Sean's Christmas Program

On Wednesday, Sean's pre-school put on a Christmas program. It was adorable and Sean did a great job. I was a little worried that when he saw Derek and I in the audience that he would not want to stand up there, but he did fine. Just mommy worrying I guess! I've included several video clips of the program and Sean is in the left bottom corner sitting with the teacher. The videos are a little shaky because I was trying to hold Ryan at the same time and only had one free hand! Here's a funny picture of me and Ryan - he has bug eyes!

After the program, we went back to Sean's classroom to have a birthday party for Jesus. The kids also handed out presents to the parents - an ornament with a picture of them. It was supposed to be of him dressed up in a costume and standing by the manger, but his teacher told me that he and one other boy in the class wanted nothing to do with it. So, she convinced him to stand in front of the Christmas tree. Either way, it's cute.

Christmas Traditions

Whew - sorry it has taken me so long to post an update! Since Thanksgiving, I've been so busy with Christmas shopping, parties, school events for Sean, etc. As Sean gets older, it's so fun to start Christmas family traditions. This year we had some friends over to decorate Christmas cookies and Sean had a blast! I have to admit that I didn't make the dough from scratch; I just bought the pre-cut sugar cookies. I figure that as Sean gets older we can progress to making the cookie dough and cutting out the shapes. After Sean was done decorating his cookies, I couldn't tell if he even had any cookies on his plate because his plate was covered in sprinkles!

This year we also decorated a gingerbread house and Sean really enjoyed it. I waited for a good sale and bought a gingerbread house kit. Sean took his time to place each piece of candy in the right place and didn't complain when mommy realized that the frosting had to set for hours before the house could actually be decorated! Oops! I was also surprised that he didn't fuss about not being able to eat the gingerbread house (although we had our share of candy while we decorated!).

We hope to look at some lights this year and Sean enjoyed helping to decorate our house. He has several of his own decorations in his bedroom and it's cute that each one has it's own place.

One last thing - a funny story about a mommy mistake I made this year. Sean didn't have any presents under the tree so I put 2 out one morning. One was from Ryan and the other was from my sister. When I got out of the shower that morning, I heard running downstairs up and down our walkway. I didn't think anything of it at first and then I got this bad feeling that he was up to no good so I went downstairs and heard the sounds of paper ripping! I found him hiding behind our recliners opening the gifts. He had already opened one of the toy packages! I was shocked and mad at first until I started to think back to when I was child and all of the sneaky things I did to try and get a peek at my Christmas presents. He helped me re-wrap the presents (I didn't put them back under the tree this time!) and he asked me not to put them under the tree because he was too tempted to open them! Now I've learned my lesson not to put any presents for him under the tree until Christmas.

Hello, Winter!

Well, the snow has been falling all day. Last Sunday it snowed nearly 9 inches and we've gotten several more today. In addition to the snow today, it is VERY VERY cold. Right now it is around 14 degrees outside - Brrr. During the first snow, Sean and daddy went sledding with our friends, the Nix family. They had a blast, but Sean started to cry for mommy when he was tired and too cold. It was very windy that day and you could barely see because the snow was blowing.

The nice thing about snow here is that the roads can be covered in snow one day and if the sun comes out the next morning, it's already melted quite a bit by early morning. By the end of the day, you won't find much snow. Driving tomorrow morning should be fun!

Enjoy the pics of the snow and Sean helping me shovel the driveway. Here are some pictures of Ryan and his girlfriend, Mary Ashlynn (she is 2 months older than Ryan and absolutely adorable). :-)

4 Months Old!

Time has gone by fast - Ryan is already 4 months old. At his doctor's appointment he weighed 13.9 lbs (29th percentile) and was 24 3/4 inches long (52nd percentile). Most of the time, he is a very happy baby. He is usually smiling; especially at Sean. When Sean is in the room, Ryan just follows his every move. He adores his big brother. Ryan is close to sitting up and we just took out the exersaucer toy and he loves it!

Really the only area that he is not doing so well is his sleep. He's been in his crib for about a month and a half and still struggles to sleep. We had a couple of good nights where he would sleep for 3 hours straight, but the last few nights have been extremely exhausting with Ryan waking 2-3 times per hour! When I saw the doctor, his first question was "Is your baby sleeping for at least 6 hours at a time at night?". I exclaimed "NO!". He gave me some tips and basically said that he felt bad for me! Derek and I definitely long for a full night's sleep. I honestly don't know how I function during the day. God gives me the energy I need each day to make it through.

We also started feeding Ryan solid foods. His first food was rice cereal. He actually was very calm about the whole experience and is pretty good at keeping more of it in his mouth now.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are so thankful to God for how he has blessed and provided for our family this year. Derek's dad, step-mom Diane, and grandma are visiting. We usually take a trip to Pinetop/Lakeside to visit them for Thanksgiving, but since Ryan is still a little guy they made the trip here this year. As usual, we ate way too much!

Derek and I braved the Black Friday after Thanksgiving sales. We took Ryan with us and he was such a good boy sleeping most of the time. We got some really good deals, but the crowds were nuts. The weather was also bad and we woke up to icy roads and snow. The Lord kept us safe, but we saw several cars slipping all over the roads.

Enjoy the video of Ryan eating his first food and some pictures of the boys!

Get That Bird!

Here are some videos of Ryan playing on his toy playmat and really trying to grab a hold of the bird that flies over his head. In the second video, he really grabs a hold of the bird!

How Cute!

Sean's pre-school had a costume party in October and Sean decided that he wanted to dress as a cowboy! I had a very cute "Winnie the Pooh" costume that my sister gave me and he wanted nothing to do with it this year. He told me that he would dress as "Winnie the Pooh" next year. Somehow I don't think he will feel that way come next October!

We made his costume out of some things we already had at home including a cowboy dress-up outfit that Grams gave him. Anyway, I have to say that he was the cutest cowboy I've ever seen.

Ryan was dressed in a warm Halloween pajama outfit picked out by mommy from a clearance rack last year before he was even born!

Daddy and Sean went trick or treating around the block with his friend Grace who lives behind us. Sean wasn't scared a bit and went right up to the houses. He came home with a full pumpkin of candy and now thinks that he is entitled to candy everyday. Thankfully, the candy is almost all gone (with the help of mommy eating it too!).

When he was done, he enjoyed handing out candy to the kids who came to the door. He is so outgoing and reminds me of his daddy.

SOLD

As usual, I'm a bit late in posting this news - after more than a year and a half our house in AZ finally sold! We are so thankful to God for selling our house. Along this tough journey, He strengthened our faith and taught us much about contentment and patience. We also thank all of you who have continually prayed for our family and specficially the sale of our house. The best part of this news is that the house stayed in the family. My sister Michelle and her husband Bryan purchased the house. It's a great house for their growing family as they prepare to welcome a new baby boy (Anthony Michael) in March.