Miriam and Simon visit the doctor

Miriam is three years old so it was time for her annual well-child visit. Since I know how much everyone loves hearing how big my kids are, here you go (or it might be because I want to look back and remember for myself). Miriam is 39 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds. She is in the 75 percentile for both height and weight, so she is proportionate. I just had a thought, how long before it won't be kosher to tell you all how much my daughter weighs. It won't be long before she won't want this information shared. For now, she has no choice.

Simon is nine months old and to make things easier on myself I took him for his well-child visit at the same time as Miriam ("smart mom" move for me). Simon is 29 inches tall and weighs 22 pounds. He is also in the 75 percentile for both height and weight, proportionate as well.

I am so happy to have two healthy children. They are both growing and developing really well. Miriam and Simon are happy kids and really love each other... most of the time. I feel so blessed to have them in my life.

By the way this is post number 300. Go me.

nine months

We are only three months away from Simon's first birthday. Craziness! He is growing so fast. His personality is really starting to shine through. He gets a lot of attention from women wherever we go. His big blue eyes and chubby cheeks get them every time. What a charmer!

So much has changed this past month for Simon. He now had two teeth on bottom (see above picture) and one on top that is ready to break through very soon. He is learning how to feed himself. He is trying all kinds of new food. Our biggest development over here this past month...

...Simon can scoot.

He even ended up under the table today.

Taking pictures has become a game. As in let's see if I can get away from Mom. This is why I am thankful for digital. I take a million pictures and hope I get a good one. I was sure today was a bust, but after looking through all of them it is hard to pick just a couple to post.

For lack of a better term some "fun facts" about Simon:
*He loves the swiffer-vac. Every time I turn it on to sweep he gets super excited.
*Every time we bathe him he wants to climb out of the tub, so we just have to lay him on his back.
*He takes off his right shoe every time we get in the car.
*He is wearing 12-18 months clothes. I hope I have enough to last through the winter before he grows out of them.
*He is sleeping through the night, YAY! I count ten hours (about 8:00 to 6:00) then back to sleep until 7:30 as sleeping through the night.
*We are still working on teaching Simon new signs and hope he catches on as well as Miriam.

NOTE: nine month appointment next Monday... stats to come...

The holiday rush is over

Now that we have some down time at home, the kids and I have just been hanging out. I feel like I had so much to blog about there for a while. Lately we have just been doing the regular day to day stuff. By why can't that be blog worthy?

 playing together before bedtime 

(notice how I actually got them both to look at the same time... miracle)

dressing up

 catching up on some zzzz's

Being a mom is absolutely the best. I have such a great time staying home with my kids. I feel so blessed to have a husband that works so hard to make this possible. I feel like I am living the dream.

Happy New Year

It is hard to believe that 2011 has come and gone, but we are excited to see what 2012 has in store for our family. We decided to celebrate the new year with a little bit more Christmas. We didn't get a chance to visit the Washington DC Temple lights last week so we thought we should go on the last day. It was a little bit rainy, but not too cold at all. Miriam loved looking around in the visitor's center and pushing buttons. We are glad we have made this a tradition for our family.

 

 

Mount Vernon

On Friday we decided to drive down to Mount Vernon with the kids. It was going to be such a beautiful day that we couldn't resist (mid 50's in late December isn't too bad). It was all decorated for Christmas complete with a camel. The camel really liked Miriam and wanted to kiss her, Miriam kept telling Michael to scoot back. Miriam and Simon loved seeing all the animals. The line to actually take a tour of the house was over an hour wait so we passed (we have a year pass and figure we will go back when it isn't so busy) on the tour and decided to check out the other houses around it. Miriam kept reading the signs saying, "George Washington..." and made up things he did. Kind of funny how she picked up on the name so fast. Before we headed home we decided to let Miriam run around for a while. We took a bunch of pictures and even let Miriam take a picture of us. It looks great, if you don't mind a blurry picture! Getting out of the house as a family was great... we sure love having Michael home. (Yes, we know Simon is wearing pink mittens. We lost one of his mittens earlier this week and so pink is all we had. Michael took them off before I took a picture saying he didn't want the pink mittens in the picture. Little did he know I already took one earlier.)

In all the excitement I almost forgot...

... Michael is officially a CPA!!! Between Miriam's birthday and Christmas this great news almost slipped through the cracks. Michael even asked me if I was going to blog about it. Well, I got a little behind, but we got the news that Michael has finished all the requirements to become a CPA. We were hoping it would all come together by the end of the year and it did... just in time. Way to go Michael. We are so excited for you.

Christmas

We started out Christmas morning at home with the kids. Santa left a little something in our stockings, but took the rest of the loot to Michael's parents (we didn't get a tree this year). After breakfast we got ready for church.

After church we took some pictures in front of the Christmas tree...

After a few pictures Miriam couldn't stand it any longer and wanted to get the gift opening started. So away we went...

After all the presents were opened we decided we all made out pretty well. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful gifts. Our kids were definitely spoiled. We had a great Christmas dinner then headed home to talk to my family again. The excitement of the day sure made the kids tired. We enjoyed our very Merry Christmas... but next year I am starting Operation Slow Down Christmas!