I'm an Aunt (again)!!!

My "baby" sister and her husband welcomed their baby girl Sophie-Jean Lee into their family! She is 8lbs 7oz and 21 inches long. I really wish I could see her in person, but am so excited that my other sister is down there now (because of Christmas) and is able to see them all. Congrats to you Shawn and Mari! :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas and all the excitement and joy there is! Having kids just intensifies that excitement and joy. Everything through their eyes is just filled with an intense amount of awe and wonder...something we try and hang onto, but we don't realize how much we've lost until we see it through our kids again. We have had a rough week. Isaac brought home the stomache bug from school and it went through our entire family. Thankfully by Christmas Eve night we were all feeling okay...not 100%...but good enough to have fun :) I was able to make it to the candlelight service at church which was really nice since I had to stay home with Isaac, Grace and Ruth on Sunday because of the bug. After church we quickly got things ready before heading up to bed. The kids put out the milk, cookies, and carrots. Grace found the biggest carrot in the fridge and let us know that it was for Rudolph. :)

After we let them each open one present. This is the first time we have done this, but they were so excited!

I also didn't realize how excited they would be to open new jammies...but they LOVED them. :)

Ruth was more interested in tearing open the present with her mouth...

And the jammies went right for her mouth too...apparently she likes them too :)

We brought the kids up to bed and read This is the Stable and Twas the Night Before Christmas and quickly tucked Isaac and Grace in bed. Ruth came back downstairs and hung out for a bit since she had taken a nap during the service :)

Just before 1am the presents were wrapped and tucked under the tree... waiting for morning!

5 months old!

Ruth is 5 months already! I just can't believe how quick it goes. She is starting to scoot around backwards...nothing intentional...but she no longer stays where I put her down on the floor. She is such a smiley and happy girl. She adores Isaac and Grace and loves to have them near her. She is very vocal with lots of coos, laughs, and shouts :) Happy 5 months baby girl!

What do you feed her?!?!?

I've been asked this question over and over again recently. It's the next question everyone asks after they ask how old she is. Apparently it's heavy cream as opposed to the skim milk they alluded to when Ruth was just 2 weeks old! :) Ruth had her 4 month check up today and is 16lbs (94th percentile) and 25 1/2 inches long (90th percentile). She got 2 shots and one oral vaccine today so she is sleeping already. I will hopefully be joining her soon as I haven't been getting much sleep with all the sickies in our house! Goodnight! :)

Fall Fun

We have had a beautiful fall here this year. So far, we still haven't seen any snow yet! It's been cold...but none of the white stuff. That will probably be changing by the end of the week... just in time to be on the road traveling with three little ones! Anyway..here are some pics from fun we've had outside recently:



Playing in the leaves:

A very big pile of leaves...

...hiding Gracie-girl! :)

Oh look..another pile...

...a perfect place for baby boy to hide in:

They have been having a lot of fun lately drawing with their chalk. Isaac made his school bus...#29 (click on the picture to see it clearer)!

Then we made "hand turkeys" in honor of the upcoming feast!

We've really enjoyed the nicer weather we've had...though the shorter days really cuts into the time we can spend outside after Isaac is done school. It really is amazing how quickly the day light fades at the end of the day! Hopefully we'll get out a few more times before the snow falls!

Growing and Changing...

Ruth has changed so much just in the last few weeks! I know that is the way it is the 1st year, but it has amazed me yet again! She is so much fun now and is interacting so much more with us and things around her. She grabs toys to put in her mouth and reaches out to touch things around her. She is constantly putting her fingers in her mouth and I am holding out hope that I may have a thumbsucker yet!!! Here are a few pictures of some recent accomplishments/milestones.

She had learned to roll from front to back. She has done this a few times during tummytime...but the day I took this picture she woke up from her nap crying really hard. I walked in and found her like this:

Poor girl had flipped over on her back and even got her leg out of her pj's. She was NOT happy! We are still working on rolling from back to front. She is so close...she gets on her side...but just can't complete the turn. This is a picture from one of her attempts:

While we were at Jess' house Ruth tried out Elijah's exersaucer for the 1st time. She LOVED it and knew just what to do to have fun in it. She was spinning circles and playing with all the toys on it. I was amazed to see how she played in it!

So, we came home and introduced her to her johnny jumper. She likes hanging out it in and chewing on the linkadoos. She hasn't managed to get jumping too much...but I don't think it will be too long before she gets the hang of it!

She has also discovered her toes! She is always grabbing for them when she is nursing..it is the cutest thing watching her reach for them and then hold on to them.

So...that is pretty much all of the new things Ruth is doing. She is still our little princess:

and my baby girl!