O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree

As mentioned in a previous blog, we packed our week full while Gammy was here! So before she left on Saturday, we headed out to get our Christmas tree. The kids were freezing but excited. But thankfully it wasn't raining! Brent and I were reminiscing about the fact that every year since we've been dating we have gone Christmas tree shopping in the rain! (yes, we have taken our kids out in the rain to find a tree, even as babies!)




After daddy got the lights on the tree, the kids went to town decorating. Avery was really into it but after about 5 minutes, Griffin moved on to other activities! (like pulling ornaments off the tree...and "accidentally" throwing balls into the tree...)

trying to reach the "high" spots

Griffin hanging some ornaments

29 and holding...

On Thanksgiving Day, I celebrated my 29th birthday, AGAIN! Its always fun when my birthday actually falls on Turkey Day - and I am reminded of how I made my debut on Thanksgiving night many years ago. My mom's water broke while eating Thanksgiving Dinner!

This is me but I'm not sure how old I am - I think I'm about 1?

Here I am at 2 years...

and I think I'm 2 1/2 - 3 years here...
Earlier in the week, Brent and I went out to eat at a Vietnamese and Chinese joint here called Jujube while Gammy stayed home with all the kids. This was our first childless night out in a long time!

and then we did presents and celebrated with pumpkin pie on my "actual" birthday...I got some new wicked good slippers and a beautiful new sweater!

Playing with Gammy

Gammy drove up from Mobile last Saturday so that she could be here in time for Griffin's birthday party and then stayed all week. We had a lot of time to hang out with her and we had a full week! She played lots of "poly pocket" with Avery and lots of cars with Griffin. And Gammy brought several art projects with her so she occupied kids by making scarecrows, Christmas ornaments, and some other artsy things. She also watched the kids so that Brent and I could go out to dinner for my birthday - I needed that! And of course we cooked a yummy meal to celebrate on Thanksgiving. I worked on Friday so Gammy and Brent watched the kids all day. And to end the week, we went and got a Christmas tree this morning so that Gammy could be here for that as well!

Here are some pictures from an afternoon at the park...

Lovin' the Leaves!

collecting leaves and sticks for projects

racing the bat mobile down the slide

our 7 month old! yikes!

Griffin's Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Griffin's 3rd birthday with a "Spiderman" party at the Little Gym. When thinking about what to do for his birthday, Brent and I thought the Little Gym sounded perfect for Griffin - its a large room, floors covered in padded mats, with lots of things to climb on, jump off, swing on, run around....sounds like a Griffin heaven! We had about 15 kids and everyone seemed to have a blast. We had 2 pooped out kiddos by bedtime!

Griffin knew he was having a party and we had talked about everyone we were inviting...but I don't think he really "got" it...because every time a friend came in the door, he'd look at them as if surprised and say "What are you doing at my birthday party?" He was so excited to see his friends!

Griffin going full speed ahead...note the tongue out...one of those things both Avery and Griffin got from their father...

taking a short break from the running around...

(Bryce, Ellie, Hannah, Griffin, Emma, Leslie, Emma, Aiden)

Gammy and Graham

working on his balance

some of the men

Leslie and Griffin, having a serious conversation

one little monkey

mommy and Griffin, getting wrapped up in the parachute

Yummy Spiderman cupcakes!

Happy Birthday Griffin!

Cupcakes in Class

Today for snack, we took cupcakes, applesauce, and juice boxes in to Griffin's class to help celebrate his birthday. He was super excited and his teachers said he had been talking about it all morning.

(I should preface this post by saying that when I came down stairs this morning after taking a shower, I discovered that Avery and Griffin had each eaten several cupcakes! They had actually stayed in the kitchen with them and gotten out a washcloth and attempted to clean themselves off!)

avery came down and celebrated with us for a few minutes!

here is the whole class...griffin, avery, hannah, luke, brendan, emma, leslie, and camryn

making his "infamous" frosting mustache

Ms Meg reads a book while they eat snack...guess its an easy way to keep them relatively quiet!

Happy Birthday Griffin!

Today my baby boy turned 3!! Wow! Its been a wild and crazy 3 years for sure! But full of love and hugs and laughter. I'll post an official "3 years old" post next week after our MD appointment when I get all of his updated stats...but for now, here is the start of Griffin's birthday celebrations.

Last night Griffin and I went to the grocery store so that he could pick out his cake mix, frosting, and sprinkles - per his request! And then this morning, Avery and Griffin helped make the cupcakes. I managed to frost them myself while the kids were occupied elsewhere but then let them do the sprinkles.

of course, I had to give both of them a frosting covered knife to lick! (yes, probably should have used a spoon...)

griffin was very intentional in his sprinkle placement. these mini cupcakes are to take to his class at school tomorrow...

We opened presents and had big cupcakes after dinner tonight. Not sure who was more excited, Avery or Griffin! But sissy did really well letting Griffin actually open his own stuff.

a "lightning the queen" sleeping bag

something "spiderman" to satisfy his newest obsession

cheese!

I LOVE this shot...Griffin staring up at Brent while we were singing Happy Birthday...what a cutie pie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GUY!

Brent's Big Day

Brent ran his first half-marathon this morning and did great! His final chip time was 1:46.15, his pace was 8:07/mile, and his rank was 279/2168. His goal was to finish in less than 2 hours so he did really well. Not to mention that it was 30 degrees out this morning! The kids and I were able to make it to see him cross the finish line.

Here we are, watching and cheering for each runner as they went by. Griffin was more into wandering around and collecting acorns - but Avery was really excited to cheer for the runners, especially if it was a girl! ("mom, mom, I see another girl coming!")

I told Brent that he had to wear bright red for the next race - I got my camera ready every time I saw someone coming in black shorts and a white shirt!! But here he comes, front and center!

YAY DAD!

Barbara is one of the fellows who works with Brent. She and her boyfriend Chris ran the race as well.


Good job honey! I'm proud of you!

Family Day

Griffin's preschool class is spending the month of November talking about families, thanksgiving, and fall foods....so they kicked off their month with "Family Day" today. Families were invited to join the class for the last 45 minutes of their day for food and fellowship. Graham and I had fun meeting Griffin's friends and visiting with their parents. Griffin enjoyed showing off his classroom and school toys. I brought Griffin's all time favorite food - pumpkin bread! He was excited to share it with his class.

This is Brendan - one of Griffin's good buddies at school. They would only let me take their picture if they could "be silly!"

Here's the G-man enjoying his snack with Emma and her older brother Aiden.

Happy 6 Months Graham!

GRAHAM CHARLES

My baby boy is 6 months old! (yes, this post is about 2 weeks late but we just had his doctor appointment this week...) How can it be?

He has continued to be a really relaxed and go-with-the flow baby, crying mainly when he is overly tired. He has been teething the past 2-3 weeks so he's been a little out of sorts - but one bottom tooth popped through on Monday and the other should be through in the next few days.

So far so good with eating...still nursing well and tolerates a bottle when needed. He didn't really care for rice cereal and pears aren't his favorite, but he's willingly eaten everything else I've offered.

He has become a great napper - normally sleeps for about 1.5-2 hours in the morning and about 2.5 hours in the afternoon. The past week has brought great progress in the night time sleeping department! I finally broke down and did some sleep training last weekend. (this is a new thing for me because the other 2 learned to sleep by themselves...) He is now sleeping from about 7 or 7:30 until 5 without fussing...and then he cries out a time or 2 before falling back asleep.

His favorite activity is the johnny jump-up thing. He goes to town in that thing!! He also still really likes the exersaucer - probably because he's upright and because he can see what it going on. He likes to roll around on the floor too - but gets ticked off after being on his belly for too long. (he then screams - why he doesn't just roll back over is beyond me!) He has started doing the "inch bug" - while laying on his belly, he puts his head down and scoots forward. He can sit up by himself - until he tips to the side or back! He's almost there though!

His laryngomalacia has him breathing louder than ever these days...Brent and I affectionately call him Darth Vader! Supposedly, the loud breathing peaks between 4-8 months and then slowly subsides....we'll see!

At his well-baby checkup, Dr. Cooley said everything looked great. He weighed in at 16 lbs, 11 oz which is 25 %...and he was 26.5 inches long, around the 50%...so he's long and lean! And he has inherited the "McBrayer Head" - 97%!!!

he loves his bath!

what a handsome dude!

looks so big sitting up!