Family/Christmas pictures

It's about that time again... We haven't had family pictures taken since the babies were 4 months old (I think?) and we were due for some more recent shots. Also, with Christmas around the corner, we thought we would get a few new pictures for Christmas cards. Here are some of my most favorites out of all the different combos/poses we took that morning. As usual, the babies were too busy soaking in all of their surroundings so they weren't super smiley but I still think they turned out good.

Craig and Whitney hanging out in the tree! Me and Whitney on the wall... That was as much as I was going to do in a skirt and 3 inch heels...no tree climbing for me!

Me and Tyler having some one-on-one play time on the wall.

Craig and Tyler in the tree. Maybe they are planning how to make a tree house for the future???

Me and my trio. I love this candid shot...not sure what I was laughing at.

Boy was it tough to get down there on the rocks with a skirt, high heeled boots and a baby to boot! I love the background of the trees, waterfalls and rocks surrounding us.

Me and my girls. By this point, we had been going for a while and it was very cold up there on that wall. My poor babies were so cold. Notice I am holding their hands to try to warm them up?

These are obviously out of order but, this was the very last shot of the morning. The babies were getting tired and way beyond cold!

Me and Hannah on the wall.

Craig and Hannah in the tree!

I love this shot!

This one too! Except one thing is out of place. Can you tell what it is?

Daddy and his trio. Tyler would not stop eating leaves. He is SO busy!

Daddy and his trio again... Whitney is laughing because Hannah put her fingers in Whitney's mouth. :) Cute! Notice anything out of place in this picture?

This was something new Jill wanted to try. It was a cute idea, but I wish Hannah would have looked up also.

Pulling up and temper tantrums (already?)

Hannah managed to squeeze in between the side table and the sofa. They love to migrate over toward the kitchen where the gate is. Their other all-time favorite place to play is in the bucket and window. They now drag toys out on their own!

Whitney and Lacy playing together. Since this picture was taken, I took the foam mats up off the floor because they hardly ever play over there anyway. The whole purpose of them was to catch spit up and help pad their falls. I am sure I will pull them out again in the future.

Whitney and Hannah playing in the bucket again!

A new feeding method! :) Just kidding! I was being silly and tried this because they kept trying to roll over in their boppies.

Hannah, my little stretcher. She has always loved to stretch a lot, but doesn't do it as much anymore. She was doing it a lot right before this feeding (with my assistance).

Tyler is climbing on top of Whitney... poor girl is getting squished.

The babies usually play together in the same area - except Whitney is usually the one playing by herself if anybody is. If one migrates to the other side of the room, the other two will usually follow. They also follow me around now when I go in to the kitchen or nursery if I don't close the gates.

Here they have migrated to Craig's shoes. They love to untie his shoe laces.

Tyler is pulling up on everything!

Tyler pulling up on the basket of diapers I just filled.

Whitney and Tyler are learning how to throw fits. They kick their feet, arch their backs, shake their heads no and cry and scream. Fun times! And I wasn't thinking fit-throwing started this early! I haven't gotten any tantrums from Hannah yet.

A few other quick updates... we are working on self-feeding with finger foods and sippy cups and we are slowly making progress. Whitney's one tooth is much more visible now... I'll try to get a picture. Hannah still has zero teeth. Tyler's two middle bottom teeth are it for him.

I am getting super excited about the holidays with the babies. I have been remembering what my life was like last year at this time and reflecting on all the things I have to be thankful for. I will try to do a separate post on this soon!

Halloween, 9 month weigh-in, Arboretum and much more!

Another long post...so get ready. A lot has been happening!



Halloween night we went over to Jennifer's and we took the kids to the park for swinging, hotdogs and a parade. Then, we took the kids trick or treating. Of course, mine didn't get any candy - we just went along for the ride. Then, we stayed over for a while, had chili, caught up with friends and played Wii.

Here is Samantha, Jennifer's baby. She was a poodle for Halloween.

Tyler, Whitney, Hannah and Sam shared swings while we waited for the parade to start. Tyler said, "Get me out of this thing already."

Whitney was the lobster for Halloween night since Hannah got to be the lobster for their 9 month pictures earlier in the day. Actually, Whitney was the crab...goes better with her crabby mood all afternoon. :)

Sam swinging with Hannah.

Hannah getting ready to chew on the back of the swing. Gross!

My little crab....

Hannah always chewing on whatever is in her reach...this time, the glow necklaces.

Tyler always hamming it up. Poor thing was a little warm in the fleece superman costume.

Tyler is continuing to be more and more interested in Lacy. Lacy just lays there while he crawls on top of her. She does so well with them, but yes, in case you are wondering, I do watch her very closely with them.

Hannah is reading to Whitney.

Craig has been on vacation this week and we have been enjoying our time together doing lots of things this week! Look at Hannah...she adores her Daddy! Monday, we took the babies to their 9 month well visit at the pediatrician.

Whitney my sweet little girl. She weighs 14 pounds 13.8 ounces and is in the 1 percentile for her weight. She is doing great on the length. She is 27 3/4 inches long and in the 54th percentile for length. The little stinker is about to fall off the charts but good thing I am not too worried about charts! She is perfectly healthy anyway! We are just going to have to try to get a little more milk down her. I sure hope she will take more milk on a daily basis and gain a little weight because otherwise it looks like she is going to be on formula past one year.

Whitney also got her first tooth Monday. I don't have a picture of it because it is barely coming through and very hard to see by opening her mouth with my finger in her mouth. I can't imagine trying to get a picture of it.

Whitney can crawl now as of this week. She doesn't get around too much but she does crawl/drag across the floor when she sees something she wants. She is also holding her own bottle all the time now! Yay! All the babies can now hold their bottles.

Tyler my BIG boy baseball player (don't you just love the hat??? Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.) weighs 19 pounds 1 ounce and is in the 23rd percentile for weight. He is 28 1/4 inches long and is in the 47th percentile for length.

Tyler is crawling around like nobody's business. I can see the excitement in his body language that he knows how to get around now. He is pulling up in his crib, but that is about it.

Tyler (as well as Hannah and Whitney) have suddenly starting drinking their bottles in a much quicker time period. They have ALWAYS taken 30 minutes or more to drink their bottles with the exception of a few times of taking it in 15 or 20 minutes. Well, this week and last week, they have started a new trend of taking them in 10 or 15 minutes on a regular basis! HALLELUJAH! FINALLY!

Hannah, my other little squirt. Hannah is in the same boat as Whitney in regards to weight. She weighs 14 pounds 12.7 ounces and is in the 1 percentile on weight. She is 27 1/4 inches long and is in the 36th percentile on length. Even though she looks like a wino here (HA!) don't let that fool you. She, like her sister, doesn't have much of an interest in drinking her bottle. I personally think they are just going to be small, petite girls. But, it sure would be nice if they will eat more, otherwise they may never turn forward facing in their car seats.

She is also crawling about the same as Whitney. She has some very interesting ways of getting around these days.

She likes to sit up in bed and has just started playing peek-a-boo.

Hannah still has zero teeth.

This is our "Joe the plumber"! Gotta have a little political humor!

Earlier this week, we went to the Arboretum together. I actually got the babies out of their stroller for a few pictures this time. (Whitney, Tyler, Hannah)

Whitney was not liking the hay at all!

Whitney and Daddy at the froggy fountains.

Tyler hamming it up again. This was our first picnic together.

What a cute picture and we loved the view. Impossible to get everybody smiling. :)

What is everybody looking at??? Impossible to get all three smiling. :)

Ignore the feet in this picture but look at the beautiful babies, and sky! Tyler crawling away of course. He is too busy for pictures. Impossible to get all three looking. :)

The babies and their hero! Impossible to get any looking. :)

Our beautiful family! Impossible to get any looking. :)

The babies finally fell asleep so Craig and I took some shots together. Yes, I am feeding a baby in the back of the car and yes the door is shut! I am trying to see how limber I can get and how skinny I can get.

I found Hannah like this this morning. She either took her diaper off, somebody else helped her or it came un-velcroed. Isn't she a mess? So, I thought I had enough time to grab a camera and snap a shot of her without her diaper on, but actually, I didn't. Notice she is laying on top of a book??? When I picked her up, she had just peed on the book! Nice!

We have been wearing these babies out this week with doctor's appointments, the Arboretum, house hunting (nothing serious yet, just scoping out neighborhoods for next year), Christmas shopping (before Craig's shoulder surgery), eating out and we have a few more fun family things planned for the remainder of the week (like attempting an early matinee') as well as some "me time" without the babies. We just wanted to get out and enjoy our time together and we have!

Also, we have been hoping the babies would get more accustomed to being out and would learn to sleep more in their stroller.... Not so much. You wouldn't believe how much running we've been doing and they still seem to sleep very little, but surprisingly, they do very well and cry very little. I guess next week will be back to normal - staying home most of the time feeding babies and letting them get normal naps. I don't get out much and feel very confined at home, so this has been nice.