First Look at December 2009 Snow

Here is some shots from our snow fall last night.... will post more later, when there is more snow...

Photo Shoot

So I'm realizing that one of the difficult things about having three kids is trying to get a good picture...of all three kids...at the same time. We've been having "photo shoots" at home to get a picture for Christmas cards.

This was from a couple days ago. I love Elizabeth and Josiah in this one, but Isaac is looking somewhere else.

Good one of Elizabeth and pretty good of Isaac, but Josiah is cheesing.

True confession: I was totally going to photoshop the pictures together like this:

But I felt like it was dishonest. AND I don't actually have Photoshop. AND my talent and time are limited, so it wasn't looking quite right. We did get a few good pictures out of the evening, though.

A cute one of Elizabeth and Josiah

David took this one of Elizabeth!

We ended up trying another time tonight and ended up with a fun shot of the three kids. I'll post it later, though, so it can be a surprise in Christmas cards. I've already sent it to the printer, so we may be walking down to get photos in a foot of snow tomorrow. hehehe. Guess that means I actually need to send the cards out this year, huh?

Some Sounds of the Season

We have been very blessed that our children have really not had many cases of the "Give-mes". They will sometimes see things in a store and ask if they can have them, but they really don't dwell on things they want. When people have asked what they want for Christmas, they don't even know what to say. Elizabeth finally said she wants a violin, but does not have anything else on her list.

However, last week we went into a store and I immediately heard, "We NEEEEEED That!" Josiah learned a new phrase...and applied it to almost everything we saw. If it were groceries or something, I would just tell him we already had it or we don't use it. If it was a toy, I would say, "You want that, you don't need it." He kept at it for a few days of errands.

Then, the other day I heard a new phrase. "Oh Mommy, I Loooove That." Guess he's trying a new tactic ;-) At least he doesn't just apply it to himself. We bought something for a friend, and he immediately said, "Oh she'll love that!"

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This morning Josiah was creating his own Christmas Smash-up song.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.
Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O-O with a moo moo moo and a moo moo moo
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.
Old MacDonald had a farm in a one horse open sleigh.

Love it!

Cat in the Hat

Elizabeth brought home The Cat in the Hat as her library book last week (Though I know we have it in the house somewhere.) But she has been so excited discovering she can read it pretty much on her own! Most of the words are her sight words, reinforcing the importance of learning them...yay! And the other words she can figure out if she focuses on the letters and chunks.

It was funny when she first started the book and read that the mother was not home. She was adamant that the children would NOT be home on their own. There must be another explanation. She decided that the mother left a big sister in charge, and the big sister was in the shower. She started reading the book a little bit at a time and took a few days off. So, almost a week after beginning the book, she finished today. Even though she hadn't mentioned it during the week, she brought up the big sister again. HA! I love her reasoning and imagination :-)

Six weeks

Isaac was six weeks old on Friday! Everyone keeps saying that he is bigger each time they see him. Some of his 0-3 month clothing is too small already. Much of it will be very soon. He's beginning to do lots new things, too.

He's finally discovering how to pacify himself with his thumb. It is a noisy prospect at first (slurp!), but then he gets it. The only problem is, weirdly enough, he is using his first finger and his thumb--just like Elizabeth did. We've seen the results of this and will be trying to curb it. I really don't mind him using his thumb by itself.

Yesterday, I got my first real smile from my sweet boy! So cute! It was a big open mouth smile. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it since. So I'm on a mission to get that smile out again...and to get a picture :-D

The night before last, while lying flat on our bed, Isaac rolled from his stomach to his back! Twice! It may just be that he was placed down with his arm in just the right position, but David and I are impressed anyway.

I keep telling this one he needs to slow down! He's growing too quickly!

SNOW!!!

It was an exciting day! Snow that stuck! And before Christmas!

The kids waited in eagerly to go out and play outside. We had to wait a bit as Daddy had some work to do. We probably waited a bit too long. The snow, though still falling, had started melting on the ground. But the kids still had fun!

Isaac had to go out in his first snow! He was definitely bundled up, and totally covered and toasty warm in his stroller.


Snowballs!

Love how you can only see his eyes :-)

Diego loves the snow! One of the downfalls of not having a real yard is we can't just send him out to play. We didn't want to let him off the leash and have to run down to SPCA to pick him up again.

My snow angels

I love these four!

Yes, I did take Isaac out of his stroller cocoon for the sake of a picture, sacrificing his nap and his warm little cheeks. He was only out for about three minutes. Yes, he did let us know he was less than thrilled about the disturbance...the whole way home. He was fine after coming inside, being de-mummified, and getting some warm milk in his belly. The rest of us were fine after curling up with some hot chocolate and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Thanksgiving Blessings

I'm coming to terms with the fact that our blog will never again be completely caught up. I do still want to use it to keep it up for our own records. But I know most of you really just come back for pictures, so I'll try to insert some throughout the text ;-)

I'm embarrassed to put this pic on the internet, but here it is anyway. :-p

Life has been busy. No surprise there! We have loved having visitors down here. We even had a weekend trip to Eastern PA to celebrate my grandparents' 50+ wedding anniversary! With all the busyness, it was a blessing to have our first ever Thanksgiving at home. We missed sharing the day with extended family, and of course all the yummy family recipes (my pumpkin swirl bread was not so swirly). But it was very nice to have a relaxing holiday at home. We slept in and prepared dinner when we were ready. I didn't even have to stress that the turkey didn't seem thawed. We just had steak instead. (We're finally cooking the huge turkey today, so if anyone has not had enough turkey leftover, stop on by!) It was a nice environment to reflect on all the blessing we have to be thankful for!

These are three of our greatest blessings!
And my husband is one of the greatest gifts I could ask for!

I actually got a picture with a good smile, so I HAD to post it ;-)

Elizabeth is growing into such a beautiful girl. Her sweet spirit constantly amazes me. We were pleased to hear her teacher's comments about her personality and behavior, but also about her academically! I don't put a whole lot of stock in Kindergarten testing, especially at the beginning of the year. It is still nice to hear that Elizabeth far exceeds the expected levels on every one of the tests they have done with her. She is so excited to be starting to read and loves learning. I hope she keeps her enjoyment of school. She is also quite the big sister! She loves holding Isaac and has been asking to change his diaper. She doesn't seem to mind that he cries. She has been getting more bossy since school has started, and I'm praying for wisdom to shape the bossy tendencies into strong leadership skills.

Getting ready to eat Thanksgiving dinner! No she did not eat the whole plateful.

Placing her first ornament of the year on the Christmas tree.

Josiah is just sprouting! He misses Elizabeth during the day, and is missing some of the special one-on-one time we had before Isaac arrived. But I am so impressed with how he is doing! He has not said anything any more negative about the baby than asking Grandma to "put that down" so they could play better. He is concerned for him, checks on him in the cradle or swing. He's also blossoming in learning. He sings his ABCs constantly, just mixing up a few of the letters. He's counting to 12 with a bit of reminding in the middle. He even surprised me by counting to six in Spanish the other day...something we haven't worked on with him. His imagination is just taking off! It's so fun to listen in when he and Elizabeth are playing together!

Such a handsome boy!

Placing his first ornament of the year on the tree

We are all blessed that Isaac has joined the family this year. I'm a bit surprised at how much we are all truly enjoying having a baby in the house :-) I do feel like I can't blink because he won't be a baby anymore! At his one month check-up last week, he weighed in at 10 lbs. 6 oz. (Up from 7lbs. 1 oz when he came home from the hospital!) and was measured at 22 3/4 inches long. We thought we were getting a quiet one in this one, but he is proving to be quite a communicator. He coos, grunts, squeals almost constantly...even while sleeping and eating. He spoils us with his head control and neck strength. He's obviously eating well and is starting to stretch out his feedings at night. There is usually one span of about 5 to six hours of solid sleep. He's going to be up and running with the others way too soon!

Just thought he was too cute in the overalls :-)

Strong man!

Happy Thanksgiving, a bit late! Thank you for all of the blessings each of you add to our lives!

Are you kidding me?

It's been four weeks already? REALLY????

Wow, yeah! Isaac is four weeks old! He is growing and changing every time I look at him. He is filling out quite nicely, and may actually be the first of our children to fit his pants. :-) We are constantly amazed at how strong and alert he is.

We are all doing well settling into our new family feel. We're just trying to keep up as the world goes zipping past, and trying to catch some sleep along the way.

Thankful for Small Moments

We've had a pretty good morning. It has been a little bit of an adjustment as we get used to our new normal with no extra help :-) Josiah has been having a bit of trouble listening this morning, partly attributed to something we call "grandparent detox" and partly because Isaac has been awake most of the morning and Josiah isn't getting the individual time he wanted with Mommy.

But we've had a couple of sweet moments this morning. Isaac started fussing a little while lying in his bassinet. Josiah ran over, climbed up on the couch so he could see him, and said, "Oh No! It's okay. Mommy coming!" It doesn't seem like much, but it's a definite step toward showing his brother affection. He didn't get frustrated, just tell me Isaac was crying, or even tell him to be quiet. He went directly to comfort his little brother.

I'm excited watching each of my children grow up and develop as people. But I'm really trying to enjoy the small moments that show who they are now.

**There will be more posts with updates and pics soon. This afternoon, though, the three kids and I are going to attempt to have fun at the park :-) **

My sweet girl

SOOO much to be thankful for right now, and always!!! Tonight I'm especially thankful for my sensitive, sweet daughter.

We had Elizabeth's first parent-teacher conference this evening. The teacher went on and on about how much of a joy Elizabeth is, and how she is such a good friend to all of the kids in the class. She gave the example that today they had a visit from a vet with a large dog. One of the boys was afraid, so he stayed off to the side. But when the vet let the kids listen to the dog's heartbeat, he wanted to join. Elizabeth went over and offered to hold his hand so he wouldn't be scared.

While we were discussing some other topics, she said that one day Elizabeth came back from Library, obviously agitated by something. The teacher couldn't remember exactly what it was, but said something about race and families coming together in all different ways.

When we came home, I asked Elizabeth about the Library thing. Was there a video or story? It took a minute for her to remember, but then she was upset. She said they watched a short video about a black girl who went to a school that had only been for white children. Some of the white children stopped coming to the school because the other little girl was there. Finally, someone said they could all go to school together. She started crying. I asked her if she was upset and why. She said she was sad because the black children and white children couldn't be friends. We talked very simply and briefly about past race relations in the U.S. I told her that I am very glad we live in this time when the laws have changed so everyone can go to school together, be friends, be family. She agreed, but stayed solemn and thoughtful for a while.

I am so thankful my daughter is sensitive to the needs and feelings of other children. We're blessed to have this beautiful girl as our firstborn!