Oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree, of all the trees most lovely

This was the first year we put colored lights on the tree. I prefer white lights for everything, but Tom and the kids like having lots of color, so color it was. Really we should have a couple more strands of lights on it, but I didn't have the energy to go out to get more so I made do with two strands. When we unpacked all of our decorations we noticed that our star was broken. We bought a new, and in my opinion much better, tree topper and the kids love it. The girls helped decorate the tree and put the majority of their ornaments on two branches. And they both helped daddy put the tree topper on and plug it in.



We never got a chance to get our outdoor lights up thanks to a string of snowy and icy and rainy days. I did manage to make and put up two giant wreaths on the front of the house, but then never plugged them in. Next year. Really I want to cover our house in lights a la Clark Griswold, but Tom's not fully into that idea. Next year. Our elf, Mr. Socks, has also been pretty busy flying back and forth to the North Pole and getting into all sorts of trouble here.

I finished all of my elfing thanks to amazon and a couple of trips to Target. Now I just need to wrap, though I'm afraid that's going to have to wait until Christmas Eve. For now I've got a ton of cookie baking to do!

Remember when it snowed?

Somewhere between 29 weeks and 34 weeks old...oops

Life got way too hectic recently and I think I missed a couple of weekly shots. :( Here are the most recent ones. He's already 34 weeks old and will be 8 months old right after Christmas.



Tommy is all over the place and into absolutely everything. He crawls at lightning speed and is pulling up, too, so nothing is safe. He swipes everything and immediately tucks it in his mouth. He's still the happiest baby I know. In fact, as I type this he's crawling around grabbing things off of the couch and laughing...and he got his flu shot this afternoon, too. Happy kid.

29 Weeks Old

The girls are so insistent on being a part of Tommy's weekly pictures. They get really upset when I ask for JUST ONE SHOT of him. I usually wind up taking a picture or two or twenty of them with him before they move on and let me snap one of just him and his bear. And even in this week's picture you can see Lexi walking in with her baby. Tommy just doesn't care who's in his picture. He loves his sisters so much and lights up when they call his name.

November flew by so fast and even this weekly picture is already a week overdue (he's on his way to 31 weeks old). Right before Thanksgiving someone asked me how old he was and I started to respond "six months" but then caught myself and realized that he was actually already seven months old.

He's also flying through developments - crawling, self-feeding, PULLING UP(!). I'm still waiting for the best development - sleeping through the night. That would be a Christmas miracle. Despite the fact that he likes to wake up once or twice a night, he's a pretty easy baby. He's still such a cuddlebug and is so mellow. Now that he can move he wants to go everywhere. In the mornings the kids usually convene in the playroom while they get ready for the day and Tommy takes advantage of all of the open doors and sneaks into his sisters' rooms. Quiet as a mouse he crawls in and starts exploring without them knowing. Sneaky little boy.