Celebrating Jesus' Birthday

We had a wonderful week of family time, food, and Christmas traditions. There was lots of cousin mischief to be had (but serious meltdowns we avoided by trying our best to adhere to napping and bedtime schedules. Abbey and I gave ourselves pats on the back for managing that to the best of our abilities.) It really is a fun time of year to celebrate but also everything takes on new meaning as we teach our children about Jesus' birth and how special it truly is. I've uploaded lots of photos (I have a husband and father-in-law who do a great job of capturing cute moments). You've been forewarned!

Michaela checking out a reindeer - that's right, a reindeer. The things they have in Washington!

Above-mentioned reindeer.

Michaela and I posing with Moses, the camel. Yep, a camel and reindeer.

This should have been our Christmas card photo.

Reclining on his new beanbag chair

Michaela is cuddling Josiah's new stuffed animal - enjoy it while you can, Michaela!

Four generations of Puckett men

Cousin Sally loving on Josiah

My mom helping Josiah show off his new hat

New outfits

New outfit!

A new generation of pictures on the stairs - Greyson and Michaela

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Two Tiny Months

Our littlest family member turned two months old yesterday. We had our well child visit today. Judging from the info we received there, Josiah may not be our tiniest family member for much longer. Any guesses on how much our little man weighs? He measured in at 23 inches long (53rd percentile) and at 12 pounds, 14 ounces (78th percentile)! I knew there was a reason he felt as if he was growing out of his 3-month-size clothes. I'm strangely proud of my chubby boy - good eaters are always welcome in this family!

 I can't believe how time is flying! From the first couple weeks when Josiah didn't seem to think it necessary to open his little eyes, he now likes to take in everything - but especially lights and people's faces. He is also intrigued by the mirror on his play mat. He is becoming a smiley little guy - I tried to capture it in action and it doesn't quite accurately portray his grin, but is pretty stinking cute anyway. He also not only smiles but has been known to coo a bit, as well. Unfortunately for his parents, he doesn't seem to care whether he is "talking" to them or to toys hanging in his vicinity.

 But sometimes he is shocked by what he sees... (and this was before he heard about all the shots he was going to have to get today...)

 At this point he seemed to be mesmerized b y Michaela's foot.

 After all that looking around, a boy's got to sleep!

 Modeling for Daddy during lunchtime. Or else looking at the monkeys in the pack'n'play - it's hard to tell.

Josiah nurses about every 3 hours during the day, and has been going longer and longer during the night. Some nights he is a terror to get down and finally asleep, but he does have more of the good nights. Last night he had a 6-hour stretch followed by a 5-hour stretch. It was lovely, and we're hoping for more of the same in the coming month.

I did it!

For the skeptics out there... mostly myself... I just wanted to say that it is indeed possible to push a two-year-old in a stroller while wearing your baby in a front-pack and taking your feisty 4-year-old black lab on a walk all at the same time. I wish I had a picture of me doing this as proof (looking harried and wide-eyed, no doubt) but alas, there were no extra hands. It was a sunny day and I really wanted everyone to get some exercise, so we made it work. However, I'm not sure that it will make it on the daily calendar of events. I'll keep you updated.

thanks for thanksgiving

So as always I'm a little belated, so here's bit of info about our Thanksgiving. We spent it with some of my cousins, parents, and sister (and an assortment of other relations and non-relations) at family's in Mulino. We were pleased that it was only about a 40-minute drive from our house! So here is our day as documented in pictures.

First, Michaela waiting with her blankie in the carseat while I run into Starbucks on a morning coffee run for Adam and I. 

 Josiah also waiting (as viewed through the mirror on the backseat). Amazingly, he appears to be both awake and not crying - a rare combo.  Properly fueled with our hot holiday beverages, we take off to Mulino.

After warming up a little bit, Michaela appears to be playing cards with my Aunt Karen (back turned) and Debbie - someone I'm pretty sure we're not related to, but who is very nice all the same.

Cuddle time with Nana!

Convincing my sister Bria to get in on the cuddling/picture action.

 Adam and Josiah hanging out. We actually didn't hold our son all that much during the course of the day - many people wanted to get their little hands on him!



It's kind of hard to see, but this is Michaela eating her Thanksgiving pie and dropping her fork in the process. I had promised her she could eat as much pie as she wanted after she ate her dinner (knowing full well that she would eat as much as she did... about a half-piece of apple pie with whipped cream. And she ate mostly the whipped cream.) We enjoyed much delicious food - and there were 4 kinds of pie! A true celebration of plenty.

On the Friday following Thanksgiving, Adam (under Michaela's supervision) put up the Christmas lights out on the front of our house, and Josiah and I hit up the Fred Meyer sock sale - one of my newer traditions. While fixing dinner that evening and discussing what we would like to do and/or see during the Christmas season, we stumbled across the fact that Bridgeport Village was having their Christmas Tree Lighting that same evening. It was cold but clear so we decided to bundle up the kids and take in the sights.

 I'm pretty sure Josiah didn't open his eyes the entire evening. But why bother when you're essentially wrapped in a sleeping bag and being carried around by your mama?

Michaela had a hard time waiting for the Christmas tree lights to come on and the concept of Santa arriving was fairly vague to her. But we did enjoy free cupcakes passed out by Sweetest Thing Cupcakes, so she was on something of a sugar high.

It was a fun adventure and we may make it a family tradition as long as we're in town on Thanksgiving weekend.

1 month, 16 months, 27 months

Josiah & Grammy - one month

Josiah enjoys the motion of the swing

And so it goes... our children and their cousin Greyson all share the same birth day - the 8th - so they all have "monthaversaries" on the same day. I wouldn't normally celebrate a "monthaversary" after the age of 2, but it's really not fair to Michaela that Josiah and Greyson get to celebrate, and she doesn't.

Josiah turned one month old. Time seems to be flying by... and as far as developmental milestones go, he continues to eat, sleep, make dirty diapers, grunt, and cry. He also engages in some eye-opening exercises, and a few neck raises. We sometimes call him "wiggles" because when he is awake, he can be very squirmy and difficult to hold, threatening to jump out of your arms. He's completely grown out of newborn size clothes and is well into the 3-month size. I'm speculating that at the rate he is going, he will be out of the 0-3 month clothes a bit before his 3-month birthday.

Getting cuddle time with Great-Grandpa

We spent a few days this week up at Adam's parents, enjoying Grammy's back-up support while Adam was out of town, and playing with cousin Greyson. Michaela's missed 2 consecutive days of napping, which really wasn't good for anyone involved, but we did get to do some fun things. Michaela also had the milestone this week of sleeping on a big girl bed with no rails! I sat downstairs after I'd put her to bed, listening for a sickening thump on the floor and hoping I hadn't made some terrible mistake, but it turns out she slept like a rock and didn't once get out of bed involuntarily (several times voluntarily, however.)

Our fun activities included:

playing in the leaves while Grammy had a doctor's appointment

Letting Grammy do Michaela's hair (oh, so that's how I do it!)

Modeling a new jacket from G-Grandpa

Going out for frozen yogurt and wearing it on our faces

and hoping there's still more frozen yogurt in there!

And sleeping in the car seat at the frozen yogurt shop.

Playing at the playground

And crying in the car seat while others play at the playground.

Fall!

Much more than Halloween treats, I love fall in general. The crisp mornings, the colorful leaves, chipmunks running along our back fence as they gather enough food for the winter. Now that we have kids, it doesn't seem like fall is complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. "Patch" might not be descriptive of the place we went last weekend, but there were pumpkins. And goats. And ponies that children could ride for $6 a pop. You won't find any pictures of us engaging in that activity here. But we did buy some of the farm-fresh pumpkin (or were they apple-cinnamon?) donuts. Yumm!

We went with some families from our church to Lee Farms in Tualatin. It was a sunny afternoon and a great excuse to get out of the house.

Not into posing with the pumpkin pile.

Pondering her next mischief.

"I have conquered this pumpkin!"

We're pretty sure this is our first family photo with Josiah. It was his 3 week birthday.

Trying to reach the pedals was a challenge.