Breakfast Christmas Party

Today I took the kids to our friend Rachel's house for our once a month breakfast with the stay at home moms!  We had so much fun playing, talking and eating.  We also brought presents for the kids to exchange.  I also asked my photographer, Andrea, to come and snap some pics!  Thanks Andrea!  Thanks to Rachel for hosting!

McWane Center Christmas Party

So much going on recently!
Tonight we went to the McWane Center's Christmas party.  They had Santa, and cookies, and an ornament to make.  They also have trains.  Jonas LOVES the trains.

We had such a good time hanging out and playing with all the cool stuff.  Tom had never been so Jonas and I had to show him as much as we could.Jonas also got to sit with Santa again and this time he did even better than last time.  He is finally warming up to Santa.  Here are some pictures from our night!

Laying Down The Law!

Jonas is now three and 2 months.  I am still waiting for him to want to dress himself, pick out his own clothes, help set the table, put on socks and shoes, etc.  I am one of those people that do things very quickly so it always has just been easier for me to dress him and be done in 2 min.  Well, this morning since we had time and we were not going anywhere I thought I would enforce the pick out your own clothes and put them on yourself.  This all started about 5 til 9:00.  Here I sit at 9:36 and we are FINALLY done!
It took him 15 min just to pick out the clothes.  Now in his defense his chest of drawers is very tall.  I had already warned him he was going to have to get his stool.  I told him he needed underwear, pants, and a shirt.  Not hard right?  After saying that 5 times.  I finally went in his room.  He had at least opened a drawer but claimed he could not reach.  I said just grab a pair of underwear.  He got it no problem.  Then I told him to grab a shirt, again no problem.  A pair of pants, no problem.  So then we had to undress and redress.  He did this all on his own as I watched.  (oh, you CAN do it?)  So the last thing was socks.  THAT was fun!  But he did it, 90% on his own.  SUCCESS!  Now I just know if I want him to do it I have to plan for about 30-45 min of frustration on both parts.  It does get easier right?
I also have to praise his clothing choice.  It all matches!  :)

In other news.  I think Tinzley is going to be on the move soon!  Hopefully, our house, Jonas, and me can handle it!  :)

Stockings

Three years ago we bought Jonas' stocking with an initial on it in the hopes that when we had more children we could find ones we liked that were similar.  Well, that said, I could not find any that I liked this year.  I bought one at Target with a T on it but I  never took the tags off and saved the receipt, which if you know me at all that means I will probably return it.  (I never save receipts)  Anyways, I kept thinking about this stocking and how much it did not fit up with our other stockings.  Not that mine fits in either because it is the one from my childhood.
So, I decided to make Tinzley's stocking and just copy Jonas' because I liked it so much.

7 months!

I cannot believe Tinzley is 7 months today.  She seems like she has gotten so big so fast.  At the same time I feel like she should be walking and talking already.
At 7 months Tinzley is
sitting up and playing on her own
eating table food, saltine crackers, puffs, graham crackers, and cooked noodles
(she has tried banana, hated it!, and I gave her a little bit of muffin this morning, LOVED it)
LOVES when Jonas talks to her, plays with her, looks at her, you get the picture.  She just LOVES Jonas in general.
She laughs and smiles when you tickle her belly and armpits.  You really have to work to get her to belly laugh.
She is very calm and seems very content to just watch the world around her
She loves staring out the windows and watching the trees outside
Puts anything and everything that she can get her hands on in her mouth
Loves her teething star, vibrating thingy (no official name I guess)
So far she loves going to the nursery at church.  I think it is because they spoil her!
I still think she has a preference for Mom but she loves her daddy too.
LOVES to spit at anyone who will look at her and loves it when you do it back
She is attempting to imitate sounds
She wants to move around really bad.  I am sure she will be in no time because she sees Jonas doing it
She is wearing anywhere from 3/6 month clothes to 9 month clothes.
Loves her black shiny shoes
She is starting to fuss when you take her toys away or pick her up from where she is playing
She 'throws a fit' if she sees her bottle and you do not give it to her right away.
She is still being swaddled to go to sleep.
We took her pacifier away at 6 months and she really has had no trouble
She cries when I put her down for naps during the day (not for long, I think she is sad because Jonas is still awake) but she loves going to bed at night
She is very aware of what is going on around her!
She is so happy and sweet almost all of the time but she does have a pout that she pulls out every now and then
I have loved every second I have spent with her and I look forward to seeing how she continues to grow.  We think she looks like Tom's baby pictures except for her mouth, it looks like my baby pictures.  She also seems to have more of Tom's personality than mine or Jonas'.
I was playing around with my camera today and had so much fun!  I finally was getting to take pictures the way I want it too.  It is still a work in progress but it has only taken me 4-5 years to figure it out?  How embarrassing!

Decorating the Tree

Tonight we went to get our Christmas tree.  Jonas was pretty excited.  He wanted to pick out the 'bestest' one.  After standing outside in the cold, yes it is cold down here sometimes, we picked the perfect tree.  It is a little smaller than we normally get but it was also less expensive.  We got it home and Jonas was ready to decorate.
Well, three broken ornaments later we got the tree decorated.  Interestingly enough Jonas broke none of the ornaments, I broke 2, and Tom broke one.

My favorite moment from tonight was while we were listening to Christmas music an Andy Williams song came on, my personal favorite for Christmas time, Jonas looked at me and said, "Hey Mom, it is Handy Millions".  Tom and I could not stop laughing.  Sometimes that kid says some great things!

First Bath Together

On Monday Tom came home not feeling well so I had the kids all day and all night.  It just happen to be bath night.  I thought it might be time for us to try a bath with both kids at once.  I had NO idea how it would go.  Tinzley thought it was pretty funny for awhile but got tired of the yelling from Jonas.  Jonas LOVED it!  He keeps asking to do it again.  I am sure we will keep trying and make it a regular thing when Tinzley can tolerate the yelling or Jonas learns to be quiet, which ever comes first!