Oh Christmas Tree

These two really helped speed up the process of putting up the Christmas tree this year!  I was pleasantly surprised!  They had branches waiting for me to put in. 

This boy wasn't extremely interested in putting the ornaments on the tree, but he WAS interested in fishing.  Yes fishing.  Can't you see his "pole" and "fish" on the end?  He would take his pole and catch fish and line them all up.  He continued to do this for a couple days after our tree was up.  I would find random ornaments all lined up in different parts of the living room.  Thankfully, he finally gave up on this only after several conversations we had about leaving the tree alone. 

Good Morning!

Maisy has been sleeping so well at night!  She went 5 straight nights of going to bed by 8:00 and waking between 8-9:00 AM.  Amazing!  My favorite part of the day is when she wakes up.  She loudly coos or lets out a little screech which totally says, "Come get me!"  The older two almost always go running to her crib and hop right in.  She loves this.  Smiles and smiles at them.  I look at this picture remembering how the big M's used to be this tiny.  In the blink of an eye.  Reminding myself this week to soak up all these little, precious moments. 

Frosty

Frosty made his first appearance in our yard!  Spray paint, flags, blue hard hat and all.  The only thing traditional was the carrot nose that Micah insisted upon!



OCC

Operation Christmas Child has been our Christmas kick off activity for the last couples of years.  This year we watched a video that showed kids receiving their boxes.  They were glued to the computer screen and asked to watch it several more times.  Mara has asked about the boxes  several times since we dropped them off.  I love to see God molding her into a giver. 

Dad got in on packing up the boxes.  It was a strategic task as we always buy too much. 

Cy

All 3 of our kids have been to an ISU football game this year.  Maisy was the first one to get to go at 2 weeks old.  We're a bit spoiled with suite seats through Lance's business. 

By the way, his drink was in the water bottle and not the adult beverage in the glass bottle:)

Mara wasn't "brave enough" as she says to meet Cy up close.  Micah told me before he left that he wasn't going to be brave enough either.  He apparently changed his mind. 



Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am so very. very thankful for my kiddos.  I can't imagine a day without them.  Ok, so maybe a day without them while they're spending some time with grandparents:)  But really, I love spending every single day with them.  Very blessed to be fulfilling my calling as a stay at home mom. 

 

 It's so fun to see the growth each year in my kids as I plan seasonal activities.  This year I decided Mara was probably ready to learn about the first Thanksgiving.  Micah was much more interested in learning about the pilgrims and Squanto than I thought he would be.  He always surprises me.  We colored and cut out the different people in our Thanksgiving story and glued them onto a large Thanksgiving scene. 

 One of our Thanksgiving crafts.

We made a thankful tree to hang on the wall at the beginning of November.  We added a thankful leaf each night.  Except for the nights we forgot:)

Here are some things we were thankful for: church, tooth brush, healthy eyes, pizza, crib, apple crisp, brother and sister, crafts, friends, Legos, preschool, Mara's health, Grandpa and Grandma, worms, sleeping in, and Awana. 

And now we're ready to begin celebrating the Christmas season!

Maisy - 3 months

My baby is 3 months.  Unbelievable.

 

She has definitely been chatting it up the last month!  Lance can make her coo and cry all within the same 10 seconds.  He makes this "scary" face, she cries, and then he quickly responds with, "No, it's not scary!"  So every time she cries now, the kids respond with, "Maisy, it's not scary!" 

She is determined to get her hands to work.  She has had some success, but it's pretty much been luck.  Mara was so excited the day she found her holding onto one of her toys in her bouncy seat!

She loves her baths and fingers.  We're hoping we don't have another finger sucker.

If we put her on her tummy on the Boppy, she will use her legs to push her right over the top.  There have been a couple times I've left the room for a few seconds and come back to her completely over the pillow onto her face.

She is still getting an abundant amount of love from her big sis and brother.

She will watch them play for quite a long time,

 

Baby girl, we love you to pieces!  But if you could, don't turn 4 months old any time soon.