Wonderful Christmas

We had an absolutelty wonderful Christmas! The kids must have been good this year so Santa came and left some nice presents. The older the kids get, the easier it is to get them to bed on Christmas Eve!


Jefferson was mesmerized by the tower of presents in the living room, he started opening without us!

The big boy bike that Santa brought Ben. He also brought Hannah a Razor daisy scooter and Jefferson a Whisper Ride Buggy.

Have'nt we seen this picture before? It's this years version. More rooms for the doll house.

This present was a big hit with Jefferson, actually he loves everything he got.

We are so blessed to have a Christmas like this, and another one in a few days. It is truly wonderful to see the joy on the kid's faces and see that they really understand what Christmas is about: love, family, and giving.

Merry Christmas Partying!

The celebrations have begun! We had a great weekend partying with the kids. Friday night was Hannah's Family Christmas dance at school, Sat was the the parents Progressive Dinner and kids pizza/movie night at church, and Sun the the annual kids Christmas party at the Holiday Inn.

Hannah sure has some cool dance moves.

Jefferson can't get enough of all the balloons in the room.

Jefferson got some new gears from Santa (our old ones were a little rusty).

Ben has a new dance move (cover your ears until the song is over and then jump up and down)

This is only the beginning of all our holiday fun, next weekend: ugly sweater party for mom and dad only. Then family arrives for Christmas, and it will be wonderful. Hope your enjoying the Christmas season, can't wait to see you all.

First Spaghetti

Everyone has it, the picture of your fist time eating spaghetti and everyone thinks it't so cute and funny. Well, it is! Look how much fun he's having, he loved it, and he loved spashing in the water trying to wash it all off!

Next up: turkey, mashed potatos, green beans, and pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving here we come!

Our Fall fun

Seems like everyone is having lots of fall fun in the leaves, and of course our kids are no exception. Our back yard has plenty of trees with leaves for the kids to romp around in. We even came up with two fun activities.

Ben came up with this all on his own, I think it's totally genius, Mother Nature is way smarter than me. Leaves on the trampoline, you don't have to keep raking them back into a pile, and you get air!


Jefferson enjoyed the outside too, just from the swing. He seems to think that leaves are a delicacy and can't keep them out of his mouth.


Hannah's had lots of friends over this week, with the half school days and such. Her game is to rake as many leaves as she can onto the slide, them swoosh them all down, also very creative on her part.


Hope you get out and enjoy it before the white stuff falls!

Halloween Cuties!

Halloween again, seems like I was just writing the blog on "Get Candy" last year. This year it's more like "yea, we're not sick anymoe and we can leave the house!" But, they did bring home loads of candy that will be rationed out daily.

The fairy, the dinosaur, and the monster.


Jefferson and his pumpkin, note the happy tongue (not on Jefferson)


Perfect in purple, a little girls dress up dream


Seeing who got what, Jefferson tries to get his fair share, he'll have to wait for next year, although he did try his first bite of chocolate.


Another successful year, here's to dressing up, asking strangers for candy, and eating it all before Christmas!

Jefferson's Happy Tongue

I have a theory. Let's start at the beginning. People everywhere comment on Jefferson's tongue hanging out all the time. They think it's funny and cute and probably wonder if he's half puppy, just kidding. What I think though is that it's the way he shows he's really happy. In all our pictures of him having a good time, there's usually a tongue out in one of them. Let me show you.

Playing in his room: happy tongue


Standing in his crib: happy tongue


Cruising on the couch: happy tongue


In the tub: happy tongue again!


There's plenty more photos of this, but you get the picture. Maybe we can add a verse to the old fave kids song, "If you're happy and you know it, stick out your tongue"! So glad I have a happy baby.

Bowling for Real

We're so used to bowling on the Wii Sports or Wii Sports Resort; but we rarely do the real thing. Sometimes, though, it's nice to get the whole family out of the house.

Being Ben's first time and Hannah's second, We had to teach them the basics. After strapping on those stylin' shoes, you have to find the right ball. Unfortunately, Ben tried to grab Stacey's heavier ball for the last frame and pinched is finger between the ball and the rail.


Then you have to get your fingers into the holes and hold it with both hands keeping the holes underneath.


Then you run up and roll it (or throw it) forward (not up).


So much for rolling it underhand...


The next step is watching and concentrating, willing the ball to go where you want it to. Talking, hand gestures, and moving your own body left or right helps, too.


Finally, the celebration!


Everyone had fun, although we're definitely better at the Wii version... much better.

Firsts for Ben

This is Ben's week. Tuesday was his first official day of preschool, and after all the prep talk, he was comfortably ready. Jefferson got to go to, but preschool is not for babies as I learned!

In front of the doors with his "Heart from Home"


Purple sand is a huge hit with three year olds.


Ben's other first for the day: swim class. I had to keep reminding him to keep his body on the ledge, mommy wouldn't be there if he decided to take a dunk. But he listened very well to his teacher and had a good time.


Some other things Ben has been busy with: Rainbow class at church Wed night, Mini-Me in Motion at the YMCA, gym class with mommy, and playing with our friends of course!

First Day of School 2009

The big day finally came. Hannah was out the door more excited than nervous this morning. For the past month she has gone back and forth every other five minutes.


Ben wasn't as excited. He starts pre-school next week.


She waited patiently at the end of the driveway. The school district warned us that the bus would be late the first couple of weeks due to pictures and extended good-bye hugs.


We decided to start our good-byes early.


Finally, after stopping five houses up the street and at the corner before that, the bus arrived.


The bus driver asked her name and told her where to sit and then she was off.


Let's hope the rest of the day goes as smoothly.

End of Summer Wrap Up!

Oh, the end of summer, trying to squeeze the last little bit out of every sunny warm day. After lots of rain the kids are back out on the jungle gym, Hannah's new trick is dangling from the Monkey bars then dropping to the ground, so far no bruises!


The last soccer game. This year we celebrated after the game with the team and ate pizza and the kids got their medals. We're proud of her for doing her best and actually trying to kick the ball. Go Team Avalanche!

Jefferson has widened his palette and now eats baby cereal, pears, bananas, squash, sweet potatos, and today, green beans. Usually though, he's just interested in eating the spoon.

Well, I think you all know that Jefferson is quite mobile now, and he actually did real crawling this morning. His new trick is "crawl into somewhere I can't get out of and cry for mommy to come save me". Next up, pull myself up onto anything, he can almost do it.

Hope you're all enjoying the rest of your summer, it's already coolin down here. School starts in 11 days, we're countin down now!

No More Mohawk

... well, almost. Jefferson had worn his head bald on the sides and back, leaving the top as a 3 inch mohawk. Stacey finally let me chop it (and the tail in the back) down to a more reasonable length. It's still longer than the rest of his hair, but its not as ridiculous.


Stacey thinks he looks exactly like me. I have to admit that the resemblance is closer than with the other two; too bad for Jefferson.


And yes, we saved the sheared locks.

Stay tuned: The next post of Jefferson will probably be the news that he's crawling. He's very close right now.

A Sweet Spot

From the looks of Ben, it would seem we were going camping for our summer vacation, but no, we headed to Hershey, for some sweet southeastern PA fun. Ben did bring his sleeping bag, but we left the boots at home.

Since the weather was rainy when we woke up our first day, we changed our plans and headed to Strasburg Railroad where we rode a restored Victorian rail car.

Hannah learned all about Amish country and enjoyed the ride. Afterward, we visited the museum and saw an entire warehouse full of trains, Ben and Hannah thought is was great. Later in the day we went to Chocolate World where we saw a 3D show, took a "tour" of the factory and of course got some yummy souvenirs!

Dutch Wonderland, more like kiddie wonderland.

Hannah was tall enough to ride everything, and I think she almost did! She and Ben were both so excited to ride in bumper cars for the first time.

Yea! A whole family photo from our photographer, oops, I mean Aunt Juls!

Our nanny, um, Aunt Juls, with "Jeffers" on the monorail, the second ride of the day for Jefferson, his first was the gondola boats.

Before heading home, we decided to rely on Ms. GPS to get us to the Crayola Museum in Easton, PA. It was really great.

Hannah coloring her Model Magic mermaid. We got all sorts of fun things to bring home. We even went to a special show to see how they make crayons and markers.

Part of the museum is for canals, so Ben learned how they worked and spent quite some time making his own canals and floating the boats.

So is a family vacation for a family with three kids, going to several different places, and staying in a hotel room possible, OF COURSE IT IS. And I would even say is was really fun! Thank you both to Aunt Julie and Aunt Juls for your help, it's more than appreciated.

Check back soon for a picture of Jefferson's big baby boy hair cut...