Jackie's Christmas Program

Jackie had her Christmas program at school what seems like eons ago, however...it was about 10 days ago.  This was her last day of school before break and after the program was her class party.  Josie and I got to attend.  It was fun seeing her with her classmates and in her classroom.  She did a great job at her program, where she sang about Noah's Ark and "Away in a Manger."

Gwen's Christmas Program

Gwen had her Christmas program at her preschool on Wednesday.  She was very excited  to dress up and for it to be her last day before break!  She did such a great job singing and really getting into the actions!

Below is a short video of one of the songs she sang.  Warning...you might need to take some Dramamine before watching the video.  Apparently I'm not good at keeping the camera steady while hanging on to a 4 month old!

4 Months

The little lady of the house turned 4 months old on Sunday.  She's growing so much and so fast!  She's just about ready to roll.  She's starting to break out of her swaddle at night.  She is also working those ab muscles to sit up.  She smiles all the time now and is starting to give a few laughs....mostly to Gwen!

The Dr. said I could start her on cereal anytime, but I will wait until after the holidays...because I'm lazy about wanting to haul extra "stuff" along when traveling.  I have enough to pack the way it is!

She has been sleeping pretty good.  She usually does about a 9pm to 5am, then eats and goes back to bed until 7-8am.  She has definitely established her first morning nap, and will even sleep in her crib for a good hour to hour and a half....if we are actually home for her to do so.

We recently found a song on iTunes called "Sweet Josephine."  The kids love to play it for Josie and Josie usually just smiles the whole time.

I seriously do not know where the last four months have gone.  Josie just fits right in to our family and we barely know what life was like without her.

Love you Sweet Josephine!

Giving Thanks

I'm a little backwards on my posts, but couldn't forget to post about the girls' Thanksgiving celebrations at their respective schools.  John accompanied Gwen at her Thanksgiving feast at preschool.  I watched Jackie in her Thanksgiving play and joined her at the reception after.

 Apparently Gwen's job of the day was "flag holder."  Here they are saying the Pledge of Allegiance

 Lining up for the Feast!

 They had quite the set up.  Here they are saying their prayer.

 Looks like a yummy feast!

 Jackie's class did the ABC's of Thanksgiving play.

 The whole group

Jackie did a great job of remembering her lines and speaking so everyone could hear her!

We are so thankful both the girls have such great schools and teachers!

Thanksgiving

We had another fun and successful Thanksgiving with the Baumann family this year! We are going on 8 years strong and I just love our little tradition.

Jackie and Beau helped do some prep work the day before!

Teresa and I braved the cold for another Turkey Run.  It's always nice to get a little exercise in before stuffing ourselves!

We were blessed to have Grandma Barb Baumann here again this year.  She was super helpful in the holding Josie department!

Teresa helping prepare the salad.

Colby with his crafty creation.

Word to the Bird!  It was pretty yummy!

Aunt Teresa and Josie bonding time.

Jeremy gives the day a thumbs up!

Gwen and Maddie enjoying some downtime before the big meal.

Thankfully John did not kill me after all the requests and orders I gave him!

Jackie and Maddie reading our "thankful" cards after dinner.

We were so excited to meet Baby Lailah.  Thanks for coming Aunt Sarah and Uncle Roy!

Josie took the day in stride.

Beau slept through dinner, but woke up to enjoy some of the famous pumpkin cake.  He approved!

Sweet Baby Lailah!

Snuggle time after dinner.

Beau in his movie fort!

It was a craftastic Thanksgiving if you couldn't tell by the "craft" room.

More movie time....I think this time it was "Frozen"

We continued our tradition of going to see the Christmas decorations and lights on Thanksgiving night.  We checked out the Penguin House again this year.  The kids get a real kick out of the hundreds of inflatables!

Cousin time is the best!

AHG

Jackie became an official member to American Heritage Girls last week.  It's basically like Girl Scouts, but its through our Church.  Anyway, they had a little ceremony where she got to light a candle and say the pledge.  Jackie felt pretty cool with the candle, it was her first time ever doing this.   She also received her Joining badge and American Freedom badge.  Now if I could just get my stuff together and get her a uniform.  Its an intimate group of girls and I really think she is going to enjoy doing the service projects.

3 Months Old

Happy 3 months to this little lady!  Doesn't her little smile just make your day?  Josie loves her siblings and will flash them the biggest smiles.  She is "talking" a lot too, and seems to hold mini cooing conversations.  She has been going to sleep a little earlier at night (about 9pm), and typically getting up once around 2-3am...going back down and then up for the morning at 530-630am.   Hoping she will start stretching out that morning wake up time a bit, but right now we are rolling with it.  She has been spending some more time sitting in the Bumbo seat, and tolerates that pretty well.  This is helpful when preparing dinner.

Josie still has a deep dislike for her car seat....I mean as soon as you buckle, she starts to scream.  She still loves the front carrier though...so this has still been my saving grace.  Its getting a little trickier though, as the weather gets colder...with jackets, hats, blankets, etc.  Its just a lot of juggling of things to remember.  The little doll has exactly a month and a half before we travel for our first Christmas celebration...so hopefully we will start to see a shift soon!

Other than that, we are just trying to enjoy every day with this munchkin.  Time is flying!

World Series

October was a fun month for another reason.....The Royals! I have to say, watching the games on TV and checking highlights at 3am, definitely got me through some of those long nights of the newborn stage! John was lucky enough to go to the ALCS clincher game through his work. Going to the World Series Game 7, wasn't even on our radar.....but we were offered tickets through his work the day of and couldn't pass them up. Thankfully, all the stars aligned for us to find a babysitter! We took Josie with us, because...World Series or not, the baby has to eat! She did great. She slept through most of it, only to waken when the guy selling hot chocolate would yell right by our seats. Oh, and of course she stirred a little when I was jumping up and down. Although the outcome didn't exactly go in our favor, it was definitely a great forever memory!

She had no idea!  P.S. We did not pay for those tickets(as the price indicates)...they were company bought.

Scenes from the "K"

Such an amazing atmosphere!

Fall-oween

What is Fall-oween, you ask?  That would be a Fall and Halloween post wrapped into one!  It's been a fun October..and it has flown by.  Here are a few pictures of the kids and all of their festivities.

 

Beau is our work-horse.  He loves a job and raking leaves is the perfect thing for him.

All the kids in the cul de sac made a pretty good team on raking and jumping in leaves.

So lucky to have a bunch of kids to play with anytime you step out the front door!

Little Josie in one of her Halloween outfits.

Carving a pumpkin....Jackie was the only one that was real interested this year.

She told me what to do...and I carved it.  Final product, was a pretty good looking cat!

Josie and Gwen hanging out before Gwen's parade at school.  Josie looks a little startled by Gwen's wings!

The marathon day of Halloween began with Gwen's parade.

Then we went to Jackie's parade.

After, we were able to stop by Jackie's party.  Grandma and Grandpa Mehmen were in town visiting and got to go to all the fun festivities as well!

Beau ended up as a Chief's football player this year.  Here he has on half the costume, and he's "guarding" the candy bucket.

I see all these pictures posted of other kids posing perfectly in their costumes....this is my "perfect" picture.  Josie crying and Beau not looking.  It was a very cold Halloween this year...Gwen opted for her snow boots even!

Grandma and Josie doing a little bonding.

The day after Halloween ended up being a great day for some leaf jumping.  The kids all got into this one...even the big kid, Daddy!