking like crazy!  Brandon and I are going out tonight and then we'll head over to my parents' house tomorrow for Christmas!!  Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!!!

Ten Months Old

I don't know about anyone else, but I am super impressed that I'm writing about this before Christmas!  Anyway, Caroline turned 10 months old on Tuesday and I actually took her picture today...I thought I'd capture her straight from her bath, all warm and fuzzy in her jammies :)  So at ten months old...

She has two teeth and I think she might be working on some more.  She drools a lot and she chews on everything!  She can pick up food now and get it into her mouth so she plays with puffs and little pieces of bread a lot.  She loves yogurt more than anything else in the whole wide world!

She learned how to dance and her favorite song is Jingle Bells.  She also like Party Rock Anthem, but I didn't really want to admit that.  Brandon has it on his phone so she likes to hold onto that and dance with it.  She gets really excited.

She still loves to clap and she's figured out how to wave.  Sometimes it sound like she says, "hi".  She mostly says "mama" and "dada" and other baby talk babble.

She's much more steady on her feet now and can pull up on anything.  She tries to be brave and let go but hasn't quite figured out how to stand up on her own yet. 

She's sleeping like a champ, we usually get two 2-3 hour naps during the day and she sleeps around 12 hours at night.  She's only nursing 4-5 times a day now which makes me a little sad since she's the last one, but on the other hand, I'm getting ready to be done with that too!

She's staying with her first official teenage babysitters tomorrow night, so hopefully she'll do well!  Brandon and I are very excited for our date night!

She's still such a sweet happy girl and the only time she really gets loud or upset is when she's in her high chair and we don't feed her fast enough!  I can't believe the next monthly update post will be in 2012 and she'll be a month away from her first birthday...I'm avoiding thinking about that right now!

Nine Month Stats

I wanted to wait and do her whole nine month post after her check up, but I think we can all agree that I'm not the best at remembering to post her monthly updates in a timely fashion so since I had free time and had taken her picture, I posted her update before her check up...so here are her stats from her nine month check up:  28 3/4 inches tall (90th percentile) and 18lbs 14 oz (50th percentile).  So far she's the smallest baby we've had, compared to her brother and sister at the same age.  She's still mostly in 12 month clothes unless it's a one piece thing and then I have to do 18 months for the length but roll the sleeves because they're too long.  She definitely has the tiniest feet compared to her brother and sister.  She's still only in a size 3 shoe and I know by 9 months old, Charlotte was at least in a 4 or larger.  Anyway, obviously we love her just the way she is, it's just fun to compare how they all measure up with each other :)  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

Nine Months Old

How have we already gotten to nine months!  I can't believe it's almost time to start thinking about her first birthday party!  Anyway, here is what she has been up to this past month...

I can crawl really fast now and once I pull up on something I can walk around holding onto the couch or whatever else I can reach...sometimes I try to get brave and let go but I can't quite stand up all by myself yet :)

I finally cut my first tooth and I think the one next to it is coming it too...I've been a little fussy but not too bad!

I still like to eat pretty much anything and I am trying really hard to figure out how to get food into my mouth by myself.  I love to eat bananas, pears, peaches and puffs...and sometimes I like peas. 

I still love to give big sloppy kisses, especially to my mommy and my brother.

I can say "mama" really well now and I say it all the time when I'm hungry or tired or sad.  I also say "dada" and "baba" sometimes.

I'm usually pretty quiet, but whenever I get in my highchair I love to YELL!

I'm sleeping better at night now, almost always all the way through the night now!

I do not like puppies, I found that out this weekend, they are new and scary and they make me cry!  But I do love my cousin Tyler, he makes me laugh!



I'm still a cuddly, laid back, happy baby and everyone loves me :)

The Sillies

So I have to share a couple of special stories before I forget about them...

First...Charlotte...oh this girl.  Thankfully she's coming out of her extreme separation anxiety issues, but a few weeks ago we were riding in the car and I mentioned something about church.  Usually, to get her excited about going to class we sing a little song, "I like to go to class, I like to go to class, with all the other boys and girls, I like to go to class", but since she was being stubborn and not wanting to go Bible class, she changed the words and sang, "I not gonna go to class, I not gonna go to class, I not gonna see Miss Nan or Joyce (her teachers), I not gonna go to class"!  What a little stinker!  Again, thankfully she's mostly gotten over all of that, but I thought her new song was too cute not to share!

Then Timothy, he cracks me up...we were driving around running errands, just me a him (which doesn't happen too often) and I made a wrong turn and had to turn around.  I wasn't upset or anything, just had to turn around and he said, "When I grow up and be's a daddy (we're still working on grammar, work in progress), I'm not going to make wrong turns and go the wrong way"...and he paused for a moment..."but if I do, I won't get angry and yell, cause you know, not in front of the kids".  That boy keeps me laughing!

I hear the funniest things from those two when we're in the car...usually it's them singing at the top of their lungs (to the Glee soundtrack, they know it all), but they definitely make me smile!

Eight Months Old

Well as usual, I'm late posting this...and I was late taking her picture...I thought about it around the 20th and planned out when to take it and then life got in the way and I forgot...so here is what Caroline has been up to lately!

She went from learning to crawl to crawling fast and pulling up on everything in sight. Nothing is safe anymore, we even had to break out the baby gates to block off the hallway leading to the stairs. She is still usually so happy all the time, it's pretty rare that she gets fussy and if she does it's almost always because she's tired or hungry (or both!) so she's easy to calm down. She is very attached to her blankie and her thumb and she's been sleeping great lately, she usually goes down around 8pm and wakes up around 5am and then goes right back down for another few hours, not too bad at all!! She loves to eat, especially yogurt! She still doesn't have any teeth but she chews on everything she can get into her mouth! She loves to give big sloppy kisses, especially to Timothy! She's wearing mostly 12 month clothes and some 18 month stuff that was Charlotte's and shrunk from being washed, she wears a size 3 shoe. She doesn't have much hair, but what she does have sticks up like a mohawk and it is so blonde!! She loves to babble now and we hear a lot of"dadadada" but I only hear "mama" when she's hungry. She gives great high fives. She loves to be in Bible class and will usually go to anyone that wants to hold her. She's such a sweet laid back girl, I hope it lasts!!