Fun Times!

Emily is really showing us her individuality these days! She loves all things Jacob and Megan of course but all of a sudden she has an opinion and is letting us know! She is also little miss independent because she will all of a sudden decide she wants to play downstairs and she'll open the gate (if it's not latched...if it's latched insert yelling at the gate here), climb down the stairs and go play by herself. Each time she goes off to entertain herself we joke that's the 3rd child syndrome! The most exciting thing she's doing these days is talking! She has been repeating nearly everything we've been saying. On November 24th she said her first sentence "Night-night Dada " and since that day she's been jabbering and copying all kinds of words. It's super exciting since Megan and Jacob had/have speech issues and were a little behind. It's crazy to hear Emily talking the way she does, it's a first for us at this age!

Jacob is all boy all the time! He's a rough kid but we're working on that! Michael and Jacob were wrestling the day we put up our tree and somehow Jacob managed to jump directly on top of Michael's neck resulting in a loud scream (I'm surprised Jacob didn't fly across the room!), a trip to urgent care, and a week of medicine because they feared infection due to broken blood vessels. Poor Michael, when Megan was 3 she broke his tooth with a flashlight, now Jacob did this...he should be careful around Emily, she's next!  In other Jacob news, he loves school and I love having him in my building! He's a man of habit at school-they have to make him choose a different "job" once a week otherwise he is always the milk helper and at work time they put away the plastic tigers once a week so that he will play with something else! 

Megan is really growing up on us. Her reading is improving everyday and what I love most is her improved attitude for school. She continues to be motivated to learn and grow. She is crazy about animals as always but now she's more specific-she says she loves reptiles and amphibians! When she asked Santa for a leopard gecko Santa looked at me, I smiled, and he said we'll see what we can do but those are hard to come by! She wants one super bad and each time we talk she mentions getting a leopard gecko but now she's concerned since Santa wasn't too sure. I can't wait until Christmas morning when the thing she wants most is waiting for her under the tree!

Megan and I went downtown for the annual Christmas "Living Windows" and she was absolutely mesmerized by the artist and his huge painting. She sat there forever and then wanted to look inside at the art gallery. Megan's in the striped hoodie. The picture doesn't do it justice!  

Megan posing in front of an old fire engine.

My mom had the kids Sunday afternoon while we worked like crazy on cutting boards in the garage and finally finishing the swing set structure my dad got the kids...in July. The kids had a blast and worked as a team to make the gingerbread house! 

We went to the Runge Center to get our pictures taken with a new photographer, super good deal and I can't wait to see the pictures-I will post as soon as I get them! Before she arrived we looked around and saw all of these turkeys, the kids loved it!

Megan on the giant turtle! Her first real animal love is a turtle!

Jacob trying out the cool dune buggy...he would run someone over for sure if we ever owned this!

The kids enjoyed going to Bonkers (giant indoor playground) and Jacob of course enjoyed playing in the car. We never get a picture of Megan because she's off with some friend she meets each time but she was there and had a blast too! Jacob followed her around for a round or two but then got a little scared when she left him up to go off with a new friend!

Ah, our daredevil in action! She went down this slide over and over. Thank goodness she didn't go exploring the bigger playground or we'd never find her!

And this is the result of a big day! Ah, so sweet when they're sleeping!