Christmas past and present

Paige, Levi, and Nathan Christmas 2009

 

Paige, Levi, and Nathan Christmas 2010

                                                         My how they have grown!

Christmas Day 2010

Santa! He came! We had a great Christmas. We got up at our usual time and did our normal morning routine. After their morning nap (they sleep till 10:30am) my parents and sisters came over to do Christmas with us. They got a lot of presents! Lucky kids! It was a lot of fun watching them open their gifts. They didn't really know what to make of it though. Then later that day we all went to my cousin Beth's for Christmas dinner. Much fun was had by all!

Santa came!

 

Presents!

 

Santa set up a Little People Christmas village to play with.

 

Grammy and Pop-pop got them a table and chairs set. Here they are trying out the chair.

Nathan

 

Paige

 

Levi

 

Aunt Kristen sitting at the table. It's a blackboard table!!

 

Stockings

 

Paige got Sam Wiggle!

 

Levi tasting Anthony Wiggle and Nathan had Murray Wiggle. 

They also got Jeff Wiggle and Captain Feathersword!

 

Their new tool bench from Santa

 

Presents from Aunt Stephanie and Travis

 

Nathan loves his new Mickey hat! 

Thanks Aunt Stephanie and Travis! lol

 

Levi checking his hat out.

 

Stephanie and Travis in the hats I made them :)

 

Levi with all their new stuffed animals. 

I think we are good on the stuffed animal quota for a while! :)

 

At Beth and Mark's

 

Karaoke!

 

Levi and Pop-pop.

Levi isn't used to seeing so much hair from that seat. :) lol 

love you Alan :)

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas eve was a lot more fun this year then last. Last year we had just brought Levi home from the hospital day. Nathan and Paige had come home the day before. It was our first night with all 3 babies!

This year it kinda felt like it was their first Christmas. Last year was such a blur. This year we took them to the 4pm church service. After that we went to Grammy and Pop-pop's for dinner. In my family we always did gifts from each other and from other family that mailed them in, on Christmas eve. So we did a few gifts as well. We also did a skype session with Alan's parents and some of his relatives so they could see the trio. All in all it was a busy night but it was a lot of fun. The boys looked all snazzy in their Christmas duds and Paige looked very pretty in her dress from my Uncle Gary and Roy.

After Grammy and Pop-pop's we went home and put the trio to bed and then Santa worked his magic. And by magic I mean wrapping gifts at the last minute before putting them under the tree!

Our pitiful tree. I tried to decorate it the best I could but I never did get to finish it.

 

After church at Grammy and Pop-pop's

 

Levi's version of opening gifts

 

Pop-pop helping Nathan

 

Paige

 

Alan opening his gift from the trio

 

Daddy has been jealous of the trio's footed jammies so they bought him a pair for Christmas!

 

Grammy and Pop-pop's tree!

Thank your local firemen today!

Not just because they put out fires. But because of all the little things they do that most people overlook or just don't know they do.

The week before Christmas Alan and I were doing our usual nightly routines. Alan was in the kitchen and I was cleaning up toys. The babies were fast asleep in bed. We then hear a siren going off and it sounded like it was getting closer. Now I will admit I am nosy (I must get that from my Mom) so I went out front to see what was going on. Now a few months ago we had a similar thing happen where sirens were going off and the whole neighborhood came out. They were welcoming home a soldier from Iraq. I thought that was pretty cool that they would do something like that because they deserve a welcome like that. I thought maybe this was the same thing which would be awesome. A soldier coming home so close to Christmas would be a great gift for some family.

Nope I was wrong. I looked out my front door and I saw a firetruck all decked out in Christmas lights. Santa had come to my neighborhood! He was getting pictures with all the kids and handing out candy. It was awesome that they would do something like that. I can't wait till my kids are old enough to stay up to see that.

So make sure you thank a fireman today. I don't think they get all the credit that they deserve for all the little things they do. Not only do they put out fires (which is a pretty cool thing in and of itself) but they do great things for their community too.

Bathtime

I was going through my photos a few weeks ago and realized the last time I took tub pictures was in September! Gasp! That will not do. Do I took new tubby time photos. Tub time has changed a lot since September. We are still bathing 3 babies together. It has it's challenges but it works for us right now. Levi and Paige like to roam around the bath tub and stand up here and there. The bottom of our tub is thankfully textured so we haven't had any slipping and falling as of yet. Now as I get the bath tub ready and such Alan is in our room undressing the babies and getting them ready for the bath. When the tub is full we open the door and the parade of babies in diapers comes on out. They have been good thus far and their parade route stops at the bathroom. We need to get a gate upstairs though soon. I am waiting for the day our parade takes the long route to the bathroom!

Storytime

Have I ever mentioned how much my trio loves books!?! I have a little corner set up in our living room with a bin of books. Throughout the day they will go over and just look at books. Paige will "read" them out load to herself. They also love to have books read to them. We read books several times a day. I am trying to get in the habit of reading them a story before naps. We have done it maybe 2 times so far. We will get there though. My favorite books to read to them are the Llama llama series. They are cute and they have a lot of rhyming which I like. The trio loves a book they got for their birthday called I love my Mommy. It is a very large board book which is nice because I can leave it out for them to look at. On occasion Levi likes to eat our books, well just one in particular. He likes the taste of The eye book from Dr. Suess. No clue why but he has eaten the corner off of the cover and is now working on the second page. Silly boy. They love when Alan reads to them. I took their photo the other day. Yes they actually sit still to hear a story and I now have proof!

Goodbye Bottles

We are officially done with bottles! We are also done with formula!! *insert happy dance here* My nights are little better knowing that I don't have to mix formula before going to bed. Yes it's the little things. :) At their 1 year well visit the Dr. said we were fine to start them on whole milk. Around 11 months I introduced the whole milk to them here and there at mealtime to get them warmed up to the idea. I only ever gave it to them in a sippy cup. The day we ran out of formula I bagged up the bottles and only offered them milk in the sippy's. They were iffy about it and there was some protest but when they saw it was the sippy or nothing they chose the sippy. I'll admit there were a couple of times I wanted to cave but I didn't. I held strong and this is why we are bottle free! They also went from having 4 bottles plus meals to just having their sippy cups at meals. I now give them a little juice when they get up from naps which they love. All in all it wasn't that bad of a transition. On to bigger and better things because after all we are big kids now! :)

The next few photos I was shooting Nathan clapping. I love his face in these. He has such a cute little personality that just shines off of him. He is such a happy little boy!

That is how Nathan ends almost all of his meals. Happily clapping away. I will call these photos "Yay for sippy's!"

101 in 1001: an update

 I started my blog in April by coming up with 101 things I would try to accomplish in 1001 days. Of course I picked some easy things I knew would get done and some other things that would be harder to accomplish. I have accomplished 20 of these things in 8 months. I have until January 6th 2013 to try to finish the rest. The ones highlighted in blue are the items I have accomplished. The 2 that are in red are the ones I know will never be done. Our birthdays have past and we couldn't afford to throw ourselves a birthday party. I also did not make then baby food from scratch because we get baby food through wic so I used that instead. All in all I think I am doing pretty well so far. We shall see what time brings and continue to work through my list!

1. Get professional pictures taken of the trio

2. Take the trio to the Philadelphia zoo

3. Take the trio to the Camden Aquarium

4. Plan a trip to Disney World
5. Work on my own business
6. Create a family cookbook
7. Build a snowman with the trio

8. Throw a 30th birthday bash for Alan and I

9. Learn how to use my camera in manual mode
10. Write on my blog at least 3 times a week

11. Have a 1 year birthday bash for the trio

12. Take the trio to the Please Touch Museum
13. Paint our bedroom
14. Redo the bar in the basement
15. Get a dog
16. Put away $5 for each goal completed in each of the trio accounts
17. Potty train the trio
18. Redo our backyard
19. Plant a garden
20. Unpack and organize the house
21. Create my craft-room
22. Decorate the house

23. Make baby food from scratch

24. Re-do the landscaping in the front of the house
25. Take the trio to the beach
26. Teach the trio how to swim

27. Buy a mini van

28. Continue to take lots of pictures of the trio
29. Sew an outfit for each of the kids
30. Continue to be a stay at home Mommy
31. Become actively involved in my MoM's group
32. Have a yard sale
33. Do something special for my parents
34. Get the trio "big kids" beds

35. Move Paige to her own room

36. Decorate both kids rooms
37. Do lots of arts and crafts with the trio
38. Lose 40 pounds

39. Buy a choo choo wagon

40. Make a wedding scrapbook
41. Finish honeymoon scrapbook
42. Do baby books
43. Make scrapbooks for each of the trio
44. Take the trio camping
45. Learn to cook well
46. Use coupon websites to save money
47. Get to know our neighbors better
48. Go to church more often
49. Have a spa day
50. Create my own kids craft book

51. Become a Brownie leader again

52. Take each child on a one on one special day with me
53. Scan in all of my negatives into the computer
54. Continue my playground photography
55. Make a playground book
56. Shred all unwanted documents
57. Organize and file all wanted documents
58. Read over 100 books to the trio
59. Take the trio to Erie to see where Alan grew up
60. Go to Sesame place

61. Get the trio baptized

62. Get a part-time job
63. Go skiing
64. Go to Peddler's village and ride the carousel
65. Go to story time at the library with the trio

66. Re-learn how to knit

67. Re-learn how to crochet
68. Pay off Alan's student loan

69. Be able to be home alone all day with the kids

70. Run a 5k

71. Go to the movies with Alan

72. Go hiking
73. Do the crop walk
74. Go to the Mercer Museum
75. Cheer on Alan running his first marathon

76. Do something with Alan that neither of us has done before

77. Build a sandcastle at the beach
78. Go to the Erie zoo
79. Go to the Baltimore Aquarium
80. Walk all the way to Dairy Queen

81. Organize all the trio's clothes

82. Organize unwanted clothes

83. Sell at the Mother's market

84. Baby-proof the house
85. Start keeping a diary
86. Start an exercise program
87. Go to a Mommy and me swim class
88. Take a photoshop class
89. Double our saving account

90. Start the trio on solids at 5 months

91. Go with Alan to the Franklin Institute

92. Buy myself some new clothes

93. Update my Disney Dvd collection
94. Get my hair highlighted

95. Go out to dinner just me and Alan

96. Have the trio meet all 3 great-grandmothers

97. Make money off of my art
98. Draw with chalk on the driveway
99. Teach the trio to ride trikes
100. Sing songs with the kids

101. Get through the trio's first year with my sanity somewhat in tact!

12 month stats

On Wednesday we went to the Dr. for their 12 month check up. As usual they got shots. What was different this time is we didn't handle them so well. In the past they have been really good at the Dr.s but this time they were not so sure about the whole thing. Paige was especially not ok with anything the Dr. did. Only when all the "strangers" left the room did she settle down. I guess we have just reached yet another stage.

Levi: weight- 18lbs 11oz. 3%  height- 30.5in. 73%
They all got a toe prick and blood drawn to check for anemia. Levi's came back as low so we need to go for further blood testing. He also woke up that day with extremely crusty eyes. We are going to be taking Levi to the eye Dr. and he may need to get his eye ducts probed to unclog them. He has had this problem since birth and they usually grow out of it by a year. Levi just may need some help.

Nathan: weight- 19lbs 10oz. 8%  height- 30.75in. 78%
Nathan is doing well. He is behind the other 2 but we are working on getting him caught up. He is seeind a physical therapist twice a month to get him caught up.

Paige: weight- 17lbs 2oz. 3%  height- 29in. 47%
The Dr. seemed a little worried about Paige's weight. I find it interesting since she eats like a little piggy. The Dr. said to try to get more calories in her and we will check her again at her 15 month check up. We will have to see till then.

All three of them are off of formula. Hooray! I am secretly doing the no more formula dance! They have already transitioned to drinking whole milk. Not only are they drinking whole milk but they are drinking it our of sippy cups. That's right no more bottles! I truly have 3 toddlers on my hands. They are getting so big! All in all they are doing great and growing like little weeds. :)

First Birthday Party

We had a great day on Saturday. I took a bunch of photos during their party. Here they are. I still can't believe they are 1!