Update

I've decided that if i wait until i have time to post my pictures it will never get done, so here is a brief update. Saturday we all ran a race together. Savannah and i ran a 5k and Isabelle and Matt ran half that. It was really fun. We are really getting into running. It is fun to be getting into shape as a family. We go running around our neighborhood as our whole family of 5. (Adam in the stroller and everyone else running. ) We are planning to do a mini-triathalon in the spring. I love my family.

Adam is such a good eater. Now that he gets solid food he has beomce increasingly un-interested in nursing. He eats three meals a day plus snacks. He would rather eat off a spoon than nurse. With my other kids I always fed them before nursing (nursing being the reward for eating a good meal.) with Adam it is opposite. I spoon feed him as a reward for a good nursing session. Silly boy. He still doesn't sleep like i would like. With the cold weather he tends to sleep only a few hours at a time. I finally put a space heater in his room and last night he slept better, but still only for 6 hours. sigh. I remember how grateful i was for 6 hours when he was 3 months old. Interesting how perspectives change.

Isabelle turned 5 on the ninth. She is such a sweet fun girl. She has started going to a playgroup on mon,tue,wed mornings. It is sort of a preschool setting. She really enjoys it. Mostly they just play but it has been nice for her to have some socialization and nice for me to spend time with Adam, and get some homework done in the mornings. One of my favorite things we do together is cook. She loves to help me in the kitchen and has become quite good at washing fruits and vegies, stirring things, and even slicing pickles.

Savannh will turn 8 on Thanksgiving day. I can't believe how fast she has grown. She is such a tender, considerate, and helpful girl. She is going to be baptised in early December. Tomorrow i'm taking her to get her ears pierced! I've been promising her for years that when she turned 8 she could have it done. When it first came up she was in pre-school (4 years old) and eight seemed SOOOO far away. She is doing well in school and enjoys reading her chapter books. Recently grandma lent her "the boxcar children" and she reads aloud to Isabelle every night. She is such a good big sister and very patient with Belle's teasing.

Matt is Busy-busy-busy. So many projects and never enough time. He is excited for the holidays so he can get some things done. He has been a life saver and helped me so much with this crummy math class that i'm taking. (thanks also to my dad, and Eric, and Levi for all their help! thank goodness for free nights and weekends! you guys are awesome) He is working out at his dad frequently and is trying to increase his speed for his next triathalon.

I am missing my family... (I hope some of you read this some day!) ... who are all preparing for the holiday. Hope you have fun. Hope your deep-fried turkey turns out yummy. Miss you. Eat some extra pie for me.

So much for a "brief update." Loves
T

Lucky Me...

Five month old Adam now has two more incredibly sharp teeth on the top, which line up perfectly with his two razor sharp bottom teeth. FUN huh?... : )

Look what I did!

It has been a LONG time since i significantly cut my hair, but i did!

14" Isabelle thinks my picture is funny. : 0

I was going for silly/surprised.

I always said if i had another baby I would shave it all off. Matt is trying to convince me to go mo-hawk. So far I'm just going for the chopped off look. I did it myself, and haven't decided exactly how to style it yet. I'm just having the post-partem hair loss and got tired of finding extra-LONG strands of hair all over the house. (in the shower, in my hairbrush, wrapped around the baby's fingers, etc.) So there it is.

Wiggling

Isabelle's teeth have been wiggling for weeks. She finally lost her first one on October 30th! she is not quite five years old. i guess this is fairly early compared to some kids. when we went to the dentist the following week for routine cleanings he suggested that we do the panoramic x-rays which they normally don't do until age 6. Apparently the machine is designed for a six ish year old because even on the "shortest" setting isabelle couldn't reach. They had her standing on two phone books and were trying to get her face all lined up just right. it was pretty funny. She is such a cute girl and now has the traditional gap in her teeth. her second one fell out November 5. I'll get a cute picture when i have time.

North Carolina Aquarium

I mentioned before that we had gotten season passes to the zoo and NC aquariums. These pictures are a little old, but we did go to the aquarium in October (actually on the same trip and previously mentioned with Mike, Amy and Grandma.

The whole crew:L to R: Hailey, (Hannah is also in the stroller) Michael, Savannah, Grandma, Amy, Isabelle, Tricia, Adam, Matt

Cousins: Isabelle(almost5), Hailey(16months), Savannah(almost8), Hannah(16months)

Matt, Isabelle, Savannah, and Adam
Sorry for the poor quality of the rest of these pictures. The only camera I had with me has no flash, and the aquarium was poorly lit.

Isabelle getting "eaten" by an Aligator

Hugging a tree frog

Kissing a fish

Hannah LOVED the fish

Savannah, Isabelle, Hailey and Michael

Hailey did not love the aquarium.

Fort Macon

In October we got a chance to go to Fort Macon. It was really neat to learn some Civil war and pre-Civil war history. We had a great time. It was very chilly, but had beautiful views. Isabelle took this one of Savannah coming up the hill. Matt with our kids standing on one of the walls. The ocean is in the distance. The fort was constructed of multiple rows of brick walls on huge grassy slopes. It was sort of like a castle. Super cool. Matt explaining to the girls how the cannon's work. there were two rows of cannons completely surrounding the fort and each cannon could be rotated 180 degrees and could be shot with some accuracy at ships in the port, or attacking forces on land.

Isabelle with a pile of imitation cannon balls.

Cute/Cold Adam. He did not appreciate the wind very much. I love his jacket. It has dachshunds all over it and little puppy ears on the hood. He was such a patient sweet boy.

Savannah
Savannah and Isabelle on a wall.

Matt, Adam and me on the wall. Taken by a drunk/blind photographer. (one of the girls) they took several and this was the only one that even had our faces! They love to use the camera.

Savannah and Isabelle with Hailey

This was sort of our "goodbye" trip with Matt's brother Michael who has since moved his family to Arizona. We miss them and were glad to have one more fun trip with them. Next time we see them will be in a much warmer climate! : )

Hannah walking with Uncle Michael.

Beach

While at Fort Macon we took a detour down to the beach. It was so cold Adam cried and cried. Even when we got in the car it took him an hour or so to warm up.

The girls running on the beach.

We instructed the girls to keep their feet dry, but of course Isabelle "forgot" Sometimes I think I live in a Mercer Mayer book.
Isabelle NOT keeping her feet dry.
I didn't even lecture her too much because I figured we were on vacation. I just reminded her that since her feet were wet she would have to walk carefully so the sand didn't stick to her shoes. Of course before we reached the board-walk Isabelle was dragging her feet through the sand and even taking handfuls of sand and piling them on her shoes, because of course she "didn't hear me" Grrr.

Blanket Boy

Someone mentioned that i needed to get a picture of the way Adam sleeps.

He is totally a "Blankie Boy" He has his favorite blanket that he pokes his fingers through the holes and the blanket MUST be covering his face.

Oh, and turn the sound off on your digital camera BEFORE you start taking pictures of your sleeping baby! : )

My Little Eater

So i guess we should have known that Adam would LOVE solid food. He is so much fun when he isn't screaming. Yesterday i introduced him to two new foods at once. Okay so i know your not supposed to do that, but I'm so much more lackadaisical with my third kid. Anyway, I was going to give him garden peas, but since they are so gross i thought i would disguise the nasty with some peaches. So i gave him the first bite with a little of each on the spoon and he shuddered and made a face. So i thought "wow those must be some nasty peas" so i gave him a bite of just peaches and he shuddered agian! It was the peaches that he didn't like! He ate the whole jar of peas. He is so cute. These pictures are actually from a few days ago when he had is first carrots. His face was stained orange for two days.

We have also been adjusting his day-time sleep habbits. apparently it is working because last night he slept from 9pm till 7am--10 hours hooray!!! (apparently to make up for lost time he has nursed three times this morning and it is only 9am!!)

Last weekend

Matt swam/biked/ran his second triathalon. He is so amazing.

As you can see he took my advice and got a shirt...

next we'll work on the hair cut issue.

The people who run these triathalons are kind of a small group and they get to know eachother.

Matt has decided he wants to be known as the funky hair guy.

At each race he plans to cut his hair in some crazy/silly way.

I think this one makes him look kind of like my uncle Dale. : )