Jakob Daniel and Everleigh Grace Hall

Have I mentioned Jakob was sick and wasn't his normal, fun loving self at the beginning of December?  Well, despite that, we dragged him and Everleigh into Richmond for their holiday market so they could see Santa and take a sleigh ride.  He was actually very happy for most of it, including the sleigh ride and the huge horses that pulled it, but he wasn't too excited about seeing Santa.  Neither kid cried, but as you can see from the rather hilarious pictures, they weren't "Christmas card" moments either. I don't know who this Santa is, but I'm happy to be his helper! This is Santa?  Nevermind, I don't want to help. E:  Must. Pull. Beard. J:  I can't believe Mommy made me do this when I don't feel good. This was as good as the pictures with Santa got.  A frown, closed eyes, and a seriously strained smile.   Mommy promised I could have a candy cane if I got within 2 feet of you. J:  I'm just going to help myself. E:...

It's not hard to fall more and more in love with a smile every day for seven months when the smile is as beautiful as Everleigh's.  Happy seven months, baby doll! Look how big I'm getting I like tossing my babies around Happy!! I love playing with my bug So many smiles in seven months Santa may love me, but my family loves me even more

Dan and I got the lights onto the tree while the kiddos were sleeping, and we were so excited to decorate it with Jakob when he woke up.  Like I said, he wasn't feeling well, so when he woke up he demanded we take the lights down and refused to put up ornaments.  "Oh, what fun...." Everleigh, however, loved to look at the tree, and I'm sure she would have been happy to put each and every ornament in her mouth if we had let her.  :-)  Jakob slowly warmed up to the tree in its decorated form, and now he loves it! I'm testing the stability of the tree base.  It looks solid. I'm sorry I slept through the tree cutting, but I'm ready for fun now From my command center, the tree looks great to me Let's get things more festive That's better I'm looking quite festive too Varying degrees of excitement Sawing down the tree, just like Daddy

I'm behind with the pictures, big time!  Anyway, the first weekend in December we took the kids to get our Christmas tree.  Jakob wasn't feeling well (he had a stomach bug that I later got, and now that I know how he felt, I feel so bad for making him leave the house at all), but he was game for getting a tree.  We were very excited because it's Everleigh's first time, and the weather was conducive to getting a tree because it was scenic, snow globe type snow that didn't hamper walking.  Well, Everleigh fell asleep on the three minute drive, so we left her in the car, and Jakob wasn't keen on walking even one step, so it wasn't the perfect family moment we hoped.  But we ended up with a beautiful tree - our biggest yet, even though we were hoping to get a slightly smaller than normal one, and things went relatively smoothly, so I'm calling it a win. I'm ready to pick a tree as long as someone carries me Mommy and I are so happy with the one we...

Everleigh LOVES drinking water from a sippy cup.  When she drops it, she howls until one of us picks it up for her. I love being a big girl, so bring on the cup Oh my goodness, I'm just bursting with excitement Here I go Nailed it

Over the weekend, Everleigh started picking up puffs on her tray on her own with two or three fingers and getting them into her mouth!  YAY for self feeding!  She's also transferring toys from one hand to the other, which doesn't sound all that exciting, but is another major milestone for a baby.

Dan went short with Jakob's latest haircut, and it makes him look like a big boy!  We've been trying to do it for a couple of weeks because it was always in his eyes, and finally on the Sunday after Thanksgiving he let Dan do it.  He was adorable during the trim, saying his Daddy was making him look "so beautiful."  Now he repeatedly tells Dan that he needs him to cut his hair again so he can look like Uncle Travis.  That might require the buzzer! My cars can't believe my new do Daddy did a good job, and I was so well behaved for it Cheese!