Eli's first Christmas program.

Eli had his preschool program a week ago Friday.  My parents were coming to watch the kids for the next day anyway, so they were able to go to his program too!  This was Eli's first time participating/performing in anything, and I was so proud and he was so proud, and the whole thing was adorable!  Short and sweet, as preschool things have to be, but it was adorable and well done.  We weren't allowed to use camera flash, so I brought my lens that allows the most light but it doesn't zoom, so I didn't get many pictures, but it's enough to preserve the memory...

 

 

 

 

Eli sitting with his classmates before the program started

supportive sister

 

 

Eli's on the left end.

before the program officially started the teacher had the kids go ahead and just wave at their parents.  I thought that was so cute and such a good idea!  =)

Carter--11 months!

The countdown's on until Carter's 1st birthday!!  I seriously can't even believe it!  Probably because Carter's so small or maybe because I don't really want this time to fly away too fast, I dunno.  Either way, this first year almost over already!

Updates for month 11:

* Tooth #6 came in. (now he has four on top and two on the bottom)

* Waves.

* Claps.
* Is increasingly ticklish!  =)

* Copies you if you shake your head side to side.

* Has figured out how to open the kitchen cupboards by himself (they don't even have handles) and unloads everything.
* Can climb the entire set of stairs on his own, but he really doesn't have much desire {yet} to do them all the time/at all.

* Stands on his own for a few seconds and occasionally tries the one-step pass between the couches.

* Because of his lack of adequate weight gain I start supplementing him with formula for the last couple months until he can drink cow milk.  So now I nurse him 2 times (morning, bedtime) and give him a bottle 2 times (lunch and afternoon).  He loves his bottle, holds it himself to drink and plays with it.

* He eats about half and half table food and baby food.  

* He's no longer content with Puffs and Cheerios--he wants what we're eating!

* He celebrated his first Thanksgiving.  We cheated a lot and gave him things that did have egg in it.  He loved the sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, and broccoli casserole!

* He sleeps through the night most of the time and wakes in the morning between 7 and 8am.

* We dropped his evening cat nap.

* After waking from nap, he snuggles his head on my shoulder when people {usually Daddy} say(s) Hi to him.

I didn't get great pictures but there will be a couple coming!  So thankful for this little guy!!

SWEET.

If you were to ask us to describe Hannah in one word, we would definitely choose the word sweet.  She is {but not always} a gentle-content-happy-loving kind of sweet.  These pictures really do portray what she's like {most of the time}...

my favorite

And yes, she's had a haircut, yesterday in fact.  Very impromptu haircut, approximately 20 minutes before we {I alone with the three kids} left for church.  WHY do I do this to myself again??

Claire Katherine

...is HERE, born Thursday, Dec. 2 at 3:36pm!  You'll hear more about her and her arrival in the coming days at their blogs (Paul's and Holly's)  But for now here are some pictures from my visit yesterday!  She's sooo cute, I already can't wait to see more of her!!  Thank goodness they only live an hour away now!

Congrats to Paul and Holly!  They will be wonderful parents!!

Family Christmas Pictures

Arg!!

We went to a pirate-themed {kids} birthday party last weekend, so Eli dressed up {couldn't find anything pirate-ish for Hannah}.  Actually, when I first told him about it, Eli said he wanted to dress up as princesses instead.  You can sure tell he plays with a sister all day long!  LOL  In the end though we scrounged around and came up with this:

Eye patch: one of Hannah's elastic headbands with a scrap of black T-shirt fabric pinned to it. 
Sword: cardboard cutout wrapped in foil
Vest (inside out) and pants from wedding ensemble from when he was 2 yrs old (the vest looked better unbottoned, but he really wanted it buttoned, so it was)
Snow boots

We had a great time!  Thanks for the party, Kathy!

You know live in the country when...

You glance out your window and surprise! there are cows in your yard!  This was a first for us though not uncommon for country folk, I guess!

These cows showed up last week and ended up wandering our parts for a couple days.  They'd munch on the grass for awhile, eventually move across the street and head out to wherever cows roam to, and then when we thought they were gone they showed up again the next afternoon.  And again the day after that!  But I really do think they're gone this time!