7 Months

Baby Garrett is not looking so babyish any more. Today he turns 7 months, and it will be the busiest he's probably had yet. It will be a month filled with craziness, but what I'm excited about is COUSINS! It will be fun to see Garrett with his cousins on the hub's side (3 in 8 months born including G), and on my side (3 in 3 months born including G). His "big" cousins will be waiting to get their hands on all of the babies. It's so hard to find the time to get together now, so we are looking forward to catching up.

Garrett is just moving right along...literally. He's not up on all 4's and crawling, but he does rock back and fourth and can scooch pretty fast now wherever he wants to go with his characteristic grunting of course. He's eating several different baby foods, and we see 2 teeth now. His trademark that sets him apart from the other 2 is DEFINITELY his smile. He LOVES to smile which makes all of us smile! Don't forget to check out the video of Garrett..with Allie stealing the show.

Eating for Two

I apologize in advance for those of you reading this that I have lied to! This pic was taken several weeks ago after Em had called me one morning suggesting that I "drive by the hospital, so that she could 'show' me something". Being the risk taker that I am, I drove by the donut shop on the way to see her and ordered 2 donuts, and made a pretty little sign to hold out the window when she walked up. It WORKED!!! I was right!!! She had her first ultrasound today and saw the little peanut, so she gave me the OK to blog about it! I'M SO EXCITEDDDDDDDDD! They are going to be AWESOME parents, and I'm just glad at least one of mine will be close enough to enjoy hers! HA! I guess Allie will be babysitting for her:) Hop on over to her site to wish her congratulations.

Fun with Scrap

My friend mama lion over at the lion's den blogged a while back that she had come upon a new free digital scrapbooking site. I finally had a chance to check it out and kaboom...a new header. I didn't mean for it to be so big, but oh well! Mary had her school Christmas program today and I didn't have a good video, but I'm going to hunt one down to post later. Here's also a funny pic of Garrett from lunch today. His cheeks are going to explode one of these days! Oh and I almost forgot, he was laughing today, and I tooth has cut through!! That is EARLY EARLY for a white baby!

All Aboard!

Saturday morning...I have to say how excited I am about TODAY! The hubs is off (a rarity for Saturdays for the past month), it's cold outside, Garrett is still sleeping, and the girls are perfectly happy coloring pictures and showing real signs of humanity to each other, and we have NO WHERE TO GO!!!! Yeah!!!!

Last night was enough excitement for the whole weekend. After getting Allie ready for school, I told the girls we had a surprise and let them open a gift. It was pajamas, and Allie figured out very quickly what that meant..the Polar Express! We did this train ride last year, and she was so excited to go back.


What could it be?

We're ready to go! We left right after school and didn't account for after school traffic or something. We were trying to catch the 5:10 train, and we arrived at the depot literally at 5:06. I was about to have a heart attack, and the hubs was his normal "this was perfect planning..we'll walk right on and not have to wait" self. They were blowing the whistle as we were all RUNNING to get on!! Our neighbors went too, so we were just trying to enhance the experience for them.

Hot chocolate!

Typical family pic...Mary is not looking. We left Garrett behind...which is a good thing because we definitely would have missed it if we had to lug him around.

They just saw Santa get on! All "E" wants for Christmas is his two front teeth!

Mary was very unsure, and Santa made a valiant effort to get her to smile. She had more of a "just give me the bell and go" attitude, but was secretly very excited.

See!

No flu for you....

No don't worry...there is no flu bug going around this house. We are just doing our annual flu shot updates around here, and Allie has managed to slither under the radar for several weeks due to the fact that she's been her typical asthmatic, coughing up a lung self. The allergy doc dude said, as soon as she is well, bring her in for her shot. Now, I realize that most kids HATE shots, but most kids are not Allie. I explained to her that EVERYONE in the fam has already gotten their shots, even Garrett, and that we had all done fine. I said, "it's your turn, let's not make a big deal of this, you are going to do great!" Before I had even parked the car, she was in the back seat crying. UGgghhhh! She whimpered all the way inside, and I ignored it the best I could as she tends to feed off the drama and attention. She did as expected and cried very loudly which is fine because it was just one shot. When we came home, however, I said to her, "Tell daddy that you got your flu shot today." She said, "Dad I got my flu shot today, and I did GREAT. I didn't kick my legs this time, and they didn't have to call anyone in to help home me down!" See, I didn't even see the improvement. Little battles won.

Ornament Tag...and more decor

I'm making up my own games now. I took a picture of my favorite/funniest ornament. Every time I see it I laugh out loud! Here it is!!! Now take a pic of your favorite/funniest/most memorable ornament, post it, and tell all about it! We all have one right? I tag everyone...now GO!

This ornament was made at MOPS the year before last! It is so funny because it's supposed to be a happy memory ornament, but it's Mary's typical mug shot packaged all nice and pretty. It's so sad that she'll always look so miserable on my tree! She really is a happy kid!
Mando (hub's sis) gave the kids this advent calendar for Christmas. Isn't it AWESOME! The girls love it. We put suckers all the way down, and it is QUITE distracting to Mary..who loves a good sucker!

My "JOY" is complete. I bought these stocking holders when we had Allie because there were 3 of us total...not thinking it would be all messed up when we had more kids. We have enough kids for stockings now...all DONE!

It is not my kids who make my JOY complete (obviously..some days they destroy it...ha!), but it is Christ. He alone is the reason my JOY is complete!

John 15:10-12

10^(A) If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as^(B) I have kept^(C) my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you,^(D) that my joy may be in you, and that^(E) your joy may be full.

"Dat one is TALL..........

just like you Mommy!" This was my favorite quote from today...said by Mary of course. Today the hubs was off, so we made our annual trek down to the Christmas tree farm. It was a bit colder than I was expecting, so I was all for "JUST PICKING ONE!!!!!" There wasn't much debating or arguing because I just wanted to get back in the truck. I'm sure my Rochester peeps are rolling their eyes about now:) The girls had a great time running around trying to decide, but we missed our small group that we usually tag along with! I want this one.....I want that one.
Finally...the tree
My boys
A rare smile.."caught" on the way home.