Merry Christmas!

I think this is going to be the first year Chris really understands Christmas. We have been starting all sorts of holiday traditions that I've been waiting 3 years to do. So far we wake up every morning and find Pumpkin, our elf on the shelf. Chris named him. I think he still had Thanksgiving on the brain.
When Dad gets home we take a chain off our advent calendar and eat a Christmas chocolate. Each night Chris opens a present under the tree (funny how they're all Christmas books from the library so far). We got a toy nativity scene this year, so Chris is starting to understand the story of Christmas. Bryce just knows he really likes to chew on baby Jesus. Chris was a wiseman in the church Christmas pageant. At school last week his nursery class sang Jingle Bells and Mary had a Baby. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. This has been a really special Christmas season. Merry Christmas friends and family!

Basketball

I caught a quick picture of Chris teaching Bryce to make baskets. The next picture happened as I was trying to stop one of Chris' famous tackle-hugs. Boys family!

Thanksgiving tree

I need to finally get rid of our Thanksgivimg tree, seeing as it's almost Christmas, so I wanted to post a pic before we say goodbye. Chris was telling me how they talked about what they were thankful for at school. When I asked him what he told the teacher, he said "gummy bunnies". So, I decided we needed to work on thankfulness a bit at home.

His thankful leaves were: Mommy & Daddy, Bryce, gummy bunnies (of course), the letters q, t, & o (that he can write by himself), sushi, turtles & rabbits, dogs & cats, and we wrote Chris (he was a little puzzled if he should be thankful for himself).

Okay, I'm done with Thanksgiving. On to Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

We had so much fun on Thanksgiving! We woke up and had pumpkin cramberry muffins and then walked to the Macy's parade. Our friends were there so we got to meet up and watch the end of the parade together. Chris loved it! The weather couldn't have been better. We went home and made turkey and all of our favorite sides. We even pureed some turkey for Bryce! Such a good day!

Love this little guy!

Fishing

Conan took Chris fishing by themselves for the first time today. Chris was so excited all weekend about their big trip. He woke up bright and early and they got geared up. They didn't catch anything, but had a great time out there. Conan said Chris did a really good job and was such a big kid out there- reeling all by himself.

Bryce and I missed the big guys, but had fun ourselves. He  took it upon himself to try and play with as many of big bro's toys as he could at the same time : ).

Some pictures

Here's some pictures from the week...
Super tall tower built with Dad. Fast slides and lots climbing at Klub 4 Kids. Milk mustaches. Little brother having just as much fun playing as the big kids.

Bryce is Officially Talking!

Bryce has been talking up a storm these past couple of days. We get mostly Dada's with a few other sounds thrown in. He's got the cutest little voice! Most of his words come at night when he's really tired. We'll take them when we can get them! He's also started to get on his hands and knees and rock. I didn't think he was going to crawl for quite a while since he's become so efficient at rolling to get what he wants, but he may surprise me! He got his flu shot yesterday and he was quite the trooper. He didn't even cry!

Fall!

We have had the most gorgeous fall here! Chris has loved playing in the leaves. He had a leaf land on the back of his neck yesterday. He told me it was special because the tree wanted him to have it. Love him!

Rockettes!

Chevy was in town this weekend so we decided to see the Radio City Christmas spectacular this morning. It was so amazing. The boys surprised me with their reactions. Both Chris and Conan loved it. Chris was really excited about Santa, and Conan was excited Jesus made an appearance. Bryce woke up right before the show started. I was nervous about how he'd do, but he was a rockstar. He sat on my lap and clapped and jumped (and ate quite a bit), he really liked it. The picture of the stage is how they all turned out because of the bazillion lights and sequins up there. We ate at Prime Burger after the show and saw the Rockefeller tree being put up. Thanks for spending your weekend with us, Aunt Chevy! It was super fun!

7 months!

Happy 7 months Bryce! This has been such a fun month! He is really getting a little personality
Bryce loves to play. He grabs anything that's within reach, or grunts and tries with all his might to get what is out of arm's reach.

He picks himself up all of the way on his hands during tummy time, and has started to move his knees. We may have a crawler by the end of the month!

Bryce is a great eater. His favorite so far seems to be avocado. He's also tried peas, banana, pear, butternut squash, and green beans. Feeding him is really fun. He likes my baby food making, which a certain other son who shall remain nameless didn't. I appreciate my hard work not being thrown on the ground : ).

We may have had a first word last night! It was the middle of the night. I wasn't feeding him in an attempt to get him on a more normal sleep schedule. I heard what sounded just like a Mama in the midst of some other more upset sounds!

He still loves it when Chris plays with him. They're so cute together! Chris always brings Bryce a toy when he doesn't have anything in his hands.

Bryce is still super happy. He's always smiling and likes to laugh (the hardest when Dad is tickling him). He gets more fun by the minute!

Mom night

Last night was pretty intense at the Crum house. I write this so that one day when I'm missing having babies at the house I can remember this and maybe just enjoy sleeping through the night a little bit : ).

When Conan got home we all ate dinner. Bryce was hungry. Like throw his whole body at the spoon hungry. He has been eating one food at a time. Last night he went through three. Rookie mom mistake. I was nursing him before bed and all of the sudden he threw up everything he had just eaten. Butternut squash. Pears. Green beans. Awesome.

I went into the room where Conan was reading to Chris before bed and he helped me get cleaned up. We got the kids to bed and then heard Mr. Pukey crying at 11. Normally when he cries that early in the night I try to calm him down without feeding him. Last night I felt like he must be hungry and nursed him. When that happens he knows he hit the jackpot and tries to eat every hour all night long. About 3 am I fell asleep with him on the chair in the living room. I was awoken to a thud and crying from Chris' room. Poor kiddo fell out of his big kid bed.

I go to stand up to see Chris and my leg is completely asleep from being in a weird angle on the chair. I couldn't walk at all. Cue to me crawling on all fours to Chris' room while holding Bryce and trying to wiggle my leg awake. I finally made it in there and put Bryce in his room. Chris was okay, just upset. So I switched to sleeping in his bed with him. I think I made it back to our bed about 4:55, right in time for Conan's alarm to go off. Ahh. Life as a mom.

Saturday night

We had a fabulous Saturday. This morning the big boys went to the fishing store and got lunch. I stayed here with Bryce. He napped (2 hours!!) and I crafted. It was amazing.
When Chris woke up from his afternoon nap I got to spend some time with just him. It was great. We ate popcorn and played Go Fish and  Crazy 8's (thanks Kristi!). Bryce woke back up after a while and joined us.

In the evening we got dinner at a place that may/may not actually be a bar. You've got to love asking for 2 highchairs at a place that has college kids, pitchers of beer, and about 50 televisions with football on. In our defense, they also have kids menus. We all had lots of fun and they even played us some Elvis!

Apple picking

This is from a few weeks ago. It got lost in cyberspace, so I thought I'd at least repost the pictures...

This week

These pics are from the last few days. We've had a great week. It's starting to get really chilly here. It's fun for now. I'm sure I'll be over it soon though.

We went to Soho to meet up with Lauren and got a hot chocolate at the Starbucks on the way. They even put Chris on the cup and called his name. He was super excited.

Bryce is playing food while Chris is in school below. He's officially a sitter (and clapper) and very proud of himself.

The next picture is Chris doing our grocery shopping. He's 3- we've got to put him to work!

The last picture is how I found the blocks arranged when I was cleaning up the other day. After checking with Conan we realized it was our slightly ocd son : ).