Birthday Week

Birthday Week was pretty chill this year. Because our house is on the market, we couldn't decorate as we would ordinarily do, or even have big birthday dinners and cake. To add to that, Casey's birthday was on a Sunday, and we both had to speak in church so we didn't even get birthday breakfast, because we were concentrating on our talks.

Casey's birthday comes first; at this point the kids are always excited about Birthday Week and want to help with presents. Instead of cake, Casey got birthday chocolate chip cookies.





Andrew is next. He is 6 this year! He is so smart, and has become so independent in the past months in kindergarten. He is super friendly, loves everyone, and has a girlfriend (Ieva). New this year: he can read! He's been sounding things out for some time, but on his birthday he read all his birthday cards like a pro. We were floored.

Instead of a party, we went to Build-a-Bear (which he's wanted to do since Willa's birthday 9 months ago) and had dinner at Subway (his choice). He requested cupcakes with blue frosting.







And to round out the week we had my birthday. By the time my birthday was here, Willa was adament that it was NOT my birthday, but hers, and all presents were hers. Birthday Week is hard for a 3 year old. Pay no attention to the bags under my eyes (which I tried hard to not show off in any pictures here), that's just my new look these days.





Happy Birthday to us!

10 weeks old

It's hard to believe it's been 10 weeks since Christian was born, but here we are. He's so fun now, he smiles! It's really hard to capture a new baby smile, but we did our best. And yes, his hair always sticks up like this.

Andrew or Willa?

So we've been thinking that Christian looks a lot like Andrew as a baby, but I'm not so sure that he doesn't look more like Willa. What do you think? Is it Andrew or Willa?

Andrew


Willa


Christian

Snow. Again.

This winter is officially the snowiest winter in recorded history in DC. We've had 3 -- count them, 3 -- blizzards so far. The kids haven't been to school in a week, Casey hasn't been to work, and we're all getting a little stir crazy. Right now we have nearly 3 feet of snow piled up in our yard, and the snow plows have built up ginormous walls of snow in our parking lot. Check out what we're living in right now.

This was the view out our front door this weekend.



This was halfway through cleaning off Casey's car. The snow was up to his windows.

More baby pics

At the request of grandparents who live all the way across the country, here are more pics. Little bub is 5 weeks old today! Time flies... Since we brought him home, he's grown over 2 inches and gained nearly 3 pounds. If it ever stops snowing here we'll take him to get his 1 month pics done. He might be 2 months old before that happens, though.

1 week old






2 weeks old





3 weeks old





4 weeks old

Back to the main event...

Now that I've caught up on a few things that happened while I was too pregnant to care about sharing them, let's get back the the main event.

Christian is the cutest baby in the entire world, in my humble opinion. He's super sweet and mellow, and sleeps, well, like a baby. We just love him. Andrew and Willa think he's the best thing since sliced bread, and are so excited that "the baby" is finally here.

Christmas

Christmas was great this year. The kids had a blast opening presents and playing with toys, and Casey got to take off the whole week after and spend lots of time hanging out with the kids.