Our little peanut

So, Annie had her 15 month doctor appointment last week. (She's actually 16 months old, but I'm a month behind). Anyway, I thought, "She's got to be 20 pounds by now...right?" Wrong. She only weighed 18 pounds 6 ounces and was 28 inches long. That's 5th percentile for height and 0% for weight. She went up a little in the height area so they figure that's why the weight wasn't as much. But honestly...sometimes she eats more than her brother's do. I don't know where it goes. But I'm sure she'll like the "petite" label when she's older. For now, she's just our little peanut.

Playing peekaboo

Saying "cheese"

Twister

My sister gave us the game "Twister" for Christmas. What a classic. The kids are yet to really grasp the concept, but it makes for some funny moments and pictures. Christopher tries to play, Michael just jumps around and does somersaults and as you can see from this picture, Annie just puts her head on the ground and bum in the air. Sooo cute!

I lucked out and caught Michael in mid somersault. He has some scary red eye, but the picture is pretty hilarious. What would we do without kids to keep us entertained.

Week with Grandma and Tatia

The extra week I stayed with my mom was really nice because she was able to spend some really good time with the kids, (although Annie was shy the whole time and wouldn't really let anyone hold her without fussing). The kids favorite thing about Grandma's house was; playing with all her kitchen utensils in the snow, seeing Tatia's dog Bridget, going to the library, Grandma letting them eat whatever they wanted, and going to church with grandma. We miss them!
Grandma walking her two little doggies.

Sledding with the Crosby's

My sister will kill me that I published a picture of her, but oh well. :)

Time with Papa and Gramma

The kids favorite things about staying at Jeff's parents house was the air hockey table, the swing, cereal in the mornings and playing in the snow. They really love to sit with gramma while she reads them stories and I feel like they got a lot closer to Jeff's step-dad (papa) and really enjoyed playing with him. Here is the week at their house in pictures.

Gramma does this thing with the kids where she mesmerizes them with a head tickle. Ahhh

The wedding was gorgeous and Elycia looked so pretty. It was fun to surprise everyone.

The boys loved playing air hockey. It kept them really entertained.

We're Back

Actually, we've been back from Utah for over a week now, but I'm just barely catching up with everything and getting back to the blog. We had a really great time in Utah. We went for a nieces wedding and it was really beautiful. It was so fun to see all the family and let the kids play with their cousins. There are a few of the older cousins that are so good with the little kids and play with them and keep them out of trouble while all the adults socialize. We stayed with Jeff's mom and dad for the first week and then I stayed for another week and stayed with my mom. My mom really loved being with her only grandkids and they also had fun playing with her. It was also great to spend time with my sister who the kids love also. She has a little dog that Michael talks about all the time, even here in NJ. We even braved Chuck E. Cheese one night and Tatia was a trooper following the kids around to all the games. During the first week we were there is snowed for 2 days straight and put down over a foot of snow. The boys especially loved it and played outside at least 3 times a day. We had to dry the clothes out between each outing. They went sledding at gramma and papa's house and also with some of our old friends. It's amazing how playing in the snow never gets old for little kids.

The plane trip home was good and bad. The boys were great, but Annie was fussy/wiggly/screamy for the first 3 hours and then fell asleep for the last hour and a half. I guess it could have been worse. Luckly, no one gave me any dirty looks. ;) It was nice to get back home to our things and the kids missed their dad.

Run, Kids, Run!

So, we are crazy people. We had a niece getting married on January 2nd and we weren't planning on coming home for it because things were so busy, mostly for Jeff. But on the afternoon of New Years Day, Jeff just felt like we needed to come home. So at 5:30 we booked plane tickets, packed and hopped in the van. Due to a little lolly-gagging on Jeff's part and having to park in long term parking and take the Airtran to the airport we didn't get to the airport until 8 pm. The flight left at 8:20. At first they told us it was too late and then they just said to take our bags to the gate and ask them to check them there. So we RAN, through security and RAN to the gate. We were huffing and puffing, but we made it. :) But now we are here and having a really good time. The wedding was beautiful and we are having lots of fun with Grandma, Tatia, Papa, Gramma, and cousins. It is snowing tons and the kids LOVE it! Jeff will come back this week and I will stay another week (since the kids were so great on the plane and so I'm not so afraid of doing it myself). We've taken lots of fun pictures that I'll post when I get a chance...since Jeff got me a nice digital camera for Christmas. Love you Jeff!

Bad mom

So, I totally was a bad mom today. I didn't see myself ever saying anything like this, but I did. We had a ton of errands to run, Christmas cards and packages to mail and plus, it was raining outside. The boys were being pretty good, except for Michael crying for candy at the store. But, the post office is always where I loose control. For some reason it is so hard to take kids to the post office. I had to mail a package to Brazil and that takes like twice as long as anything else. Anyway, the kids were not at their best and all of the sudden I heard myself saying, "Christopher and Michael, if you aren't good Santa isn't going to bring you any Christmas presents." What??? Did I really say that??I kind of laughed after I said it. We don't really push the whole Santa thing in our house because we want to emphasize celebrating the life of Jesus Christ and we know that even if we don't talk about it a lot they are going to pick up the idea of Santa Claus anyway, which they have. Not that I"m against Santa or anything...I think it's a really fun part of Christmas. Anyway, I just felt a little bad that I made them feel like Santa wouldn't like them if they weren't perfect all the time. Looking back on it now, it probably wasn't a big deal...but it totally felt like a silly, trite thing to say when I said it. Hahaha. And by the way, I don't think they believed me anyway, since there are a bunch of wrapped presents in the closet that they have seen...another hard part of living in such a small apartment. :)

So cute!

I don't usually let the boys nap in the same room because....well, they won't nap. But I usually let them play for a little while and then have them go in seperate rooms to sleep. The other day is got quiet rather quick so I went in to check and found them asleep like this. It was so cute. They looked like they had just been hanging out talking and fell asleep. :)

I hadn't taken any 3 year old pictures of Michael yet so I wanted to take him in the backyard and snap a few shots. He wasn't too excited and didn't want me to comb his hair (which you can tell from this picture needed to be cut). But he was a trooper even though it was pretty cold outside. I asked him to smile and he gave me this cute, cheesy, "hurry and take the picture mom" smile. ;)

One of the boys

Baby Anne is one of the boys. She loves to do whatever her brothers are doing and she can growl and climb around on the furniture just like they do. Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to get my "girly girl". She is so cute though and she cracks me up at the thing she will do. Her favorite words are "da" (dad), "baby", "no" and "uh oh". Her brothers love to hold her hands and walk around the house with her. For a little while, Michael was having a hard time and he would get in the occasional push or pinch. But lately, he has been much nicer and likes to play with her and help her with things. I can see them becoming buddies. We just love little Baby Anne and all her personality.

Christmas is coming!

7 pairs of slippers - supplies $12

1 quilt for Grandma - supplies $15

1 children's fort - supplies $20

Having all my homemade Christmas gifts done - Priceless!

I had such a fun time making all these presents. The fort was really fun. I put a little mail box on the front (the black square opens up) and on the other side (not pictured) I put a dog house with a doggy inside, for Michael. He loves dogs. I hope they have lots of fun with it.