Cookies for the firefighters

To help curb some of Samuel's immense excitement about Christmas, we baked and decorated some cookies today and brought them to our local fire station.

Here is Samuel decorating the cookies:

The finished cookies were quite sprinkly:

The firefighters were really cool and let Samuel check out the fire trucks:

We'll post more pictures after we open presents tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone!

Do my kids look alike here or what?

What do you think?

Gingerbread House

Every few weeks we go to Lowe's and pick up their free woodworking project for kids. Last year around this time we made a wooden gingerbread house. Unfortunately, last year's house met an untimely death by falling in the toilet a few weeks ago (don't ask), so I was glad to see Lowe's had the same kit this year.

This was the first project that Samuel was really able to do by himself. All Ernie and I did was help hold the pieces together so Samuel could nail them.

Here he is hard at work:

Putting on the stickers:

The finished house:

If you have a Lowe's near you, I'd highly recommend checking out their Build and Grow workshops. They have a different kit every few weeks. Samuel has made a school bus, a fire truck, a helicopter, a truck, a pirate ship, and some other things. We especially love that they are free!

2 Months

Becca is 2 months old today! Here is her picture next to the teddy bear:

She has grown a LOT in the last month. I don't know her weight or height statistics for sure since we don't go to the doctor for another 2 weeks, but I would guess she is almost 11 pounds now. And she is definitely taller than she was because when I put her in the Bjorn, her head used to be way down below the top, and now it is about level with the top part.

In honor of turning 2 months old, last night she slept for 5 hours straight! I hope this continues!

New Pictures

When Samuel was born, we received a playgym as a gift. He loved to lie on his back and watch all of the toys, especially the part that lights up. We took the playgym out for Becca this past week, and she seems to like it too.

Samuel with the playgym back in 2005:

Becca:

And here's a picture of Samuel when he was about 2 months old. I think Becca kind of looks like him here:

And here they are together:

Note Becca's expression here, like "help me!"

Becca has been doing 3-4 hour stretches of sleep at night, which is great. In the beginning, she was getting up every 2 hours. I'm hoping the 3-4 hour stretches turn into 5-6, and hopefully sleeping all the way through the night will come soon. When she is awake during the day she loves to look at the lights, the ceiling fan, and the wallpaper in our dining room (which has a sort of bold flower pattern.) She is smiling a lot now, and is working on perfecting her screaming if you do not pick her up, feed her, or change her diaper as soon as she would like. She will be 2 months old this week, so I will have to take her picture next to the bear and post that on here.

Here are two other pictures of Samuel. He was cleaning (which he loves to do. Long may that last!), and for some reason just wanted to wear his underwear to do that: