Christmas Stuff

We had such a good Christmas season this year. As always it just flies by. We try and do something fun each night. One of the girls favorite things is turning on Christmas music and lighting candles and doing some dancing. We always have to have a Christmas treat every night too. And if we ever forgot the treat , Nellie made sure that we remembered. The girls love decorating the tree. I love having a real tree, but it is just too expensive, plus you can't beat having a prelit tree.

This is how Russell felt about decorating the tree.

Jane put all of her ornaments right along the bottom. Lizzy tried to boss her and make her put them somewhere else, but I told her to let Jane do it where she wanted.

the girls wanted to take our picture under the tree.

For a family night activity we made countdown chains, The girls each made one. I had to help Janie because she just couldn't get the linking thing. So I had her put the glue on then I put them together. It was funny because after each spot of glue she out on she would say, "fantastic!"

Nellie was at a play date and so Lizzy and Jane were my little cookie helpers. They had fun helping me cut them out and frost them.

Our Sweet Boy

Where does the time go? Russell is already over two months old! We sure have loved having him in our family. The girls absolutely adore him. They want to be holding him and kissing him and cuddling him all day long. He has been a so-so baby. Certainly not my worst but definitely not my best either. Right now he isn't napping very well, just cat naps throughout the day and when he is awake he cries if he isn't being held or doesn't get enough attention. This has just been for about the past week so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't stay this way. He definitely likes me a lot, but at this age that is typical, I do have the goods after all. He does sleep pretty good at night so that is good.
So far he seems the most like Lizzy to me in personality. He seems very social at this age just like she did. He loves to coo and talk a lot! it is so cute because if you talk to him and give him attention he just will coo and talk away. He likes to "talk" more than any of the other girls that I can remember.
So all this hope for a chubby baby is just not going to happen. I took him to his 2 month checkup and he had started to drop in the percentiles just like the girls did. I guess it just is not in our cards to have a big baby. Oh well, he is healthy and perfect. I couldn't love him any more than I already do. He is 10 lbs 13 oz. (30th) and 23 inches (50th)

Such a handsome little guy in his Tux that Kevy's grandma made. It was so special to have him blessed in it. A funny thing about the blessing: Kevin said that right after he started saying it, Russell had a major blowout in his pants that was loud and stinky and Kevin said it really threw him off in the prayer, although you would never know that, it was a beautiful blessing.

What a proud daddy Kevy is. Lets just hope that Russ is into sports.

It is still hard to believe that I have 4 kids!

These girls just love this boy to death. This is such a common sight that I just had to take a picture. They all just want to mother him and smother him. Lizzy was so funny because this morning I was in the other room and he started to cry so I went in there and Lizzy had taken off his diaper because she figured that he must need a diaper change since he was crying. Lets not forget that she has never changes a diaper and she didn't even have a clean one in the room with her. Too funny.

He is our little buddy in the evenings. He hangs out with us after the girls go to bed. But I am looking forward to the time when he starts to go to bed when the girls do and I can have my time with Kevy again. I miss it.

He is definitely a paci baby and I couldn't be happier about it. I love that I can give him something when he is fussy that will calm him down, who cares if I have to take it away when he is older, it is worth it.

I just love that little smile. He is so easy to get a smile out of I love it. Everyone tells me how much he looks like Kevy. I always wondered what a little Richey boy would look like. Now we know, just as dang cute as his sisters! (I am not biased)

I wanted a picture of Russ and me so I asked Nellie to take one. She was really cute but I think I will ask Kevy next time. I just love my little Russell Man! (or as Janie calls him Mr. Buddy)

Lizzy's Girlie Party

We weren't going to give Lizzy a party since her birthday fell too close to the time that I was going to be having Russell, but since I had him early I decided to do a party for Lizzy as long as it was an easy one and not too close to her birthday. She was so funny because I told her she could have 8 friends, and she made her list of eight friends over and over again, rewriting it and rewriting it. Then although we had made a date, she had already told her friends about it and i hadn't sent out the invites yet and she would tell me everyday, "my friends are wondering when the party is going to be." and I just said, tell them it hasn't changed and when it gets closer we will send out invitations. So silly.
I decided to do a nail and hair party since that was pretty easy and I didn't have to do much planning for it. My awesome friend Alisa came over and did the hair which was so cool because I can't do much and she can do so many things in it. And I made cupcakes because they were much easier than doing an elaborate cake. The problem was that I fed Russell right before the party thinking he would go down for a nap and sleep the whole time, and he didn't sleep at all. In fact he screamed pretty much the whole time and I couldn't hold him because I was doing nails and Alisa was doing hair so she couldn't hold him either. And Lizzy was too busy with friends to help me out. Then one of the little girls came up to Lizzy when she was right by me and told her how much his crying was bothering her ears and Lizzy said "I know!" I seriously wanted to beat them for saying that. I felt so frustrated because I couldn't hold him and Lizzy was kind of being a punk.
Then we ran out of time because the hair and nails took so long to do that we had to rush through the presents and cake because parents were already arriving. It was crazy and I am just glad it is over. I am glad I don't have to do another birthday party for a while because they are definitely NOT my thing.

Lizzy did have fun, and she did tell me thanks afterward without being prompted so that was good.

Thank goodness that I had Alisa there. She was such a lifesaver!

I still can't believe that my Lizzy is 7!