Mostly a lot of pictures...

She is full of smiles these days. AND, i love getting to put bows in her hair.

She got a new Christmas present...the BUMBO. I highly recommend this to any parent - especially if you have more than one child.

Chris got a new toy that has kept us all very entertained. It's a puzzle of sorts, too hard to explain. I bet you can google it: The Perplexus

My attempt at a picture of all three of them before we left for Christmas Eve service

These boys adore their baby sister.

She was starting to fall asleep on Chris' shoulder. I love this picture of her.

And again, with the Bumbo!

The disaster that was our house Christmas morning. Eventually I got it all picked up.

These two look so much alike!

New Hat

Just one quick picture...she is just adorable!

Grandma and Papa are visiting, so we'll have more to post after they depart.

But for now...

Just a Fun Video

Sorry for the poor lighting on this one.

Happy Thanksgiving

I miss everyone. Back in the day we used to have such HUGE Thanksgivings. I even remember that we had to dress up in "fancy" clothes. Mom was always in the kitchen cooking and baking all day. It was fun.

Thanksgiving is different for us being so far away. Too short of a holiday to make the trip back home, so we celebrate with out little family of five. This year we are having a jammie day and just relaxing at home. Naps to be had by all (probably only for 3/5 of us, but I can always wish). I got outvoted in the "Turkey or Ham" choice. So, I will make a ham this year with some good old dinner rolls, maybe a salad and of course, homemade cranberry sauce!

Here are some pictures of our feast and our great day together!!

I heard about a fun activity to do with the kids. We traced our hands and then wrote all the things we were thankful for on them and make this "Thanksgiving Tree" to hang in our house. It was a lot of fun and a good project for us. I am hoping that these will last and we can save them and do this every year.

Some of my favorites that they boys were thankful for "Daddy's flashlight in case of emergency", "the trampoline", and of course "Jayda".

Since it wasn't a big party today, we decided for our Thanksgiving dessert to make GIANT chocolate chip cookies! The boys thought that was "awesome". Never before have I seen them leave a cookie unfinished...perhaps they were just a bit too large.

Jayda was loving hanging out on Dad all day today. She was full of smiles!

Then, we decided, what the heck, let's put up the Christmas tree.

Tummy Time with Jaybird

Pay no attention to the crazy woman talking in the background of this video. I'm just enjoying the fun tummy time with my girl!

Just another day...

I've been having a lot of fun on my maternity leave getting to sew lots of things. I made these fun hats for the kids this week. The boys have been asking for them for the past four months, but having this "time" I was actually able to do it. The one for Jayda is still a bit big, but you couldn't tell from this picture!

This is a great video of her playing in her play mat. I feel like she is so awake and alert for only being 5 weeks old. She is a lot of fun and we are starting to get a routine down. I have just three more weeks before I have to go back to work, so I hope to get lots of pictures and lots of snuggle time with all three of my gippers in before then!

The Clevelands Photography

A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of having dear friends come to our house and take pictures of the family. Jeff and Jan Cleveland have their own photography company and came to do a newborn shoot with Jayda and caught these great images. Jeff gave me permission to post a few of these pictures.

Please check their blog out for more pictures and the fun that we had!

If you visit their blog, please leave a message, we'd love to hear from everyone!!

The link to the post is http://www.the-clevelands.net/2010/10/jayda-grafton-wisconsin-newborn.html

This was such a great shot of what our life is...dirty rugged tennis shoes and a sweet little pair of ballet slippers.

Quintessential Noah

People have asked if the boys love Jayda...this speaks to that very well.

Mama and Jayda

Micah was our helper that day, holding up the light maker (I know it has better name than that!!)

Love baby feet!

Sweet Baby

I dont' know what to call this post.

The hard part of having Noah in school all day is that Micah doesn't have his buddy to play with during the day. (It's also hard because I don't get as many pictures with Noah in them!!)

Micah still enjoys playing on the trampoline, but instead brings Fred, his teddy bear with him. The video at the bottom of the page shows how they "play" together.

I attempted to get into the trampoline with Micah, but that was a bad idea. I ended up getting what I think is a cute picture of the boy.

Micah is showing how he would protect Jayda. I especially like that he is already dressed as the Dark Knight!

We were having tummy time, but afterward she enjoyed some time of just laying on the floor. She loves being free...no swaddling this one! She sleeps better and awake time is better when she doesn't have all those blankets holding her down!

Sunday was our first day at church. She wore this beautiful dress that Grandma made for her. Chris got her ready (I was so proud of him). He even put tights on her! Isn't she just beautiful!!

Okay...this is the video! It's awesome!

So much fun!

We have been having a great time getting acquainted with our little Jayda these days. Learning again how to have an infant...changing diapers, going on not a lot of sleep, falling asleep with the baby on your chest!! It's been a great ride the past two weeks!

A friend of ours made this sweet hat for Jayda. It worked out perfectly to wear today as the first signs that winter is on it's way came today. She wasn't exactly a hat person, but she kept it on as long as it didn't go in her face.

Her umbilical cord stub (is there a better word for this?) came off, so we were able to give her the first real bath. She loves it! She is especially fond of having her hair washed...just like her mama!

I asked Micah to go upstairs and get his jammies on...this is how he came back. He does actually have underwear under his pants as well. He told me this is more realistic to what Batman would look like.

And this one is just cute. Both these boys adore their baby sister.

Until next time...

Noah Turns Six!!

These pictures are all out of order of what we did for Noah's birthday, but it still works!

noah asked me to make an Optimus Prime birthday cake for him. Because I secretly love Optimus, I was okay with that...this seemed as though it turned out pretty good and I was awarded with "AWESOME" by Noah.

Present opening time...Got a new Wii from Grandma and Grandpa.

Brotherly love

Noah was very proud of the crown he got at school. He got to wear it all day

This was special breakfast time before school.

And REALLY out of order, singing to him!

Our family party at Chuck E Cheese. We had a great time!

For his special breakfast, he wanted something to eat that had the number six on it! This was what I could come up with!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Noah! Always so much fun and makes me laugh all the time! I am so thankful and blessed that Noah is a part of our family!

Love Having Pink At Home!!

What a fun time we have had with this sweet little girl at our house! Who knew that Daddy would turn into butter (well, to be truthful, I anticipated that one!). The boys absolutely adore her and she is EASY! Quick everyone, knock on wood!

I asked Noah if he would smile and show me his teeth...this was the result. Love this kid!!

Chris makes fun of the bows that I have been putting in her hair, but based on this "rock on" move she's got going on, I would say that she likes them!

Close up of my beautiful Jayda

Noah is learning to read and it is so much fun to get to watch him practice and seeing the light come on is the best part of all! I was able to snap a quick picture of his practice session with Chris last night.

Again, the adoring and smitten brother. They just want to hold her and kiss her all the time. I wonder how long that will last? I just hope they always want to protect her!

(for those of you who get this as an email...the below is a video)