Jaylee seems to be growing up so fast. This last week, she has decided that sitting up on her own isn't so hard. She is loving being able to sit up and watch the action, and play with her toys. Her dexterity with her toys has really improved too. She has also started rolling over and starting to scoot just a little. It's amazing how quickly they can change! Look at those chunky legs! Did I mention she likes to eat?

Alana dressed herself for bed, but wanted both pairs of pajamas on. She didn't quite get them on facing the right way. She was proud of herself anyways.

Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning started bright and early in the Smith house. Kale woke up at 6am, but was tired enough to go back to sleep on the couch with Daddy. The girls woke up at 7am, but Kale slept until almost 8am. I guess staying up so late waiting for Santa wore him out. Once everyone was up, the fun began!

We started with reading the Christmas story and having hot chocolate. After that, the kids dug into the presents. What a difference a year makes in the excitement! Kale and Alana were both unwrapping things at record pace.

Kale was especially excited about pretty much every present. Each one got an "oh wow!" "Oh my goodness!" and so on. Except of course, socks and underwear. He is still a normal kid.

Jaylee enjoyed the festivites as well of course. She wasn't overly interested in her presents, but loved the wrapping paper and ribbons. It was fun watching her enjoy her first Christmas so much. Kale and Alana were both so little on their first Christmases that they didn't do much. Jaylee was much more animated, but she usually is.

Alana got a Barbie Corvette and two princess barbies. I think her favorite toy was her very own baby bed and carseat. She loves tucking her babies into bed over and over.

Kale got his very own CD player for his room and a few CD's with his favorite songs. He loves having music playing all the time, so now he can have music in his room while he is playing. He has also been requesting to have it on while he falls asleep.

We had a wonderful day playing with all of the new toys. One of the best things about Christmas is staying in pajamas and playing all day!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent doing the usual things for us. Thankfully, Dave had the day off, which was great. That gave me the chance to go out with my best friend for a few hours and enjoy a massage. A very good Christmas gift!

We went to church and enjoyed the candlelight service. The kids did really well sitting through the service. Jaylee spent most of her time flirting with the baby sitting next to her.

After church we came home and the kids got to open their one Christmas Eve present. They were very excited about their new pajamas! Jaylee enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper, and trying to eat it of course. Kaleb really had a hard time going to sleep. Everytime we went to check on him, he was standing up looking for Santa out his window. We tried to explain to him that Santa wouldn't come until we were all asleep, but he kept insisting that he wanted to see Santa. I think he finally fell asleep at almost 10pm.

After the kids were in bed, we enjoyed eating our cheese fondue in front of a Christmas movie with Grammy and Uncle Jay. Grammy spent the night so she could be there when the kids woke up in the morning. It was fun to have Grammy stay up late with us while we played Santa.

Preschool Christmas

Kaleb had his preschool Christmas Program yesterday. They sang a few songs, and said their memory verses. Or I should say, everyone else did. Kale stood there making faces. During a couple of the songs, they got to ring jingle bells. Kaleb didn't even bend down to pick his up. He was like a little statue. Of course, a very cute little statue. His teacher says that he does really well in class. He must just get nervous when we come to watch.

After the program, the kids had cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' Birthday. Kaleb and the other kids got to decorate their own, which meant that Kaleb's had about 2 inches of frosting on it. And of course, once the frosting was gone, he didn't want any more.

We got to make a craft together at the end of the party. It was a felt nativity scene that you can move the people around on. Kale was pretty excited about it, and wanted everyone lined up just right on it.

Kaleb has been practicing for weeks to sing a couple of songs during the Christmas Program at church. At home he knew all the words and motions perfectly. When he was up on stage, he mostly just looked around at everyone else. I don't think he opened his mouth to sing at all, and he did try a couple of the motions. The really sweet thing was, he was so excited afterwards that he sang his songs all the way home too. I guess at 4, he just isn't ready to sing on stage. He and Alana both really enjoyed watching the rest of the Christmas Program with the big kids.

Alana and Kaleb are finally starting to feel better after having bad colds all week. I had to take all three to the doctor earlier in the week, and Alana was put on antibiotics for a double ear infection. It is so good to see them start to feel better. Jaylee still has the cold, and looks so sad! She has the watery, runny eyes and drippy nose. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do for a cold at her age. Or any other age. Dave and I haven't been feeling well all weekend either. I am hoping that everyone will be feeling much better this week. Until the next bug comes home at least.

The kids let me take pictures in front of the tree before getting into play clothes. They looked so cute! Alana really liked that her dress matched Jaylee's. I imagine that opinion won't last forever, but I'll enjoy it while it does!

Jaylee seems to be growing up and changing so fast. She is getting pretty good at sitting up, mostly on her own. She still gets distracted and tips over pretty easily. She thought sitting in the laundry basket was pretty funny.

Daddy also fed her her first apple. She loved it! She tried to take bites of it, and complained loudly when he tried to take it away.

This was Kale working on a project for preschool. They got to decorate a Christmas Tree to hang up at school. He has grown up so much this year. School has been a really good thing for him. He loves doing the projects that they send home, or showing me what they did in class. It is also very cute when he sits Alana down for "circle time" and teaches her whatever he has been learning. I must say, one of my favorite things is to hear him say his memory verses. His class does a different verse everyone month, and they get a certificate when they can say it to the teacher. It is so sweet to hear him say Psalms 23:1-2, or this month it has been Luke 2:10-11. It is just so sweet to hear him talk about how much Jesus loves him!

All three kids are sick with colds this week. It is difficult enough to deal with one sick and crabby kid, but three is a challenge! I took everyone in to the doctor today, but mostly for Alana. She has been sick for well over a week without any improvement. Sure enough, she has infections in both ears. No wonder she has been crabby! She is still doing amazingly well on the potty, even being sick. They are growing up so fast!

Snow and Trees and other Good Things

Last week we got between 6-8 inches of snow. The kids were so excited to build a frosty the snowman, and play outside. The snow was deep enough that Alana started having a hard time walking in it as she got more tired.

I set the slide up so that the kids could slide into a pile of snow. Kale loved it! Alana enjoyed it too, but had a hard time getting out of the snow.

We got our tree put up and decorated. The kids had a blast decorating, re-decorating, and undecorating. I had to take all the candy canes off because of busy little fingers.

The girls trying on their Christmas Dresses. Alana wasn't overly pleased at first, but she seems to like it okay now. We'll see what she thinks come picture day.

In other news, Alana is almost fully potty trained! Wohoo! She still wears a pull-up at night, but has been wearing panties during the day all week and doing great. Yay! We are almost down to one kid in diapers!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving week in Montana. It was a very long drive with the kids, but they handled it pretty well. We stopped in Helena to see friends, then drove through Bozeman to see more friends. We left just as it started to snow in Bozeman. We timed it just right! By the time we got to Billings, it was getting pretty messy! The kids were so excited to see snow.

This was taken in Bozeman on our way out of town.

The kids had a blast sledding. This is Kale sledding with Grandpa. Kale really got into it, and wore everyone else out hiking up and down the hill!

Dave's parents fixed his old playhouse up so the kids could play on it. Alana loved the swing best of course, even in the snow.

Here's Aunt Julie, Alana, Kale, Grandpa, and Jaylee watching football.