Busy

We've been busy baking around here and getting ready for Christmas.  I have a girl who loves to help!

With celebrations beginning this weekend we will surely be even more busy soon so wanted to take the time to say Merry Christmas(in case I don't have time to get on to post before then) We hope you remember the reason why we celebrate!

Oh (Fake) Christmas Tree

Yes you read that correctly, we have a fake Christmas tree this year:(  It didn't work out to get up to the tree farm over the last several weeks and I couldn't wait any longer to deck our halls so my mom wasn't using her bigger artificial tree and said we could borrow it.  Yes, we could have gone to get a real tree around Ames but I am too cheap to pay for one when I know where I can get one for a deep discount up the road a few miles:)  Anyway even though it's fake we still had fun decorating it the other night.  I let the kids help me with "my" tree since we didn't do one upstairs this year which is usually their tree.  I didn't have too high of expectations but they actually did a really good Job.  There were a few too many decorations down low but we fixed that and I think it turned out pretty nice...well you know for a fake tree:)

5 Months

Ezra turned 5 months old on Thursday.  This month he started to really laugh a lot, especially at big brother Gabe.  He also started to be a hungry boy and eating a bigger bottle at each feeding.  He is a pretty happy guy most of the time now but he is wiggly!  He will let you know when he is sleepy and ready for a nap and generally does great sleeping at night and during the day.  It is strange to think around this time last year we were surprised to learn our 4th little bundle would be completing our family in the summer and now we can't imagine life without our cute little bean!

I can add a first to Ezra's baby book as well as he tried his first food today.  Sweet potatoes.  He didn't do too bad:)

Bumblebee, Thor, a Butterfly and a Pumpkin

It has taken me awhile to get this posted but the kids loved Halloween this year.  The day before we carved pumpkins.  Gabe had no problem digging right in.

Ty and Callie on the other hand were a little more aprehensive of the pumpkin goo.

Daddy had to scoop their pumpkins out for them:)  Here are the finished products.
Gabe's Jack O lantern

Ty's Jack O Lantern(very robotic looking don't you think?:)

and Callie's Jack O Lantern

The kids were very excited for trick or treating on Halloween night.  We had Bumblebee

Thor

a butterfly

and a pumpkin who really didn't care about trick or treating but who did like spending the evening with Grandma and Grandpa where it was warm:) (That costume used to have a cute little stem hat but apparently through the years is was misplaced:(

 The kids were a hit with their lighted trick or treat buckets from Grandpa Tim, I wished we would have had business cards to pass our from the lady who makes them because I think we were asked at every house where we got them!

After a successful night of trick or treating we went over to Grandma's for Pizza.  The kids are excited to have Ezra Join in the activities next year!






 

4 Months

Look who has discovered his hands(and fingers and thumbs!)  It is hard to get a picture of Ezra without his hands in his mouth lately.  See

Ezra's schedule changed somewhat this month, he now eats 6 oz. every 4 hours instead of 4 oz. every 3.  It is great!  I don't feel like I am feeding him all the time and he seems to be doing really well with his new schedule.  He really found his voice this month and lets us know with happy squeals and laughs as well as voices his opinion when he is not happy too!  The day he turned 4 months his first tooth popped through on the bottom and made me very sad.  He is growing up waaaaay too quickly for this mama.  He loves his brothers and sister and always has big smiles and squeals to give them much to their delight.  Gabe even took him for sharing at his school!  He had his 4 month check-up on Monday and weighs in at 15 lbs. 13.5 oz and was 24 1/2 inches long!  Here is our 4 month old big boy without his hands in his mouth!(smiling at big sister of course!)

Callie's Party

We had Callie's birthday party the weekend after her birthday.  We kept it pretty low key but she had a great time.
Opening her presents

and trying on her new coat from Grandpa Matt and Grandma Nancy

and her Cinderella cake, we went the easy route for cakes this year:)  She still loved it.

Still hard to believe my girl is 3!

At the Orchard

Ty's class went on a field trip to the orchard last week and Carl usually tries to go with on field trips so we decided it would be a good time to go meet them there after his tour was done.  The kids loved to ride on the little tractors, although I think Gabe may be getting a little big for them!

They also liked to pet the goats and watch them run around their pen.

Milking the cow was also a highlight.  They all decided it would take a really long time to get a gallon of milk doing it that way.

The corn pool is always a favorite.

 Maybe not for Ezra, he was not such a big fan of the corn pool:)

The Jumping Pillow is always popular too.

While waiting for the hayride we checked out the big pumpkins.

We had fun on the hayride too even though it was a little chilly out there!

And before we left Gabe made sure we took their picture with their pumpkins on the hay bales.

We had a great time at the orchard, a weekday afternoon is definately the time to go, it was quiet and we didn't have a crowd of people anywhere.  Hopefully next year Ezra will be able to do a few more of the activities:)

It's a Zoo Around Here

Well it's always a zoo around here but this past weekend we were able to make a short visit over to the actual zoo.  The kids had last Monday off because of a teacher inservice so we decided to head over to Omaha Sunday to visit my aunt and uncle as well as Carl's aunt and also make a trip to the zoo.  We were able to meet my aunt and uncle for lunch on Sunday and then we went to our hotel and rested awhile and met Carl's aunt for dinner that night.  After dinner the kids got to swim(which they were very excited about all day!) We probably won't be able to do this much longer!

 Monday we met up with my aunt and uncle (and my dad who came over with us as well) at the zoo.  The kids LOVED it.  They loved climbing on the lions.

and all the sights of the desert dome.

 and the creatures of the night as well but about that time this smiley guy needed to eat so I took him out for a bottle while everyone else checked that out.

(pay no attention to the purple, girly blanket.  It was cold and windy in the morning and we forgot to grab Ezra's blanket when we left so Callie's had to do:)

One of the kids favorite parts was the aquarium.  The LOVED everything.

Even Ezra was mesmerized by the tunnel aquarium.

The new Jelly Fish exhibit was really cool.

and of course no trip to an aquarium is complete without seeing Nemo(he's in there though hard to see in the picture:)

After the aquarium we had lunch and had to tell Sue and shortly after Dave goodbye as Sue had to go to work and Dave to pick up Cory from school.  We went and visited the big cats and Callie loved the lion.  We then made our way up to feed the Budgies. 

The Budgies weren't super hungry this day we decided and didn"t have a ton of luck getting them to eat off of our birdseed covered sticks.  After the Budgies Grandpa bought the kids a ride on the carousel.  Ty picked this Rhino.

Callie picked the zebra

and at first Gabe picked the Tiger until he discovered that he didn't go up and down and then quickly changed his mind and picked this Rooster next to Ty(Which Callie thought was hilarious, ask her what Gabe rode on the carousel and she will tell you hysterically that Gabe rode a chicken)

After a visit to the bears we went to see the Apes.  We got right up to the glass and they were definately easy to see during our visit.  The highlight was when one one gorilla pounded the glass near where we were standing.

These guys were too cute not to take a picture of.

and this snake was definately not cute but Gabe wanted his picture with it anyway:)

We also had to go see the Zebra's and Bongo's(and the Cheetah and Warthogs too)

On our way back up to the Jungle I had Callie stop and pose by the butterflies.

Our last stop for the day was the Jungle.  The monkeys are always fun to watch.

and these monkeys were pretty fun to watch as well.

This guy was interesting too.  We probably could have stood there for much longer and Mr Sloth would still not have moved a whole lot.

and before we left the zoo I tried rather unsuccessfully to get a picture of all 4 kiddos on the tortoise.

Oh well maybe next time we go we will get a better picture of all 4.  When I'm not afraid Gabe will drop the baby and the others learn to actually look at the camera(a girl can dream)