update

I've been AWOL when it comes to blogging. Things have been busy. The boys are growing like weeds, and learning more and more everyday. Lincoln is now 8 1/2 months old, and has the best temperament a mother could ask for. He is so funny. He laughs and laughs, all the time. He's not crawling yet, but he'll scoot backwards all over the place, at times, looking back to see if he's going in the right direction.  He loves to play with toys, but his favorite thing to do is jump. He will stay in the Johnny Jump Up for hours at a time!  I just can't believe how big he is getting!

Jonathan is such a cutie!  However, as he enters his 2's, he's become a whiner! Drives me NUTS at times. He's very smart. Learning new words daily. He's starting to learn his ABCs too. He recognizes A, B, C, D, E, M ,N,O, S, Y, & Z. I'm so proud of him.  He turns 2 in less than 2 weeks. I'm throwing him a Toy Story party with the family soon. Should be a lot of fun.  Jonathan went into a toddler bed a few weeks ago, and is doing great with that. He stays in bed, and for the most part, sleeps really well. Once or twice he's woken up really early, thinking it's time to get up, but he's pretty good about going to back to bed.

This past month we took a trip to Michigan to see my mom's family. It was a great time. I'll post photos and details in another post.

Nathan is doing great with school. Life is so busy with everything, but I'm enjoying it all. I love my work schedule, and it allows me to get out of the house a few times a week, and then I also feel like a stay at home mom.  It's great.

Well, that's my quick update for now!

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Christmas 2011:

The holiday's were busy!  I posted most of my pictures on facebook, but here is one of my favorite pics taken. It was at the Christmas Eve service.  I love the expressions on the boys face.

This picture was taking right before Lincoln grabbed the candle flame. He let out one loud scream, and stopped crying. Thankfully he didn't
burn himself, but he did get wax on him.

Here is our family photo for the year as well.  The boys looked great in their tuxes.

The boys were totally spoiled this year!  Nathan and I ended up getting a lot of gifts. They also received a lot of gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles. It was a great time!  Now to find a place for each of the toys! That's the challenge.

I pray that each and everyone of you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

P.S. I love the blogger updates, it's neat I can put my pictures anywhere I want to!

Weigh in

Things are slow going, I lost a total of 2.5 lbs this last month, but considering we had Thanksgiving, and whole week in there that I wasn't really "trying", I'd say I'm doing well. I weighed in at 124.6 lbs today! My goal is 120 lbs. Knowing that this month is going to busy with Christmas/New years, family gatherings, etc, my goal is to not stress about losing weight, but rather, maintain what I've done so far. If I lose some, great, but I'm not going to be giving up all the holiday sweets! After the 1st, I'll start to really look at losing weight again, and starting an exercise routine.

I am so proud of my myself so far. I've lost a total of 18 lbs in 4 months!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a very nice Thanksgiving this year. We only had one meal total, but it was GOOD. My parents are in Florida, so we did not have the Sand Family meal.

We had the Steele/Schmucker/Short Family gathering on Saturday. It was great to get together with family. We started out the day by playing a game. It's called Funglish. You have to get everyone else to guess what words you have by putting other words up that go in one of the following categories: Defiantly, sort of, or Not. For example, I had pancake, so I put up the words, Defiantly: Brown, flat, circle, edible; sort of: sticky. Not: yucky. It's fun, but harder than you think.

The kids were old enough to let play in the playroom by themselves. It made the day a little bit easier.

*did not leave Lincoln unattended... :)

Abi, Eliza and Jonathan playing so well together

*Ethan was there too.... but no pictures :(

While we played the game, the rest of the family watched the Wisconsin football game.

We all shared in a wonderful meal prepared by my mother-in-law, Bonnie. A lot of brought some food as well. I brought green bean casserole and rolls. Funny story: I was thinking, there's 22 people there, so I'll bring enough rolls for each to have 2, and then some extra. I went to the store, and got 6 packages of rolls. What I was thinking was that there was 8 in each package, so that equaled 48, perfect number. What I failed to realize was there was actually 16 rolls in each, so I brought 96 rolls! Needless to say, the whole family only ate about 16 rolls total. I have a TON of rolls. I froze them, hoping that they will still be good for Christmas.

Nathan carved the turkey this year.

our family! (minus Lincoln)

Jonathan enjoying a cupcake

Overall, it was a great day. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the food, but more than anything, I love family, and getting together.

Great Aunt Tammy and Lincoln

Nonna reading to Jonathan and Lily

Uncle Lucas playing with Lincoln

Oh yeah, this was also Lincoln's and my niece's 1st Thanksgiving. Lincoln had homemade sweet potatoes... yummy! Lily enjoyed her meal, and then promptly fell asleep... what a cutie pie!!!

Jonathan's 1st words

This past month Jonathan started working with a speech therapist. He really enjoys "playing" with her toys and learning new words. Of course, I think even without her, he would be talking right now. It seem to all of a sudden click :)

Here is a list of words he can say:

mama

daddy

Pappy (what we refer to Nathan's dad as when we look at his pictures)

cheese

juice

up

bubble

ball

uh oh

go and no (both come out as "do")

hat

"o" for open

I am so proud of my little man. He's learned so much in just 1 month! He understands everything we say, can follow 3 step commands and loves to learn new things.

We started off with teaching his sign language since he was getting frustrated that he couldn't talk to us. He knows: please, thank you, more, open, bicycle, up, eat, milk, fun and help.

He also loves to do animals sounds. He can do the : lion, monkey, dog, cat, chicken, cow, sheep and pig. So cute!

Tonight we made a movie of him saying some words. He was the sweetest little voice (much better the the "eh, eh, eh" he use to say all the time!). Enjoy!

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