Thanksgiving Weekend in Grand Haven

We had a busy and fun Thanksgiving weekend. We started it off by celebrating Thanksgiving at Craig's sister, Katie's house. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and had a great time with friends and family. After going to our first Thanksgiving dinner we went to the Jonas family Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house. Allison and Connor had a great time playing with all of my cousins.

Rosalee, Allison, Ella and Mary Violet in their coordinating outfits

Rosalee, Allison, Ella, Mary Violet and Genevieve

On Friday we celebrated Allison's 5th birthday two weeks early so that she could have a party in Grand Haven with all of her cousins and her grandparents. This year she wanted a princess party. She celebrated in style with a tiara and a princess cake. The girls colored angel ornaments, got princess wands, ate pizza, watched Allison's year 4 video, and opened presents.

Our birthday princess

Connor enjoyed the cake and ice cream

Allison's piece of cake

Birthday cake

Look at all the great presents Allison received

Cousins celebrating Allison's 5th birthday

The birthday princess waiting for her guests

sisters

On Saturday Craig and I got to go out "kidless" with some childhood friends. It was wonderful to spend time with them. On Sunday we went to an open house for my good friend Mia to celebrate her recent marriage. Again, it was great to catch up with old friends. What a wonderful weekend spent with friends and family. We have a lot to be thankful for.

We gathered all the kids for a Christmas card picture.

Not bad considering we had 9 kids to keep from crying!

Staci, Craig, Mia, Tai, and Janelle

Turkey Time

Doing his "freeze" and showing off his messy hands/face/everything!

Allison frosting cookies

Tasting time!

Here is a look at the cookies!

Allison has bee asking me for the last two weeks to make turkey cookies with her hands. So, I decided it would be a good afternoon craft while Connor was down for his nap and the baby was resting. So I told her we would do it on Monday after I picked her up from school and Connor was sleeping. The day got sort of mixed up since Connor was not feeling well and fell asleep in the jogger at 10:15. I decided to let him sleep and he slept until 12:30 when I had to leave to go get Allison. So, needless to say, Connor was up for our turkey cookies. He was quite the helper and had a ton of fun making an enormous mess and eating a ton of frosting and cookies. Allison had fun decorating the cookies. It was a lot of fun, but a huge mess:)

Ella is 8 weeks old

Ella at 8 weeks old

Ella at 7 weeks old

Time is flying by and our little bundle of joy is getting big! She is already 8 weeks old and quickly growing out of all of her clothes. I took out all the newborn stuff and much of the 0-3 month clothing is going to be too small in the next couple of weeks. She is really smiling a lot these days and cooing a lot too, making life much more enjoyable for us. Ella sleep from about 10:15-2:30 in her cradle and then she eats and is back to sleep for three hours, eats again and back for another 2 or so. I have been able to get a solid 3-4 hours stretch at the beginning and that helps. Hard to believe that 3-4 hours sounds like a decent amount of sleep. She continues to sleep most of the day, but is up for an hour or so in between eating and sleeping. She just goes with the flow. With two older siblings, this is the way it is going to be.

Connor is 18 months

It is hard to believe that Connor is already 18 months old. He was actually 19 months at his visit with Dr. Sandvig and he was a champ. He played peek a boo with her, copied me showing her how he copied and told her lots of his words. He ended up getting 4 shots, which was not fun at all, but he bounced back quickly.

At 18 months here are some things he can do:

-Feeds himself entirely. He loves to eat pizza, boca chicken, apples, tacos, and his favorite of all GUMMIES! He continues to say more and do the sign for it hoping to get at least two or three packs of those things. I am happy to have something to keep him happy in the jogger while I get my exercise in!

-Copies EVERYTHING that Allison does. He marches to the U of M fight song with "knees high" just as she does, sings songs, plays with dolls, whatever she does, he does.

-His favorite songs are The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, and ABC's.

-He loves to take a bath and go swimming. In fact he is known to splash around in the water long after Allison is out of the tub.

Loves reading books about airplanes and cars. He is such a boy.

Here are his stats:

Weight: 27.09 lbs (63%ile)

Height:33.86 inches (84%ile)

Head: 19.88 (97%ile) Yes he has a big head!

Connor has just gotten into throwing some temper tantrums and has had several time outs for hitting Allison. He hates sitting in time out, so at least that is working. He also loves to sit in the rocking chair with me at night and read books. I have to say that I too savor this time alone with him. With a baby sister just 18 months younger, his alone time with me is limited.

Overall Connor is thriving. He is a ton of fun and we are excited to see the little boy he is turning into.