Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Greetham's!!

10 on 10::December

Here area quick few pictures of some Christmas fun with our family!

'Tis the season for yummy hot chocolate...

 

...with these awesome mini marshmallows I bought at the Miller's Apple Hill Orchard store!

She was very excited when we got out some of the boxes with Christmas stuff in them, though she has no idea what it was yet :-P

Evelyn loves to play with our Little People Nativity set.  I decided to set it out on our coffee table despite the fact that I knew I would be constantly resetting it up correctly thoughout the day. But it keeps her busy so I let it go!

Evelyn was enacting a modern version of the Christmas story...the angel came bearing good news... on his tractor!

She loved putting up these window clings.

Enjoying the lights!

Showing off her favorite Rapunzel ornament!

It is funny because she wants to go up the stairs as close to the wall as possible so she can look up at the tinsel garland I have wrapped around the railing :-)

I am very excited for our first Christmas as a family of four this year!!!

Check out Amy's  10 on 10!

Monthly Kiddo Update!!

Evelyn is now 22 months!

What's new?

-We are entering the phase of a MILLION questions! She is constantly asking "What is that?" "What's this?" "What's over there?" "Who's that?" "Where'd Daddy go?" "Where'd Hunter go?".  Fun times :-)

-It has been fun to see her get excited about Christmas things this year. She loves our Christmas tree and is very quick to point out "Christmas Yights!" (Yup, still working on our L's--ha!) and her favorite ornaments which are Rapunzel and a Cinderella that sings a song when you push a button. We also watched Frosty the Snowman as a family when we decorated for Christmas and now every snowman is Frosty and she randomly says "Karen's crying". I ask her why. She says "Frosty melted!" haha

-She must be going through a growth spurt because she is constantly hungry these days & can eat a TON. Lately at breakfast she will eat a piece of toast, a banana, and a bowl of her new favorite thing "Cheerio's n milk!" And she is still asking for a snack an hour later.
-She loves her little brother! She loves to hug him and kiss him and lately goes up to him and says "Hi cutie!!  What a cutie!!" lol

(She is looking up at the Cinderella ornament...mean mommy put that one way out of her reach haha!)

Hunter is now 4 months!

What's new?

- He is continuing to grow and grow and now is stretching out of 6 months clothes and size 2 diapers.

-He is now very efficient at grabbing things and putting them quickly in his mouth. It is fun to see him concentrate so hard on something he is trying to grab.

-He spends a lot of time in the excersaucer, he loves playing with the toys, and loves to stand!

-He now sleeps anywhere from 10-12 hours at night. He was consistently doing 12 then he started  waking early so I just put him to bed a little later which works an extra feeding into his day.  I will often wake him at 7:30 a.m. that way I can get him fed and ready before Sis wakes up!
-He is still very happy & content! But if he does get worked up,which thankfully is rare, he screams like a little girl! It is actually kind of comical (after the fact ;P) because you have not heard shrill until you have heard him scream! Yikes!

New Camera!

We got a new camera! Woo hoo! It is technically a Christmas gift, but my husband allowed me to get it early because he knew how much I wanted to have it before Christmas-- we have someone's first Christmas to capture, after all! :-) I haven't had much time to play around with it, but of course had to test it out this morning... And this is how it went.

I told Evelyn, "Mommy got a new camera, now she can take all kinds of wonderful pictures of Evelyn!"

She responded with this look: 

Then I said "Okay, Ev why don't you look here and smile!"

She then responds with:

Me: Okay, nice smile- but look here!

Evelyn:

Me: Okay, a little less smile!
Evelyn:

Okay, this will do for now :-)

I then went over to Hunter and told him the exciting news.

This is how he responds:

A new camera?? Really?!

And he gracioiusly volunteered to be my model whenever I wanted.

The end :-)

Thankful

It is amazing how much your life changes (and YOU change!) after having kiddos. This past week Evelyn was sick and it seems life was pretty much on hold for me. It is very all consuming (time/energy/PATIENCE) taking care of a sick toddler along with a baby (who thankfully did not get sick as well)!  It is so sad seeing your kiddo miserable. She is feeling better minus a runny nose/cough so we are working pretty hard these few days to try & work out the habit of extreme whining we picked up while sick :-)

This week was pretty draining for me, Evelyn didn't sleep well because she was having a hard time breathing at night, so she was up several times for a few nights and had coughing fits at least every hour.  I also had moved Hunter back downstairs at night so Evelyn's night wakings wouldn't interfere with his sleep. So yesterday on Forest's day off I needed to go to the store and since he was home I got to go BY MYSELF. I was pretty excited to get a little break so I took my time and was amazed at how much more I can fit in a shopping cart without one or both kids in tow, ha! As I am driving down the road by myself listening to the Go Fish Guys (Evelyn's favorite), and walking through the aisles at the store where Evelyn usually points out EVERYTHING she sees (and asks for) on the shelves, I realized how much I am used to having the kids with me. And while it is not always the easiest or fastest...I love it! Now, don't get me wrong I very much enjoy and appreciate time alone and will not turn it down if offered it :-) But I guess it just reminded me to be thankful for them even in the times when it may seem stressful or inconvenient. I will try to savor the moments singing with Evelyn in the car as she dances as best as she can while strapped in her carseat, and just talking with her and explaining things to her as we push through the aisles of Wal Mart. Silence and solitude are welcome friends, trust me, and necessary for my sanity at times... But I think I prefer the crazy, chaos, and constant company of my children- runny noses, sleepless nights, and all. Thank You Lord, for allowing me to parent these little ones!

my sick girl

& happy boy!

Playing together

Just a normal morning :-)

10 on 10::November:: (Siblings!)

 Well considering I still have NO camera (still mad about that, ugh!) I was not sure what I was going to do for this month's 10 on 10. I still have my iPod which I take pictures on but the quality is not that great. So I decided to post my 10 favorite pictures of both of my kiddos together. It is so fun to see your children interact as siblings, even at such a young age. I am glad they will have each other as friends as they grow up! It took Evelyn a couple weeks to get used to having a "brudder" but now she adores him and his face lights up every time he sees her. So sweet!

 First proud big sissy picture!

 Hahahahaha. No really, they love each other!

 She loves to "hold it". ( He has now been upgraded to real human status and she now  asks to "hold Hunter!" instead of "it")

Love this one!

 Trust me...kisses are aplenty!

Saying goodnight to Hunter!

 Hanging out in bed with dad on a Saturday morning

 Tickling his toes!
(P.S. it is not until I see it in pictures that I realize just how ugly our couch is haha!)

Love my babies! :-)

Check out my sister Amy's 10 on 10 here!!

Monthly Kiddo Update :-)

It is kind of nice that Evelyn's birth date is the 5th and Hunter's the 7th, so I can do an accurate combined monthly update  :-) As you see I am on a bit of a video kick lately...haha. But I feel like right now things are going very smoothly! Hunter is now on a predictable and consistent schedule and Evelyn & Hunter's schedules run smoothly together. I remember even with Evelyn, it was at the 3 month mark that things started to get easier! So I am glad to be here now :-)

Evelyn is now 21 months! 

What's new?
-She can now (correctly) sing the ABC's.
-She is putting together 3-4 word sentences.
-Her new favorite activity is to color. She asks at least 5 times a day to "color, stamps, stickers pease!?".
-She loves puzzles and activities where she can sort colors/shapes into groups. On her own she will normally separate her things (blocks/crayons) into groups by color.
-We are getting closer and closer to being totally potty trained.

-I know I say this all the time, but she seriously is such a funny little girl. She cracks me up. Here is a video to prove my point :-)

Hunter is now 3 months! 

What's new?

-About a week ago he rolled over (front to back) for the first time!

-He is just starting to grab at toys.

-He went on an overnight retreat to Skyview and did great!

-He eats every 3-3.5 hours, takes 4 naps, and sleeps solidly at night from 9:00 pm-7:30/8 am.

-He is still very happy & content and loves to chat... See video ;-)

Rapunzel & her lion

Happy (late) Halloween! We didn't plan on taking the kiddos trick-or-treating, but they both had costumes and they were so stinkin' cute! A friend had given us Hunter's lion costume and he looked absolutely adorable in it.  Evelyn borrowed her cousin Tessa's Rapunzel costume from Halloween last year, which is very fitting because she loooooves 'Punzel ;-) And Ev just loves dressing up so she just wore it around the house for awhile. It is so fun to do these things as she gets older! She is going through this little phase (hopefully a phase!) where she will NOT smile or look at me for pictures. So I did my best :-P

The Dancing Queen::Videos

Evelyn LOVES music and LOVES to dance.... I captured a little excerpt from when we were listening to some music yesterday. Don't be jealous of her moves... I taught her everything she knows! ;-)



And as I was uploading this video I found another one from August as she was watching this Disney Princess Video she loves...hahaha

Pumpkin Photobomb

This week Forest took a week of vacation and it has been awesome having him home! We planned on doing a handful of fun, local things and just doing some projects around the house. Not a glamorous vacation, but a vacation nonetheless :-) On Tuesday afternoon it was nice and sunny so we went to a place to get some pumpkins. It was a fun time, Evelyn really enjoyed it.  I really enjoyed it too...until...as we were walking back to the car I attempted to put my camera into my jacket pocket while holding Evelyn and I dropped it..and BROKE THE SCREEN! Doh! I am so mad at myself. Forest told me he was already planning on getting me a new camera for Christmas- so that is good. But I am camera-less for 2 months. Sad! Ok,I don't want to talk about it anymore, I might start crying. haha :P We also then went to the zoo yesterday, it was gorgeous out and we had a ton of fun. Evelyn looooooooves to zoo! But I don't have any pictures -__- ha!

first thing we do--try to pick up a giant pumpkin..and you may gather as you look at the rest of the pictures, she did this quite frequently.

 When I tell her to smile she ALWAYS says "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese"- hence this face.

I can only capture a smile if it's candid!

hahahaaha