For the Grandparents

I suppose it's time for an update. Which would mean tons of pictures of my kids being super cute, and detailed descriptions of all the unbelievable fun we've been having, except that I've only taken about 3.4 pictures since Halloween and, according to my kids, no one has had any fun around here since at least 2006. So instead, here are some things that you'll probably only enjoy if you happen to be one of my kid's grandparents. For the rest of you, I'll try to make up some stuff so you can feel like my life is way better than yours.


Starting with the baby, here is Nate's newest trick:

When I told Mia she said, "I know, I've been working on that with him for a long time."

I hadn't realized that I'd been outsourced.

Then to drive the point home, Sam walked up to Nate and fed him a spoonful of yogurt. And thus Nate had his first solid food. Maybe they'll just potty train him while they're at it.

Speaking of first foods, a few days later we did give Nate some food actually recommended by pediatricians, and it went over fairly well (meaning, it ended up all over his face and was a big mess). Here are the pictures to prove it.

Starting off:

The end result:

That's what I'm talking about: cereal boogers.

And speaking of potty training, Sam has been modeling some new Thomas the Tank Engine underwear recently, and we're hoping it becomes a permanent addition to his daily attire. Again, big sister has been taking all the credit. Sorry, no potty training pictures (this is a public blog after all), but here's something we got a kick out of recently:

Seriously, can we say binky junkie?

Thanksgiving was mostly good. I attempted to make homemade rolls for the first time ever (not so good), had a sweet moment with my kids (Involved me saying through clenched teeth something like: Clean up this mess right now! We are trying to have a nice dinner so we can sit down as a family and be grateful, dang it!), spent some time with friends (who happen to have a trampoline, hot tub, therapeutic lap pool, and the world's funnest play room-- my kids thought it was Disneyland), and enjoyed a nice Day After Thanksgiving Dinner with Mark's brother's family (we're very grateful for Tammi's Sweet Potato Pie). And finally, we sat around watching hours and hours of America's favorite sport: synchronized swimming. Just kidding, we don't watch sports.

This week we got some sad news, and Mark ended up driving to Utah with Mia for his Aunt's funeral. They were gone for 5 days, which meant it was just me and the boys at home for most of the week. Sam spent most of that time building "houses" for Nate, which entailed piling up anything he could find all around Nate. Here is one such example:

And a closer view:
When Mark and Mia got home today, we were all very happy to see each other. For about 30 minutes, Mia and Sam played so well you would have never known they were brother and sister. But before I could get out the camera, they quickly remembered and soon I was wishing we could find another excuse to send her off to Utah for week again. I can just tell that the 2 weeks of Christmas vacation is going to be awesome!