Christmas Adventures Week One

December 1

Today we put up our Christmas tree!

Mommy put the lights on, and then the kids all took turns picking out ornaments and helping put them on the tree.

December 2

Today we got out our Little People Nativity.

They helped take everything out of the boxes and set it all up. They were telling us who all the people were and enjoyed playing with it most of the morning! Yay for "new" toys to keep kiddos entertained!

December 3

Today we put up our nativity decals. They are now on the window on the front door because they weren't sticking very well to the wall.. but I never took a picture of them in their new location.

The kiddos helped picked out the character I was looking for and we talked about each one and the part they played in the first Christmas.

December 4

We made wreaths today. I cut out the wreath and the bows. Then the kids glued the bows on (with a little help) and finger painted the berries on (with a little help).

December 5

Today's adventure was the Ionia Christmas Light Parade. Grandma and Grandpa Franks came and went to the parade with us. I didn't take any pictures (Grandpa did, so maybe if I get some of his I'll update the post with a couple). The kiddos seemed to enjoy it... and the adults enjoyed the fact that it wasn't as cold as it has been in the past!

December 6

Today we made snow flakes. We used coffee filters and let the kiddos cut... with a little bit of help! :) Its the first time any of them have used scissors that I know of... so they were having a fun time trying to figure them out!

We hung up our "beautiful snow lakes" on door frames in the living room!

OB Check Up

Everything checked out good today.

There is still a little concern for pre-term labor, but I've been doing a better job at not "over doing it" so I've had less time-able contractions and that's a good thing... for now! :)

Peyton did a flip and is now head down! She said at this point his head is the heaviest part of his body, so the chances of him staying head down until birth are pretty good! (I hadn't heard this before... but it's kind of cool how God made things work that like!)

I didn't gain any more weight in the past two weeks, but I haven't lost any either, so not a big deal.

I go back in two weeks again, and then after that it's once a week until the little guy is born!

22 Months Old

I'm only one day late this month!!

I'm not sure a whole lot has changed since last month's update... other than this kiddo will be TWO in two short months!

Colby talks non-stop...if there aren't a lot of people around. His favorite words are "No," "Me", and "I do!" He's talks mostly in short phrases now and is very good about making sure we all know what he wants.. or doesn't want.

Colby loves to lick people... and loves to stick his tongue out...I blame his daddy and big brother!

Colby still thinks he's three.. and wants to do everything Emily and Kyle do. This includes sitting on the potty. He sits on the potty (and goes) every night before bath time. He will often ask to sit on the potty during the day as well. We've had a few days were he's only used two diapers all day long... he always wakes up in the morning and after nap time wet. I think he may be easy to really potty train once I decide I'm ready for that!

Colby has turned into a hitter and a bitter. We have lots of talks and time outs for hitting and biting Kyle and Emily. Half the time he bites though, its their own fault for sitting their fingers (or nose) in his mouth!

We think Colby had another ear infection this month. He was miserable for a few days and kept saying his ears hurt, so we took him to the walk-in clinic in Ionia. He finished his antibiotics a few days ago and started complaining again about his ears.. and not sleeping, so we went to a pediatric redi-care yesterday (our peds office wasn't open) and she had to clean out lots of hard wax to even see his ear drums. She's not sure the doctor would have been able to see his ear drums two weeks prior with the amount of wax, so we aren't really sure if he had an actual ear infection or not. She cleaned out some of the wax, told us to use some drops to soften the rest, and still follow up with the ENT (who we are waiting for an appointment with).

Colby is still nursing... but is down to only a few minutes each night. I'm still just letting him do his own thing with weaning and not pushing him to be done. I have very mixed emotions about him weaning... so we are just letting him decide when to be done.. for now.. :)

Emily has been teaching Colby to "ink"... (wink)

Colby loves to cuddle with Peyton... and push on him! He gets very excited when Peyton pushes back through my belly. He loves to give him hugs and kisses!

Colby is still a little stinker.... I'm pretty sure his "terrible two" phase has started. He's much more strong willed than Kyle and Emily ever were!

And he's cute.. and he knows it!

Thank You Tree

We did a Thankful tree again this year... the kids call it our "Thank You Tree!"

Every night after dinner (or the next morning if we forgot...), we all wrote or drew something on a leaf that we are thankful for and stuck it on the tree.

I didn't keep a list this year of everything we wrote down... or take picture of our tree throughout... you can call me lazy... or pregnant and exhausted... or both!:)

Kyle was often thankful for things like cars and lions, but did occasionally say he was thankful for God, Emily, Colby, Peyton, Mommy, and Daddy... and a few other things. Kyle's leaves are the blue ones.

Emily's pink leaves have more of a variety of things on them than Kyle's... she was thankful for Emily, Mommy, Daddy, Kyle, Colby, Peyton, a few friends from church, her toys, God...the letter T...

Colby's yellow leaves are filled with scribbles. Sometimes we knew what he was thankful for and other times it was just a random guess. He was thankful for the color yellow and circles a lot...along with God, Kyle, Emily, Mommy, Daddy, and boobs! :)

Mommy (purple leaves) and Daddy (orange leaves) were thankful for all sorts of things... Jesus, our children, our parents, our church family, our teenagers, Mondays, food, a house... and other such things!

Now it's on to our Christmas Adventure calendar... it's up and waiting for December first. I am going to try to be better about taking pictures and posting throughout the month... but once again, I'm lazy, and pregnant, and exhausted! :)