First gifts of Christmas

Last year we started what I hope will be an annual tradition at Christmas: giving each boy a Christmas ornament that represents that year. Last year Nathan got an elephant because they were still his favorite animal and Isaac got a car because he was beginning to show an interest in them.



This year, as I'm sure you guessed already, they got DINOSAURS! Nathan is obsessed with dinosaurs and Isaac loves everything Nathan does. If you can't tell, they even have on dino t-shirts.

Nathan's is a T-Rex, Isaac's is a Stegosaurus, and Toby's is a Triceratops (because he doesn't seem to have any opinions yet). Thank you, World Market, for having dinosaur Christmas ornaments. I definitely wasn't sure I'd find them anywhere!

A couple of random things.

Toby is kind of obsessed with the TV. It's not on much in our house (though more during the fall because Jimmy and I love football), but when it's on he will do whatever necessary to see it.

And lookey here at this totally unwelcome guest. I'm not even 30 yet. Ugh. (Jimmy asks, "So, does stress really make you get gray hair or is that just an old wives' tale?" I don't know the answer.)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! How about you? This year we hosted for the second time in our lives (and I've still never done the turkey!) and it turned out really well. We had 18 people crammed into our little apartment but it worked fabulously. Our guests of honor were a family of Iraqi refugees that Jimmy has gotten to know over the past several months (unfortunately only two of their four children were able to come). We also had three other families from our neighborhood join us. The four seminary families were in charge of all of the food and someone commented on how it was all done really well. Our Iraqi guests seemed to like most of it--they got a great introduction to American Thanksgiving!

People, this is the way to do mashed potatoes. 10 lbs of potatoes + four sticks of butter + 2 packages of cream cheese + salt & pepper = a heart attack named YUMMY!

My first Thanksgiving with snow.

The tables are set!

Rafik and his amazing turkey.

Everyone loves Toby :)

We're pretty sure a good time was had by all!

Toby is 6 months, Nathan is a cowboy

Our sweet little Toby is 6 months old! How did that happen?!?! I think with each child, time flies more and more quickly. Before you know it I'll have grandchildren (my mother assures me that I'll blink and be a grandmother). Anyway, here are some fun facts about The Tobster:

*27 inches, 18.7 pounds (hovering around the 50th% in both)
*sleeps 13 hours a night (not straight through)
*takes two naps, usually 2-3 hours each
*no teeth....yet!
*rolls both ways and can move pretty quickly
*loves putting everything in his mouth
*prefers his fingers over a paci
*very laid-back
*quick to smile and laugh, but doesn't talk unless it's pretty quiet
*enjoys when his big brothers entertain him
*almost sitting
*still on an all-milk diet...but we plan to start solids soon!

Speaking of solids, here are some pictures of his first taste of anything other than milk. I had some extra butternut squash from a recipe so I decided to steam and puree it. As you will be able to tell from the pictures, I would not say Toby has asked for it again.

He's all smiles because he hasn't tried it yet.

Oh well, it was still fun to see him try it. I guess we should get on with it, though, and feed him more solids :)

Here are some sibling pictures from Toby's six-month photo shoot. It only took a million tries to get the first picture (which, in all honesty, isn't the best).



I mentioned Toby is laid-back, right? As long as he's got those fingers in his mouth, nothing his big brothers can do will phase him.






Have you noticed a theme in these last few pictures, which were taken on different days? Nathan LOVES costumes. Right now he's obsessed with this cowboy costume. Don't tell him, but my mom is getting him cowboy boots for Christmas :)

Christmas is just around the corner!

Can you believe it? It's already November 19 and Christmas will be here before you know it. No matter how far in advance I start thinking about it and getting excited about it, Christmas always creeps up on me and I find that I haven't bought the presents as early as I wanted and I haven't created the Christmas cards I wanted to. One year we just sent out update cards in July because I knew if I had a deadline (Christmas) I just wouldn't make the deadline.

Well, this year things are going to change. We have already taken the pictures I intend to use for the Christmas cards and I'll be ordering them from Shutterfly. We have used Shutterfly in the past to print the previously mentioned July moving cards, calendars, and photo books. I really love the photo books because as much as I would love to be someone who scrapbooks, it's just not going to happen. Plus it's easier than printing out a bajillion pictures and hand-writing captions to all of them (though I have done that, too, and enjoy those kinds of albums!). Oh, and we've also used Shutterfly for just straight up printing pictures for ourselves and relatives. One of the things I liked about that by each picture you can type what you want on the back for a caption.

Here are a couple of the photo cards I like. You can tell me which one you like most and I'll take that into consideration when making my choice :)





OK, I got a little overwhelmed looking at the choices. There are a ton I like and I thought I was settled on a one-photo picture but now I don't know. Oh well, good thing it's only 11/19, huh?

The Tobster

My littlest baby is going to be six months old tomorrow! Where in the world has time time gone? I think having him at the beginning of a busy, travel-filled summer made the time go by even more quickly than normal, but I also think that the saying is true, time flies when you're having fun! And we're having so much fun right now. :) Tomorrow I'll post some six-month pictures and a picture of him eating his first non-milk food (which he did last night and let's just say it wasn't a great hit). But for now, here are the last six months in photos.

At home this fall

Well we've had a great fall. We have been busy but thankfully we've been going at a pace that, for the most part, feels sustainable. I think it will be easier to tell you what's going on by telling you about each of us individually!

Jimmy: Jimmy is still going strong at Covenant. We're in the third year of four. (Unfortunately, many of our close friends are in their third year of three. I try not to think about May 2011....) Anyway, he's also teaching the GMAT with Manhattan GMAT. The company has really been a Godsend. When I was facing the end of last school year and had the desire to stay home full-time this year, we just weren't sure where we'd make up the income I was bringing in. Jimmy found MGMAT and he's been able to make more teaching the GMAT than I was last year so that's been really wonderful. We are going to the early service at church and he's kind of heading up the Sunday school during that first service.

Suzanne: I am really enjoying being home full-time this year. There are some things about it that are more difficult than working (like I get to stare at my to-do list all day and realize that really nothing is getting marked off...). Overall, though, I've loved the opportunity to spend more time with Isaac. Because I'm not working, I get to have one-on-one time with both Nathan and Isaac every day which has proved to be very rewarding. I'm also teaching Sunday school at church. We attend the first service and I stay for the second service and teach Sunday school (it happens during the sermon). Isaac, Toby, and I are going to Community Bible Study on Wednesdays and that's been great, especially for Isaac. They have a wonderful children's program!

Nathan: Nathan is still going to preschool every morning for about 3.5 hours each day. He loves it! He has some very cute little friends at school. He loves going to the art center, writing, mail (where they make mail for each other) and sometimes house. Nathan is really learning a lot at school this year! He's also gotten very excited about art projects. He's constantly writing (he can write words if we spell them for him!), drawing--especially dinosaurs, and cutting. We usually have very small cut-up scraps of paper all over the floor and I have to remind myself that cutting is very good for his fine-motor skills. :)

Isaac: Isaac is just plugging right along! He's a great big brother to Toby and he loves to do everything Nathan does. In the morning we often have the following conversation:
Isaac: Is Nathan at school?
Me: Yes
Isaac: But I wove (love) him! (Which I think translates to "I miss him!")
Isaac also loves cutting and is developing some great fine-motor skills earlier than Nathan. He's very outgoing when we're at home, but I can tell that he's more introverted than the rest of us. He's usually quiet in bigger, more unfamiliar groups, but he definitely still loves his CBS class!

Toby: Toby is the sweetest, cutest baby! He's got wonderful dimples and he's getting more and more personality every day. He is such an easy baby and Jimmy and I feel so overwhelmed by the way God has blessed us. He loves his big brothers and it's so fun to watch them play with him. I am excited to continue watching them grow up to love each other dearly (well, most of the time!).

Here are some pictures from our fall. We haven't done too many super-exciting things because we're home a lot since Toby naps so much, but we've really enjoyed just playing with our neighbors!

GranGran came to visit in October and we spent one morning making cookies!

The boys and some neighbors on Halloween.

Our boys and a sweet neighbor friend.

Isaac and mommy close-up.

Buddies. They get very excited about calling themselves "buddies." :)

Aah! The cuteness is overwhelming!!