Snow Much Fun!

We took the girls sledding in our backyard this afternoon while Noah napped.  We weren't prepared for how fast the sleds would zip down the hill but we all ended up in the woods at least once.  It scared the girls so they weren't too fond of sledding after they ended up in the trees.  They did, however, love throwing snowballs at us and each other.  Michael and I had fun sledding, we'll just have to make the girls do it more until they like it too.  :)

Downtown Sights

Last Thursday we spent the afternoon/evening in downtown Pittsburgh and had such a great time.  It was snowing and cold but there was so much to see so it didn't bother us too much.  The Christmas tree in the center of town and ice rink around it was impressive.  Maybe next year we can take the girls skating. 

 There were Christmas trees all over downtown which thrilled the girls.  Especially those with pink and purple decorations.  :)

Noah was such a good boy hanging out in the stroller.  He never made a peep!  We are so blessed with our laid back, easy going boy!

 The gingerbread house displays were so neat!  We've never seen so many gingerbread houses in one place!  They also had statues of Santas from many different countries and a story and painting to go with each one.

 We finished up the evening eating dinner and dessert at the Cheesecake Factory - what a treat!!

Christmas Treats

This weekend the girls and I made some sweets to share with our neighbors.  The girls had so much fun making the Santa buttons.  Actually, they really enjoyed eating the ingredients for the Santa buttons.  :)  I lost track of how many Hershey kisses Audrey inhaled before I made her get down.  They were both good helpers and we had lots of fun.

Growing Boy

Noah is growing so fast!  At his 1 month check-up he was 10 lbs. 3 oz. and 22 inches long which puts him in the 65th percentile.  He's wearing 0-3 month and some 3-6 month clothes and is doing well with putting himself to sleep at naptimes after just a little bit of fussing.  He's given us some longer stretches of sleep at night going 5-6 hours between feedings and only getting up once to eat.  As you can see below, he loves to look at himself in the mirror and plays well in the floor gym. We are so thankful for our laid-back, easy going baby boy!

1 month old

Hard to believe a month has gone by - it's both sad and a relief.  He's been a very good sleeper but not a very good nurser.  I've cried so many tears over our struggle with breastfeeding.  He does great nursing in the first 3-4 minutes but then falls asleep and it's nearly impossible to get him to wake up to finish a meal.  So, I've been pumping and feeding him breastmilk in a bottle which is working for now.  Of course he takes a bottle great because it doesn't involve much effort from him.  I'm hoping that as he gets older, he'll get better at staying awake while nursing.  He's definitely growing... he put on an entire pound in 7 days a week ago.  That's more than 2 ounces a day when they're only supposed to gain an ounce a day at this age.  He's outgrown most of his newborn outfits and can no longer wear newborn diapers.

This boy loves his carseat which is wonderful.  He takes most of his naps in it during the day and sleeps in his crib at night.  Thankfully he's a good rider in the car as well which is something I really prayed for knowing he'd spend time each day riding back and forth to Anna's school.

And then there's the ugly green soothie pacifier that all of our kids have loved.  He's really taken to it in the past week but still finds his thumb too.  He's had lots of gas bubbles in the evenings this past week and thankfully sucking on the paci has helped relieve some of those.  Overall he's doing really well and is really starting to interact with us by cooing and smiling which thrills all of us, especially his big sisters.