Gingerbread House! YUM

Monday night for FHE, we decorated a gingerbread house.  It's been a few years since we've done this (in fact, I think this may have been Jackson's first gingerbread house activity!!)  The boys had to share one house - they each got one side and one roof piece to decorate.  I think Jackson ate more candy then he put on the house - but that's part of the fun - huh!!

 Scott was still at work, so he wasn't able to help.  Kate was so good just sitting in her high chair watching.  Of course, it probably helped that Jackson was sharing some of the candy with her!!

 Here's the finished product!  I should have tried to get a closer shot of the house.  They had fun!

I'm wondering how long before pieces start going missing!

AJ: Days 5, 6 & 7

Wednesday we woke up to see that AJ was ready to go to school with Adam.  He was even appropriately dressed for the weather - rain boots!

 Thursday he was having some fun in the excersaucer!

 And this morning, he was hard to find.  We aren't sure how it happened, but somehow he ended up face first in Jackson's stocking...  What was he doing last night?

Kate's new trick!

Kate has suddenly decided it's ok to move on from scooting around on her bum.  She may learn to walk after all.  Although, I may be jumping ahead a bit - she's just started pulling herself up to stand.  Every chance she gets, she pulls herself up.  The only problem is, she hasn't figured out how to move her feet, so she often pulls herself up and then whines because she doesn't know what to do next.   I caught her on camera the other day being super cute.  She stole Jackson's apple, and was scooting around munching on it, then decided to stand up and try to share it with me...  Want some??? 

 It's super yummy!!

 Here's another cute pic from the tub.  She kept standing up and making these silly faces.  I kept trying to get her to sit down, but she was being so silly, I decided to grab the camera and take some pictures instead of scolding her!!

One more cute pic.  We were at an activity at the church, and I was sitting on the stage chatting with some friends.  Kate kept scooting closer and closer to the edge.  She just wanted to to sit like the rest of us with her legs hanging over... 

AJ: Days 2, 3 and 4

Adam likes to make a list of the crazy things we find AJ doing each morning.  I thought I keep up with them on the blog and post them every couple of days, instead of a long list after he goes home.  So - this is what we've found AJ doing the past couple of mornings:

December 2nd - trying out some of Kate's baby food in the high chair...

 December 3rd - Hanging by his feet on the FHE sign to catch a balloon..

 And December 4th - Playing Hi-Ho-Cherry-O with Santa, a reindeer, and the Nutcracker.

We were wondering why the closet with the games in it was open this morning...  I guess I need to remind AJ to close the closet when he's done!

Welcome back AJ!

Adam's been asking for the past week or two when our elf was going to show up.  He couldn't remember the elf's name, so we had to look it up on the blog from last year and remembered that his name was AJ - for Adam and Jackson - poor Kate! (another good reason for blogging - huh!).  But, he remembered all the crazy things he did last year.  So, he's been waiting anxiously, wondering if AJ got lost, or couldn't come this year for some reason.

Well - when we got up this morning, AJ was sitting on the kitchen table eating some chocolate.  He left a mess of wrappers and spelled out his name with some of the chocolates.  Adam was thrilled!  Welcome back AJ!  Now everyone is definitely on their best behavior!!

Family Pictures

We've been needing some family pictures since we hadn't really had any taken since Kate was born.  We did have some taken this summer, but I really didn't love any of them...  And the boys needed new pictures, and Kate hadn't had any professional pictures done at all.  So, when a groupon came in to my email box for a photographer, I snatched it up to give them a try.  I figured if I hated the pictures - at least I hadn't spent 2 or 3 hundred dollars!  Luckily - I LOVE the pictures!  They all turned out so great!  We met the photographer and his wife at a park in Edmonds in early November.  There were leaves all over the ground, and beautiful fall colors.  It was the perfect setting!  It's super hard to pick one or two favorites to highlight - so, here's a ton for your viewing pleasure!

 Adam kept throwing leaves up into the air over Kate and dad!  So funny!

 The photographer worked with Scott and Kate and I, and his wife took Jackson over to a pile a leaves and shot a few pictures of him!  It was so fun to see what came out of that!  She really captured his personality!

 Love this one!

 And this one - my guys messing around!!

 Scott is in big trouble!!

 Me and the boys!  Jackson is such a goofball!

 More goofy Jackson!

 This is one of my favorites!  Kate's face says it all!

 Adam begged the entire time for all of us to jump into this huge pile of leaves.  It was just starting to sprinkle as we wrapped up the session - this was our last shot!

It was really such a fun way to spend an hour!  Just messing around with the family while someone documents the whole thing!  Perfect family pictures!

Katie Mae is 1!!

How can a year go by so fast? Kate turned 1 year old on November 18th! (we've taken to calling her Katie Mae sometimes - cute, huh!)  Such a fast year! So many things have happened in our family, and this little girl has gotten so big!!  Here are a bunch of pictures from her actual birthday...

 She wasn't so sure about the whole present thing. Her brothers were happy to help her figure it out!

 And then the cake - what do you do with that thing???

 everyone helped!

 She wasn't so sure about eating it either...

 but soon decided it was ok.

 Yummy!

 She really is a delightful little girl!  She LOVES to give kisses right now!  She opens her mouth as wide as it can possibly go and plants it right over your mouth!  It's the sweetest thing!

I've got a ton more pictures below.  First - here are the vital statistics from her 1 year check up at the doctor: 

Height - 30 inches (73rd pecentile)

Weight - 22 lbs 2 oz (78th percentile)

I like to compare her size to her brothers - at one year, Jackson was almost 33 inches and weighed 28.5 pounds.  Adam was 32 inches and weighed 26 pounds!  She is definatly smaller than her brothers - she actually fits into 12 month clothes at a year old!  Her brothers were in at least 18 months by now! 

The doctor says she nice an healthy!  He is a little concerned about her strength (I guess).  At her 9 month checkup, she wasn't crawling - she would basically just sit there.  He suggested I take her to a physical therapist, just to have her checked out.  Well, I never got around to doing that, and she started scooting around on her bum a couple of days after that appointment.  But, I had been noticing that she wouldn't pull herself up to standing, and if you tried to stand her on her two feet, most of the time she would just pull her feet up underneath her and refuse to put them down.  She did the same thing when the doctor tried to stand her up.  So, he once again suggested that I take her to see a physical therapist.  His reasoning was that it won't hurt her, and if there is an issue (which he assured me he didn't think there was), that it would be better to catch it earlier.  So, before we left, I walked down the hall and made an appointment for her to see the physcial therapist.  Of course, now that I've done that, she's pulled herself up to standing a couple of times - although, she won't move her feet and she just stands there and cries.  Anyway - I still take her in and see what they think!

Here's a major picture dump of my cute little girl!

Great grandma Couch sent her a card and a couple of balloons for her birthday.  One good thing about scooting over crawling is that you can hold stuff in your hands while you scoot.  She carried this balloon around with her for quite awhile!

 She loves sitting in this rocking chair at grandma's house!  She's even figured out how to rock it all by herself.  It's so adoreable!

 Mmmmm - spaghetti!

 Jackson asks quite often "can Kate hold me?"  This is what he wants!  They play really well together - or rather, Jackson directs, drags or cajoles Kate into whatever he wants her to do.  Sometimes she takes it well - most of the time she yells at him and does whatever the heck she wants!  She's got a mind of her own - that's for sure!

 This was one of our last trips to the park before the rain and cold set in.  Kate loves to swing!

 cuddles with dad!

 This was on her 11 month birthday!

 At the pumpkin patch!

 Showing off her cute overalls - with Adam's help!

 If it's not pouring down rain, this is Kate's ride to pick Adam up from school.  She loves it!

 She also loves doing acrobatics with dad!  For some reason she always sticks her tongue out!!

 One more swinging picture!

Kate has been such a great addition to our family!  She is adored by her brothers and I think her dad would do just about anything she asked!  As soon as she hears the door open at the end of the day, or hears his voice from anywhere, she yells "da" and starts scooting towards the sound!  I think there's some mutual admiration there!  She LOVES her dad!  He can make her laugh and comfort her like on other.  It's really fun to watch them together!  I guess I'll have to settle for being her 2nd word (don't tell Scott I admitted that "dad" is her first word).

Happy Birthday Katie Mae!  We love you!!