I just wanted to post a few pictures, but here’s a quick update on the kids: Emily is still doing great. She’s strong and she likes watching Brenden. She getting to the point where she stays awake a little more too. Brenden is learning his alphabet thanks to Dr. Suess (he learned colors and numbers first, which seems a little backwards to me). He is in love with the movie Cars and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney channel.

It’s been a couple of hectic weeks around here and that is why I haven’t had much time/energy for posting, but I think we are getting close to the other side.

And now for the pictures:

He's been wanting to take his naps on the couch this week. This is the first day we tried it. He fought sleep so hard, until he couldn't fight it anymore and fell asleep sitting up.

Some tummy time for Emily.

Still tummy time.

We didn't rake all fall and we ended up with the leaf pile to prove it. I raked up 11 or 12 bags this week in just the front yard. Brenden enjoyed playing while I worked.

I put her down on her tummy, but by the time I came back with the camera she'd rolled over.

Stats:
Weight: 10 lbs 15 oz
Length: 21 3/4 inches
Head: 14 1/2 inches

She is growing and growing. And eating and eating! At 3.5 weeks she decided she was going to start rolling from her tummy to her back. At first I thought it was a fluke and that she was just flinging herself off the pillow that comes with her tummy time ma. I took the pillow away and she was still flipping and has been every time I put her down for tummy time since.

Brenden is still enjoying being a big brother. Sometimes he isn’t very patient with me about giving him his play time and I hear “Mama play” over and over. One night this week he really surprised me by being very helpful. Patrick was working late and it was time to put Brenden to bed. Emily was up to eat and I had all the sheets and blankets pulled off Brenden’s bed after washing them. I put Emily down on a blanket on Brenden’s floor so I could make the bed. She didn’t like that and began to cry. Her bottle was right next to her and Brenden walked right over and started feeding her. I didn’t notice at first but then he said “I’m feeding Emily”. He’s tried to help with that a few more times, but he doesn’t like to hold the bottle for her for very long. He’s also really taken to calling her Em for short. “Where’s Em?” “Let’s go check on Em.”

I went to checkup on my parents house this week with the kids. I knew Brenden would be excited to be there after not going for a couple of weeks and I knew he’d want to play in the back yard. I packed a lunch and we set off planning to play for about an 1-1.5 h. We ended up playing outside for about 4 hours (let’s just say I didn’t remember the back door locked automatically) and had a great time. I’d taken the camera and video camera and I’m posting some shots from the day. I’m still working on video. I’ve got a couple of little things recorded and just need time to edit them.

Playing in the leaves.

Prepairing to slide down the hill.

Aren't I cute? I used this photo to enter him in the Regis & Kelly baby contest.

Climbing the big hill after some good fun in the leaves.

I can't say that Emily fully appreciated the time outside.

A couple of weeks ago when Brenden was at Mother’s Day Out they took pictures of all the kids. We got them back today and I think they turned out great! The first one is what they gave us and the second one is a proof of another pose.

I’m trying to take more pictures of the kids to help my parents and sister keep up so hopefully that will translate to more pictures here.

Brenden slept like this as a newborn. We called him touchdown baby. So of course we had to get a picture of Emily in the same pose!

Brenden got a haircut yesterday and is very happy to show it off.

He was very excited to go for his haircut because he remembered they have a Thomas train set there. They have Gordon and he doesn't have him at home. He was sick yesterday and he somehow got it in his head that he was getting the haircut because he was sick. So he kept telling me he was sick again and he needed to go get his haircut because he wanted to go back and play with Gordon more.