So Big!

Nicholas now tells us how big he is - SO BIG!!!

He does it really funny every time. He holds his left finger with his right hand and then puts his hands up over his head. His big ole' head barely fits through the opening his arms makes, but boy, is he cute!!!!

8 months and ALL Boy!!!

The little monster is now 8 months! He is into EVERYTHING!!! This kid is quite a handful, much faster and more mobile than I have the energy for! He's such a boy - much more adventuresome and curious than Hannah ever was. He's so determined which is why I think he's doing some of the things he's doing at 8 months.

We attempted a picture session and here's the result:

(disclaimer: safety was not compromised for your viewing entertainment - no injuries occurred!)

The one keeper!

Yeah, didn't go so well since he had no interest in sitting in one place for more than 2 seconds, so I decided instead to take pictures of all the things he's doing now and what it's like to chase after him.

He loves to play in Hannah's room. We have to be really careful to watch for any small toys, but he really likes to pull things off her shelves and dive into her bean bag.

His crawling speed is about 20 mph...ok, maybe not that fast, but if you take your eyes off of him for a minute, he's gone! He pulls himself up on anything he can - furniture, my leg, the wall - and then tries to walk along, but he's still having trouble remembering to move his feet to walk!!!! (so he usually falls down).

He puts everything in his mouth! This would be great if we were just talking toys, but he usually prefers shoes and now his most recent find - toilet paper!

He has recently figured out how to climb the stairs too. Here he is on step one

and then step two

And then I needed two hands to catch him as he went for stair three and turned around to check to see if I was watching him! He did go up an entire flight of stairs last week as Tony chased him up! He thought that was real fun, and was panting as he got to the top! So for now, we have to keep gates at the top and bottom of our stairs as they are now off limits to avoid injury!

He has learned what no means (and doesn't like it very much!) Here he was testing me by the dog dish. Every time he leaned toward it, I'd yell no and he'd stop. Eventually he moved on to something else as no got old!

By the way, he throws a complete fit when he gets mad - taking him away from something he wants or just when he isn't getting the proper amount of attention. And oh, how this child can throw a fit!!! He screams and pulls his pantlegs and gets red in the face. Quite a lovely scene that I hope doesn't play out too often in public!

So along with "no", he definitely understands some other words like jump, dance, yay and uh-oh. He is now saying ma ma and I'm certain it has meaning now. He said it a couple months ago, but I think it was just making noise. Now he calls for me. He will say da da too once in a while.

He is getting his eight tooth. Now has all four top and a fourth now on the bottom. And his teeth hurt!!! He quickly realized that this weekend when he accidently bit himself!

He's eating 3 meals of solids - fruits, vegetables and rice cereal and likes puffs. I've tried giving him a few things from the table this week, bread, bananas, pancakes and a french fry.....of course his favorite was the french fry! I did a quick weigh of him on our scale...he's around 23 pounds! Solid as a rock!

He now takes his bath in the tub and he loves to take a bath with Hannah! They have fun playing with toys and splashing around together.

He's still a terrible sleeper. I think in 8 months, we've had 4 nights of sleeping all night uninterrupted. Most nights, we still get up 3-4 times to give him a binky and he still makes his way back to our bed at least once a week when we're at our witts end! Magically, he sleeps like a champ there!

He loves his sister and I think Hannah now really enjoys having a playmate. He's a ball of energy and a lot of fun, and sure is a different kid than his sister. We're so very blessed to have these two wonderful, healthy kids! Wonder what this next month will bring???? Can't wait to find out!

Fall Fun

It was a perfectly fall day Saturday - the air was cool and crisp and the sun was shining which made it feel warm. And since I had been out of town all week, we just HAD to take advantage of this wonderful day for some fall family time.

We headed out to Heritage Farms for some fall fun.

We got lost in the corn maze and Tony quickly made a note to self, not to offer to push a stroller through a corn maze!

Hannah enjoyed her time in the corn pit and straw maze.

She made sure everyone there knew we had been there

We were all measured by the giant pumpkin

We went on a hayride. Nicholas enjoyed the tractor so much!

The scenery was great too.

We had a little lunch and then played in a leaf pile.

We went back around to a few more things to enjoy the day a little longer.

Pumpkins were a little pricey here, so we stopped at another place on our way home and Hannah picked a pumpkin out for herself and for Nicholas.

Oh, and here's a few funny pictures Tony took while I was out of town last week!

Meeting Ryan

We met new baby Ryan Sweeney tonight!!!

Mr. Ryan is not gaining weight like he should, so his mommy Erin needed to stop over tonight to pick up my breastpump to try to see if feeding him a bottle might help matters a little. We're sorry they're having trouble, but we were happy it gave us a reason to arrange a meeting.....see, it's really not that hard!!!

Anyway, he's SO tiny!!! He still hasn't gotten back to his birthweight yet and is a very tiny 6.6 pounds. He's got a ton of hair and looks like a little man! Hannah thought it was so great to hold him and did so for quite a while.

Nicholas looked like a giant next to him!!!

Not the greatest picture, but here I am holding baby Ryan....sure feels different than holding my little one!!!

Hannah and Nicholas enjoyed playing with another new-to-Nicholas toy. They have a great time playing together and just love one another so much!

We went to Reese's Christian Dedication ceremony this past Sunday. Here are all the girls playing in a fountain before the ceremony started.

And here is the Grammes family afterward.

And my little princess of a 4-1/2 year old! Love this little girl!

And the little monster mash is just getting bigger and bigger! He's cutting more teeth on top (the top four are coming in) and he's into everything! We had to put up pictures that were at his level, we have to barricade the dog bowl and are prepared for a soon-to-be-walker! He's so much fun though!

It's Done!

Yay! The deck is done!

They poured the concrete last Thursday and then came back Friday to power wash and seal it and install the railings. A guy came again Saturday to seal it again.

So now that summer is officially over, our deck is done....odd timing, I know! Maybe we can have a few nice fall evenings to enjoy sitting out there before old man winter makes his appearance!

I'm very happy with the way it turned out and it is really a great outdoor space. We'll need to do a little landscaping and flower potting next spring, but it really did improve our yard drastically!

Nicholas is now clapping/doing pat-a-cake! It was so cute yesterday morning when Hannah went into his room to wake him up in the morning. He popped up from his slumber when she called for him to wake up and when he saw her, he sat right up and had a huge smile and started to clap with excitement! It was awesome! Now he's starting to do it on command a little bit. He claps with one hand in a fist and the other open and has the biggest grin on his face! So stinkin' cute!

I had my first Tastefully Simple party last Friday night!! Although it was a small turnout, it was a great first run at it! I certainly learned that I need to figure out how to plan a little better and how to make it run a little more smoothly, but I guess in some more time, I'll figure that out! Thanks Maggie for hosting again!!! Unfortunately, my next party looks like it will need to be rescheduled, but it's still on, just for a date yet to be chosen.

I hit some of the second hand stores for clohtes for the kids for fall and winter and made out really well! $114 went a long way:

I got 15 things for Nicholas including a London Fog winter coat

And I got 16 things for Hannah

Most of this stuff is Carters, Old Navy, Childrens Place, Gap & Gymboree! Not bad for about $3.67 per item!!! Gives you sticker shock though when you go into a store and buy something new! Especially now that both kids need new clothes each season and Hannah's stuff is starting to get more expensive!!

I'm also proud to report that I've started my Christmas shopping!!! I've got both "big gifts" from Santa for the kids already!!! Man, where do I find the time???

I'm back on the poker run!!! Our poker league started again earlier this month. The first tournament started the year out well. Tony and I both made the final table, getting points in our league, but unfortunately no money. Last night we played again and we both made the final table again and both got points and this time I was in the money placing 3rd. It's so fun to be playing again and sure nice to be winning!!! Hopefully we can keep this streak going and play the rest of the year with our winnings!!!