Juliette eats!

Juliette is on her way to eating table food! We started her on rice cereal for the first time today and she did really well! Of course Abbey needed to be involved too!

Big girl...

Abbey has been learning a ton lately so I just thought I would update you on her progress. She is not quite 18 months yet, but is now saying sentences. On vacation, she started saying things like "I did it" or "I see it" or "I got it", but her first sentence was in resonse to a question. Aunt Theresa asked her what she spilled, to which she responded "Um, um, um, I spilled milk." I was impressed that not only did she say her first sentence, but she answered the question correctly in the form of a sentence! Also, she can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, her ABC's, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. We also discovered that she can count to 7. I wonder what else she already knows that we have yet to discover!

Abbey and Libby

While we were in TN, Abbey fell in love with Aunt Theresa's great dane Libby. She pointed to her all the time and said her name and always wanted to pet her. We finally caught some of the love on camera. Libby is a big dog...big enough for Abbey to ride...

Or use as a pillow...

Or just cuddle with...

Family Time

One of the best parts about Christmas is spending time with family and we got the chance to do just that! Here are Abbey and Caroline...

Abbey and Aunt Theresa...

Mama Kay with 2 of her 5 favorite granddaughters...

Juliette and Caroline...

Caroline, Ben and Abbey playing after bath time...

Juliette's 1st Christmas!

Seeing as this was Juliette's 1st Christmas, I thought she deserved her own special post to show how much fun she had! This was a big week for her - her first road trip to get there, her first vacation and spending more than one night away from home, her first cold (she weathered it very well), and of course her first Christmas! Just a few cute pictures of her throughout the week enjoying her time.

Matching PJ's

Aunt Theresa bought everybody matching PJ's to wear on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. It was so cute and we love the new PJ's - thanks Aunt Teesa!! Here are the girls...

The men...

The boys...

The little girls...

Christmas Morning

Well, Santa was certainly good to us this year...I guess we have been good in 2009! We had a fantastic time opening all the presents and even had to take a break to eat breakfast! Here is Juliette enjoying a present...

Abbey opening a purse she received...

Ben opening up one of his gifts...

Abbey feeding her new baby her bottle...

Ben and Mommy playing with the new ice cream set...
Juliette taking a break with Papa...
Getting some much needed rest with Mama Kay (all that excitement is exhausting!)

Polar Express!

We found the coolest Christmas activity while here in TN...a ride on the Polar Express to the North Pole (just like the movie)! It was similar to our Day Out With Thomas experience, but much better done (and thus more expensive too, but worth it). We drove to the closest railway and boarded the polar express. You can see how excited Ben is as the train pulled up to the station!

Ben, Aunt Theresa, Daddy, Hunter, Aunt Domi and Caroline about to board...

The kids were encouraged to wear their PJ's...

We sang christmas songs and got to wear reindeer antlers too...

Everyone was having fun...

Then the conductor told us he saw Santa fly over the train, so they dimmed the lights and we all looked out the window as we approached the North Pole. When we got there, the conductor pointed out the Elves workshop, Frosty's house, Mr. and Mrs. Claus' house and even the grinch's house (which had no lights or decorations on it).

Then look who came on the train...SANTA!!! He gave each kid a bell (just like in the movie) and we could all hear it ring because we were all believers!

We also got a chocolate snack and hot chocolate (just like in the movie). But finally, we returned from the North Pole and had to drive home. But one final shot of most of the group in front of the train.

It was so well done and I would highly recommend it - look to see if they have it in your area (although it's probably too late now), but consider it for next Christmas - we hope to go again in the future!

Kemble Fun!!

It is time to travel for Christmas!! On our way to TN, we decided to take a side trip and visit one of my college roommates, Leanna, and her husband Dave and son Jackson. This was our third attempt to visit them and it finally worked out! They live outside of Youngstown, OH so while it wasn't exactly on our way, it didn't add too much to the trip and it did break it up a little bit. Here is Leanna and her 13 month old son Jackson!

Jackson was bigger than Abbey and has been walking since he was 10 months old, so Jackson and Abbey seemed like they were the same age (except Abbey talked a good bit more since she is older). They had a lot of fun playing together!

Leanna and Dave with Miss Abbey...

Mr. Dave gets some Juliette time...

Ms. Leanna got some Juliette love too...


We tried to get the kids to sit still for a collective picture, but you can imagine how difficult that was! This was the best shot we could get and as you can tell, Jackson was ready to bolt from this situation!

The kids had a lot of fun playing with Jackson and all his toys - thanks so much for sharing Jackson! Here are Ben and Jackson giving hugs goodbye!

Unfortunately it was a quick visit, but we had so much fun and I hope we didn't cause too much chaos and disruption for Jackson! Also, while we were there, Leanna and Dave's moms came over to watch the kids so we could go out to dinner and catch up. It was so much fun, so thank you to both of them for watching the kids and giving us that chance to have adult, uninterrupted conversation!! We hope to see you all again soon and thanks so much for such an enjoyable visit!

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Guess who rolled over last night for the first time...Juliette!! She has been close for a while and has been rolling to her side to sleep, but last night she rolled over and we didn't even get to see it! She went to bed on her back as always, but when I went to check on her before I went to bed, she was sleeping soundly on her tummy with her legs tucked under her and butt up in the air! I was so proud, but hope to see it happen for myself soon! Still not rolling over from her tummy to back yet, but I guess I don't put her on her tummy as much as I should. Anyway, that is the exciting news for today!

4 months!

Juliette is almost 4 months old, so it was time to take her into the doctor's office for a quick visit. She weighed in at 12 lbs, 6 oz and was 23 inches long, which put her in the 25th percentile for weight and 10th percentile for height. I thought maybe she was taking after me in this area, but the doctor seemed to indicate the height measurements aren't extremely accurate yet so the range is pretty variable. Either way, she is growing well. He said we could start her on some rice cereal, so we'll see how that goes. We are about to go out of town, so maybe we will just start that when we get back. She had 4 vaccines today - poor baby! Just like last time, she was happy and smiling at the nurses and then they went and pricked her which made her scream! Hopefully she doesn't take after Abbey and start to be afraid of the nurses and doctors. Other than that, she is doing great. She is such a happy baby - very easy going. She reminds me so much of how Ben was as a baby. She isn't quite as cuddly as Abbey was (and still is) as she would prefer to be on the ground looking around at everything than being held. She is happiest either on the floor playing or being held outward facing so she can see everything. She sleeps very well - she now goes to bed around 7 and gets up around 6. She also goes to sleep without much help from us. We put her down awake and she lays there awhile (we see this as we are putting Abbey to bed) and then starts to suck her thumb and fall asleep. She is growing so much and we are just so blessed to have 3 wonderful and healthy children!

Fun in the snow!

Well we got our first snow of the season this week...so that meant time to build a snowman! Aunt Theresa came over to help us out. You can see here how hard it was to roll the snowballs - it took all 3 of them!

Whew, Abbey needed a rest after a while and found the perfect spot...

Ben and Abbey with our snowman!

Aunt Theresa cleverly added a snow dog...

We put on some finishing touches to Mr. Snowman and here is the final product - great work everybody!!