Three Months

Three months old. You are such a happy little gal. You love to be held, and you often give us beautiful whole face smiles. You talk, bat at toys, watch what's going on a lot. You want to laugh so badly.

You have gone from being a little scrawny babe to having chubby little cheeks, a round little double chin, and chunky little thighs. You still wear 0-3 month clothes although they are getting kind of short. You wear size one diapers.

You sleep through the night, sometimes about nine hours. You still eat very well and will take a bottle when offered.

You have found your hands and love to suck on them.

You still have navy eyes and cry without tears.

You love your brothers. You are getting used to Archie.

You are simply amazing!

Brrr

It's cold outside. Really cold. And school started this morning. Way too early. I'd rather be in bed still doing this-

So long, 2011

It's been a great year filled with lots of sweet everyday events and one momentous and amazing one. We're looking forward to 2012. Happy New Year!

Christmas Week

We celebrated an extended Christmas holiday starting last Thursday. We traveled to Fort Thomas to spend a couple of days with my parents and Lu & Kurt. While there we were reunited with our friend Archie, and we made our traditional trip to the Krohn Conservatory to see the flowers, trains, and the live nativity.

We made it home on Saturday in time for church, then some waiting to see if Santa would come (evidently our elf, Uhdoh didn't report on the naughties that happened the other week). He did, and we had a lazy Christmas morning enjoying time with each other. Then our parents came for Christmas dinner and another lazy day together on Monday.

Miles is in Berne for a couple of days (it's so quiet here!). Looking forward to having him home tomorrow and to another long weekend!

Counting down...

Less than a week to go. The tree is decorated. And often undecorated at some point during the day by a certain little busybody.

The lights are up outside. And seriously, our street looks amazing. Nearly everyone did this same thing. So cool.

The boys decorated playdough ornaments.

Or tried to eat them and the markers.

This little elf has not been doing his job. The boys in this house have been extra naughty! I'm hoping it's just the cough they've had the last week and that their behavior improves each day as they feel better.

We paid a visit to Santa on Saturday at Conner Prairie. Miles was pumped to tell Santa that he wants "presents."

John wanted nothing to do with the jolly man.

Sweet baby Lauren in her cheesy reindeer antlers. I think the dog wore these last year.

She's become quite interested in her little play mat.

And finally, Miles' head peeking over the rail. So cute. He wanted to talk to his the "baby girl." I love how he says this - "hi baby girrrlll."

We're so looking forward to spending the holiday with our families!

Progression of a Smile

Love, love, love to see her smile. Those funny, "I don't know what I'm doing with my face" kind of smiles. Those "my big brothers are the funniest people on earth" smiles. This little angel is two months old today. I can hardly believe it. She sure makes all of us smile.

A little about what Lauren is up to...

She is growing like a weed. Seems so loong to me. See her legs sticking out from her swaddling? She still eats well, about 7x per day. And she gave me my first uninterrupted night of sleep last night. Aahhh! Lauren lights up whenever her brothers are around, especially Miles. I'm afraid John must look like the kid in Toy Story 3 who puts her giant open mouth over Buzz to Lauren. He's always going in for the big smooch. She coos more now but has quite a holler, too. Particularly when she wants to be held which is always at dinnertime.

A few more pictures...

These are phone pics from 2 days and 8 weeks. Changed much?

It's starting to look more and more like Christmas around here. Our friend, Uhdoh (John named him) arrived several days ago. The boys are having lots of fun finding him each morning.

The Christmas cards are ready to be mailed.

Our Advent project is in full swing.

The children are enjoying watching Christmas specials in the big bed.

This little lady is quite the charmer. Smiling up a storm, particularly for her big brothers.

And I had to include this one. Uncle Ben sent this shirt for Lauren to wear later on. It's quite appropriate for this boy right now though.

Next up on our to do list is actually to get our tree. We need to get on it so that it's up long enough to enjoy!