Such sweetness

Jonah and Griffin are excited for Christmas! Here's what we've been up to:

Jonah found a rear view mirror for his truck. He's been kind of intrigued by them since watching Mater drive backward in the movie Cars. He doesn't quite get the concept of using a mirror for looking at anything other than himself though.

 We made Christmas cookies yesterday with our friend Whitney. Jonah are more than he decorated, but who is counting?

 Griffin was unusually grumpy during decorating, and even being in the carrier didn't help. It kind of hindered my creative flow, but the cookies turned out cute.

 Jonah and Griffin both love spending time with Justin. Yesterday Jonah sat in Justin's lap after dinner and said "I love you Daddy. I missed you today." Such sweetness just melts my heart :)

Holiday in the Pines

This weekend we went to Holiday in the Pines with Grandpa, Cici, and Uncle Grayson and had so much fun!

 Jonah and I made our first Gingerbread house.

 A snow machine came and blew snow for the kids to play in. Jonah had a blast throwing snowballs at Justin!

The snow didn't last long in 80 degree weather!

We visited Santa and had our picture taken. Jonah didn't want to sit on his lap, but made sure he told him he wants noisy cars and trucks with buttons to push! Griffin asked for his two bottom teeth.

 I have more pictures of a train ride, and playing outside with uncle Grayson, that I will upload soon!

It doesn't feel like December.

I keep over dressing myself and my children.  It was 80 degrees yesterday and I think Griffin was a little warm in the long sleeves and jeans. It's hard to get in the holiday spirit with shorts and flip flops.

To help get the holiday started, Justin put lights up on the house this weekend. He did a great job!

 

Our stockings are hung and the tree is decorated. Boudreaux even brought back a christmas train from Santa to put under the tree since Jonah was being so good!

I just got this picture from a cousin - here are all the ladies from Thanksgiving this year at my parents. My sister and I are sitting next to my grandmother and her sister and some of the aunts and cousins (first and second). I'll have to find the picture of the men! We had a great time, and are thankful for family.

Six Months old

 Tomorrow my baby will be six months old (yes, I'm posting early!)

At six months, Griffin is

 

ready to move! He's rocking on his hands and knees, and loves bouncing in his bouncer.

Griffin tried a bite of avacado the other day but spit it out. We've been offering sweet potato too, but besides mashing it everywhere he isn't impressed.

Griffin has found his screechy voice and loves to vocalize. He protests when I walk away (hello, stranger anxiety). He also figured out that he gets quick results when he screams so his new game is to lean back onto the boppy pillow he sits with and scream until I come help him sit back up. But I know it's just a game because I've watched him slowly lower himself down :) stinker.

Griffin is also taking baths with Jonah now that he's sitting up. He absolutely adores his big brother!

 

 

Meet Boudreaux

The elf on the shelf arrived last night to watch over Jonah and Griffin (okay, mostly Jonah) through the holidays and report any bad behavior to Santa. I was excited to introduce the tradition but I think Jonah may be a little too smart for his own good. We told Jonah that an elf was coming to stay with us and he was excited. But when Boudreaux rang the doorbell, he got shy (imagine that) and didn't want to open the door. I think he was a little disappointed that Boudreaux wasn't a real elf. Then he wanted to check outside to see who really rang the doorbell. Smartypants.

 

I think its going to take some work to get Jonah to buy into Boudreaux.

So, this is happening

Griffin is sitting up. All by himself. For long periods of time.

 He's also up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth (although its not the best picture)

And he cut his first tooth. (no picture yet, but believe me)

And I was so excited about A&M's big win Saturday against Alabama I decided I'd give a big thumbs up for the next six weeks. The real story is not quite so funny but i guess we were due a little drama... I broke my thumb on Tuesday and am learning to do  everything one handed. I'm going to be a pro by the time this heals :)

sweet brothers in overalls

Visiting

The boys and I took a quick trip into Texas so I could go to my friend Katherine's bridal shower. While we were there we got to see my Friend Amy and her daughter Lily.

You may remember Jonah
first meeting Lily when he was 2 months old. We got to see her for a second time two and a half years later and they had a blast.  It was so much fun watching them march around the house and up and down the stairs on parade. Hopefully it won't be so long before we see her again!
 Jonah got to spend the day with Harper.

and Griffin and I got to meet our new cousin Peyton. Uncle Grayson skipped a baseball game so we could squeeze in a visit too.  

It was a crazy day but we had fun :)

Griffin is Five months old

And I'm posting only 1 day late!

At 5 months Griffin is working on sitting up, almost rolling from back to tummy, and can scoot himself around backwards on the hardwood floors on his belly. He likes to grab anything he can get his hands on and try to bring it to his mouth. He laughs the loudest when Jonah pays any attention to him. His hair is still crazy in the back, but maybe now that it is cold enough to wear hats we can tame it. He drools like crazy and loves to knaw on my hand but there isn't any sign of teeth. He's a sweet boy :)

Halloween Carnival

Our friends Ricky and Dayra invited us to a block party at a neighborhood church and so we met up with them on Sunday afternoon. The carnival had a mickey mouse bounce house, inflated slide, and a tractor that was painted to look like Thomas the Train and had barrels on wheels the kids could ride in. The first time Jonah rode it he sat like this:

 But then we met up with his buddy Alexander and you can see he was a little more relaxed!

He had a blast in the bounce house!

 

And the teenage volunteers were nice and helped him climb up to the top of the slide. The first time he slid down his face changed from happy to sheer panic about halfway down but he wanted to do it again so he must have liked it.

Griffin was a sweet boy as always and had fun watching Jonah have fun. Poor dude gets left out of pictures all the time!

 Jonah and Justin carved a 'spooky face' into our pumpkin this year!

 

A new trick I taught Jonah at dinner the other night. Justin was impressed :)

First taste of toes and other happenings

 Mmmm delicious!



Tonight we went to Pumpkin Shine at the park near our house. Local schools decorated pumpkins and displayed them along the path for everyone to admire. It was a cool little tradition that we really enjoyed - there were some creative pumpkins! Jonah's favorite display was 'where the wild things are' there was also a Charlotte's Web that we liked and a Lousiana swamp theme that was cute. 

 We've been to the science center this week with Jonah's friend Owen and played with the dentist display.

 And Jonah got a new play table that he is so excited about!

 A special thanks to Busha for sending this picture of her with all the Skweres boys from our visit two weekends ago. Jonah and Griffin are pretty lucky to have seven great grandparents to spoil them!

Griffin's new toy

Look who got a doorway jumper!

weekend in Houston

We took our first road trip to Houston last weekend for Justin's cousin's wedding and I had every intention of taking lots of pictures. Somehow, I think I took 4, and three of them are blurry :) I did find a couple cute ones from Facebook (thanks Aunt Carol!) and I always welcome emails with pictures if you happened to take any, hint hint.

 

We stopped at Grandpa and Cici's for the afternoon and got to see Uncle Grayson and Busha. It was a quick stop, and we were back on the road to the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner.

 The wedding was a lot of fun. Jonah had a blast running around the dance floor, Griffin got lots of love and attention, and Justin got to spend quality time playing dominoes with his grandpa and cousins. All ten cousins made it to the wedding which is the first time they've all been together in a while.
(If anyone has a picture of all the cousins, i'd love to see it!)

Griffin met Grandma and Grandpa Fotjik, and Jonah sat still long enough for a picture.

 Uncle Travis flew in from LA and he and Justin were readers at the wedding. We stayed at Grandma's and had fun seeing everyone. As always the weekend passed too quickly and before we knew it we were headed back to Shreveport.

 

Four months

At 4 months Griffin weighs 15 pounds 8 ounces and is 23.25 inches long. His four month check up went well, he's on track as far as percentiles (60th for weight and 50th for height), and got a clean bill of health from the doctor.

 

He's working on reaching out and grabbing things. He's vocalizing a lot and figured out how to get attention by making a coughing sounds and then laughs. He loves watching Jonah. He loves seeing his girl friends Mae Mae(who is 4 days younger) and McClendon (who is 2 weeks older). He and McClendon will sit and talk to each other and try to reach out and touch each other - it is precious. His eyes are blue with brown around the iris, but you can't really tell from the photo.

 We've been putting Griffin in the bumbo chair while we eat and he picks up his toys and chews on them and then drops them over the side for Jonah to retreive. Jonah likes to give him a running commentary of all things important (and I enjoy eavesdropping). They are quite a pair :)

First Aggie game

Jonah and Griffin went to their first football game at Texas A&M on Saturday to watch the Aggies beat the hell outta South Carolina State. We had seats on the bleachers in the end zone which gave Jonah a place to run around and he was able to see the football players, band, and yell leaders up close.

Here's a picture of Griffin getting a kiss at the first touch down. There was a lot of kissing at this game, the final score was 70-14. Too bad Justin wasn't there!

We had a blast and actually made it up onto the jumbotron two times during the game!

3 months

Griffin is 3 months old

 

He's loving sitting up in the blue bumbo chair at dinner. He loves watching Jonah play. His little thighs are getting chunky. He's a sweetie :)



Finally!

Finally got a photo of the four of us!

More play dates!

We've been filling our days at the park and in the play room making friends here.

Griffin isn't left out at all.

 

And Saylor really thinks he's just another doll she can move from pillow to swing to play mat all by herself :) Here she is stacking all his toys around him.

 Jonah is getting the hang of playing with the big boys.