Family winter poncho

A couple of years ago, we started the tradition of making family outfits.  So, we had the winter pants...

... and the summer shorts.  Graham was too cute then!

And now with Charlie's arrival and the arrival of winter, Bobby and I agreed on making family ponchos.  The idea came about from one of the moms at Graham's school.  The ponchos are a lot easier in the car - you don't have to buckle the kids in their heavy bulky coat.  All you need to do is put those ponchos over their heads after they are buckled in. Just genius!
And the theme this year... dinosaurs!

First, we cut out the semi-circles:

 Then, the fitting to see if the head fits through the hole:

 For Charlie, we decided to put a hoodie on it but for Graham, since he doesn't like hoodies, I just stitched along the neckline:

 Too cute! Bobby said that Charlie's poncho looks like a squid :-)

 Daddy's poncho got a high-neck/collar with a button for the ease of putting it on and off:

And Mommy got a collar too and 2 layers of fleece since I'm always cold!

But gosh, it was a pain in the butt to cut and tie up the bottom of the poncho!

  Tada!

 Perhaps this model is cuter ;-)

I haven't been able to get Graham to wear his poncho yet. Perhaps when he is buckled in his carseat, he won't be able to complain as much!  

Update on Charlie

Up until 19 weeks old, Charlie had been sleeping so well until just a couple of nights ago, he has started to wake up at least twice in the mornings.  He has also been quite fussy during nursing, drooling a lot, and sucking on his fingers a lot.  He's probably going to cut a tooth soon!

He is also an expert roller now, but so far still only from his belly to back:

Thankfully, when he does roll over first thing in the morning, Charlie would just lay there and coo occasionally (so Mommy can catch a few more zzzz's) - at least for now. But even so, how can you not love my little elf?! :-)

"Who you calling elf?"

We also started Charlie on cereal.  It's funny how they have to learn everything - even how to eat/swallow!

And then a few minutes later, he figured it out!

But then, it only lasted a few more minutes and Charlie was done!

Did I mention how much he likes to munch on his fingers lately?

Charlie is definitely going through a growth spurt - our chubby bundle of joy!

New ideas for the Christmas tree

I'll just let the pictures tell the story of new and unconventional Christmas socks and ornaments:

Yes,... that is an actual sock.  And...

... a slinky and some ramps work too on the tree.  Graham decided to decorate the tree his way.  And while I was making breakfast one morning, he decided to stack some things:

Too cute! That's our new mouse kitchen timer. It's been working quite well when it comes to telling him when to turn off the tablet/computer or when it's time to go to bed!

More Christmas lights

Every year, a local church here puts up a Christmas light show.  We have driven by it a lot but finally decided to take a walk around it one early evening.  Graham asked if we were at the zoo since he related the lights to the Phoenix Zoo Lights!  There were definitely a LOT of lights!

Very patriotic!

Graham loved the bridge that was lit to form a pretty cool tunnel.  He liked it so much that we had to go through it twice!

Graham definitely had a good time.  Charlie too!

First Christmas tree!

This is our first (fake) pre-lit Christmas tree with the boys and we love it!  It was so easy to assemble.  Everything came in this one box:

There were 3 parts to it and all you had to do was stack them up.  Graham was more interested in playing with his car on the box:

Almost there!

Tada! Then, it was time to put up the ornaments...

 ... and the garland.  Graham didn't like being part of the Christmas tree:

He did enjoy putting up the ornaments though. Graham had a lot of fun just putting the little hooks onto the ornaments: 

And hung them together with Daddy (I love this pic!): 

Photo op with Mommy. Say "cheeeeese!"

And then, Graham wanted to take some pictures (so guess who's getting a new toy camera for Christmas!):

Charlie finally woke up from his nap so couldn't miss him out on the action:

We topped the Christmas tree off with an angel, in memory of my mom.  It has lights too but I don't have a green-colored extension cord.  I did put some of the lights from the tree behind it, so perhaps that will do for now.

And so, here it is!  Our first Christmas tree! Hopefully this will last until the boys head off to college! :-)

I was able to finally wrap up some gifts last night.  Graham wanted to open them up so badly this morning! I'll have to be sure not to send him alone downstairs while we are all upstairs.

I also wrote names on our Christmas socks.  I'm not sure if that glitter pen is working very well. It didn't dry very well last night. I have a feeling I'll need to eventually sew the names on instead.  Maybe next Christmas!

The socks look quite nice on the mantle above the fire place.  I haven't filled them up very much but thankfully we still have more than a couple more weeks before Christmas :-)

Graham is 2 1/2 years old

Graham turned 2 1/2 years old this past November 22.  Can't believe we have a 2 1/2 year old running around in our house now.  At only 35" tall and weighing in at 28 lbs, he is such a ball of energy!  Thankfully he is getting better at listening and doesn't run too far from the shopping cart when I'm out grocery shopping.
Graham's recent achievement is learning to ride on this tricycle.  I was such a proud Mommy that I almost cried when I saw him do it!

And thankfully, he is still doing great as a big brother.  He would come by and tell me when he hears Charlie crying and even wants to feed him the bottle.  The difficult task right now is trying to get Graham to sit still when I take his picture for his photo album:

See what I mean?!!?
And Graham continues to sleep on the floor/exercise mat next to our bed at night.  We would read to him before bedtime and right after tucking him in and walking away, he would proceed to bring his blankie and pillow (although he stole my pillow from our bed the other day!) and tuck himself to sleep.  I wonder how long this will go on for!

Charlie is 4 months old

Charlie recently had his 4-month check-up and he is now 24" tall and weighs 14 lbs 5oz.  He fell asleep while waiting for the doctor:

And then of course, after the doctor's visit and 3 shots later in the thighs... wahhhh...!!!

Not a happy camper!  All that crying made him so tired by the time he got into the car and home:

I thought Charlie was a good sized baby but he's only in the 25% percentile!  But nonetheless, he is a healthy little boy and just started drooling a lot these past few days:

He will probably cut his first tooth pretty soon here. Graham's first tooth came when he was a little under 19 weeks old. We'll see how Charlie does.  Right now, he loves to just suck on his hands and finds comfort in grabbing onto burp cloths!

Here's a recent video of Charlie.  We're playing peek-a-boo :-)

Love his laughs!

Charlie has also learned to roll over from his belly onto his back.  He did do it once at 12-weeks old but more consistently when he turned 16-weeks old.  He doesn't freak out as much anymore but obviously still cries at times to get Mommy's attention!

And as for sleep, I think Charlie has been a good sleeper (hopefully I didn't jinx myself tonight!).  At about 12 weeks old, he started to sleep through the night.  Right now, the schedule looks something like this... Feed him and tuck him into bed around 6pm-ish. And then, right before I go to bed - I would nurse him again and plop him straight back into his crib and he would go back to sleep until about 7am the next morning. Sometimes if I'm lucky, Charlie would sleep until 8am!

Here's a pic of Mommy and her boys!

By the way, this is what I walked into one early morning. I was so tired but just had to laugh!