Finally!

I have been feeling Catie move since mid-October.  I've been able to feel her with my hand since mid-November.  The past couple of weeks I've even been able to see my belly move as her kicks get stronger.  Yesterday was the first time Matthew felt her move!  We were sitting in church and I just grabbed Matt's hand after I felt the first kick and he was able to feel it, too.  Probably the only time that Matt is going to feel her is if he is sitting next to me because usually she's done by the time I call him and he comes over.  Hopefully this isn't the last time he feels her kicks.  Less than 14 weeks left to go!

After a pretty long night Saturday night with Alex and Robbie sharing a room and, of course, they didn't sleep in, everyone was tired Sunday!  Alex fell asleep at church.  We knew that meant he wouldn't nap in the afternoon.  Robbie was upset that Alex didn't nap with him yesterday and took a short nap because he was sad that Alex wasn't sleeping in the room with him.  Thankfully that meant that they both slept through the night last night!  With both of them having a cold come and go since Thanksgiving, someone has been waking up at night.  Robbie got out of bed a little after 8 last night and stood at his door.  I laid with him for about 5 minutes and then he fell asleep.  Robbie used to get up in the morning and just come in our room, but lately he's been staying in bed crying until we come in to get him.  This morning he laid in bed shouting "THERE'S A 6 ON THE CLOCK!!" until I sent Matt in to get him.  I don't know if Alex was already awake or if Robbie's shouting woke him up, but they were both awake when Matt got there.  Hopefully the sleeping through the night is the new trend! :)

New Room

We knew whenever we had a 3rd that Robbie and Alex were going to have to share a room.  We would love to let the kids all have their own room, but, in this house, that would mean Matt and I didn't have a room and that wasn't going to happen!  We've talked to Robbie about Alex moving into his room for a while now and Robbie has been super excited about it.  He's asked when Alex was going to move in for several days now.  Matthew wanted to wait until after Christmas, but I convinced him to go ahead and do it today.  After nap time, the moving began.  There's still a lot to do, but the boys are happy to be together.  We'll see how well the sleep tonight...

Making space for Alex's bed.

Taking Alex's crib apart to move it.

"I like my bed like this!"  He also tried to climb it.

Putting the crib in its new spot.

Back together and ready for Alex!

Matthew plugging everything back in and getting it set back up.

I don't remember what Robbie was doing.

Alex is happy with his new room!

Robbie jumping in his bed.

The boys' new room!

There's still a lot of work to be done in both rooms, but the hardest part is getting them to sleep together.  It took about an hour to get the boys to sleep tonight.  It's going to get better, right?? :)

Cookie Decorating

One of the moms from my Mom to Mom group (whom I lovingly call the Daisies, because that's our table's flower) offered to host the moms and kids for a Christmas cookie decorating party.  I half considered having it here, but she offered before I could.  We each brought cookies and different toppings to decorate with.  The kids really did a good job of keeping the icing and sprinkles on the table (and cookies and fingers and mouths!).  The kids each only decorated one or two cookies each...and ate them, of course!  Then it was off to play.  The moms were able to sit and talk for a while, which was nice.  We were the last to leave and hopefully that was ok.  Robbie kept saying that he wanted to stay a little bit longer, but it was getting to be Isabella's nap time, so we really had to go.  (Apparently my kids have the latest nap time in our group.)  We pulled through Chick-fil-a on the way home so Robbie and Alex could eat and then head to bed for their own naps.  Luckily the sugar had made its way through their system and they crashed like good little boys. :)

I got a Christmas Jell-o mold at Publix a few weeks ago and was excited that the jigglers turned out so well.

Alex going for the icing.

Whoops, he missed the cookie!!

Robbie cookie decorating.

He eventually let me help him, though he didn't share it with me when it was done.

Christmas cookie Hitler.

Most of the kids around the table.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We headed down Wednesday to see Matthew's family for Thanksgiving.  My parents went to my sister's house to celebrate, so we stayed at their house with my brother and his family.  After breakfast Wednesday we got on the road and went to Barbara's house.  Matthew's brother, Patrick, and his family were already there.  We went out to lunch and then to a playground.  It was chilly outside, but the kids wouldn't admit it!  There was a daycare there with their kids (mostly older), so it was a little crowded, but eventually it was just us.  We made a last minute decision to eat dinner at Mimi and Gramps' house (we picked up Chick-fil-a), but didn't stay too long because it was getting late and I knew the boys would want to spend some time with Mia and Nathan when we got to my parents' house, not just go straight to bed!

My mom bought the grandkids matching pajamas that they were supposed to open at Cousins Christmas.  Unfortunately they were left behind, but Robbie, Alex, Mia and Nathan got to open theirs together.

Thanksgiving morning we went back to Barbara's house to play with Caitlin and William for a while before heading to Monett and Gary's house for lunch.  The food was good and even the kids asked for seconds!  Barbara brought some toys over for the kids to play with, but it was really cold and I took a nap while they played outside.  Luckily there was plenty of adult supervision!  We took some bread to the pond to feed the ducks and turtles.  Monett said there were a lot of baby ducklings, but we didn't see them until we were headed back to the house.  

Checking out the yard decorations.

Playing a kiddie version of corn hole.

I don't know what Alex thought of Bailey (the dog).

Setting up the pins.

The cousins kept making sandwiches and took turns being on the bottom, middle and top.  Luckily no one got hurt!

The ducks are ready for a Thanksgiving feast, too!

William

Caitlin

I'm impressed with this shot!

Robbie

Alex (I'm pretty sure he's going to be my daredevil!)

See what Alex is doing?  (I'm sure it's because he saw me sitting that way, but it was a great angle for pictures!)

William stopped feeding the ducks after a while and decided the bread was really for him.

We found the ducklings!

Sandwich time!

We headed to Jim and Jean's new house Friday morning.  I told Robbie that they had a new house so he wouldn't be surprised, but he was still confused when he woke up after the ride and asked where we were.  Even though they haven't been there long it did seem like most of the unpacking had been done.  And they made sure the box of toys was within reach! :)  The kids liked splashing their hands and feet in the pool (by the way, their sliding glass doors are REALLY clean!) and sending the slinky down the stairs.  We met Patrick, Mariruth and the kids for lunch and then headed to the zoo.  Robbie wanted to see the tigers (some are coming to our zoo soon!) and Caitlin wanted to see the manatees, so we knew our trip would be a success if we saw those 2 animals.  Of course we did, and many more along the way!  Caitlin, Patrick, Brittany and Michael (Brittany's boyfriend) wanted to ride the roller coaster, so the boys went to ride the carousel.  Alex and Williams liked it, Robbie couldn't wait to get off!  Really, after it was over Robbie almost ran to the exit while I had to carry Alex kicking and screaming.  I took Alex for a second ride while Patrick and Caitlin went for a second ride on the roller coaster.  We bought a shaved ice for Robbie and I think that was his favorite part of the zoo trip.

Holding hands while walking to the zoo entrance.

Leopard

Zookeeper Caitlin

Zookeeper Robbie

Zookeeper Alex

Robbie liked the kimodo dragon

Hugs!

Goat petting zoo

 Giraffe hugs

There are 2 baby elephants

Robbie pretending to like the carousel (it hadn't started yet).

Alex really did like it!

I love this picture because you can see how much fun Alex is having.  You can also see how not happy Robbie is.

Saturday we met back at Jim and Jean's house before heading to the aquarium.  Unfortunately Jean's car needed work done so she wasn't able to go to the aquarium with us.  The boys had a blast.  Some times we would have to slow them down because they would run from one tank to the next.  Other times we would have to pull them away from the tanks.  There were also a couple of mist "curtains" and Robbie would cover his eyes as he went through.  After a fun day, we headed home.

Alex, Caitlin, Aunt Brittany and Grandpa checking out one of the tanks.

William and Patrick

Ohh!

Caitlin and Robbie.  Robbie really isn't taller than Caitlin!

Robbie and the colossal grouper.

I can't believe the picture is cut off, but the grouper is longer than Robbie!  (I also jumped in front of another guy taking a picture, so it serves me right that it's cut off.  It was an accident, though!  I laid Robbie down and then when I went to take the picture I saw the other guy trying to take a picture.  He was nice about it, but I'm sure not too happy!)

Sting ray touch tank.  Robbie touched a sting ray the day before at the zoo and all Robbie could say is "they're slimy!"  He did touch the shark in the tank, though!

I wish I knew what Alex and I were saying to each other!

It's so hard getting a good picture of these two!

Caitlin and Robbie

Grandpa and his grandkids

At the "Nemo" tank (with types of fish from the movie "Finding Nemo".)

We had a fun Thanksgiving trip and have so much to be thankful for!