Good Helper

Today Kent was whining a little in his crib while we were trying to get ready so I sent Rachel in to help him. She went off and he stopped crying. A few minutes later I went in and this is what I found. She had piled blanket after blanket into his crib for him and apparently that's what he wanted because he was fast asleep. She is such a good helper girl! 

Bath time!

I think my kids bath time is one of my favorite parts of the day! It's fun to hear and see Rachel pretending she is an alligator or a penguin or a turtle or that she is helping Nemo and Dori find a boat or that the little bubbles are tired and are taking a nap and the big bubbles are staying in her mouth. This girl has an awesome imagination and I love being a part of the things she imagines up!

I love giving Kent a bath! He lays there in the tub making the biggest splashes he can manage. He is at the age that he is liking to play with toys now and his favorite thing to play with in the bath tub is a loofa. It might be his favorite toy in the tub because Rachel is busy playing with the rest of the tub toys.  I love the look on Kent's face as he concentrates on making his big splashes, but then he always breaks into a smile when he catches my eye. Then after they get out, they are both so snuggly! :)

Aren't they cute little wet munchkins?

Sleepy

This is how my Kent-boy fell asleep this morning! I love this sweet boy!

Christmas Tree and Gingerbread House

We have been having such fun time at our house getting ready for Christmas. We have been watching Christmas movies, singing Christmas songs, talking about the nativity and our savior, making candy, drinking hot chocolate, looking at Christmas lights, and anything else we can think of, and we still have plans for going caroling and doing a Christmas pageant. I love this time of year. I love the traditions, and I especially love starting new traditions with my family and doing my best to make it a magical season for my Rachel-girl!

My Rachel-girl is so sweet! We have focused a lot on the Savior and the real reason for the season. It is so important to me that my kids know what Christmas is all about that we decided to not have Santa in our home. I know many probably think that is awful but it is a personal decision we have made for our family, and so far I have loved it. Instead of teaching my kids that Santa is watching so the need to be good so they can get presents, we are focusing on being good as a present for Jesus. I have taught Rachel that Christmas is Jesus's birthday and how we give presents to remember him on that special day and Rachel being her sweet innocent self has been telling me she wants to give Jesus a present. When I tell her the things we can do to give him presents, she says, "No, Jesus wants my fwog!"  She has been so adamant about Jesus wanting her frog for weeks now. I think it is the cutest thing ever!

As I was decorating my tree this year I wanted something on it to help remind us of the savior, so here are some of the decorations I made for the tree this year.
 

This year for the first time ever as a family we made a gingerbread house. We had so much fun and it is something I totally want to make into a tradition.

Here's Jacob helping me cut out the pieces.

 

 

Before the candy is on.

Finished product

And the back

Rachel eating some of the candy

Jacob is so good at this kind of thing. I love watching his creative side come out when he is helping me with a  project!

 

 

Rachel picked up the lights when i was decorating the tree and said to me, "Look Mom, I'm pretty!"

Again, Here is Rachel decorating herself instead of the tree. I love this girl!


Kent loves looking at the lights on our tree! I do too, that is one of my favorite things to do. Snuggling in front of the tree just looking at the lights!

 

 

 

I just love Christmas!

Big boy!

Kent turned 4 months yesterday! I can't believe how big this boy is getting! His constant state is wiggly and happy! I know that if he stops wiggling then he is getting tired and if he stops being happy then he is hungry. I love this sweet boy so much! I just weighed him and he has gained 3.1 pounds in the last month and now weighs 19 pounds which puts him above the 95th percentile for his weight! I think that is really funny because  he now out weighs Rachel at that age by a half a pound. He is wearing size 3 diapers and for the most part his clothes are size 9-12 months!

He found his toes this last week and loves to grab them. I remember when Rachel first found her toes she would pull them to her mouth and eat them, but Kent isn't as flexible as she was. He has a lot more muscle on his body than she did so he can't stretch as far.

He makes spit bubbles all day long and completely soaks his shirts.

He is officially too big for his swing. I put him in it last night while I ran to go to the bathroom. When I was in the bathroom, I heard a big thump. I ran out to see what had happened and he was laying on the ground underneath his swing just watching it move. Thankfully it is close to the ground and he wasn't hurt. He was just laying there happy and wiggly as can be. I totally should have buckled him in, but I thought he would be fine for just a minute. I felt so bad! I kept hearing that thump over and over in my head the rest of the evening. Poor little baby!

Kent is sitting up. He still tips over quite frequently and I wouldn't just leave his sitting up all by himself, but he can do it. 

He is so funny. He can be happy and wiggly and laughing one minute, and then in the next you can see a wave of tiredness come over him and he is tired and hungry and whine until you either feed him or put him down for a nap.

He is a finger sucker and a thumb sucker!

He is so wiggly and loves when you help him wiggle. In fact the easiest way to get him to sleep is to swaddle him and then bounce him. Today Jacob was putting him down for a nap and it was cracking me up because he was holding a swaddled Kent and jogging around the house. Kent was asleep within minutes.

He still doesn't sleep through the night. He wakes up on average about 2 times a night. At night he sleeps in his crib, but for naps he loves to sleep in his bouncer or in my arms. :)

He is trying to grab things with his hands. I love watching how uncoordinated  his little hands are, but he is doing a good job grabbing toys and blankets and my hand to pull into his mouth.

He can roll both directions, from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy, although he doesn't do it way often. His attitude about that seems to be, I already figured it out and its not a challenge anymore, so I don't need to keep doing it. 

Sorry this next picture is so blurry, and please don't look at my messy house in the background (we had just finished making a gingerbread house) but Kent will now take steps if you are holding his hands like in the picture below. It seems like since he's already mastered rolling over he wants to move on to bigger and better things.

He is totally wanting to eat food. He stares at us and whines when we are eating in front of him. We have given him licks of pears, apples, and bananas, and it makes him so happy when we share with him. Also he loves water. He will just stare at our water bottles until we share with him. I even gave him a sippy cup the other day and he totally figured out how to suck on it. He is getting a sippy cup and rice cereal for Christmas this year. :)

The other day I had him sitting in the bumbo while I was making dinner. Rachel came in and asked for a drink of water. Kent watched me walk across the room, open the cupboard, fill up her sippy cup and give it to Rachel. The funny part was that he was just staring at the sippy cup and when I gave it to Rachel, he cried! It totally hurt his feelings that I gave it to Rachel instead of giving it to him. I then got a little cup and shared some water with him and he was happy again. 

We love this little boy so much and we are so glad he is in our family!