5 months old

Kate is now 5 months old! I think she is starting to get her 2 bottom teeth but nothing has popped through yet. She is mastering all the noises you can think of and is not quiet at all with sharing them with us! I am trying to get her to say Mama but she just smiles and goes back to yelling and screeching.

The first picture below is when she was just 9 days old and the second picture is Kate at 5 months....time goes fast when you having fun!

Tummy Time

Kate is actually enjoying tummy time now. She is almost 5 months old and finally will play on her tummy and not scream like she is being tortured to doing something that is horrible. She rolled over from her tummy to her back and then back to her tummy a couple days ago so I guess we better start getting ready for another mobile child in the house!

Sisters...

Kate thinks Grace is funny and Grace is always trying to match her clothes with Kates clothes. It doesn't help that Grace is out of the little girls sizes now...but I did find matching shirts for them at Childrens Place. Here they are....

4 Months....

Kate is now 4 months old and we have determined she is our "little" baby. Jack at 4 months was 22 lbs, Grace was 18 1/2 pounds and Kate weighed in today at 14 1/2 pounds. She is our first baby that isn't in the 100% for her weight and height! Her weight is 67% and her height (25.3 inches) is at 87%. I know she isn't SMALL....but she is small compared to her brother and sister :). She tried rice cereal for the first time on Saturday and learned how to do the Cabbage Patch face...she is doing it all the time now because we laugh at her everytime we see it. It is cute in a goofy sort of way!

How much fun is Christmas...

Our backyard Christmas Eve

Christmas was wonderful this year! Christmas Eve we went to our friends house (thanks D for letting us invade your home this year). They just had their 3rd baby and she adorable! Kate is lucky to have a little friend to play with :).

Auntie Nicole with the girls & Kate and Erica close up...go to sleep Erica or Santa won't come..

Then we headed home around 11:30 and made sure their was milk and cookies for Santa and the kids were asleep within minutes. The next morning (at 5:30 am) I heard the kids come running to wake us up. We were all up and the opening of the presents began! That was done by 6 and Jared & Kate headed back to bed :). We then headed out to Papa & Yaya's for Christmas with them. Honey even got some bones out there that she opened by herself. Saturday we went out to my sisters house for Christmas with my mom (Nana) and Sarah's family. As usual the kids had a blast playing with their cousins all day. Then my dad's side of the family all got out to Sarah's house around lunch time and we all caught up with laughter and funny stories and games (if you haven't played the game "Things" you should check it out...very fun). Some favorite gifts this year were an electric drum kit for Jack (actually it is for everyone but he uses it the most right now), webkinz for Grace, and a Bumbo chair & ocean playmat for Kate. Jared and I had gotten our Christmas presents early so we didn't have anything on Christmas but I was happy to get a Cricut Expression (a die cutting machine for my scrapbooking) and a Garmin GPS (for my lack of direction). Jared got some music equipment & hunting gear he was really wanting.

The drums....at least we can plug in headphones :)

All this Christmas stuff is making her tired...

Playing Rock Band and opening gifts at Sarah's (Josh is quite the singer!)

Opening gifts at Yaya & Papa's

So now that Christmas is over it is time to get back to reality and focus on our goal of 2009.....Get out of debt! We have our house on the market...if you know anyone that would like to move the Verona area and live on the only lake Verona has to offer please let me know! I will be doing my next post about our house and why we are making this decision.

Merry Christmas....

We didn't get around to sending out cards this year...wasn't it just Halloween a couple days ago? Anyways...here is our Christmas card for this year. I will try to get some out in the mail in the next couple days but for those of you who stop by to check on our little part of the world you get a preview :). I was thrilled to finally get a picture of all 3 kids smiling their great smiles and looking at the camera. That was my final goal of the year....onto 2009.....Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May your 2009 be filled with blessings and may you find peace and happiness in Christ Jesus our Lord :)

A post for the boys....

The Great White Hunter and his sidekick Jabber Jaws

So this year was the first time Jared ever bow hunted. He found a very nice bow on Craigslist and of course had to get a target to practice on. Jack and Jared spent many nights in the backyard practicing their shots. Jack can actually hit the target every time (so can Jared). I tried a couple times with Jacks bow and never came close....didn't we have a lesson on bow practice in high school...I am pretty sure I wasn't one of the people that would clear the target and send my arrow towards the people on the track :). Then bow season opened and the Mighty hunter decided it was a great idea to take his side kick out in the woods with him (and a deer call). They came back empty handed and the Mighty Hunter said that his side kick was very good at using the deer call and all the deer knew their exact location :). They went out a total of 10-15 times in the bow season and it resulted in Mighty Hunter-0, Deer-15. The Mighty Hunter was discouraged....the sidekick, ready for the next hunt :).

The Great White Hunter & Jabber Jaws decided to take the other sidekick "Boss" out with them on one of the final bow hunts...She wasn't impressed.

Then the gun season opened. The Mighty Hunter was all ready. He had shot deer before this way so he knew it could be done. We went up to my mom's house where my sister and brother-in-law have many many many acres of prime deer hunting land (along with all the necessary toys: 4 wheelers). The first morning out he went solo...no sidekick for added support. He came home empty handed. Then they went out that evening. The sidekick was all for going with and sitting up in the new huge triangle deer stand Jeff had built. Off into the sunset they road...glowing a brilliant orange up over the hill. We waiting so patiently for them to come back and when they did. Jack....aka Jabber Jaws...came bursting through the door yelling "WE GOT ONE". We all got our coats on and went out to see it. Grace wanted to poke it's eyes...I don't know why but she likes to poke their eyes (she does this with fish that we catch too)...not my child. Jack didn't stop talking about how it all happened for days.

The Great White Hunter and his sidekick Jabber Jaws ready to go and with the reward!

Then the Mighty Deer hunter went out with his best friend on some public hunting land around Madison and was soooo excited to come home with a pretty nice size doe. He says it is the biggest he has shot.

The Great White Hunter and his best friend Bud

Then the following weekend we traveled back to my mom's and the prime deer hunting land to put some deer stands up that were bought so Jack could sit in a stand with Jared (they are the nice 2 man stands that look like a ski lift chair). Jeff wouldn't be up there until late Saturday night, so it was up to me to help the Mighty Deer Hunter with the stands. He got them all put together in the dining room and the next day he strapped them on the 4-wheeler and off we went. This is the 1st time EVER I have driven a 4 wheeler. It would have been ok but we were driving it in snow through fields (and my 4 wheel drive was broken). I was terrified and I had the side kick on my 4 wheeler asking to get off and he would walk :)...he didn't really trust my driving skills at this point. When Jared realized my 4 wheel drive was not working we traded 4-wheelers and it was great from then on. We got the 1st stand in the tree with no problems. Jack didn't like the tree Jared selected and kept saying it was too skinny and it wasn't safe but we had it all hooked up and that's where it stayed...for now :). We headed back to Nana's and Jack complimented me on not "whining so much" on the way home....thanks Buddy! I fed the baby while Jared hooked the 2nd tree stand onto the 4 wheeler and this time we only took the good 4 wheeler. We finally found the perfect tree and got it all attached. I even climbed up into it and it was pretty comfy and the view was GREAT. We then decided that the 1st stand had to be moved to a better location. We found a huge pine tree that was at the base of hundreds of deer tracks! PERFECT LOCATION! We unhooked it from tree A and carried it down a path to tree B. Not too hard and it worked much better on that tree. The view again was great! That night Jared went out with Jack to hunt from the pine tree (we call that stand the Naughty Pine). They were so excited to come home with another doe!

Looking for the perfect tree. The 1st tree it went in and Jack not looking to sure it was safe:

Jack was able to be with Jared for 2 out of 3 kills. It was a great year for both the Great White Hunter and his sidekick Jabber Jaws :) Sorry I don't have any pictures of the last deer or me in any stands...kind of hard to take my picture when I always have the camera and there were no deer around to ask for help :)