Saturday, May 09, 2009

Easter--late!

Well, better late than never, right? Enjoy some pictures from our Easter!

Our classic kids on the stairs pose.

Picture taking soon became a wrestling match!
Hunting for eggs with Aunt KK!
Found one!
Grandparents with all 3 grandchildren!
Dyeing eggs with mommy.


Easter baskets!
It was neat to be able to teach Kathryn especially about the true meaning of Easter this year, as this was the first year she really understood. Even now, a month later, whenever we talk about what to pray for or about Jesus in general, she always says in an excited voice, "Jesus is awibe!" (Translation: "Jesus is alive!") We pray that each year she will continue to understand more and more, and that she will continue in that excitement that our Savior is truly alive!

Monday, May 04, 2009

Not Me Monday

I have read many funny Not Me Monday blogs (originally on MckMama's blog), and have wanted to write one for quite some time now. Well, friends, here is my chance. Enjoy reading about the things that I have NOT done in the past week...!

I most certainly was NOT doing yard work on a beautiful sunny day instead of playing with my children outside. I was not telling Kathryn to play by herself, with Jackson sitting in the stroller while I was dethatching the yard. And if I was doing that, of course I was being careful so I didn't end up puncturing my ankle. If said ankle did get punctured, I most certainly was up to date on my tetanus shot. And if I wasn't up to date on it, I of course would never have have called my sister in law and asked her to watch the kids for me while I went to the doctor's office to get one. My sister in law who's baby is just a few weeks old... Nope, I wouldn't ever do that!

I also did not have my children out at Chick Fil A the other day too late, infringing on their naptime. If I did have them out that late, they of course were well behaved, and were not screaming as we were walking out the door. And if a certain two year old was on the floor in an all out fit, I would never have actually waved at the many people staring at us. Who would do that?!?

Of course, I try to be well prepared and planned ahead of time. Because of that, I had some chicken thawing today for dinner tonight. So, when Johnny got home, I definitely did not suggest that we go out to eat instead of cooking and eating at home. That would be silly!

And after we got back home, I was a good mom and let Kathryn play outside with the neighbor boy. But I of course would never have allowed her to eat two big bowls full of snack mix (after just having come from dinner!) as well as share a Diet Dr. Pepper with him. And right before bed. No way! And if I did let her do that, it certainly wouldn't have been just to avoid the battle that would have ensued from just telling her she couldn't have the snacks and soda.

Finally, I did not pick up one, much less two, things from our neighbor's trash piles today. I would never have done that, especially with Kathryn in tow. And if I had found something in the neighbor's trash, I would never have actually asked my toddler to carry it back home for me while I pushed Jackson in the stroller. Who would ask their kid to carry the neighbor's trash back to your house so you could use it for your own kids?!? (In case you're wondering, it was a perfectly fine plastic wagon that will work great to hold outside toys...)

Thanks for reading about the many things that I of course did not do!

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Quotable

While changing her dirty diaper: "Poopy: it's brown."

After Jackson's dirty diaper: "Poopy, make noise."

When asked who she loves: "Daddy, mama, KK, Caedmon's daddy..."

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Addendum and correction

Johnny wanted me to make sure and let everybody know that when I said on this post that he and Jackson were watching golf, they were, in fact, watching Norm build something.

And, I forgot to include Jackson's stats on the last post. Basically, he weighs about 18 pounds (41st percentile!!) and is 27.5 inches long (71st percentile!). So, our big boy isn't so big anymore! It's all that moving that he does; it's causing him to trim down. Hmmm, if he's slimming down that much, just wait till he's crawling and walking...he'll waste away to nothing!!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

7 months old!

Jackson is seven months old today! It's hard to believe our little boy is growing up so quickly! He is such a funny kid...he still loves to smile, laugh, coo, and babble to anyone who will pay attention.

Here's his latest smiley face. It's almost like his face can hardly handle the bigness of his smile!He still loves spending time in his Exersaucer and jumping and bouncing. In fact, he has really gotten into jumping lately, and will hardly sit still! He bounces and wiggles to get down and won't sit still for a minute. That is, unless he's outside. He will calm down then.






Here are some things he can do now:

-Jackson now sits up on his own stably. He still pitches backwards (or sidewards, or frontwards) occasionally, but in general he can sit on the floor and play by himself.
-He is paying more and more attention to Kathryn. He will smile at her whenever he sees her, and laughs when she plays with him.
-He loves to give big, slobbery, open mouth kisses. He will grab your face with both hands and come at you with the biggest open mouth he can!
-He still has no teeth, but will chew on everything.
-He loves to eat solids. His favorite is avocado. Also in his food repetoire is bananas, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, and squash. He hasn't had a new food in a while because he's been feeling bad, but next up is carrots.
-He eats Cheerios too, but isn't sure if he likes them. He makes a really funny face and sometimes gags a little. However, he likes the challenge of picking them up and putting them in his mouth, as well as throwing them all over the floor!
-He is nursing 4-5 times a day, about every 4 hours. Sometimes he'll go longer, sometimes shorter, but in general it's every 4 hours.
-He still doesn't have a super consistent schedule during the day. It depends on when he wakes up for the day. Sometimes he wakes up around 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning, other times he sleeps until 7:30. So, he'll take at least one if not two (sometimes even a third shorter) naps in the morning. Then, he takes one afternoon nap, and then another catnap in the early evening. He's really good about putting himself to sleep. I'll lay him down in his crib with his paci and bear lovey, and he rolls over, hugs on his lovey, and goes to sleep. Sometimes he'll roll over and play with his lovey for a while before settling down. He goes down to bed around 7:30 at night.
-A couple of weeks ago (over Spring Break) I stopped the 10:00 dream feed at night, and he's done well without that.
-His new favorite thing is peek-a-boo.
-He isn't crawling yet, but I have caught him on his hands and knees for a quick second. He scoots around the floor, too, and will scoot backwards quite a ways on the wood floor.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A little fun: "Cristen likes to..."

So I got this idea from my friend Jenny's blog, and was curious, so decided to give it a try. The rules are you go to Google and type, in quotations "_______ likes to" (filling in the blank with your first name). Then list the first ten responses. The trick with my name is the fact that it's spelled so differently. But, here are the first several things that came up. Enjoy!

"But Cristen likes to say if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. "

"Cristen likes to change her hair color frequently, so she had leftover brown highlights before the makeover."

"Cristen likes to wear next to nothing in the summer. Only one of her many endearing qualities."

"I know Cristen likes to run long, we can probably recruit her... and some others."

"We can swim pretty much anytime and Cristen likes to play street hockey and interacts in mathematical jailed sports."

Monday, April 20, 2009

Kite Festival


Kathryn and I had so much fun this weekend going to the Blue Ridge Kite Festival on Saturday. We were all going to go as a family, but Jackson wasn't feeling well, so Johnny stayed home with him while Kathryn and I had a fun mommy/daughter date. Here's Kathryn looking like big stuff!
They had free kites for kids. They even got to decorate their own kites. Kathryn chose a purple kite, and liked putting stickers on it and coloring it!

Then we tied balloons on it to help it fly, and she carried it around proudly all day!
We weren't able to get it very high, but she didn't care!
Kathryn and mommy. She looks like she's making a tough face, but I think she actually had a mouth full of hotdog!
We had a special lunch of hot dogs and Cheetos (her first time trying them!). She ate the entire hot dog all by herself!
Then we got ice cream to share!
All the kites flying in the air.

When we got home, we found Daddy and Jackson like this. Daddy was enjoying watching golf with his boy. Jackson got a little tired!It was such a neat time to spend just with my girl. I've been wanting to take her on a special date for a long time now, and I'm so glad it worked out that we could do it. Of course, I was sad Jackson was sick and we couldn't all go as a family, but it all worked out!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Kathryn's hair

I've had lots of fun lately doing Kathryn's hair in fun ways. I don't have pictures of her in two regular pigtails, but here are some others. I'm still learning how to do her hair, so hopefully they'll get better as we learn together (i.e., as she learns to sit still!). Enjoy pictures of our cute girl!




Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Welcome Aubrey Lillian Sink!!

We're so excited to introduce sweet Aubrey Lillian Sink! She was born on Monday, April 6th, weighing 9lbs 9oz and was 21.25 inches long! We Sinks like our babies BIG! :) She is so sweet, and has a head full of dark brown wavy hair! Visit Randy and Lindsay's blog for more pictures and to leave a comment.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Neat connection they have...

First of all, the response to my last post was overwhelming! Wow, who knew you people actually cared about other stuff besides just pictures of the kids. I really do think about a lot of things, so maybe I'll start posting about some of them!

Second, I hear the sweetest sound over the baby monitor right now. Jackson woke up from his nap as Kathryn and I were downstairs eating a snack and checking blogs. She went running up there, and he's now stopped crying. I hear her talking to him (who knows what she's saying though?), and he's cooed back a couple of times. Ok, he just now cried out again, but now she's talking again and he stopped. Wow, so neat. I guess I better go up there and actually check out what she's doing! (Ok, now she's calling to me from the top of the stairs...again, who knows what she's saying??)

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Confessions...

*It is 10:43, and I should go to bed. Instead, I am blogging.

*I need help with organizing my house. You'd think after 4+ years of marriage I'd have a system for things (like the mail), but I don't. Any advice??

*I get excited when I see my blog listed on others' blogs. It makes me feel good that other people care to read (especially when I don't even "know" these people, as in they're other blogger friends).

*I also get excited when people comment on posts (hint hint...).

*My room is a mess. I hardly ever make the bed!

*I have been groucho-mom this past week. And I hate that.

*I formulate all kinds of blogs in my mind, but never get around to writing them. Every once in a while, when I do, they don't turn out as well as they did when I dreamed them up.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

6 months old!

On Monday Jackson turned 6 months old! I can hardly believe it! He is growing so quickly, and continues to make us laugh all the time!
He is still a big boy, and wears size 6-9 month clothes now. He eats like a champ, too! He nurses every 3-4 hours, so about 6 times a day. He interacts with his sister now a lot more. He cries when she's not with him, and will laugh and squeal at her when she walks into a room or pays attention to him.
He's started sitting up on his own more, although is still prone to flop over in any direction (which is really painful when he falls forward when there's a toy there!). He can put his paci in his mouth by himself now, which is a really helpful skill to have! He also loves his feet now, and will grab them and chew on them all the time!He is starting to sleep better now, thankfully. He still wakes up about once a night (sometimes more), but we don't pick him up (and I certainly don't feed him anymore!), and wait for him to find his paci and get back to sleep. Every once in a while we'll go in there and give him his paci if he's not settling back down. He's no longer swaddled:

...and now sleeps like this:

I love those little feet crossed! In addition to nursing, he's started on some more solid foods, and LOVES it! He was starting to get bored with the plain rice cereal, so his first food was sweet potatoes. After that he had avocado, and today we added squash. So far, he loves it all! He eats solids twice a day, at lunch and at dinner. He gets so excited for mealtime.

He is also getting more mobile, and when he's on the floor he will spin around in any direction (when on his tummy). He also gets up on his knees in his crib, but hasn't done that much on the actual floor. (Thankfully, because I'm not ready for a crawler yet!) He loves to be outside, and we're looking for warmer days when we can hang out on the blanket and crawling around in the grass even more! Everything he can get his hands on goes straight to his mouth. He loves to give great big open mouth kisses, too. He squeals and screams (happily) all of the time, and is in the constant work of discovering new sounds he can make. He still loves to laugh, and is very ticklish. We love our sweet little boy. Happy Half Birthday, Jackson!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to the best dad and husband in the whole world!!!! We love you!!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

In the past week Kathryn has...

-correctly identified the following letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, M, O, P, Q, R, S, U
-mopped the kitchen floor with her own kid's mop
-quoted part of a Bible verse
-eaten three bowls full of salad
-answered the phone successfully and identified the caller (Krisha)
-been intentional about calling Johnny "my daddy"
-climbed all the way up the Chick Fil A play center and gone down the slide all by herself by using the netting on the sides to climb up to the taller parts
-changed the picture on my computer's desktop all by herself (I wasn't even in the room)

And because a post is just better with a picture, here she is sporting a super-cute ponytail!

Friday, March 06, 2009

No paci!!! update

Kathryn is doing great, and I am adjusting! :) She's only been allowed to have her paci in her bed at naptime and bedtime for months now. So it hasn't been a problem at all except for when it's time for her to sleep. She cried a little bit when I put her down for her nap this afternoon, and it was a little short (but they can range anywhere from 1-3 hours, so it was just on the shorter end of "normal" for her). But tonight she went to bed with no crying at all! I am amazed at that! Hopefully she'll continue to sleep well tonight. And she hasn't shown any issues with Jackson having a paci. She even got his paci for him several times today. So, it looks like this is it! Our little girl is growing up.... It truly is a bittersweet thing. (Don't tell her, but I still have all her contraband pacis hidden in a cup in the kitchen. I haven't been able to bring myself to trash them yet...)

No paci!!!

I am excited and sad to report that Kathryn went all night last night without her paci!
Taking the paci really wasn't a planned thing... Yesterday after her nap, I mentioned to her (like I have many times before) that soon her paci would need to go bye bye, that it was getting yucky and not for big girls anymore. Well, she went with that, and said "Trash" and ran her paci to the trashcan, leaned over it, and dropped it in. Now, she did this a few months ago, but cried and got it right back out. But this time she waved bye to it and then went on downstairs. So, then came bedtime. I debated on what to do. I wasn't sure if we were ready to embark on this journey or not, but felt like it would just be so confusing to her to go back and forth. So, at bedtime when she asked for it, I told her she was a big girl, and it was in the trash. I had forgotten to take it out of the trashcan, so she ran and looked at it in there (00ps!), but didn't try to get it out. She cried for an hour, a heartbroken kind of cry as opposed to a mad cry. I gave her a "special bear" that I had told her she was allowed to sleep with when her paci was gone, but after holding him a while, she threw him down. I think she took out her anger on not wanting the bear. But other than that she just sat on my lap while I rocked her and cried pretty quietly. It broke my heart...I cried along with her. She was still crying when I laid her down in her crib, and she continued to cry for an hour. I finally went back up to try to comfort her. She had torn apart her crib searching for a paci, and when I reached out my hands to pick her up, she turned them over and said "Paci?". Break my heart again....! I rocked her again for abotu 15 minutes. This time she didn't cry, just had the after-cry hiccups that kids get, as she fell asleep on me. After laying her down in her crib again, she slept all night without another peep! She woke up this morning talking and happy! We were so proud of her! For a treat, we got Chick Fil A for breakfast! She was so excited, and has been very sweet this morning. Praise God for a good first night! Now, we'll have to see how naptime goes today...!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Mr. Sun

I didn't mention in the last post that Kathryn currently LOVES all things doing with music and motions. This isn't a particularly good video example of this, but it shows her dancing somewhat to it. The main reason I am posting it is to show her incredible twirl towards the end. (Disregard the icky singing voice...!)

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Kathryn lately...

It's been a while since I've done a post on what Kathryn's been up to, so here's an update.

We've had the classic runny noses around our household for weeks now, and Kathryn is very good to go and get a tissue whenever she needs one. However, just recently, she's gotten very particular about touching them once they've been used. Here she is demonstrating how to hold the teeniest tip of the tissue to take it to the trash can.She's been exercising with me. She's demonstrating a push-up here:
She LOVES to do dishes, which really means playing in the water in the sink. Every once in a while I can distract her by giving her a rag to wipe the table or counters with while I try to wash up the dishes by myself.
She's getting very independent, wanting to do everything herself, including putting on her shoes by herself. If you look closely in this picture, you can tell.
She's really gotten into drawing. This is a goldfish that she drew. I actually thought it amazingly looked like a fish. Do you see it too, or am I just being a proud mama?
Sportin' a dew rag...
Just being super cute!


Her language has continued to take off, and she often talks in simple sentences now. Some classics:
Mama, I want two!
I want more juice please!
Mama, snow cars, uh-oh! (When the snow was on the cars, and it was different for her!)

She is also continuing to show a tender heart. Whenever we make a sad face, she'll furrow her brow together with a concerned look on her face, say "Sad?" and come over to give us a kiss. When Jackson is sad, she'll run to find a paci for him. She's getting better and better about playing with him, and will play peek a boo with him and give him toys (which really means bury him in toys, because she piles them on top of him!). Although we are getting into a whiny and willful stage right now, she is still so much fun, and makes me laugh all the time. Having a two-year-old is such hard work, but we know that all the work we put into raising her in the Lord now will pay off as she grows. It is our prayer that we would have wisdom as we seek to nurture her in the ways of the Lord, that she might call on His name and live her life for Him.