Christmas Morning

 We had a nice, quiet Christmas morning. The boys woke up at their usual early time, but they know if I'm not already up exercising that they should not come in our room, so they stayed in theirs playing until they heard Austin and I talking. They got some board games, books, and pajamas from us (Heidi just got pajamas from her brothers), but the gifts they seemed to enjoy the most were the toys they picked out for each other. They also really liked what Santa brought them- a kid-sized shovel and rake. After all the presents were opened, Austin made us chocolate waffles with whipped cream and strawberries and we spent the rest of the morning playing our new games and reading our new books until it was time to go over to Austin's parents house. It was a very enjoyable Christmas! (Please note how great these pictures turned out with our new 50mm camera lens-my dad's gift to Austin and I :) I've been wanting this lens to get the bokeh look since we got our camera. Some didn't turn out quite right because we are still getting used to it, but I'm so excited to have it!)

7 MONTHS

Our Little Miss is 7 months old now and continues to be a little ray of sunshine in our family. She is such a happy little girl and very content most of the time. She is able to sit up on her own for longer periods now (although she occasionally topples over still) and will sit and play with whatever is around her. Her Aunt Renee has been able to just set her by the Christmas tree and let her play with the lower branches for about 40 minutes at a time- I've never tried this just because our tree is in a remote corner of the house, but Renee said she is super happy. I've found that as long as she has some toys to play with and her brothers around I can set her on the floor and do my morning workout without much problem. She loves to smile and interact with people still. Lots of times while I'm holding her but distracted by the other things that are going on, she will stick her face right in mine to get my attention. She also does something that I call hugging: when I'm holding her, especially when I pick her up after a day at work, she nestles in as close as she can get and kind of curls her body up around me. Sometimes she buries her face in my shoulder like she just can't get herself close enough. I love how snuggly she is! Of course her brothers still adore her and sometimes fight over who gets to be right in front of her. They are both very good about helping with anything I ask them to. Although Heidi is sitting and rolling over really well, she is showing no sign of trying to crawl or get around in any other way. I thought this was kind of strange given how interested she is in what her brothers are up to, then I realized that there is no real need for her to go anywhere- they always come to her bearing toys and anything they can think of to entertain her. Heidi's favorite toy is currently her tongue. She loves to suck on it, stick it out, and move it to the left. Austin captured this in a couple of the pictures below.Heidi has been eating solids once a day (most days) for awhile now and gets so excited when she sees me getting the bowl and spoon out. She flaps her arms and squeals with a huge smile on her face when I feed her to show me how much she likes it. The only complaint I have about Heidi is that she is growing up too fast!

Leif's birthday interview

Since we were traveling, I forgot to give Leif a birthday interview, We are a week late, but here are his answers (plus some bonus pictures):

Who is your favorite person? mommy
What is your favorite color? green
What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Dusty (Planes Fire and Rescue)
What is your favorite outfit? Polar bear shirt (this just happens to be the shirt he was wearing- Leif isn’t very picky about what clothes he wears most of the time)
What song do you like the best? Twinkle Little Star
What is your favorite cereal?  Regular cheerios
Who is your best friend? Heidi
What do you want to do when you grow up? A chef that can bake stuff (this was chosen from a list I gave him)
What is your favorite book? Pete the Cat and the Bad Banana
What are you really good at? Tricks (jumping on the couches and love sack)
Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Camping
What would you buy is you had a lot of money? Food
What is your favorite dinner? Chicken nuggets (he has these for lunch all the time, but his real favorite dinner is meat loaf)
If you could have a wish, what would it be? Hide (said as he was wrapping himself up in a blanket)
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Green ice cream (mint chocolate chip)
Who do you want to be like? Dusty (the airplane character from his favorite movie)
What do you like to do with your friends? Play
What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? All I got from him was a bunch of nonsense, so I don’t think he understood the question
What is your favorite thing to do? Watch movies
What are you proud of? Playing
What are you afraid of? Bad guys
What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Work out
How strong is Dad? So big
What does Dad do best? Fix things
What does Mom do best? Make food
What do you like best about Dad? Playing with him
What do you like best about Mom? Playing with her