Old Stuff First

It's the day after Christmas and I am going to blog about Christmas but I want to catch up on some good old stuff first.

More snow pictures. Watching the boys from the garage with mom. Decorating our tree. Watching the decorating from the bouncer.The finished product. It's perfect. It was a lot of fun decorating with Pete this year. Hard but fun. We would put something up, Pete would take it down. But I enjoyed watching him explore all the new "Christmas" things like the tree, ornaments, decorations and lights. It's so fun experiencing things through your child's eyes for the first time. Smiling while turning over. Always smiling. Can't wait for Jamie to join all the fun next year.

Dad

Isn't this a precious sight? Reading with dad. It melts my heart. Our children have been blessed with the best dad they could possibly have. If P. is home, he is caring for them, loving on them, spending time with the, holding them, playing with them and teaching them. They have no idea how lucky they are but someday they will know and they will feel as blessed as I do.

Pete Likes It

Pete likes snow. I guess he doesn't know any better right? Mom on the other hand dislikes snow more than ever. Not only have the majority of my plans been ruined by bad weather but it takes twice as long to go anywhere. Bundling the kids up stinks. The roads have been slow and dangerous. Our days are twice as long when we can't go outside. Pete begs to go outside every day not realizing how miserably cold it is out there until he gets out there. I have to distract him, bribe him, stall him until Jamie goes down for a nap then we head out into the cold. I hate it. He loves it. For a little while. One day he was so torn. He wanted to stay out but he was so cold. He would start to go inside and cry and head back out, then stop and cry. Then head back in and cry and stop and try to figure out what to do. So, I dragged him inside because if I stayed out any longer my tears were going to freeze to my face. It's hard to have an outside boy, inside.

Here are some pictures of our first snow. One good thing about it, it didn't hit until a few days into Dec.

Love

I love every feature on my baby girl's face. She is perfect.

Look A Likes

There are some pictures that I take and Jamie reminds me so much of Pete when he was this age. In these pictures they look NOTHING alike. Nothing! I love Jamie's serious face in all of them.

Other Stuff

My BFF Kristyn sent this Paul Frank shirt to Jamie. Isn't it adorable? Dad reading us the Bible while lighting our advent calendar candles.
Breakfast at Real Food Cafe before getting our tree.
We found a mildly cold, non snowy day to go get our tree. It's perfectly beautiful and Pete loves to look at it, study all of the ornaments and point out the Santa, snowmen, angel and dog ornaments. The bottom half of the tree has since been rearranged a hundred times since the initial decorating. That's OK, I love knowing my boy was involved in how it looks.
Hat on the dog, again.....
First snow of the season and Jamie's first snow ever. And it was a big one.I thought this was cute. Jamie's perfect China doll face and Pete's little feet.

Our Little Helper

Pete loves to help with anything you are doing. This is Pete helping me change Jamie's diaper, helping her roll over, and helping me take a picture of her.
Not bad for a beginner photographer.

Christmas already?

How time flies! Can you believe it is mid-December already? 9 days until Christmas!!!! 2009 has flown by in a flash. It feels like yesterday it was Jan 2009 and I was miserably nauseous and pregnant with Jamie. It feels like yesterday it was summer and we were anxiously awaiting Jamie's arrival. And now, Pete turned 20 months old in early Dec and Jamie turned 4 months a week ago. On a daily basis there is something I want to blog about. Pete is always doing something new and Jamie is changing every day. I tell myself to just take 5 minutes a day and write down what is going on. It would save time in the long run because right now I have so much to write about and so many pictures to share it will take a full day to finish this post. In fact I started this post yesterday and am just now continuing it over 24 hours later! I am really going to make it a point to write less, more often. :)

Here are some thoughts, new pictures and stories from my life to yours.

This is Jamie. This picture shows you what I see every day. A sweet, pretty, smiley girl.
This picture is my Pete. Always trying to fix something, figure out something or help with something new.Jamie in a Bumbo chair. She kind of slides down into it after a while but it actually works pretty well to help sit her up so she can check out the world from a different viewpoint. She's so cute in it isn't she?

Hey, that's my chair! Entertaining his sister while she is stuck in the chair.Going to sign out for now, take a shower, eat something and hopefully come back to add some more later tonight.......

Jamie Rolls Over!!!!

Today Jamie rolled over for the first time! I have waited for this moment for weeks now. She has been getting so close lately and I knew it was coming. There are some days when I wait with my camera on, finger on the button, ready to get it on film. She rolled over today when I wasn't home. P. had taken the day off to watch the kids for me while I went to a couple of doctors appointments. He sent me a junky camera phone picture of her after the fact. He didn't even see her do it. He went to put Pete down for a nap and came out and she had rolled over. Doesn't that just figure? Ahhhh. Just my luck. So here is the picture. And some more that I took tonight of the third time she rolled over ever. That will have to do.



Yay big girl! I am so proud of you. You are growing up so fast and I love you sweet baby!

Thanksgiving

Yes, I am playing catch up on a few things including Thanksgiving and our anniversary. See this and the next two posts....

P. had to work the day after Thanksgiving this year so we weren't able to go anywhere for very long. So, like we did on Easter, we met my in-laws, brother-in-law, niece and nephew at the casino. We ate a lot at the buffet then played some games. P. lost at craps, I won ($7) at video blackjack and Pete played in the kids arcade and came home with some fun little souvenir toys. Jamie slept or hung out with me or Omi. It was all around a good day but I look forward to spending a holiday at a home instead of in a smoke filled casino.

What am I thankful for? Gosh, so much. Where do I start? First I am thankful for happy, healthy children. I spent time in the hospital the other day for tests on Jamie's bowel and saw so many sick children. They looked so tired and weak and I cried tears of sadness but thankfulness that they were not mine. I am thankful for my husband and best friend P. I am thankful P. has a good job and I can stay home with our kids. I am thankful that most days there is nothing I desperately need or want. I am warm in my house, have food (lots of food) in my tummy and a nice, safe car to drive. There are things I want or dream of someday. I have plans for our future and they are different than where we are at now. But if things stayed they way they are now I would have nothing to complain about. I am thankful for little things. Jamie's curls on top of her head. Pete little naked bottom running towards me after a bath. My new sweater that is actually the new style this winter. Bottled Starbucks Mocha Frappuccinos. Hot showers on a cold day. Days of Our Lives while the babies are napping. And a first snow that held off until the 4th of December. I will leave that for another post. :)

I will keep the things I want changed in my prayers and God will take care of them in time. God is so good. What are you thankful for?

Pictures of Thanksgiving at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, MI.

At the buffet.
Jamie in the bathroom for a changing.
First Thanksgiving all of us.
Arcade fun.

Anniversary

Our anniversary this year was pretty low key. We went to dinner at this Chinese buffet place then went to a Thanksgiving Eve service at church. The service was a nice time of worship and reflection. I am glad we went. It's funny to me to celebrate our anniversary with our kids in tow. Times are different now but I wouldn't change them for anything. Well, maybe it would have been nice to have dinner by ourselves. Someday the kids won't be around and we will wish they were. I did get some beautiful roses and a cute sock monkey though. P. made me a really sweet card and always has the kindest, from the heart things to say to me. I hope he really feels that way. I found him a cool Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt off ebay and he likes it a lot. Here is a pic of me and my gifts. My favorite gift is that little girl on my arm though.....And our little angel hanging out on the floor. I think she is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.

Bananas

Nope, I still don't like bananas. Nice try mom.