The Requisite Holiday Photo

Just a quick post to share a few photos of the kids in their holiday finest. Not even close to perfect pictures but getting a perfect shot is literally impossible with these three wiggle worms. Once we recover from the flourish of festivities I will get to posting some of the highlights of the holidays.

Natalie, Sam and Amelia

Christmas Eve 2009

Official Stats

Sam just had his 9 month appointment (2 weeks late)
but for those of you who care about official stats here they are-

Height: 27 inches (6%)
Weight: 18 lbs. 11 oz (17%)
Head: ?? but the nurse did tell me that it is in the 79th percentile.


So how does this all translate?

Well, we have a petite son with a big head. Ladies and gentlemen..it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out where Sam gets his traits from. For those of you who are in a holiday daze and may not catch what I am implying...

Let's just say I buy petites...so Sam gets that from me...
and as for the big head...literally and figuratively...that's all his Dad.

Love ya honey! : )

Can you change your mind?

When looking at the following photo in a frame at our house Amelia asked, "Mom who is in the pink shirt?"




I was across the room at the time and could not remember so I got up to take a closer look. "Well honey Natalie is wearing pink and that is you in the orange shirt"

I walked away to continue folding laundry. There was this deafening silence of disappointment in the room. You see...both Natalie and Amelia love everything pink. So I was waiting to see what type of reaction she was going to have. To be honest I was expecting a full out tantrum because Amelia believes that if there is only ONE pink item...then it must be hers.

The silence went on for at least a minute as Amelia pondered my answer. All the while Natalie stood there absorbing the fact that for ONCE she won out on the pink item when 99% of the time Amelia seems to get her way.

Then.... very meekly and quietly Amelia says "Mama, do you think you could change your mind? I really like pink. See (pointing to herself) I am wearing pink pj's today. Do you think you could change your mind and I could be the one in the pink and Natalie in the orange."

I had to fight back my smile as I quickly tried to find a nice way to say that I can't change the fact that back in the summer of 2008 it was Natalie who wore the pink shirt. And to be honest I contemplated lying (and changing my mind) just to make my life easier at the moment.

Just as I was starting my rebuttal Natalie saved the day "It's ok Amelia, that is you in the pink and I am wearing orange. I like orange, it's ok you can wear the pink."

So in the end...crisis averted...all because Natalie took one (again) for the team.

Love Ya, Nat!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Snow and Sunshine

As you can probably guess life is crazy around our house with the holidays gearing up and all. I am more than a bit behind in some of the posts I want to share here on the blog and do intend to get to them BEFORE Christmas arrives. So please forgive me if some of the next few updates are out of chronological order but I just could not wait to share some photos of our family fun this past weekend. Amidst all of the chaos of our busy comings and goings we took an hour or so to enjoy the sun, snow and each other.

To make my life a bit easier and since I am being lazy here is the "key" for the following photos:

Natalie: Yellow
Amelia: Green
Sam: Obvious

9 Months

Ready...

Set...

NO!

At 9 months little toothless Sammy is not crawling yet.

This keeps him out of his sisters' hair
and
our Christmas decorations safe for one more year!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Samuel Johnston Dirksen

8 months old

Halloween

Halloween falling on a Saturday was a glorious thing. We had many opportunities throughout the day for fun and picture taking. The girls were desperate for nighttime to come...something we don't experience very often at our house!

Our little "punkin"!


Can you guess whose jack-o-lantern was not a cat?


One bee...


two bees...


three bees!


"Raise your hand if you like candy!"

We hope that everyone had as happy a Halloween as we did.

Halloween Eve

On the night before Halloween all through our house
the girls were carving eyes, noses and mouths.



Their Dad used the knife and handled it with care.



Natalie and Amelia scraped out seeds until the pumpkins were bare.



This year Halloween Eve was filled with fun and laughter.

Look soon for photos of the kids' jack-o-lanterns!

Window Gazing

One of Sam's favorite things to do is watch the world go by from the big window in our living room.

Sam Oct. 16, 2009
7 1/2 months

One of my favorite things to do is watch him watch the world go by.

It reminds me of a time when two other little people did the same thing

and how I loved watching them watch the world go by too.

Amelia and Natalie Feb. 19, 2007
1 year old

Can you spare a square?

Let me tell you that having the girls toilet trained is a glorious thing. (I guess I never did post results from our potty training boot camp in August. I am happy to report that the girls graduated from camp in a record two weeks!) Having only one child in diapers is great for our budget. Though now having three kids to feed/clothe our trips to Target still seem to always hit three figures.

Both Natalie and Amelia are great at using the toilet and letting us know when they need assistance. Most of the time the girls fly solo and all goes well. Recently though we have had a few more toilet issues (literally) than usual. At first Mike jokingly blamed me. However I have evidence to the prove my innocence.

When walking by the bathroom one day I caught Amelia trying to use all of this!

Amelia is not our only guilty party as Mike just recently caught Natalie repeating this same act. As a result of the girls' affinity for t.p. our toilet has needed a little T.L.C. so much that just this morning we had to purchase a new one of these...

Our first one was a bit older and couldn't handle all the pressure!

Little Pumpkin(s)

There is a certain little pumpkin who is 7 months old today!

Sam Oct. 4, 2009

And for those of you who like to be nostalgic...

here are our other little pumpkins three years ago.

Amelia and Natalie Oct. 29, 2006

Apple Picking!

This past weekend we had our yearly fall outing to the apple orchard. The girls loved picking and eating apples. However I think the highlight of the trip was feeding the animals at the petting zoo.

Enjoy a few pics from our fun day!

Amelia

Natalie


Apple Snack


Sam


sheep : )

Wordless Wednesday

To all parents out there I beg you...

please please please do not send your children back to daycare before they have fully recovered from the stomach flu.

The effects of your actions can be catastrophic to some families. These poor girls spent about 10 hours yesterday with their little bodies in turmoil. Today is just a day of rest and recovery.

Along with Natalie and Amelia three other kids from daycare fell ill after exposure to one particular culprit. As for the rest of us...so far so good....even our little Sam is staying germ free. Please pray that we have fought this bug and won the battle!

Spoiled Rotten!

Look at what one of their Papa's bought the girls at the zoo!





Can we say ...Spoiled Rotten! : )

Thanks...Papa!

Wordless Wednesday

Another School Year

Oh, how things change...

First Day of School- Fall 2008

First Day of School- Fall 2009