seeing Santa

Santa!!

telling Santa what they wanted...
Blaine said a pickup truck....so Britton did too!
Brandon told him an electric guitar

I had been wanting to take the boys to see Santa but didn't want to brave the mall crowd to do so. I am picky about Santas because I like for them to be "pretty" and by that I mainly mean he must have a real beard and nice looking suit, which usually I can only find at the mall. Well several friends posted pictures of their kids with Santa at Bass Pro. The pictures were so cute and the Santa was pretty! Ryan looked it up and they had a whole "winter wonderland" section in the store for kids to have fun in. We took the kiddos last Saturday and had a great time! They saw Santa first and no one cried!!Britton doesn't look happy in the picture but he wasn't mad or sad. Britton is simply my strong-willed child and if he doesn't want to smile then he won't. He likes to give you the "look." From there the boys shot the target guns, Blaine shot the bow and arrow, Brandon drove a remote controlled car and they watched some slot car races. It was a lot of fun and of course we had to make a trip back to the see the huge fish tank and the stuffed bear!

Brandon shooting the targets

Gracelyn slept the entire time, even when being passed to Santa and back.

Blaine was fascinated with all the Christmas decor.
They had snowmen and nutcrackers and of course moose and other wild animals.

Brandon "driving," as Blaine called it.

my little sweeties!

this is the look of "STOP THE PICTURE TAKING MADNESS MOM!" X4
(and no, Gracie was not falling out of Brandon's arms.
I turned her on her side to see her face!)

the fish

the bear

month 2 in review

2 months old!

Miss Gracelyn Paige is now 2 months old....WOW! I simply cannot believe that two months have gone by. Gracie is still a good baby, eating and sleeping well (when she finally falls asleeep!) and she LOVES to be talked and sung to and will smile huge smiles, which I have yet to capture on camera (I prefer to think she is just happy to hear me sing to her and that she is not making fun of me.) Over the last week and a half she has been battling a cold so she's been a bit fussier than normal but I cannot blame her because I can tell how congested her tiny little body is so she is just miserable. Brandon and Britton still adore her. Britton, at 2, will be in the middle of playing and stop to come over to her just to kiss her on the head. If she is in the bouncer or swing and he walks by he will acknowledge her and say "hi Gracie!" It is unbelievably sweet! Blaine will simply walk by and ignore her but he is not mean to her so I am just letting him come around on his own time and will not force him. With Christmas just around the corner and Gracelyn only being a little over 2 months old she of course will probably sleep right through the celebrations but I am excited to see the GIRLY gifts for a change!!

so here are some pictures to document her second month!

ready to brave the cold (1 month and 1 day old)

ready to party at big bro Britton's 2nd party!
her dress says "Miss October" (1 month and 5 days old)

little ballerina!

interacting with mommy while being talked to! (1 month and 8 days old)

she loves her paci! (1 month and 12 days old)

little ladybug! (1 month and 17 days old)

sleepy girl~she doesn't want to miss anything
so she fights sleep a lot of nights...

1 month and 23 days old

my little reindeer~she was NOT amused by the hat

8 weeks old!

L.O.V.E.S. her new activity mat!

my little beauty!

day before 2 month birthday

her shirt says "good things come in small packages" (so true!)
2 months old!!
she already has quite the mind of her own...
she refused to look at me until Britton came over to talk to her
(guess that shows where I rank!)

Christmas crafting!!

Gracelyn has not been feeling well and just cannot seem to get over it so, in turn, the boys have been told a lot lately to just play and I have even resorted to playing many episodes of Super Why (a great show btw, that was just recently introduced to me by a friend!) and Sesame Street for them to keep them entertained. I have been feeling bad about it and with Blaine asking daily and several times a day when Christmas is I decided we would do some crafting last Wednesday, the 9th!!
The first craft we did was a Christmas countdown paper chain. I held up a green and red piece of paper and let the boys decide which color they wanted. Blaine chose red and Britton happily took the green! I gave them some crayons to color the paper and Britton being 2, only lasted about 2 minutes. Blaine. on the other hand, colored for a good 15 minutes. I cut their sheets into strips and gave them to the boys to alternately hand back to me to make the chain. Blaine sat and gave me the red ones when asked and Britton played and when I would ask for a green he would run into the kitchen and hand me one. Blaine is so excited at the idea to rip a circle off each day until we get to Christmas Day!! I strung the chain across the top portion of the tree so they cannot get a hold of it.
The other craft we did was making Rudolph! Blaine had a BLAST and was totally devastated to lay down for nap before finishing. I traced their hands and one foot and then after cutting them out just glued their hands to the foot. We used the wiggly eyes that I had leftover from Blaine's Elmo invites this past summer and I was in a quandary about the nose. I only had orange pom poms from the invites but I had red tulip paint but shuddered at that thought. I found red cupcake sprinkles so that was my plan unless I found something else. I scavenged through the pantry and found LIFESAVERS!!! (Double meaning there!) So we used red lifesavers as Rudolph's nose and Blaine wanted to use honey nut Cheerios for the mouth. He was so proud. Britton on the other hand was so mad that he couldn't eat the lifesaver that Blaine finished up his.

the boys coloring

Blaine showing off the Christmas countdown paper chain!

tracing hands...

Blaine applying Rudolph's eyes nicely...

Britton applying Rudolph's eyes, note his lack of delicacy.
He preferred to smash them down using his entire hand.

Britton, while snacking, admiring a job well done, gluing on the eyes.

Blaine finishing up Rudolph's mouth

the boys with their projects!

Blaine is oh so proud!

...and so is Britton!

Blaine now wants to make a Santa. I told him that I would have to go to the store because what we made was with materials that I already had and I didn't have stuff for Santa! Wednesday I plan on baking some goodies for Blaine and Britton's Mother's Day Out classes for Thursday as well as Ryan's work Christmas Party Thursday evening so Blaine will gladly assist me I am sure!

First Sunday

Sunday, November 29 was Gracelyn's first Sunday to attend church. Due to sickness, either she or myself, or both, or lack of sleep, we had yet to make it since her birth six weeks prior. We still have yet to make it to Sunday School at 9 but the fact that we made it to the worship service at 10:30 with both of us looking presentable was an accomplishment in my book! I kept her with me because I am not ready to take her to the nursery (and honestly don't know when I will be able to considering she is my last little one!) It will happen though because the ladies in the bed babies room are wonderful and nurturing and they are anxiously awaiting Gracie, even after finding out that she is a little on the spoiled side.
Here are some pictures of her in her dress and tights! That evening at church was our annual Trimming of the Tree service. Families sign up to go up on stage and have one member of the family read an assigned passage from the Bible pertaining to the birth of Jesus Christ and another family member hangs a corresponding ornament on the tree. Brandon of course read our verses while the little boys assisted Ryan in hanging our ornament of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus on the tree.
I don't have a picture from the service, thankfully we performed our part without any disasters that I was fearing all week long. I took a picture of Gracelyn before leaving. She refused to look at me, preferring the Christmas Tree instead and slept through the entire service.

my heart...

Quite simply, these 3 handsome little boys and 1 princess have my heart...

...oh how I love love love them!!

Invisible Woman

A friend posted a recommendation on her blog to check out a video on YouTube titled "Invisible Woman." It is presented by Nicole Johnson and gives a different perspective on the sometimes over-looked wife and mom. It spoke volumes to me about the big picture that I am creating for my family and I urge taking the almost 6 minutes to check it out!

Invisible Woman by Nicole Johnson

my baby boy turns 2

Friday, November 27, Britton Ryan turned 2!! It has been a week of celebrating starting with his party last Saturday. It was a small Wiggles themed party with just our little, scratch that large family and his grandparents! It was fun and Britton loved the presents he received, and of course the cupcakes! It's fitting that Britton's birthday is so close to Thanksgiving because the boy LOVES his food. On each boy's birthday they get to select the menu for the day and Friday was no different. Britton dined on pancakes for breakfast, hot dogs and cheetos for lunch, homemade sausage pizza for supper and 2 chocolate cupcakes for dessert! He had a great day!! He gets the cheesiest grin when telling you that he's "2!!"

tickets to the "show!"

opening presents is serious business!

YAY!! He LOVES books!!

building with his new Mega Bloks dump truck!

Loving his new giraffe bike AND the dump truck so he pulled the truck
as close to him as possible while he pedaled. It was so funny!

didn't enjoy being sung to....ready to dig in...

...and that is exactly what he did!

cupcakes!

he was treated to a "purple" slush on his birthday!

telling me he's "2!!" (a big cheesy grin followed!)

enjoying more cupcakes on his birthday!

and he didn't hold back!

I have said this before but Britton is a curious, sneaky little boy! I never know what I will find him into when he disappears to another room in the house. He loves his blanket, or his "bay" as he calls it and will not sleep without it and ALWAYS knows where it's at. With his big dark brown eyes and grin, he gets away with alot from me because he is just so cute! He and Blaine (or "Bane" as Britton calls him) have become really good friends and it is so sweet to watch them play and talk and even when Ryan and I cannot understand Britton, Blaine always can! It saddens Ryan and myself because so much of what Britton does now the other 2 boys were not at this stage and it has to be because he and Blaine are so close in age. We are savoring every moment with the kids because it all goes by way too quickly.