Wow, this past month FLEW by. I knew that it would with all the traveling and Christmas festivities.
This was a big month for Miss Cora. She was baptized on December 2nd. She laughed for the first time while at Rowan's swimming lessons on December 13th, she went on her first airplane on December 21st and she rolled over from her tummy to her back on December 26th. Cora also found her hands this month and is constantly sucking on them AND she celebrated her very first Christmas.
Corabelle is a chunky little girl. She wears size 2 diapers and is moving into all of her 3-6 month sized clothes. I'm not sure exactly how much she weighs.
Cora continues to rule the roost at our house. She is seriously adored so much. Her big brothers can't get enough snuggles, smiles and kisses from her. Her daddy gets the best coos and smiles out of her, especially when he tells her how beautiful she is. I love snuggling with her and kissing her chubby little cheeks.
Cora goes to bed around 7:00 now and wakes up once around 3:30. She wakes up for the morning around 7:00. She is still sleeping swaddled. She is the sweetest, most precious, most delightful little girl.
Cora smiles when I put her bow/headband in her hair every morning. Seriously. I only put the big bows in because she likes them and I'd hate to disappoint her. ;-)
We had such a fun day today. The boys played with their gifts all day long. It was so fun to share their excitement with them.
We had to wake Miss Sis up for presents. That action came back to bite us later as she was cranky and off all day.
The boys had a few little things in their stockings but as far as Cruz was concerned, present opening could have stopped once he found the Reese's Christmas trees. :) Seriously though, that's all he could talk about.
I ended up wrapping most of their stocking stuff and putting it under the tree. Since their car was a BIG gift, I had to get creative so that they actually had things under the tree to open.
Sweet Cora got a book, a couple toys and beautiful dress for Christmas this year.
Each of the boys got a game. Cruz got a really fun pre-school game called Uno Moo which we all played this afternoon. Rowan got a maze game called Perplexus Rookie. I thought he would like it but I wasn't sure.... Thankfully it was a hit. Both he and Roger played with it all day long.
Cruz loves the TV show UmiZoomi. I searched and searched and finally found all three of the characters and their vehicles. Other than the candy, I think this was Cruz's favorite gift.
Silly Rowan was so excited to see a Cars vehicle that he had asked for.
The big gift!
SOOO excited. :)
We had our traditional breakfast of bacon and cinnamon rolls and just enjoyed playing together. We have a full week of school Christmas celebrations before we head to IL on Friday!
CHRISTMAS! Tomorrow is Christmas morning in our house. The boys put out their cookies and milk, all three kids got into their Christmas jammies and went right to sleep. I can't wait for them to see their gifts! :)
Cruz was in the silliest of moods while taking these photos.
The gifts.
The boys are getting one big shared gift and several small gifts.
My heart is heavy today. Actually its been heavy all week. I've heard several stories about sweet little children losing their battle with cancer. I read a depressing article about a "secular Christmas." Then there was the shooting at the mall and now the shooting of sweet little kindergarteners, about Rowan's age. My heart breaks for the world my children will grow up in. I am praying harder than ever for their faith in Jesus.
Before I heard about the school shooting today I was busy taking pictures of the kids so even though I don't really feel like it, I'm going to share them.
Cora is changing daily it seems. She is so much more alert and interested in her surroundings. She's super smiley and I'm pretty sure she laughed yesterday. She also has a bit of a cough so it could have been a little cough but I'm calling it a giggle. :)
Sweet girl loves to coo and "talk" to you. Her favorite place for chatting is on her changing table. Her eyes are still a bluish/grey color. Its hard to know what's going to happen with them (my guess is that they'll turn brown). They aren't the same color as either of her brothers at this stage though.
Cora is still doing good in her crib. We just finished up nursing and she's loving her bottles. This can be evidenced by the tons of rolls on her little legs. I love that all of her dresses that are too short can become shirts. This one is a newborn sized dress that still fits her as a shirt at 12 pounds!
Cora DESPISES tummy time and for that reason, we haven't done a whole lot of it. She's a bit behind on where other babies her age are with lifting her head on her tummy so I'm trying to be more diligent about it. This photo shows SO much improvement.
While I was taking these darling photos my middle sweetheart was getting into trouble. I thought I heard water running but I ignored it because both the dishwasher and washing machine were going and I figured it was just them. I walked into his bathroom and found Cruz on the counter, soaked, with the sink plugged and water running down the cabinets. I managed to capture his guilty little face.
See the blue on his face? I asked him what he was doing on the counter and he said trying to brush his teeth. Thankfully, he was "eating" the non flouride toothpaste.
In non mischievous news, Cruz has been learning how to unbutton. He can also put his own underwear ,pants, socks and shoes on. He knows where everything goes in his room and can now clean up (and put everything where it goes) all by himself. He's becoming quite the independent big boy.
Rowan has become so interested in reading and spelling the last few days. He can read several "early" reader books and today attempted Hop on Pop. Here's a small clip. He's very slow but I am so proud of him. He can spell pretty much any three letter word with the pattern cvc. (hop, dog, hat, etc.)
Rowan continues to be a super big brother, both to Cora and to Cruz. He is so willing to help me by opening the fridge door so Cruz can get his cup, letting the dog outside, cleaning his room, loading his laundry into the machine and so many other things. I am really starting to be able to count on him.
Sometimes Rog and I just look at them and wonder how we got here. How did we get THREE kids? Yikes. :) We are so blessed.
The whole Santa scenario went exactly as I pictured it in my head. Cruz FREAKED out when he saw Santa but agreed to be in the picture if he could sit in a chair and hold Rowan's hand. Cruz will do anything if he can hold Rowan's hand. So precious. :)
This is the first year that the kids, namely Rowan, have been really interested in Santa. We aren't making Santa a huge deal but he has been a small part of our Christmas festivities this year.
10 days from today we head to Illinois! Ahhh, so much to do. :) Can't wait to see everyone.
Well, sort of... :) Miss Cora Grace is sleeping in her crib now instead of her Rock N Play sleeper (kind of like a bassinet/bouncer). I had no intention of transferring her at this stage but I thought I'd try it for nap time one day and she slept over three hours! She has consistently been taking a three hour afternoon nap in her bed. I decided to give nighttime a go and she woke up at her typical times. I expected this transition to be a lot tougher than it was. Thanks for taking it easy on your Mama, Sweet Girl!
I know I posted this on Facebook but I couldn't resist posting it again. So sweet.
One more thing, a friend from high school's mom had a stroke yesterday so I know that prayers for her would be greatly appreciated.
Our friends the Schmidt's hosted an ugly sweater cookie exchange. We had a hard time finding ugly sweaters so we went with ugly t-shirts instead (thank you, Walmart!) One of my friends took a family picture too but I haven't gotten it yet so I thought I'd go ahead and post the pictures of the kids. Oh, and I should mention that my cookies won a prize for best testing. Woo hoo! :)
Brayden and Camden ended up having the same shirts on as Rowan and Cruz.
How obnoxious is this bow??? :)
We are really enjoying the Christmas season this year. We've listened to tons of Christmas music and made cookies. We are heading to see Santa on Sunday and do our annual Anthem Light Tour next weekend. Stay tuned!
We had a fabulous day celebrating Miss Cora's baptism on Sunday. We were blessed with seven out of town guests and some of our good friends to celebrate with. After the church service we had a little celebration at the park. It was a gorgeous 78 degree day. We ate Jimmy John's sandwiches, played, had cake and praised God for loving Cora (and all of us) the way he does.
Cora was so blessed to have all four of her godparents there. Aunt Amanda, Uncle Nate, Miss Megan and Mr. Preston (Brayden's parents) were asked to be Cora's faithful prayer warriors. All four of them are so special to our family.
We are officially in the season of Advent and we couldn't be more excited about it. We had the most wonderful weekend celebrating Cora's baptism AND the start of the Christmas season. Rowan and Cruz had their Christmas Program at church last night and were so blessed to have seven extra family members there.
Here's a little video of one song that they did. The lights were so bright that everything is pretty washed out. Cruz is the little one kind of blocked by the microphone stand with the orange hat. Rowan is the one being silly (sigh) in the green hat next to him.
Handsome boys all ready to go.
The bigger kids took turns reading about different Christian symbols/Christmas symbols as the little kids hung a corresponding ornament on to the tree. Cruz hung the "Jesus Fish" ornament and Rowan hung a bell. Once all the ornaments were hung it was finally Christmas and the Christmas story was told.
I don't know which crazy teacher thought it a good idea to have the boys sit next to each other. Thankfully we got through the program without incident. At one point Cruz put his mouth on Rowan's arm and I was so sure something awful was going to happen. They pulled it together though. :)
I can't believe how fast the time is flying by. Cora is so fun right now. She smiles and coos. She loves her play mat, especially the light up star at the top and she loves to smile at her brothers. Cora is still sleeping pretty well. She goes to bed at 7:30 and her night time feeding has been stretching later and later. Now, its usually around 4:30 or 5. She is up for the morning around 7:30. Cora went to the doctor for some goop in her eyes last Wednesday and she weighed 11 lbs 5 oz. She is by far the biggest of the Baum babies at this stage. I'll update her length when she has her check up on Tuesday.
Warning, picture overload coming up! :) We had a fun time putting up the tree. The boys were really into it this year. They also helped Roger decorate the outside of the house. Cora enjoyed looking at the lights and pooping through two Christmas outfits.
First gift of the season.. ornaments for the tree!
Curious George: Cruz's favorite Book is "8 Little Monkeys", his lovey is a stuffed monkey and he acts like a monkey. :)
Pink Onesie: Cora, for obvious reasons. :)
Alex the Lion: He's from the movie Madagascar and Rowan went to see his first movie in theaters this year. He saw Madagascar 3 on a special date with Daddy.
Cruz is SO uncooperative for pictures right now.
Hard work...
Perfect.
In her second outfit of the day with her ornament. :)
