Silly Willly

As Will becomes more and more verbal, he also becomes more and more hilarious. He often has witty comebacks and comments, and his mischievous side knows just how to get Christopher upset. When Christopher is reading, Will is very skilled at jabbering on about nothing and peppering Christopher with mundane questions. They also had a conversation recently about how old Robin Hood is. Will was convinced that Robin Hood is 7 years old. Christopher condescendingly informed him that Robin Hood is a grown up. Will conceded: "I guess he's 7 and a half."

Will has such funny ways of saying things. His favorite restaurant is "Miss Callister's" and today he told me that his lips felt "spicy" (chapped). He doesn't have much sense of time, so every time-related question is about if it is happening until Christmas or not. "Christopher, when is it going to be my turn for the toy? Are you going to keep it until Christmas?" Lately his favorite excuse is that he is getting a "little bit sick": "Mom, if I clean up any more toys it is going to make me a little bit sick."

For a few weeks now, Will has been a cat quite a bit. He literally starts meowing as he opens his eyes in the morning. And he refers to himself as "this cat" and builds himself a cat house of pillows and blankets on the sofa. It is definitely an entertaining phase!

Sarah Kate--5 months old

Technically, Sarah Kate is closer to 6 months at this point than 5 months, but let's turn back the clock and pretend . . . Sarah Kate is so much fun at 5 months! She still loves to smile, laugh and coo. She also says fun words like "glaaahh!" She loves to lay on her back and play with her feet. She loves having a bath. She is starting to notice when I leave the room and often protests. She loves playing with her new baby doll and other toys in her crib when she wakes up from her nap.

We recently started a new adventure--rice cereal. The boys were so excited, and Christopher can't wait for her to really get the hang of it so he can feed her. She did great the first night, finishing the whole bowl. But most of it has ended up on her bib since then. We're not giving up . . . if she only knew that once she masters this, she gets to move on to sweet potatoes, I think she'd be a little more motivated!





And just because she looked so cute last Sunday in her dress and her boots . . .

Sarah Kate's Baptism

On September 20, we had the privilege of baptizing Sarah Kate. We were so happy to have all four grandparents there, along with Aunt Laura, Uncle Garland, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Brian. As we stood with the kids for the baptism, the boys did a good job of following my strict instructions not to goof off and to listen to Pastor Chris. Christopher did some gentle prodding of Will to keep his head turned the way Christopher thought it should be, and they even held hands for part of the time. (I was one relieved mama!) And Sarah Kate did a great job of not screaming when water was dumped on her head, although she did burp at one point, just like Will did during his baptism. Following the baptism, my Dad sang "In Christ Alone," accompanied by Mom on the piano.

Sarah Kate looked beautiful wearing a very special dress . . . the dress that my Mom made for me when I was baptized. Here's a picture of me, 10 months old, in my baptism dress:



It is our prayer that Sarah Kate will fulfill the vows we made as her parents by placing her faith in Christ as her Lord and Savior. We do not believe that baptism saves her--it is an expression of her place in the covenant family as a child of believers, her need for the cleansing blood of Christ, and our intention to teach her about Christ and God's Word. We are so thankful to have a wonderful church family to support us in this endeavor!

Here are some photos from her special day:


With Pastor Chris:

Amanda and Brian's Visit

We were so excited to have Aunt Amanda and Uncle Brian here a couple of weeks ago for a visit. It was Sarah Kate's first time to meet Uncle Brian. We packed the weekend with two exciting events: Sarah Kate's baptism and a baby shower for Amanda. It was crazy, but it was fun! After the busy weekend we got to just relax for a couple of days with Aunt Amanda and admire her adorable pregnant tummy with our much-anticipated cousin Asher inside! Here are some photos of their visit and Amanda's baby shower . . . baptism photos to follow in a separate post.

County Fair and our little Razorbacks

In early September, we took the kids to the county fair. Against our better judgment, we went to ride the carnival rides. Christopher said he wanted to ride the ferris wheel, but when we got to it, he looked up at how high it was and decided against it. So he rode a very boring train, Will rode a kiddie ride, and then Noel and Christopher did bumper cars. There also might have been an incident with Will and me on the carousel, but we'd rather not talk about it.



The next day, I took the kids back to meet Nana, Granddad and Caroline and see the animals. The boys loved seeing the turkeys, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs and cows. The highlight was when Christopher got to milk a goat! He thought it would be a good idea to get a goat for our backyard and then we would have plenty of milk. The boys are still asking when we are going to the fair again--they had a wonderful time!



Finally, here are some photos from the start of football season . . . our sweet little Razorbacks, and Sarah Kate watching her first Razorback game with Grandpa:

Will's first day of preschool

I am so far behind on keeping you all posted on significant and not-so-significant events going on in our lives. So this will be the first of a few posts about September. Back in the beginning of the month, Will started preschool at mine and Christopher's preschool alma mater. He loves his teacher, Miss Lindsay, and loves going to school! His favorite parts of school are the hamster in their room and playing outside. He also likes when they do "tootie talk" but I have not made any progress on figuring out what in the world that is.

Here's Will on his first day of school:

Sarah Kate--4 months old

At 4 months old, Sarah Kate is really adding to her list of tricks! She can roll over both ways and hold up her head to look all around when on her tummy. She is getting good at using her hands to grab and hold toys. Unfortunately, she also likes to grab her bow and pull her headband down around her eyes or her mouth, so no more bows for now!

She is still very social and smiles all the time. She also laughs and coos a lot. She is so much fun to have around! My favorite moment every morning is when I wake her up (yes, I have to wake her up!) and put her on the changing table. She sleepily opens her eyes, sees my face, and breaks into a huge grin! It makes my day every time.

At her 4 month check-up, she weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (25th percentile) and was over 25 inches long (75th percentile). She's another long, skinny Henley baby!

Here's her newest rolling over trick:



And her nightly giggle-fest with Mommy--if you laugh at her, she'll laugh back!