Lounging

Last night right after dinner Ermias disappeared upstairs. I assumed he was playing Legos, but then he came back with his pjs and bathrobe on. Apparently he wanted to be more comfortable! I asked him to pose for me and this is what I got; he's a funny boy!

Teacher's gifts

We are keeping things simple this year. 

The boys' teachers are getting a jar of chocolates. 

They did an amazing job decorating the lids.

Who's got a golden ticket

We've been talking to the boys about traditions and Waymond has asked them to come up with a new Christmas tradition for our family. Well, when I saw this I knew it had to be a new tradition.

We did it Friday night and the boys were EXCITED!!

 It's helpful to have a husband who is a graphic designer; he whipped this up in no time!

 Off to bed, wait no it's not!

Off to see the lights of Tacoma with a hot chocolate!

Due to Lillie's age, she and I stayed home. She slept and I did some laundry.

Attack of the baby

Lillie enjoyed chewing on ObiWan's ship.

She managed to get ObiWan out of the ship and chew on him 

before he was taken away.

She was very interested in him.

Sharing

Lillie wanted to share her duck; 

and by "her duck" I mean her brother's duck that she has 

taken as her own! What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine.

Sisters, you gotta love them.

Thankfully her brothers don't mind, yet.

Terrific Kids

Both our boys were terrific kid this month! We are so proud of them; they are doing so well in school!

Christmas gifts

The boys have been enjoying wrapping and decorating Christmas gifts. We let them wrap their own gifts, but we put them in non-descript boxes first. Isayas spelled out XBox 360 in foam letters on the front of his box! He'll be sad to know, that's not what is inside!

Tasty

Lillie is crawling away from the trash can that she was just licking! mmmm

She's going to have one strong immune system.

A few fun ones

Just a few fun pictures from the week:

 Lillie biting the head of a T-Rex.

 The boys popped out the lenses in some play glasses and have been having fun with them.

I think he's Bill Cosby from the '80s, but doesn't know it.

Christmas Windows

Thanks to some window markers from Grandma Jani, our front window has become festive.

Grandma Jani

Just wanted to share a great shot of Lillie and Grandma Jani from last week.

Sibling love

Ermias had been helping Lillie stand. She then sat on his lap in this cute brother/sister moment. Then she slid down and laid on the floor and kicked her brother in the face several times. And, she never skipped a beat chewing on the wooden car. Thankfully the camera was nearby!

Who needs a nap?

This is a "for the love, put me to bed" look!

A little dancing

Need a laugh? This is a taste of Ermias in the evenings.

Girl cousins

When there are lots of brothers around, girl cousins have to stick together!

reading

I feel like this is somewhat proof that Ermias likes to read. His cousin had a My Little Pony comic; it must be good.

Thanksgiving visit

We had family in town over Thanksgiving. It was busy, but we all had such a great time. We hosted three cousins and a Grandma at the house. We are tired, but glad everyone came! Here are some highlights:

 Grandma Jani got to have lunch with the boys! Two cousins came along for an added bonus!

 Since it was "vacation" iPads & iPhones were fired up with games going. We did make them stop and actually play together.

 Lots of help walking! Our kids are going to miss their cousins!! Lillie included. She had seven extra people to walk her around all day.

Everyone played lots and lots of hangman. Sometimes the words were made up; sometimes there were some creative spellings (we had two 1st graders & a 2nd grader), but I'm sure there must have been some learning. Ermias learned that Christmas is spelling with a C and not a K.

And, of course, we had lots of food, but I didn't get any pictures of that. We are still eating the leftovers and will be for a few more days. Waymond loves that part of Thanksgiving!

Toys

Lillie went in search for the perfect toy. She crawled under the table and dumped each box of toys to find the one she wanted! Our pediatrician says that at 9 months the personality and temperament of your child is usually how they will be forever. We think we have a very detailed, determined and happy little girl who knows what she wants to chew on!

Standing

It has finally happened. I went to get Lillie from a nap on Tuesday and she was standing up in her bed. Waymond lowered the mattress that evening so she wouldn't fall out or try to grab the picture on her wall. She is just growing up so fast!

Pretend

Ermias still really likes to pretend play things going on in his life. Saturday he put together "lunch with the principal." He was the principal.

Lillie enjoyed her wooden hamburger!

Everyone had fun and Waymond played the part of the overactive, needs lots of attention student very well.

More reading

The boys enjoying a library book with Lillie. 

I'm sure they all loved learning about flies.

10 Months

Ten months old today! 

I can't believe that in two months we will be 

celebrating Lillie's 1st birthday and Ermias' 7th! 

Lots of moving around these days. She is still crawling on her arms and toes, but occasionally gets up on her hands and knees, she just doesn't go very fast that way. If she could, Lillie would just take off running every where she went. She tries to stand by herself and can walk by herself along the sofa or ottoman. She wants to keep up with her brothers. She has learned to scream at them if they aren't paying attention to her. They think it's funny so she keeps doing it. It's very effective; she gets everyone's attention. They love it when she does it while we are out in public! She screams, they laugh, and everyone near us looks our way; lovely! Grocery shopping with three kids is not my favorite past time; I try to leave all if not two at home usually.

More art

This is Ermias' playdough underwater ocean scene, 

including a sea-star, shark and a home for the shark!

reading

I got out of the shower one morning this last week to find:

Our boys are really into reading at the moment. As I'm sure you remember, they were bribed this summer with doughnuts for reading (which worked amazingly). Isayas was telling me about a book he checked out of the school library. He finished his story with, "I really like to read now Mom. I learn a lot from books." Let's hope he keeps that attitude forever!!

Cars

I'm not sure if we need to buy any toys for Lillie. She seems to take over her brother's toys. The boys had their cars out the other day playing. They were nice and gave her a couple of her own to chew on, but it didn't last long. She NEEDED to be in the middle of what they were doing and chew on any and every car they wanted to play with.

Isayas' soccer

For those who would like to watch a little of Isayas' soccer team:

The skills

Last week I pulled out the camera to get a picture of Lillie and the mess she had made (she likes to dump things and move on) and I'm glad I did. We got a first hand view of her light saber skills.

The teeth

Lillie has four teeth! That fourth one took weeks to break through; we could practically see it for days and days before it came through the gum. Thankfully she's a pretty good teether. She might have her momma's tolerance for pain (and thankfully not her daddy's).

It's hard getting a good shot of teeth! This was the best one. She is going to have a huge gap between her front teeth, which is going to make her even more cute (if that's possible)!

For the Grandmas

Because the Grandmas live far away, here's another video. I took it for Isayas so he could see what happened to his pyramid while he was at school. Lillie is compelled to knock down anything that's stacked.

Happy Halloween

The boys carved a great pumpkin with Waymond.

Ermias slowly decorated our front window with hanging bats, spiders (plastic & paper), webs

a scary face, ghosts and a couple of pumpkins.

Lillie was going as an 1980's aerobics instructor (she has lots of leg warmers) 

and I made a boom-box out of felt for her to chew on.

In the end she stayed home with me, she wasn't feeling well today. 

She'll chew on the boom-box post halloween.

The boys dressed as ninjas, but I didn't get pictures. 

Waymond put their outfits together and they were amazing!

Masterpiece

I bought a bunch of opened packs of pipe cleaners at a garage sale for $.25, and while looking for something else Ermias ran across them. He's been working on this masterpiece for two days. It was hanging from the fire place, but it got a little heavy for the tape he used to hang it. It's a Christmas decoration and Lillie REALLY wants to eat it or at least taste it!
Best quarter I've spent, and he has more pipe cleaners left.

All three

They are all growing so fast! I took a couple of pictures this morning 

before the boys headed out for school.