Christmas Day Fun

We had a very nice Christmas. Lots of fun family time.

Here is Jackson first thing on Christmas morning - playing with his train set from Santa


And drinking the rest of Santa's milk...



Ryan enjoyed playing with the tissue paper.

After our family Christmas at home, we headed to G and Dada's for Christmas with Laine's family.

Jackson enjoyed watching The Polar Express with Dada. He has watched it about 15 times. Loves it!

We also had a separate celebration for Laine's birthday. Someone was REALLY wanting some cake!

Ryan got loves from Brooks

Kaley

and G.

Ryan modeling one of his gifts from G and Dada. Precious.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too. My sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and mom are coming this week so stay tuned for pictures.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care...


We've made cookies for Santa and his elves.

We've tracked Santa to find out where he is.

The last ornament has been put on our Jesse tree (we did tomorrow's ornament tonight.)

The yard has been sprinkled with Reindeer food.

We read Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Watched some Christmas movies...

And put out cookies and milk for Santa and his elves.

We are ready for Santa's arrival. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Hope your evening is magical!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the best daddy in the world!

Tonight we celebrated Laine's birthday by going out to eat as a family. Everyone behaved and we had a good time!

Happy Birthday Laine!

Four Months

Ryan had his 4 month appointment today. Here are his stats:

17 lbs, 10 oz (95th %)

25.8 inches (90th %)

BIG BOY! Unfortunately Ryan is a little sick right now and has an ear infection. :-( Uggghhh. I can't believe it's already starting. I'm betting he's going to have to get tubes like Jackson if he already has his first infection at 4 months. Ryan has a very stuffy nose that Dr. G is worried might turn into RSV so we are sucking his nose and using saline a lot. I'm just thankful that we are not traveling this holiday. Of course, Jackson is sick too. Pretty sure he's the one that got us all sick. I'm feeling pretty crummy myself.

Other than that Ryan is a very healthy little boy. We are so thankful for this!

Here's what Ryan is up to these days:
* Putting his hands in his mouth ALL the time

* Taking 3-4 naps a day (depending on their length) and eating every 2 1/2 - 4 hours. He's really able to go a good amount of time between feedings now.

* Starting to grab at things and pull towards his mouth

* Sitting up in Bumbo and exersaucer

* Not doing a lot during tummy time - no turning over yet

* Smiling, cooing, laughing, and just being a generally happy little guy

* Wearing size 6 - 9 months clothes

* Wearing size 3 diapers

* Going to bed between 7 and 8 p.m. and sleeping til 7 - 8 a.m. As mentioned in the earlier post he's sleeping much better at night and eating once later in the morning. The past two nights have had more waking because of the stuffy nose but that's to be expected.

* Kicks his legs like CRAZY in the bouncy seat - I think it's his favorite

I remember with Jackson it was around 4 months that I really started to think things got easier and I think it's the same with Ryan. This is the time when they start sleeping better, going longer between feedings, and just seem to be much happier. Yea!


It's been warm here so we took advantage of that and took the boys on a walk to see Christmas lights. This was Ryan's first time to sit in the stroller without the carseat. He seemed to enjoy it.



And for fun let's take a look at Jackson in his exersaucer at about 6 months

and again at 2 1/2 years.



Now this has absolutely nothing to do with this post but I found these two pictures when I was looking for one of him in the exersaucer. I sure do miss his sweet hair!! Where did my little boy go???

To Paci or Not To Paci

Look at this sweet face! Ryan is seriously the SWEETEST little guy. I bet I give him about 200 kisses a day!

Now on to the title of the post.... A few weeks ago Ryan really regressed in his nighttime sleeping. He was making progress and then it seemed as if he was backtracking. One night I counted and we put thhe paci back in 18 times and I fed him twice that same night. At this point I knew I couldn't keep this up and that something was not right! I started to think that maybe putting the paci back in was waking him up rather than helping him. So on Tuesday night we decided that we wouldn't put the paci back in for a few days to see how it goes. On Tuesday night he did have to cry for a bit to fall asleep. Tuesday and Wednesday nights he did fuss some during the night. He didn't really fuss at all during the night on Thursday - last night (and that's even with a nasty cold!) He did wake later in the night to eat each of these nights but I expected that since he's now going to bed much earlier. It's only been 5 nights but I have seen GREAT improvement so I'm hoping we are moving in the right direction. We are still using the paci for naps and for sleep when we are out of the house because it still seems to work well for that. I am noticing my sanity slowly coming back now that I'm getting a little more sleep. :-)

With Christmas around the corner we've been busy having lots of fun.

Doing things like posing for pictures...

And having special visits from our friends, the Courtrights, for our annual Christmas get together.

Here are the older boys eating dinnner.

And the girls: Katherine, me, and Lauri (we missed you Amanda!)

The girls were able to get away for a little bit thanks to the dads!

All of the boys: Connor, Jacob, Ryan, Alex, and Lukie (just missing little Alex in VA)

Sweet Lukie with Ryan

Could Kaitlynn be an cuter????

All of the kiddos at the mall: Sarah, Connor, Jacob, Luke, Jackson, Kaitlynn, and Ryan

I stole this picture from Lauri's blog. I love it. It has been such a blessing to share motherhood with Katherine. Luke and Jackson are 2 1/2 months apart and Ryan and Sarah are just 13 days apart. Being able to get together with her and the kids definitely helps me stay sane!

Yesterday we went to Breakfast with Santa at our church. Jackson enjoyed donuts.

Visiting with Santa

And listening to a story with Mrs. Claus. She read a story about a grumpy shepherd whose heart turned to love and hope upon meeting baby Jesus.

Hope you and your family are enjoying lots of fun holiday activities as well!

Pictures With Santa

Jackson and Ryan got their pictures taken with Santa on Thursday. After pictures we played with Jacob, Luke, and Sarah in the play area.

Sarah and Ryan were awake at the same time for once so we were able to get a few pictures of them. Aren't they sweet?








We got a new Santa at the mall this year. I like him better than the previous one. He was very friendly and talked a lot with Jackson. It probably helped that there was no one else in line. Jackson just ran right up to him and got on his lap. He told Santa that he wanted "candy" for Christmas. Like I've said before, he is SO my boy!



Drum roll, please.....






Jackson and Ryan with Santa - 2010



Jackson and Santa - 2009



Jackson and Santa - 2008