Thanksgiving 2010

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. We have a family of three beautiful kids. This year for Thanksgiving we had my parents, Brian's parents, my brother and sister. We dearly missed Josh and Abby, Jason, and Vivian and Jay. This year we had two turkeys. We had a great "regular" turkey and a deep fried turkey. The deep fried turkey was a huge hit and I think a new tradition!
Matthew napped before dinner and managed to get up just in time for dinner. He sure wasn't go miss out on food!
Dessert this year was two pumpkin pies, a pumpkin cheese cake, and a pecan pie. The pumpkin was all pumpkin that I cooked and strained back in October. It was so much work but they were good. We had Peanut Pumpkin Pie and Long Island Cheese Pumpkin Pie. There was also a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin Cheesecake that was just amazing. I can't wait to make that again. Oh and I liked the Peanut Pumpkin pie the best!

Thank you Lord for all that you gave our family this year. We feel so blessed with our little family and everyone that joined us today to celebrate all that is blessings in our lives!

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Matthew is ONE today. Happy Birthday, Matthew! I can't believe he is one already. I know that a year ago today I woke up and wonder how much longer I could stand being pregnant. Matthew decided there was no more growing room and was born about 4pm weighing 8 lbs 10 ounces. He is still a big boy. He is now wearing 24 months clothes even though he is only a year old.

As of today we have
a 3 year old ...
a 2 year old ... and
a 1 year old ... until Aug 24 when Grace turns 4!
Let the comments begin because I know they will be coming!

Grace in her love for independent playing asked yesterday go play on the playground. Sophie was taking one of her rare naps so Grace was out there alone. Brian kept checking on her and she had fun out there by herself ... well until she got stuck because the play house door wouldn't open and she refused to go down the hot slide (smart girl!) or the rock wall board. She is lucky Brian saw her and rescued his Princess!

Sophie still loves to sing. If Grace and Matthew fall asleep in the van and Sophie is still awake, she will sit back there singing songs to herself. It is so cute to hear Old McDonald, You are my sunshine, or Itsy Bitsy Spider as you are driving along. We must not forget these songs ... they are certainly better than ones we will be hearing from the back of the van ten years from now!

A Growing Little Dude and Potty Updates

Matthew is still cruising. He has learned to be happy and play in his bed when he wakes up. On top of all of that, he is eating everything and anything. He will eat anything I feed him. He will only turn down food when he is stuffed and then half a hour later he will eat again if he sees something else.

We can officially say that Sophie got the hang of potty training ... most of the time! As a result she is now a candy monster and will tell you about her potty success but quickly ask for a piece of candy to celebrate.

Grace has started sleeping through the night without a pull-up!!! She does this about half the time but is doing really good with it. She is very proud of herself in the mornings so try to make a really big deal of her success.

More Teeth, Singing, and Preschool

Matthew now has SIX teeth. He is teeth are so sharp. He is a biter so watch out.

Sophie loves singing ... singing ... singing. She catches on words to songs really fast. The songs Grace learned at preschool Sophie now knows. She is a smart singing cookie. You are my Sunshine is her favorite song at bedtime these days.

Grace has finished her first year of preschool. She made so much progress in school this year. It is great to see her come out of her shyness even though she still love independent play. She did really good in all of the areas of school and is on track for being in the four-year-old class next year!

Applesauce, Nickname, and Cruising

Grace surprised me the other night and made up an applesauce song at bedtime. It basically was the word applesauce over and over and over again. I rarely get bedtime duty as that is a daddy job per Grace and Sophie so it was nice to see this side of Grace. Brian tells me that this wasn't the first time she picked the applesauce song to sing so it must be a favorite ... at least for now!

Sophie's new nickname might just be "Crash." She has the most banged up knees of any little child around. As soon as one boo-boo gets better, she is scrapping them up again. People including Grandma, of course, are now commenting and asking about her poor knees. Sorry, Sophie. You are related to your mom and her mom and we lack coordination too.
Matthew has started to cruise around stuff. The coffee table is his favorite cruising object as it was for Sophie and Grace. We are very thankfully for its round corners. Matthew is trying to get more teeth and is still not sleeping through the night for me. The sleeping thing will have to change here soon. It must.

Two New Looks and a Favorite Saying

Matthew, well Sophie, gave me my first ever visit to the ER. Sophie claims she shut Matthew's finger in our closet door and that is how it got a big slice in it. One ER visit, two stitches, one band-aid, and four hours later, he was doing OK again. I had to hold him as they put the stitches in his finger. I bruised his arm holding him still. He then flipped out completely when the doctor went to put the band-aid on his finger. ugh. I hope to avoid that place for the rest of forever. I am sure I won't but I have no desire at all to go there again!

Grace's favorite saying right now is "You make me laugh." She will just look over at you and say it or you will say something and that will be her response. I have to say having a 3.5 year old tell you that makes you feel like you are worth something!

Sophie has a new look this summer. She has skinless knees. The poor child has no coordination and is always tripping over her feet. I don't know how she does it. Well, I do know how she does as I have no coordination either so hopefully that means she will out grow the part where she tears up her knees. So if you see the boo-boos on her knees, give her kisses. Gosh knows, she needs them!

Crawling, Singing, and a Shadow

Matthew is crawling like a mad man. Slap. Slap. Slap. You know he is coming when you hear the slapping. The slapping on the floor as they crawl is one my favorite things about the crawling age. It gives you time to get ready to give them a big smile as they turn the corner looking for you! We also had to lower Matthew's crib all the way down. Now if I don't drop the side, I end up dropping him into the crib. oops! To add to his first, he has started standing next to stuff now. Standing at the coffee table is one of his favorite activities right now.

Grace has become a singer. In a typical preschooler way about half the time she belts out the songs like she shouting down the street. Her memory is getting really good and she is remembering songs she learns at school and singing them at home. She sang Skin-a-ma-rinky-dink as part of her Mother's Day Tea at preschool and now likes to sing that at home. I must try to find the TV show that song was part of ... sadly it is the only part of the show I seem to remember watching as a kid!

Sophie has become Grace's shadow. She is a little follower when it comes to playing. It is probably a good thing because Grace is a little bossy-boss. One of these days, Sophie will get tired of it but we find ways to use it to our advantage now. We commonly ask "Sophie can you had toys to Grace and then Grace can put them away." I am sure this will back-fire on us one of these day. For now though, it is useful and with three of them, we take what we can get!