Hamaker Christmas Card?

For all of you that thought that we snubbed you and left you off our Christmas Card Mailing List, or maybe are thinking in your heads, "Maybe we're not as good of friends with the Hamakers as we thought"... lay your fears and dashed hopes aside, there will be no Christmas Card this year.  The best we could muster together this year is a lame ol' blog picture post.

In the usual style of Christmas Cards I will attempt to outline this years happenings.

Our year went like this... Interviews, match day, yes we're going to Temple, we better buy a house, oh yeah Angela's pregnant, early labor, just push through it babe, actually maybe we want that baby to come like NOW, why don't you keep lifting those heavy boxes! Yes! we are dialating! Boom bam baby Jacob, I'll just be moving us while you try to recover, oh you've had a whole 3 days of rest, come on and help us unpack, Wait a second does this baby have GERD too? It's Graduation time, got to hurry unpack residency is starting, wait a second where did Jeff go? we are missing our Daddy. No really, has some one seen Jeff???

So here is our family Christmas Card. I did show up long enough to take one.

Don't we have a perfect family?

Just so that our memories do not paint an un-realistic, perfect children, always smiling picture, below are the pictures of what happened while we were trying to get our beautiful final product.

"Hold really still, love. Ignore Jacob ripping out your neck hairs."

"What was that noise? Christine!"

"Let's try one with the kids."

"OK Jacob you sit next to Christine."

"Christine give Jacob a nice hug."

 "Aww, no Christine don't smush his face."

 "No! Soft around his neck!"

 "Soft dear, Soft!"

"Mommy, Jacob's try to escape!"

"Cheese!"

 "Take two."
"Yeah let's have them sitting a little ways apart."

"Now let's do a family photo. We'll add in the timer to spice things up a bit!"

"Oh that's good, Stand right there."

"O.k. everybody get ready!"

"Here I come..." And... "I want to see!" 

...Click

"No Christine, you have to wait until it flashes to run and see the picture. And where are our heads?"

 "Maybe try it kneeling."

 "Oh can, I be on your knee too?"
"No Christine, just Jacob. You stand next to us."

 "And smile!"

 "Christine!?"
"Oh I was just looking at the toys for a little bit."
 "Take two! And smile!" "Eh, we'll just edit out the toys."

October

October was a good month. Jeff had a week of vacation, and it was wonderful to have him home. We got caught up on chores and errands, did some fun things like drive out to a nearby city for a little shopping and lunch, had a little kid-free time for mommy, planted our fall garden crop, and we planted bulbs in the flower beds that will come hopefully come up next spring.

 Jacob hung out on a blanket while we dug in the dirt. I kept moving him to the center of the blanket, and he would shimmy over to the edge of the blanket as quick as he could to check out the grass, and try to eat it.

 Christine was excited to help. She is holding up a tulip bulb here.

We explored a nearby nature trail, that I was really excited about.

and we just enjoyed spending time with Jeff. He has such a rough work schedule. There are times when Jeff goes 3-4 days without seeing Jacob. Jeff played a lot of doll house with Christine (her favorite activity).

Jacob is a crazy little monkey. His energy rivals Christine's, and that's saying something. Now that he is mobile he is getting into trouble left and right. Last week I was coloring with Christine and Jacob was hanging out next to us, then I look over and in about 2 seconds he had crawled out of the room around the corner to the laundry room, knocked over the little garbage can in there and had both hands full of dryer lint and his mouth covered in grey mush.

We pulled out the ol' jumper-roo from the attic and he loves it. I love it too, sometimes I just need to strap him down without worrying about him getting into trouble. He figured out how to jump really quick.

He finally decided that drinking from a bottle isn't the worse thing in the world. (he was throwing tantrums worthy of a 2 year old over drinking from a bottle- even if it held freshly pumped mommy milk) I feel so liberated now! I finally have the option of leaving him with someone else. Hopefully now that I can supplement his feedings the pediatrician won't be worried about Jacob's weight gain (he was flat lining a little bit, when he should be having a huge increase. I think it's because the kid is so dang active. Other babies his age still just lay on a blanket all day). 

This hassle over getting him to drink a bottle is funny because he loves to eat his baby food. His favorites are pears and applesauce. I have started to make my own baby food, and it's really fun!

The end of the month we had a little Halloween fun and went trunk or treating with the ward. Christine had a blast collecting candy saying things like "Halloween is the best because it's all about getting dressed up" (I believe she was quoting fancy nancy) After collecting her candy she would wave to everyone around her as if she were the Queen of England. She's already planning next year's Halloween costumes.

Happy Halloween

We let Christine pick the costume theme this year for Halloween. It wasn't a surprise that she chose Cinderella. We watch the show a lot around here (we watched it 2 times today) Christine loves princesses right now, and Cinderella is by far the favorite (Ariel and Bell are fighting it out for 2nd place). 

Christine worked really hard to earn some "real" glass slippers to go with her Halloween costume. We went to Target a few months ago to buy some shoes for me and Christine begged to look at shoes "her size"  and saw these Cinderella clear, sparkly shoes. I quickly distracted her hoping she would forget about them, but she did not! Every time after that when we were at Target Christine would want to go to the shoe section. (Who is this diva shopaholic I have raised? I swear she hasn't learned it from me!) We made an agreement that if she had no accidents at bedtime she could get them (we were finishing up potty training)

Christine loves these plastic shoes. They are quite the treasure around here.

 and what would Cinderella do without her pumpkin that turns into a carriage to take her to the ball?

and of course the hero of the story, Gus Gus. Cinderella would still be locked in the tower if Gus Gus hadn't brought the key up all those stairs.

And the girl mouse who helps sew the pink dress that the step-sisters destroy. She is famous for saying "leave the sewing to the women, you go get some trimmings!"  (if you were wondering about the glasses- my allergies were killing me that day and I had to take out my contacts)

... and we'll make a lovely dress for Cinderelly!

Pumpkin Patch

When I was growing up, one of my favorite fall activities was going to the pumpkin patch. So when I heard that there was a local pumpkin patch here in Temple I knew I wanted to bring the kids. It was much bigger than the "pumpkin patch" at the park in Houston, but it still couldn't compare to the pumpkin patches in Utah (hay mazes, fields of pumpkins etc) it was more a "Christmas tree farm with a pumpkin display." The place is called the "Silo Christmas Tree Farm" after all, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Regardless, we still had a great time.

Christine did NOT like feeding the goats. We paid three tickets to receive our little cup of feed, entered the feeding area, and the goats came rushing towards us. Christine freaked out and begged to be picked up. She was okay with Daddy feeding the goats while she watched. Daddy got quite the work out.

I love this picture. You can just see Jacob leaning over as far as he can trying to see the blue snow cone, figuring out how do I get that goodness in me?! 

The pumpkin patch had a little tractor train that Christine was hesitant about at first. All the kids rode in the train while the parents walked alongside.

Finally, we got to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch...errr bales of hay. Christine chose this one "because it smelled good and had some orange in it."

Hopefully we will carve it for Halloween in just a week in a half! (I say hopefully because I bought a small pumpkin from the grocery store that I had to throw out this week because it molded. sad day)

September

Jeff has this weekend off. The full weekend. Saturday AND Sunday. As we sat together on the couch this morning drinking hot chocolate, life just felt perfect.

September feels forever away and I hardly took any photos last month, so this post will be a little sparse.

We are trying to teach Jacob how to drink from a bottle. The pediatrician says if Jacob is hungry enough he will drink from a bottle. But I think Jacob knows that Mommy has milk and he's willing to hold out for the good stuff.

Christine loved helping hold the bottle. She is starting to realize that having a little brother can be quite a nuisance. In our house there is a lot of "noooooooo Jacob don't eat my dolly" "nooooooo Jacob don't touch my dress" "mooooooooom he's kicking me" "that's MY blanket" ...I'm afraid this is just the beginning.

Christine is sitting next to me right now and overheard me telling Jeff what I just wrote and Christine would like to add "when we go to Target Mommy you need to bring the becco (baby carrier) so Jacob won't kick me. babies don't kick people. they just kick the floor"   She really hates when Jacob is in his car seat in the grocery cart and she is sitting in front seat of the cart and he kicks her.

In September Jacob started to sit up on his own, babble, roll over multiple times, turn around 360 degrees...

... and get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth

Spoiler alert for October's post... yes he's crawling.  He's only 5 months old. 

Why are my children so impatient?