Decorating for Christmas

We got our tree up a little early this year. It's our first year with our new "slim" tree. Since our living room is also our computer room now, we thought it might be good to downsize the tree.

The tree went up a lot faster than our old one. Yay for pre-lit trees!


Jonathan hung the star. Since this photo was taken, this star has stopped working so the kids and I went to Lowe's and got a new one today. We weren't too heartbroken. We really didn't like this one.

Rosemary helped a lot this year.

Jonathan hung up the bride and groom ornament...

...I hung up the Yacht Club ornament...

and Rosemary hung up her Minnie Mouse ears.

She also hung up a lot of other ones on the bottom half of the tree, some even on the same branch.

All done!

Computer Whiz

Jonathan has started to show Rosemary how to play games on the computer. It started out with playing a few Curious George games from the pbskids website, then moved onto playing a few computer games that my mom got her last year for Christmas. I had never installed them because I didn't think she could do them yet. I was wrong.

I used to teach basic computer classes at Housing. Rosemary is better at using the mouse than most of the adults were. I don't know if it's due to the fact that she's not scared of breaking anything or she's just so used to seeing Jonathan and me use the computer, but she's really good. Some of the games are beyond her since she can't read, but she can master the ones that involve puzzles and building things.

Stepping Stones Thanksgiving Party

Rosemary's class hosted a Thanksgiving party for the kids and their parents the week before Thanksgiving. Jonathan was able to take off work to come up too.

I think Rosemary really enjoys her days at preschool. Sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what happens during the day since her stories sometimes seem to be missing sections, but overall, she seems to really look forward to going and gets really excited whenever we drive by her school.

Rosemary sat at the table with the other kids and ate her meal...rather, she ate a few bites then saw other people eating brownies so she wanted one too!

Ben joined in the party.

Miss Teresa on the left and Miss Sam on the right. Rosemary wouldn't take a picture with them, so Jonathan did his best and got this "action" shot.

Happy Ben

Ezekiel's 3rd Birthday

Ezekiel turned three a few weeks ago so we headed up to Augusta for a quick trip for his party. This was the first birthday that we were able to celebrate with him and we had so much fun. Ezekiel and Rosemary are just 2 1/2 months in age so it's fun to watch how they're so similar.

Joel picked out a kid's tool kit that had all sorts of miniature tools and accessories. Ezekiel looked great in his hard hat and rainbow suspenders.

We put the kids in their pajamas before heading home. Rosemary wanted to take one more spin around the house on Clifford.

Ben got to celebrate too. He just didn't get any cake.

Dad

As some of you know, my dad had surgery (again) on Wednesday to remove a tumor on his spine. Well, the doctor's weren't able to completely remove the tumor, but they did take care of it as best they could and hopefully it won't be an issue again.

Right now, he's in ICU and will probably be transferred tomorrow with hopes of coming home either Sunday or Monday. If you could, please pray for another quick and easy recovery for my dad. We're so thankful that things have gone well so far.

Disney 2008

We met my parents at a condo in Orlando and spent the long weekend relaxing and enjoying the attractions. At least, the kids and I did, Jonathan spent most of the time reading. I don't think it was as fun for him.

Friday, my parents, the kids, and I went to Downtown Disney. Rosemary enjoyed the legos...

...and the princesses.



Benjamin and my dad at the condo


Jonathan and Rosemary listened to some music during one of the football games.
On Monday, we went to the Magic Kingdom. We planned on ending the day at Epcot, so we parked there then took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. Since we were there so early, we got to ride in the front of the monorail.





Finally at the park! Rosemary wanted to get going, not take pictures.



Rosemary and I rode Dumbo first.



We saw Pooh while we were eating lunch.

Our lunch.

Ben's first "it's a small world" trip

I realized as I was going through photos that I had some pretty similar ones of Rosemary on small world the past few years.

2006

2007

2008

Pirates of the Caribbean stopped while we were on it. We were in the same place about an hour before they evacuated the ride. We each got a special fastpass for any ride of our choice for the delay. Here are mom, Jonathan, and Rosemary while waiting...

...and Ben, me, and dad.

Jonathan and I used the fastpasses for Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. Here we are at Big Thunder Mountain.

My dad took Rosemary for her first Speedway spin. He used to push the pedals for me when I was little.



Jonathan and Rosemary enjoyed the teacups...

...while Ben (who spent most of the day tucked in his stroller) and I watched from the side.

We wrapped up the day with a carosel ride.

On our way out, Rosemary tried to pull out the sword.

The castle was decorated for the Very Merry Christmas Party and was absolutely beautiful. We wore ourselves out, but had a great day.

Ben at 4 Months

Ben hit 4 months yesterday. We go on Wednesday for his 4 month check up so I'll post stats once I get those.

New this month is fingersucking (as seen in the photo above). He's taken to sucking on his index and middle fingers on his left hand and nothing else seems to have the same soothing powers. We're working on transfering him to a pacifier, but it's not working.

Ben's finding his voice now, making quite a few cooing and squeaking noises. It's definitely not a cry. Just sounds like he's trying to tell us about his day. He's also started laughing and big sis is the one who can get him to laugh the most. He really finds Rosemary interesting.

Ben's still sleeping great and is doing wonderful at naptime--taking about a 3 hour nap everyday at about the same time as Rosemary. I love this kid. Couldn't ask for a better boy!

She gets it honest

A few posts ago, I posted a picture of Rosemary in a tree in our front yard. And here's her tree climbing teacher.

Mommy, look! Who's up there?

It's Jonathan up in the tree fixing the swing, of course.

Wrapped around a limb. Crazy man.