Christmas Recap

I'm beginning to realize I need to adapt--the style of blogging and photographing that served me well for many years isn't working quite as well now. More pictures are taken on my phone and I seem to have less big events that I'm whipping out the Canon for. Also, my arms are generally full of kids and said kids tend to be less cooperative. I generally don't post phone photos here but you know what? Sometimes thats what I have. So here's a hodge podge recap of Christmas related events, and the semi-resolution to try to be a better family archiver next year. I miss writing and I don't want my children to not have these precious memories to look through when they are older! Today is January 1, and Finley has already asked me where our "family year book" is from 2015. Give me a break, kid. But for posterity's sake... here's the 2015 Christmas card. First time in many years I didn't design it!



All the boys had Christmas events--Braden's was the kind where the kids have a treat and the parents stand and watch... so no pictures. Keaton's was a darling little sing a long that was several kinds of cute. He and Elisabeth are in class together for the second year, and still going strong as a duo of silent, bossy, tiny children.



Finley's school had a pretty legit Christmas program. He knows all sorts of Christmas hymns now--including Silent Night in German!



Both of our families came to visit for Christmas. I was so excited to meet my sister's baby girl, Elliot. She's eight weeks younger than Merritt and still was a squishy newborn. Ahh, they grow so fast. It's exciting to have a cousin on the Grimmer side of the family--and one so close in age to Merritt! If she's going to be the only girl, I'm glad she's got a girly cousin in her corner!





And I couldn't pass up the opportunity to put the girls in matching Christmas outfits. I think Laura and I should probably recreate this pose ever year we can manage to hold them up! We also saw Star Wars (spoiler alert: the stars win) and it was a big hit with everyone. The boys wore their Halloween costumes and everyone was remarkably well behaved in the theater.





We spent actual Christmas with Sol's family--and I managed to get everyone in footie pajamas!!!! Well, except Merritt because they didn't make them that small. And we had to cut the feet off Finley's in the morning because they were giving him a blister. But they all matched and were super cute.

Santa was good to the boys--Finley was thrilled to get the Lego Millenium Falcon, which has managed to stay intact so far. And I also got him the Doctor Who Lego set which he was so surprised and excited by! Here's two time lapse videos of him building...

A video posted by Rachel Scott (@solandrachel) on Dec 25, 2015 at 5:11pm PST

A video posted by Rachel Scott (@solandrachel) on Dec 26, 2015 at 5:23pm PST

We got a semi-decent family picture in front of the tree!



The rest of break was filled with playing with new toys, quick trip(s) to Houston to see friends and eat Tacos and trying to knock things off our to do list and keep our kids alive.



We were so blessed in 2015--and can't wait to see what 2016 holds!

Pictures with Santa

We loved getting our photos taken with Santa this year--with our sweet little girl getting to join in! Our pictures from last year were so fun, we had to do it again.







The photographer's set up was so clever-- she had the kids all sit together and be sweet for a minute while Santa snuck out behind them! We didn't have any Santa related fear this year, but Keaton was very suspicious of Mr. Claus. He scooted very close to Finley and was nervous!



He eventually warmed up to him and all the boys gave him a big hug. I seriously cracked up at the pictures of them clambering all over Santa!

Merritt || Three Months

Three months!



This girl is sweet for days--we're so lucky to have her! I think her eyes are for real blue and she's started losing some of the very sparse hair on her sweet head. Maybe due to the typical case of cradle cap we're battling. She's stingy with the smiles... not at all like Keaton who used to (and still does!) gape at you with big open mouth smiles. But the smiles and giggles are slowly becoming more frequent and they kind of make us melty.



Tummy time is rough. She spends a lot of time in a carrier, so I feel like her head control is pretty good. She can roll off her belly and almost off her back.



She seems just so big to me--and she still is for her age. She's a little over 14 pounds--a bad cold set her back a bit when she wasn't in the mood to eat for awhile, but I think she's rebounded. Her cheeks are chubby and her thighs are chunky, just the way I like them. I'm fully aware that we're reaching the four month mark... where my babies thin down and also sleep less. Remind me to cherish month three before it all falls apart.



Merritt is a good sleeper (knock on wood incessantly) and was a GREAT sleeper when she was sick. She's really great in the day time--almost always I can put her down awake and she falls asleep on her own. Maybe I'm just getting really good at reading babies and finding the sweet spot to put them down. Or she's just awesome. She averages just under 5 hours at night... hopefully we can keep improving. But as I'm reminded by the three boys who sleep upstairs--it's fleeting. They all sleep plenty eventually. It's my honor to get to feed her and take care of her!



I love her snotty nose and drooly mouth and still kind of folded over ear and her watery eye. And her soft cheeks and her scaly scalp.



Apparently I didn't get a picture of her two favorite things--sucking on her little fists and bottom lip. But I did get some slightly different faces: thoughtful, concerned and barely entertained.



Love you Mer! (We're still working on nicknames... mainly how to spell Meri/Merri.)