Best Christmas gift ever!

And it's still snowing!

No church today.

Cuteness at its best

Paul has been sucking on his hand/fingers quite a bit lately. It's nice when it soothes him. This is a shot of him sucking on the same fingers Benjamin does, only a different hand.

Merry Christmas!

Our decorated tree

Making Christmas cut-out cookies--Benjamin had so much fun! The baseball glove seemed to be the choice cookie cutter--imagine that!

Christmas tree farm

We cut our Christmas tree down last Sunday. We wanted to do it Saturday, but the weather did not cooperate. So, we woke the boys up from their naps Sunday, so we wouldn't loose daylight. Let's just say we found our tree in record time, between tired boys and waning light. It's one of our best trees. (Translation: It only took 10 minutes to put into the tree stand.)

After the 30 seconds it took to cut down the tree, Benjamin asked, "What can we cut down now?"

Benjamin "helped" cut down the tree the rest of the way, and insisted on wearing Daddy work gloves.

"I'm such a great helper, Mom!"

Christmas decorating with a boy

Giggles

Paul's update

Paul is now 3 1/2 months old, and growing quickly! He's delighting us all with smiles, giggles, and coos. What a happy sound! We can get the most giggles when we strip him down on the changing table, and tickle him. Paul loves to watch his brother running around the house. He's a pretty happy and content baby, as long has he's fed and not tired (and not in his car seat). He has discovered his hands and feet--so fascinating! Paul definitely likes to be in his crib to sleep, or Mom and Dad's bed, but that's another story. I remember being able to run errands with Benjamin and he would sleep the whole time. Not so with Paul, he just gets tired and irritated, and eventually will fall asleep for 10 minutes, and then wake up cranky. I guess he thinks he needs to stay awake, so he won't miss the action. We're logging in a 5 or 6 hour chunk of sleep on good nights. Maybe if we could get rid of the stuffy nose for longer than a few days, sleep would improve! It has been so much fun now that Paul is interacting more. He is such a sweet, chubby, cuddly guy!

Things look pretty serious!

One of those 10-minute cat-naps

Thanksgiving

We traveled to Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken's in New Jersey for Thanksgiving. We had a good time seeing everyone. Paul's first car trip wasn't too bad, but after one crying spell, Benjamin asked, "Did we bring the pacifier along?" Paul is not a big fan of the car seat, and it usually takes 15-20 minutes of screaming before he'll fall asleep. Oh, well, we made it there and back all in one piece!

Uncle Ken and Paul having some floor time

Benjamin playing with Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken's toys. He was working on the farm.

Being silly! Aunt Mary put us to work putting together some Christmas gift bags. Benjamin was a great help stuffing the bags.

Aunt Joan and Paul