Graduation

Miriam graduated from nursery yesterday. Her teachers are so awesome and made each of the kids graduation hats. The last five minutes of nursery the parents came in and watched the kids receive their diplomas and a holiday treat. It was so adorable. Miriam is very excited to start Primary the week after Christmas.

 

Fall Family Pictures

Now that our Christmas cards are sent, I wanted to post the rest of our family pictures. Thanks again Eva McGann. We love how they turned out. Why is it so hard to pick just a few favorites to post? Oh well, here are a bunch of pictures...

FAMILY SHOTS

MIRIAM

SIMON

MICHAEL & VANESSA

MIRIAM & SIMON

Deck the Halls...

...or rather the Christmas tree. Last night we went over to Michael's parents to help decorate the Christmas tree. We are not getting our own tree this year so we thought Miriam would have fun decorating the tree. Miriam was really excited at first and kept asking what was next. She lost interest pretty quickly while the lights were being put on. Simon played happily on the floor for a good while.









Once the lights, ribbon and beads were finally on Miriam really got into hanging up the ornaments. When she is given a task to do she has amazing concentration for an (almost) three year old. She got so excited every time she hung an ornament on the tree by herself.









There are 12 days until Christmas and Michael and I are done wrapping. So after the tree was done we put some presents under the tree. Miriam and Simon had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa. We are so excited for Christmas.

Meeting Santa for the first time

We took the kids to meet Santa this morning. When we got there the line was pretty long. Little did we know we would have to wait almost an hour to see Santa. It is a good thing our friends the Stays ended up right behind us in line. Miriam had fun waiting with James.

I was worried that one (or both) kids would cry. We didn't tell Miriam what we were doing until it was almost our turn and she could see Santa. We asked her if she was going to sit on his lap and tell him what she wants for Christmas. She said yes, and sure enough she went right up and told whispered her whole Christmas list. We put Simon right on the other side and all he wanted to do was pull on Santa's beard. Santa was a great sport. He was just like we thought he would (should) be.


After talking with Santa we got to have some cookies and juice. We are glad we decided at the last minute to spend our morning with Santa. The kids did great. We got some cute pictures. Simon even got a little taste of Miriam's candy cane.

eight months

Our (not so little) boy is 8 months old today. He is getting so big, so fast. Every month that goes by I find it hard to believe he is getting closer and closer to turning one. Simon finally figured out how to sit up this past month and that makes it so he is more content to just sit and play for a while on his own. It is crazy how sitting up changes their world. He loves to play and explore his toys more. He can see what is going on around him.


It is getting harder to change his diaper and get him dressed. He is still easily distracted by a toy or a song. He definitely wants to be on the move, but I am more than happy that he is not crawling yet. He loves to play on our bed and wrestle with Miriam. He has started imitating sounds you make. He especially loves copying Miriam and always wants to play with whatever she has.


Simon is just such a happy content baby. His continuous smiles can be so infectious. He is definitely a momma's boy. He wants to be close to me for most of the day. He always finds a way to get my attention and knows how to get me to pick him up. He is just such a cutie pie!

November is Over...

...thank goodness. We had a month full of sickness and I am happy to have my kids feeling better. They are back to laughing and being so silly. I sure missed their craziness while they were sick. We had many sleepless nights over the past month and I can't say I miss too much of that. I am thankful for our health.



Speaking of being thankful, I feel like I neglected this blog a bit while I was busy being grateful on my other blog. I have some pictures that I wanted to share, but forgot about posting them on this blog. Why not do it now?

Earlier this week we went outside to enjoy some really nice weather (70 degrees in late November). Miriam loves to be really goofy in front of the camera. I got some cute pictures of her in her pink outfit.



Simon, on the other hand, spent his time interested in whatever was on the ground and wiggling out of my arms.


Last, but not least, we had some fun taking some pictures in bed one morning. Be prepared, these are taken first thing in the morning. It was fun to be together and act silly for the camera.