Fa-la-la-la! Christmas Cards are Here!

I've always loved the idea of doing photo cards for the holidays http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards.  I think it's one of the few times that you can show off your entire family without being too cheesy.  ;)  This year, we have an extra little person to add to our family.  After Nolan's wild adventure of coming into this world, I would love to do something extra special to show him and the rest of our family off this holiday season.  I think we've got the perfect photo after a little photo shoot this past week and now I hope to find the "perfect" photo card and Shutterfly is going to make that possible for us http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards.  I've used Shutterfly before and I love that you can make your own photo books.  I was such a huge scrapbooker, but that got too expensive and time consuming.  I love the fact that I can upload the pictures I want, add a little blurb here and there to document the picture and wham-bam! instant scrapbook!  I've also useed them before to make wall calendars http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars for the family.  What's a better present that having my kids to look at for 12 whole months?! 

Halloween 2010

We had such a fun Halloween this year!  Now that we have two kids, I'm all about them coordinating for holidays.  Yes, I'm a dork and I'm okay with that.  I found two very cute costumes at our church's consignment sale and the prices couldn't be beat.  Our busy bumble bee and dainty "yadybug" was a huge success!  I was very worried that big boy wouldn't fit into the costume, but with a little squeezing and tugging we got you in.  Mack, you ran around for months wearing your "yadybug" so when it was actually time to wear it, you were so excited.  We wanted to try something different this year, and we decided to go to the Avenue for Halloween.  It was actually on the 30th, so we made a day out of it.  We went that morning and got our pumpkin from a local church and then we changed and went trick or treating!  Mackenzie, you were hysterical.  You were so shy at first and would only hold your bag out, but once your figured out what to do, you were on it, girl.  You were so sweet with your pleases, and thank you's and you especially loved all the stores that gave out lollipops.  They often didn't make it into your bag before you had the wrapper off and were sucking on them, but it was a day for treats and you were having so much fun.  You got the perfect amount of candy and you told us when you were all done.  You were one tired "yadybug".  Bumble Bee Nolan, you just sat in the stroller and enjoyed all of the fun sights and sounds.  You are such a good baby.  After we trick or treated, we met Uncle Matt at On the Border for supper.  It was getting very close to his deployment time so we were spending as much time as possible with him.  Mackenzie, your Uncle Matt absolutely adores you.  You two have a very special bond.

 Talking to your favorite bear.  We have to stop at him every time we're at the Avenue.

 Brothers and sisters X2.  I can only pray that Mack and Nolan, you two will be as close as Uncle Matt and me.

October 30, 2010

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Right in the middle of October, on a beautiful Sunday, Mommy, Gramma, you(Mack), you(Nolan), Carmen, Cooper, Brandon, Tessa, and Camalai visited Burt's Pumpkin Patch.  We had such a great time!  The drive up there was long and we thought we were getting lost a time or two, however, we did arrive and we got there at just right time...before all of the traffic!  It was our first time at Burt's so we didn't know what to expect, and man o man, did we have some fun!  We started off with a fun picnic down by the river.  We then went and checked out all of the gigantically huge pumpkins.  Mackenzie, you and Cooper had so much fun exploring all the pumpkins and we got some really fun pictures to prove it.  We took a hayride and they have animated pumpkins that talk, and you (Mack) LOVED them!  You told everyone on the hayride about them, and you're still talking about them today.  We finished the day off with a small pumpkin to bring home to Daddy and two very sleepy kids in tow.  Nolan, sweet boy, you were so tired you screamed the whole way down the mountain.  You definitely have some lungs on you!  

 Gramma and her sweet boy!

 I think Mack was over it at this point?  What do you think, Mack?!

 You LOVED those talking pumpkins.

 I think I want this one, Mommy.

 It looks like you're praying over the pumpkins!

 

 Nolan, you're the sweet little guy.  I love you.

October 17, 2010

Mackenzie-25 Months

My beautiful girl, you are something else!  You are simply amazing.  You've adapted so well to this new little person you like to call, "My baby brugger, Rolen".  He is your everything right now, and we absolutely love it.  You really enjoy your time with Nanny and Papa Tuesday thru Friday and your Monday's with Aunt "Kawri".  You're learning so much with her and I'm always so impressed when I pick you and you tell me all the fun things you've learned during the day.  You've had a hard time the past few weeks with manners, and being defiant, but I think it's all apart of the growing up process.  You're extremely stubborn and very strong willed.  I really like that about you, because with that it says to me that you're not a push over or easily influenced.  But because of it, you've hit a bumps in the road and have spent some time in "time out" and have even had a few spankings because of it.  It's so hard being the bad guy, but I promise, Mommy and Daddy aren't here to be the bad guys, we just want you to be a sweet and polite as possible.  In some ways, it's pretty darn funny to hear some of the crazy things that come out of the sweet mouth of yours.  When you get very angry, you're not afraid to let everyone know.  You cross your little arms, and squish up that chunky little face of yours.  It's pretty cute.  We've spent a lot of time at Gramma's lately because of Uncle Matt deploying soon, and you've been such a ham!  One night, we were trying to eat dinner and you had already eaten, so you were watching a movie.  You wanted so badly to sit with the family, but that just meant you wanted to touch everything on the table not eat.  I asked you several times to stop climbing on the chairs and I finally had to sit you down in time out.  You were so mad!  You were crying pretty big crocodile tears, and all of a sudden you sneezed and a huge booger was hanging out of your nose.  Instead of wiping it, you started cracking up laughing which made all of us laugh too.  You then said, "Mommy, look a booger!  That's soooo NASTY!"  You are one funny girl!

October 4, 2010

4 Months

The month of October was jammed packed with fun, fun, fun!  Nolan, sweet heart, you turned 4 whopping months old and we had your 4 month well visit...I must say, big man, you are a chunker!  You're stats are as follows:
height: 26 1/2 inches=90%
weight: 17lbs. 11oz.=90%
head: 42.5cm=50-75%
Can you say big boy!  We also got the go ahead to start feeding you baby food.  The dr. took one look at you and said it was ok, and it helped that you were trying to eat her clothes!  You also have a little tooth starting to poke through.

What you love:
*being in the upright position, so sitting in the Bumbo, Excersaucer, being held is heaven for you
*playing on your floor gym, talking away that the star that lights up and sings
*you adore your sister, for a while, she was the ONLY one that could make you laugh, that has since changed, however, she is definitely your most favorite person
*food!  Once we got the go ahead to feed you baby food, we tried you on all of the vegetables, and you love all of them.  And most fruits. 
*rolling around all over the place!  We've nicknamed you Rollin' Nolan and your sister dies laughing every time we chant it.
*sleeping on your stomach

What you dislike:
*peaches, so far you've gagged every time we've given them to you.
*being forced onto your stomach.  If you roll over that way, you're happy, if we put you like that, you cry
*waiting on your food, you're pretty impatient about it, but it's cute!

October 4, 2010