Christmas

This year we hosted Christmas eve at our place. We had a great time. We started off with some soup and salad for dinner and just visited with everyone. Then it was time for the Nativity. We were small in numbers but I think the young ones still enjoyed dressing up. Once we were done we started on the fish pond. This is a Christmas eve tradition in Dave's family so we wanted to continue it even though we were with my family this year. I think everyone especially the young kids enjoyed fishing for their Christmas eve present.

                                                 Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus

                                                             A Wiseman

After everyone left the boys were super excited to go to bed so Santa could come. We left him some milk and cookies and put out some carrots for the reindeer.

Christmas day we decided to take it easy and spend the day at home. The kids enjoyed playing with their new toys. And I took both Nathan and Brady to see the new Star Wars movie. Overall a really great Christmas!

December fun

Wow December went by fast. I guess we were just  having too much fun for me to blog at all. I have been finding it difficult to find time to blog with a new baby. Colin has been such a hands on baby that being able to take picture at all to document our fun has been hard, thankfully people are willing to share their pics, so here we go with a little catch up.

 For one of our advent activities the boys wrote letters to Santa. Luckily they actually asked for what Santa already got for them. Well sort of if motorcycle also means bike.

We attended the annual breakfast with Santa at Nathan's school. Nathan was excited to tell Santa that he wanted a tablet. But later informed me that wasn't the real Santa just one of his helpers. I guess the fake beard wasn't convincing, haha. Brady didn't want to go up to Santa but I convinced to go meet him which he did as long as he didn't have to sit on Santa's lap. He was too shy to tell Santa what he wanted so Nathan went over to describe the motorcycle and hawk eye toy Brady really wanted.

After breakfast we headed to Grandma Dickson's Annual cousin party and donated our toys to the firemen. This year they brought their brand new ladder truck and we all got to go on top for a picture.

Nathan wanted nothing to do with the truck  but we made him go up for the picture anyways and he cried the whole time because we were up too high. He must have gotten a fear of heights from his mom. Don't let the picture fool you he still had a great time.

 On Nathan's last day of school before Christmas break they had a winter performance and afterwards made gingerbread house. Luckily Colin was good enough for me to stay the whole time.

We were lucky this year to have Jeremy, Cameo, Logan, Lydia, and Daphne come for Christmas. The boys just love it when their cousins are around.
                                                      Reading a book with Papa.

                                                          Frosting sugar cookies!

                                              Playing with Papa's trains.

We joined them at the children's discovery museum for some exploring.

Two Months

Wow, I can't believe how fast the past two months have gone. We are still struggling with his weight but overall Colin is doing so much better. A few days after returning from Utah I took him to the doctor just to check his weight and to make sure he was still gaining since I had weaned him down to just one bottle of formula a day. Unfortunately he was actually down 2oz from where he was two weeks prior. After talking with his pediatrician she was concerned that he just wasn't getting enough calories and he was very thin. I talked to her about acid reflux and all of Colin's symptoms. Such as poor sleep, spitting up after every feeding, gas, fussy all of the time, when awake he always seemed uncomfortable, he was never just content. She wanted me to offer him a new sensitive formula after every feeding to try and get more calories and agreed to start him on some zantac for the reflux. And almost over night he was a whole new baby. now he only spits up every once in a while and he no longer spends all his time crying. It is such a relief to see him relax and be content. We recheck his weight 5 days later and he had gained 10oz which was huge compared to his previous growth.
Yesterday I took him in for his official 2 month appointment and he had only gained another 1.5oz since his last visit a week ago. So now I am giving him a more calorie dense formula and a larger quantity after each feeding. She still really wants me to breastfeed but I am starting to wonder how long I can keep doing both. Over all I think he is doing so much better and it has been so nice to finally have a happy growing(even if it is slow) baby. He now usually does one longer 5-6hr stretch of sleep at night and he actually naps during the day. I have been having him nap in the swing since he seems to sleep better during the day in it, probably because it keeps his head elevated and helps with the reflux. Now just to get some weight onto him!