Kicking Off the Christmas Season

Its hard to believe that it is already that time of year again! We don't have any decorations up yet, and it is hard to know when that will happen as life has been a little crazy since our sweet Caleb has joined the family. But decorations or not, Zach is excited for Christmas this year! We took him to a tree lighting this weekend at the Washingtonian and we had a great time. We even saw Santa and Mrs. Claus ride by in a train.

Daddy came home from running the "Turkey Burnoff" and Zach was ready to wrestle!

Good thing daddy always has lots of energy for his little boys!

My wonderful sister Malia came all the way from California during her Thanksgiving break from school. We had such a fun time with her and like always, she was a tremendous help. She is an amazing auntie and even though she just left yesterday we miss her already!

The four of us at the Tree Lighting

Zach's first cup of Hot Chocolate. This was the before picture. If I had taken the after picture you would have seen the Hot Chocolate poured down the front of his jacket.

Daddy and Zach dancing to the children's performer before they lit the tree.

Checking out the tree

Zach and Malia

Malia and Caleb

Caleb 4 1/2 weeks

Sleepy Baby & Exhausted Mommy

One Month with Caleb!

Our sweet Caleb has been with us for one month now! In some ways it is hard to believe that it has been that long and at the same time it is hard to imagine a time when he was not here! We have loved getting to know his precious personality and figure out his preferences and what all of his little, or not so little, cries mean. Zach is still delighted to have Caleb in the family and we are even beginning to get a little more sleep. Either that or we are just adjusting to less sleep and becoming entirely dependent on caffeine!

On Thanksgiving day Caleb gave me his first smile! Very thankful for that! This was the same day that Zach gave me his first smile as well, 4 weeks and 1 day! They were even wearing the same outfit.

We loved having Grandmom come and stay with us for a week. She did many many dishes, folded many loads of laundry, and most importantly did lots of grandson cuddling when they needed a little extra TLC and mommy and daddy were experiencing extreme exhaustion!

She brought Zach a special construction worker outfit that has been worn constantly as he does his work around the house.

My three boys. I am so thankful for them!

Caleb 2 1/2 weeks

Raking leaves with daddy!

Caleb 4 weeks

Thanksgiving Day!

Zach and his cousin Christian after a delicious Thanksgiving Feast at aunt Ginny's house!

Zach and Malia at the National Building Museum

Mommy and her precious boys!

A Ride in a Combine Harvester

A few weeks ago Zach had all of his dreams come true. You would think having a new brother would be pretty cool, but as it turns out that is nothing compared to getting to ride in a actual combine harvester!!!! They have been out working in the fields around our house these past few weeks and daddy and Zach have been spending a lot of time standing outside watching them work. Then, one day friendly farmer Scott stopped working and asked if they would like to take a ride in the harvester! So they climbed in and rode around the field as the harvester did its work. It was a very exciting day and one that gets reenacted on a daily basis using his toys. It is going to be a sad day when we eventually move from here and no longer have trains and amazing farm equipment right out our back door.

A Family Resemblance

I took a picture this picture of Caleb today and it reminded me so much of a picture we have of Zach at this same age. I thought I would post them both because it really shows the similarities and differences at this age. One of the differences being that the 2nd time around I learned that I should stop the swing from moving before attempting to take the picture. Kinda fun!

Caleb

Zach

Our First Trip Out as 4!

We are certainly being spoiled by wonderful visitors! My dad just left yesterday after a wonderful weekend! He and Zach had so much fun together- Papere is the perfect playmate for playing trucks. He was teaching Zach all new things and blowing his mind! Who knew it could be so fun to pretend the digger hit a patch of ice and would go sliding across the wood floor?! They would make elaborate breakfasts for everyone in the morning and spend the rest of the day fixing things around the house. Zach learned how to use a plunger in the bath tub-that was pretty exciting! Thanks for everything you did Papere, we love you and are so glad you came to meet your new grandson and spend that wonderful time with us!

Andy's mom is coming tomorrow and we are really looking forward to her visit as well. Once again that leaves us with about 48 hours to try out our skills as parents to these two fun little guys without the safety net of a grandparent to help out. We had a fun morning today with a visit from my friend Clara and her son Eric. After they left I think we must have been feeling very brave because we decided to go out to lunch! That means I had to put on something besides sweat pants for the first time in two weeks. It was actually quite nice! Zach was so excited to be sitting in the back with Caleb. He talked to him the whole way, comforted him when he started to cry and tried to assure him that "we amost dere Taywobe, is OK." So sweet! We decided to go to Chipotle as it is one place we can usually get Zach to actually eat and that is always a bonus. Good choice by the way since he quickly took care of his lunch, moved on to my lunch (I was too busy worrying that Caleb was catching a multitude of diseases to eat), and then finished off a whole bag of those yummy Chipotle chips and guacamole. Then feeling most satisfied he sat back and relaxed

...just like daddy. Despite all of my worrying, Caleb and I had a great time too.

We then headed over to Whole Foods to pick up one quick thing and spent the next 45 minutes in the car feeding Caleb, changing a very messy blow-out diaper, and then feeding him some more. Sweet little Zach was so patient as we did all of that. We just sang songs together and he was as content as could be. It was however at this point that we remembered why it is easier to just stay home. Home is a pretty fun place to be though with all of the fun big brother presents that keeps receiving from our sweet visitors. Check out this cool conductor outfit! Making trains with chairs in the living room has never been so much fun!

Friends For Life!

So week one of having two children has come to an end and we are still here to talk/blog about it. My mom has been with us this week and has truly been a life saver! Not only did she show the piles of laundry who was boss, she was also Zach's best friend for the week. We couldn't have done it with out you mom! She left last night and Andy and Zach are at the airport picking up my dad right now. That means we had 24 hours by ourselves as a family of four! This morning when Caleb and I came downstairs Andy and Zach were already having their picnic breakfast and reading books on the living room floor. (which is a funny tradition that Zach has instituted since Caleb has come home-who knows!) Andy looked up at me and said "Look, we're doing it Beth! We can do this." Its true, for the last 24 hours everyone has been happy and well taken care of. We are doing it!

Really though, the transition from one little one to two is going far better than I would have expected. We are of course working over time to make sure Zach is not feeling slighted, but it seems to be paying off. He loves Caleb! Loves to hold him, bring him toys, talk to him in his sweet nurturing voice, and kiss him good night. In the morning when he wakes up and calls for us he says..."Mommy, Daddy, want to get up and see Caleb!" What more could we ask for? On a side note this morning when we went in to get him he was laying in his crib COMPLETELY naked. No jammies, and no diaper! It was hillarious! We are just lucky

that his diaper was clean!

We are truly blessed to be the parents of two incredible little boys! Thank you God for these two precious gifts!

Here is a video of the first few minutes after we brought

Caleb home...the first time Zach met his little brother!

Our first picture as a family of four. Caleb was 24 hours old and we had just gotten home from the hospital-that may have been obvious from the looks of total exhaustion and bewilderment on our faces.

My two precious boys in their matching jammies that Grandma made them.

Thats one proud big brother!

Kisses for Caleb

Hanging out and learning about life!

Playing at the park with Grandma...one of their many morning adventures together.

Our wonderful friends, the Sandersons, stopped in all the way from New Jersey to meet Caleb and hang out with us for the evening. So great to see you guys!

Also, Halloween Happened

Now, having a new baby brother is one thing, but Halloween is also blog-post worthy. Here are some pictures of the other big day that happened at the end of October:

Carving "scary pumpkins!" We did this a bit too early. Our scary pumpkins began to rot and develop scary mold and so didn't actually make it all the way to trick or treating. But here's what they looked like in all their terrifying glory:

5 days before Calebs arrival!

(Yes, one of the jack o'lanterns has a car on it rather than a scary face. What can I say? The kid knows what he likes.) Whenever we would walk by them, Zach would say, "Scaaaarrryy pumpkins! Indeed.

Backstory for the next picture: Last year we went to a Halloween party where we found a big fire truck that kids could sit in. As you might imagine, this left quite an impression on Zach. In fact, I think he remembered it all year and was the reason he knew early on that he wanted to be a fireman for Halloween. So, all pumped up to see a fire truck, we went down to this year's party, but...there seemed to be no fire truck! Zach was not pleased. I tried to show him other costumes, tried to get him to dance to the music, tried to point out all kinds of bizarre Halloween decorations, but the kid was not to be distracted: "Zachy want sit fire truck!" I was just about to set something on fire so that a fire truck would come, when I saw a police car down the street and thought maybe it would suffice. The very friendly (and C.S. Lewis reading) officer noticed us and offered to let Zach sit in the squad car. It's no fire truck, but still pretty cool:

We also ran into Zach's good friend, Stella the Giraffe:

Soon, it was time for twick or tweating (note the decidedly less-scary back up pumpkins):

And, after a long night of candy-getting, it's always nice to come home and spend time with the family:

Our fireman and our pumpkin