Caught in the Act!

With the coming of Sara into the family and the big kids being home for the break Katie has decided to finally turn 2 or 3 or whatever age it is that everyone always calls terrible. She is definitely struggling to get attention, even though I am trying so hard to give her as much as she's used to. I think she just knows that things are different. We have had a few days of naughtiness, let me tell you! Dave happened to be in the right place at the right time to get his picture. She said she was just smelling the cake. What do you think she was doing? Three guesses anyone?

Take special notice of the little finger getting into trouble around the back of the cake stand!

Christmas cookies with Grandma and Grandpa Wilcox

This year we had Grandma and Grandpa Wilcox spend Christmas with us. We haven't ever had company for Christmas. I think we all owe baby Sara a great big thank you for giving family an extra reason to visit us! It was so much fun to share some of our traditions with Grandma and Grandpa. We had some really fantastic cookies this year. Chase and Emily have really started to turn up the artistic meeter on their cookie decorating. The Christmas tree cookies were my favorites this year. They were decorated with ornaments, snow and even stars on their tippy tops. Katie is still practicing. She is getting lots better at spreading the frosting. If only we could get her to use less. Her cookies are 80% frosting and only 20% cookie. POOR SANTA!

Saying goodbye to Grandma DeWitt

I've had my Mom here for the last week to help out. She is amazing. Every Mom deserves a Mother like mine after having a baby. She made us breakfast every morning (no cereal for a week is it possible????). She was up every morning getting the kids off to school. My house was cleaned every day. We had a gourmet dinner every night. I had a fantastic shopping buddy, naps whenever I wanted one and someone to hold and love Sara whenever I needed a break! I need to have a baby every month!!!!!!!!!!!

The kids of course loved having her here. They fought over who would get to sleep with her every night. This morning I got up to get everyone ready to drop Grandma off at the airport and all three kids were sleeping with her in her room. So Sweet.

Katie came in while I was nursing Sara and this was our conversation:

-Grandma says I'm going to go home with her
me But you can't leave, you have to stay with me
-But Grandma said
me But I love you so much and who will be my helper
-I'll come back
me But Sara will miss you
-By Sara (she kisses her on the head)
me Katie, you can't go home with Grandma
-Two days
me No, not two days
-One day
me Sweetheart I couldn't live without your kisses
-But I'll come home when the other Grandma comes
me Katie you have to stay with our family
-(she runs into Grandma's room) Grandma, mom says I can't go home with you
Grandma talks to Katie about going to the airport with her...
-(running into my room with her eyes full of tears) But I'll be right back Mom
me How will you come home on an airplane all by yourself?
-Mom...the other Grandma will be there!

It broke my heart...we love you Grandma...thanks for all you help and love!!!!!!!

Ball and Strawberry

This last week Ball and Strawberry joined our family. Who are Ball and Strawberry???? They are Katie's new babies. Ever since we told them i was pregnant kate has been expecting. At first it was just a baby girl. It wasn't long though before there was a little boy on the way too. She created Ball to make Chase happy I think. When I was sick, Kate's babies were making her sick. When my tummy hurt front stretching so did hers. When our baby kicked so did Ball and Strawberry. She even experienced cravings (who wouldn't when Mom is always buying peanut M and M's!)

Dave and I decided to go along with the whole fantasy. We bought her a set of twins to give to her when she visited me at the hospital.

Funny thing is though that once I had the baby and she came to the hospital and saw all the IV's, vital checks and lab work being done she wasn't too anxious to have Ball and Strawberry. We gave her the dolls in hopes that they would help her learn to be gentle and to be a good helper. She has played with them a little but it's much more fun now to play with the real thing!

Sweet Sara

Sara is a week old today. I can't believe it. What I really can't believe is that Dave and I almost missed out on having this sweet little bundle be a part of our family. Thank goodness for surprises! I am so thankful Heavenly Father took matters into his own hands and blessed us with this sweet little girl.

She has been a perfect angel. She sleeps most of the day. When she's awake she is so relaxed (even though her big sister Katie is poking her in the eye and smothering her with kisses, not to mention a dog who is continually coming up to sniff her). She sleeps from 12:30 to 7:00 and then graces us with almost an hour of sweet cooing and cuddles.

I love her sweet soft skin and her furry little head. She is just the most perfect Christmas gift anyone has ever given us! Whoever said, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" obviously didn't know how much better a new baby in the home would be!

Enjoy the pics!

It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dad bringing Sara home!

Happy siblings

Katie is so happy she was right and it was a baby girl!

Traditional pre-labor belly tatooing :-)

She's Here!

OK, in the interest of full disclosure I should let you know that this is Dave writing. Jen is recovering at Madigan with a healthy baby girl named Sara Nicole Wilcox. She was born today, 13 December 2007, at 7:47 AM, weighed in at 7 pounds and 13 ounces and is a tall 20 inches.



Jen is so, so relieved to be done. The last couple of weeks has been hard on her. Lots of back pain, poor sleep, a pesky cough, and generally being oversized were all starting to get to her. Her mom came into town today (but just missed the delivery) so we have reinforcements and I think I'll be able to cope. Enough talk, time for pictures. That's what you came here for.





Of course we will be putting up more up as they become available. This is Jennifer we're talking about, right?

Santa Visits the House!

Santa drove by in his firetruck this evening. It was all I could do to run upstairs, pull Katie out of the bath and throw a towel around her...so no camera to take pictures with. The kids were all upstairs and I was decompressing on the couch watching TV when I heard Christmas music and very slow flashing lights. Chase and Emily were quick to get out the door. I ran back in the house to the sound of Katie screaming, "I'm going to miss it!"

Every year Santa makes his rounds through the neighborhood visiting the children and handing out candy canes. It is such a neat tradition and the kids always look forward to having Santa visit their house while they're awake!

Just one of many great reasons to love our little city.

Elf Attack at the Wilcox Home

Aunt Sallie got us totally hooked on this. I hope you all have fun with it too. It only takes a few minutes and the laughes will keep rolling all night long!!!!!!!

Click on the link to see what we created and then make your own.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1209243466

Trimming the Tree

The tree is trimmed! We took advantage of some free time on Sunday to put up the lights and decorations. I wanted the tree to be done before the baby came. The kids always have such a good time decorating and I love to sit back and watch and take pictures of course. First Dad puts up the lights and then I set out all the ornaments on the kitchen table (I have a few special glass ones that I put up after they've done the kid friendly ones). The kids then get to put them up wherever they want. Sometimes we have to tell them that a certain spot is full (because there are 20 ornaments all right on top of each other). They are getting more artistic about it. It used to be that they would put all of the ornament of one type all right next to each other. Of course they all three wanted to put decorations up as high as possible. There were a few times I thought a kid and the tree might come toppling down. We try not to put too many near the bottom of the tree so that Zeke (the dog) doesn't knock them all off with his tail. I love that we have so many cute touchable ornaments. The kids love looking for the ones with their names on them and putting them up in special places. Thanks Grandma Wilcox for the awesome ornaments every year. Our family sure does love them!!! Don't you think the kids look so festive in their Christmas pajamas?

Our Gymnast

So I've been trying out the telephoto lens of our camera (we're going to go with the Canon because I'm so used to it now and there is so little difference it seems) while watching Emily at Gymnastics practice. The observation deck is far away and the lighting is awful so the telephoto lens is great. Emily has been doing Gymnastics now for a year. I can't believe it's been that long. We started out going with her best friend but she lives far away now and Emily has continued without her. I can see lots of potential but we still have over excitement issues. She has such a strong little body. It has been fun to see her progress. Her cartwheels and handstands have seen lots of improvement. It's just fun to see how much she enjoys it!

Jen's masterpiece almost complete :-)

For January you build the snowman.
February has valentines to read.





March you put the kites on their strings.
April you open up to put the tree,clouds and sun in place.
The ribbons also come off on one end to practice put the rainbow in the correct color order.




May you snap the flowers in place.
June there are wing parts to make two butterflies or mix and match them.





July in a picnic basket that opens up to two pockets holding a place serving, tablecloth, napkin, drink and food to put on the plate.
August you can barraid the sunbeams and open the sun to see yourself in the mirror.



September you match the leaves to their puzzle outlines.
October the pumpkin is a pocket that holds parts to create several different Jack-O-Lantern faces.



November you put all the turkey feathers on.
December the present is a pocket that holds four finger puppets to play with.

I started working on this quiet book for Katie late summer with three other girl friends. It has been lots of fun and definitely a lot of work. Last night I finished sewing on the binding. Now I just have to put in eyelets and make the cover. I am so proud of it. Anyway...I know it really belongs on my show and tell blog but I wanted to make sure everyone saw it (pride comes before the fall I know...I'll probably screw up the cover so bad it'll be a joke!) Hopefully Katie will love to play with it.

First Snow

As we were finishing up our lunch today Chase looked out the window and said, "It's raining!" After closer inspection though we realized it was snow. After about thirty minutes of tiny flurries we started actually getting heavy enough snow to start sticking to the ground. The kids were so excited to go out and play. I've never had better incentive to get them to put their toys away. Rooms were clean without complaint in minutes. So here is a picture of the kids in the first DuPont snow of the season!