O' Christmas Tree

The first gift of the season- ornaments for the tree.

Cora now says "cheese!"

This was after sweet Coco had sharply been told that she is not to touch the tree. She's been surprisingly obedient since. 

Rowan: "Book Ornament" because he learned to read this year.

Cruz: "Soccer" for his first year playing a sport.

Cora: "Stocking" Grammy made this from one of Cora's outfits from this year.

Each year we've been married, Roger's mom has gotten us pieces for this Nativity. The first year we got the stable, Mary, Joseph and Jesus and then she's gotten us a few more pieces each year. The boys had fun helping me set it up this year.

Thanksgiving 2013

Their outfits were a hot mess today. I ordered them a size up in their shirts and both were huge. Cruz's was doable but Rowan's wasn't so I found a size too small sweater to put over it. The sleeves hung out of the sweater most of the day. This is only funny because I plan their outfits weeks ahead of time.

Our sweet blessings ready for church.

While our food was cooking Row played a little Wii.

Cruzy and Daddy ate a little snack.

Miss Coco helped Daddy play the guitar too.

Cruz and Cora managed to sneak in a little trampoline time too. It was a gorgeous afternoon.

We went to the Schmidt's house for dessert again this year. When we came home we watched a Christmas movie (like we've done the past few years) to kick off the Christmas season. The boys picked a Veggie Tales movie called "The Star of Christmas." 

It was a wonderful day filled with my favorite people. Here's our second annual video of thankfulness. This video is very real, haha.

Chuck E Cheese

We've had such a relaxing week with the boys off of school and sports. The kids each got some money in their Halloween cards a couple of weeks ago and decided to pool it together for a visit to Chuck E Cheese. Cora didn't really have a choice, her money just got thrown into the pot. :)

Rowan used his tokens in about 15 minutes so he started to wheel and deal with Cruz to get some of his. Cruz, of course, shared or let Rowan ride the ride with him. In turn, Rowan split his tickets with Cruz since Rowan chose to play games and Cruz chose to ride rides which don't give any tickets.

Cora, who has a cold, was entertained by the pizza for a while. Then she enjoyed riding a couple of rides.

The boys put their tickets in the ticket counter 

and Cora walked around with three tickets on a plate. ;)

She'd drop them then pick them up again.

Then she pretended to play the games. This entertained her for the very long 20 minutes (I'm not joking) that it took the boys to put their tickets in the machine. They insisted on doing it alone.

We've had a really nice relaxing couple of days. Today they requested that we go to the mall, have lunch at Paradise Bakery in the food court and walk around and look at the Christmas decorations. A quick stop at the mall play area rounded out the trip. The boys have played lots of games together. I think they are enjoying this time that they have with each other. Happy almost Thanksgiving! :)

14 Months- A Day Late

Happy 14 months, Miss Coco! You are truly getting so big so fast.

You have added a few more words (that I can think of) to your vocabulary this month. "All done," "book," "cup", "baby" and "thank you" are the ones that come to mind.

You love to eat as long as you like the food. Your favorites are macaroni and cheese, chicken, bananas and those applesauce squeeze pouches, which you eat all by yourself.

You are finally a great sleeper. You take two short naps per day and sleep a solid 7-7 at night. I'm glad you are still taking two naps, your brothers were down to one at your age. 

You are so mischievous. You like to get into things you aren't supposed to, you love to climb and you are pretty fearless. You go up in the Chick Fil A play land all by yourself and come down the slide. You love people and are starting to be okay with me leaving you in the nursery at church or at Bible study. 

You reach out your arms and open and close your hands when you want to be picked up. I love when you're still a ways away from me and start doing this while walking towards me. You do it eachnight when Daddy opens the front door. You run (literally) to him with arms out waiting to be picked up. You simply adore your daddy. 

You love purses and babies. You call your babies "Baby" (you can hear that at the beginning of this video). You love getting your toenails painted. I let you pick out your nail color and then you do the backwards scoot into my lap. You love to get dressed, try on shoes and have a bow in your hair. 

You can follow simple directions like, "bring me your hairbow, please." or "put your shoes away" or "go wait by the garage door." 

You are smart, sweet and hilariously funny. Love you baby Sis! 

Cruz's Thanksgiving Program

Cruz's school had their preschool Thanksgiving program on Friday. Cora got all dressed up and ready to go watch her big brother. Of course we couldn't leave the house without one of her "friends." This time she chose pink bear who was a gift to her in the hospital from the boys. Anyway....

Daddy drove up from work to watch our little turkey. When Cruz's class filed in though, he wasn't with them. I quickly learned he had a tummy ache and was in the bathroom. I don't know if he got really nervous about going on the stage or what but I finally coaxed him out of the bathroom just in time for his class to perform.

Cruz kind of just stood there, clearly unhappy. I felt bad for him. He also refused to wear his glasses to school that morning.

We went home, he took a nap, and miraculously felt better so we concluded that it must of been nerves. Since he was back to his normal self, I was able to snap a few photos of him in his turkey headband.

All three kids, all looking, all smiling AND Cruz's glasses on. Amazing. Cora is missing a shoe but I guess I can't have it all. :)

The boys are off of school this whole week so we are looking forward to a visit to Chuck E Cheese, some park time and lots of time to relax at home. Have a great week!

Cruz's Glasses

Cruz's glasses came in yesterday! He looks so handsome in them. Most importantly though, they keep his eye from turning in which means that he will be able to use both eyes the way he should. This morning was a bit of a struggle getting him to wear them. Cruz is my stubborn child so I don't think the issue was the glasses as much as the fact that I'm telling him he HAS no choice but to wear them. We could probably use some prayers over the next week as he transitions. :)

Rowan Update

I feel like Rowan's been neglected on the blog lately. Its hard to get pictures of him since he's at school all day. Yesterday he looked like such a big boy that I couldn't help but pull him outside and snap a few pictures. His hair, which is in need of a cut, was so sweet and messy.

We are really proud of sweet Rowan these days. He's such a well behaved, helpful little boy. I can count on him to help with Cruz or Cora. He does a great job getting himself dressed in the morning, brushing his teeth and packing his own backpack. He can buckle his own seatbelt in the car and can even walk into school all by himself. I walk him in because I like to though. 

Rowan continues to love school and amazes us (and his teacher) every day. He is doing wonderfully at first grade math. He fits right in maturity wise and academically. He has no trouble doing the work and is often one of the first ones done. I love that he has this challenge. Rowan is reading really well and writing sentences in his journal to express his thoughts. He is also getting really good at chess. One day a week his class is taught chess by one of the dads at our school. Rowan loves it. 

Rowan can spell his full name, Rowan Christian Baum. He can count really high (into the thousands). He can count by 5's, 10's and 2's. He's fast at most of his addition facts and we're working on subtraction. He enjoys playing "chase the girls" at recess. He also likes playing tetherball or lasers (whatever that is) with the boys.

Rowan loves sports. He loves playing t-ball and does really well. He also loves throwing the football around with daddy and can actually catch the ball. Rowan loves to draw, play cars, ride his scooter and do the monkey bars.

Sweet boy is continuing to grow in his faith in Jesus. He knows that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. He knows that he makes bad choices and needs Jesus to forgive them. He knows that he will go to Heaven when he dies because He knows and loves Jesus. Rowan is sweet and kind to his friends when they are hurting. He is the same with his siblings. Thinking of others before himself isn't a trait that comes naturally to Rowan and I am so proud of the ways he's grown in that area.

I think this post more than made up for the lack of Rowan news lately. He's still our special big boy and we love him like crazy.

Slugger

Rowan absolutely loves playing baseball. He has improved so much! Here he is last night at bat. He goes out there so confidently. It will be nice when he's done with t-ball though and plays a game with a little more action. ;)

This video is from last November. 

He's also improved so much at fielding and throwing. Its so fun to watch him doing something he enjoys.

Donuts & Dilating

Cruz is home from school this week. Starting on Monday we've been putting dilating drops in his eyes in preparation for his second opthamologist appointment on Thursday. Today we got donuts as a special treat since he's been such a trooper. The drops blur his vision and cause extreme sensitivity to light.

We've noticed for a couple years or so that Cruz's eyes cross when he's looking at something up close. We noticed it in pictures when he would blow out birthday candles and we noticed it when we would be tucking him in at night and he would try to focus on our faces. We just kept an eye on it.

A couple weeks ago we noticed it happening more when he was awake or trying to focus on an object like our faces. Last Wednesday he went to the opthamologist and she found that he's slightly farsighted, which accounts for the eyes turning in. His eyes were dilated in the office but the doctor wasn't certain she got the best look at his eye though so she had us put dilating drops in at home. 

Hopefully at his appointment Thursday she'll get the best look possible to be sure that he gets the right prescription for his glasses. Yep, glasses!  Cruz is super excited about it and we are too. He's going to look adorable and I'm thankful that he'll be able to see things the way he needs to. 

We'll keep you posted!

Cora Grace: 13.5 Months

The boys have Christmas Program practice after church on Sunday's. Roger, Cora and I have enjoyed going out for a quick lunch together. When we get back to church to wait for the boys' to be done, there was obviously nothing else to do but snap a few pictures. :)

If you're curious, Cruz is a mouse in the program and Rowan is a dog and Joseph. He is very excited to be cast in that very important role. He also told me that he likes the little girl who plays Mary because she's super pretty.