Madeline singing!

Madeline is so sweet singing "I Am a Child of God"

p.s. Happy Birthday to Lily today! Pictures coming soon!

Halloween, Christmas, and Snow!

 So here are the photos we've taken and forgotten to post!

 Halloween--with a Batman, a Robin, a princess, and a ladybug!

The Christmas tradition of graham-cracker "gingerbread" houses (with Aunt Marianne and Uncle Eric). From the left: a rocket, a castle, and a firehouse.

This Christmas we did a hand-made theme. All presents to our family were hand-made. Obviously loving grandparents/aunts/uncles supplied other gifts but it was wonderful to put love into the gifts we made. It was however very time consuming since Amy had to help all the kids make gifts for each other.

 The red "floppy guy" was from Mom and Dad and was a big hit! As was the bag Seth made him to keep his toys in. (The wand from Lily is his favorite toy to play Harry Potter with!)

 The doll Madeline has in her right hand was crocheted by Justin (dress and shoes too)! Amy did the assembly and hair and face. Under the doll is the bag from Benjamin. Just visible on the right of the picture is the princess cape Seth gave her.

 Another floppy guy in green for Seth--it actually has bumped red monkey from the favorite spot! There is also a book the Benjamin made Seth--created, written, and illustrated just for Seth! (Title: A Metally Battle)

 Okay so the Tigger is from Grandma and Grandpa Jorgensen (and she loves it!), but the three felt animals were presents from her siblings. The boys even helped sew around the edges! The ladybug was from Benjamin, the frog from Seth, and the bunny from Madeline.

And we actually had enough snow last Saturday for the kids to be able to make a snowman! They loved it! They hurried outside while it was still snowing and got the snowman built before the snow melted off again about an hour later. The snowman lived until Monday afternoon (he was getting pretty skinny with a sunny 50 degrees) when the kids decided it was essential to turn him into snowballs!

Lily

Lily has been crawling really well for a while and has started pulling up this last week too. Today she stood on her own for six seconds before plopping down! She'll be walking before we know it.

Seth

Seth looked out the window this morning and said, "There is frosting on our lawn!"

Madeline Conversation

Madeline: Mommy, you so pretty.

Amy: Madeline, you are so sweet.

Madeline: I not food!

Amy: No, you are nice!

Madeline: Yes I nice. I not poky!

Thank you Madeline for making me laugh!

Post-Thanksgiving Family Pictures

 As always, a big thank you to Aunt Marianne for the wonderful pictures! You can also see our backyard in the background--yes that is green grass growing! There are still a few stumps that need to be removed but with the grass growing the weeds and poison ivy shouldn't grow back.

 There obviously is something incredibly interesting on the ground that Lily wants to get down and play with!

 One of our fun and silly pictures! Lily actually decided to look at the camera (maybe Uncle Eric was making faces).

 Seth, "I want to be upside down too!"

Madeline wasn't so sure she liked upside down (apparently Mom does it differently than Dad).
Lily, "I'm done with this picture thing!"

I've been rather busy so I haven't posted for awhile. Key things that happened since the last post: Madeline gave up diapers (yeah!!), Justin passed his professional certification exam, and we organized and pulled off the church Christmas party (so glad it's over!).

Merry Christmas from the Jorgensens in North Carolina (where it is currently 64 degrees on its way to 73 degrees today). We hope you enjoy any snow you have--we are jealous!

Family Pictures

 Here are a few pictures of our family that Aunt Marianne took for us when we were visiting her a week ago. She is a great photographer--and the subject matter is rather cute too!

We are so excited that we have a new member of our family--we had to showcase that with a picture!

 Amy and Justin--madly in love! Kids: EWW! Mom and Dad!! (Madeline and Lily have no clue what's going on behind them!)

And finally...the "nice" one! We love our family and were glad to get a picture with everyone looking at the camera and 5 out of 6 smiles!

More posts to come with individual pictures and updates on recent antics!

This and That

 A big dog-pile on the couch. Lily was on top of the first pile but had to get off so I could go get the camera. In the photo you can also see Benjamin's Star Wars book--he really enjoys all things Star Wars--he has a Lego Star Wars dictionary and every time we go to the library he tries to find a new Star Wars book.

 Here is our newest seating in our house. I've had this idea for awhile (with 6 people in our family and only a love seat in the living room it's kind of hard to make seating for all--especially with company; people usually end up on the floor or bringing in kitchen chairs). However (thanks to a 50% off foam and upholstery fabric sale at Hancock fabric) we finally got it completed. Thanks to Justin for building the bench (which has a lid on hinges so I can store extra blankets in it). We all really enjoy it; it's quite comfortable, and it's really nice to read with natural light or sit and watch the kids playing in the front yard.

 We had a lot of fun the other day with this fort. The kids wanted me to build them one and I thought--why not fill up the living room with a fort! Between borrowing the quilt off my bed and getting help from Homer, Shakespeare, and Harry Potter, we built quite a big fort!

And last but definitely not least--yesterday Lily was sitting up in her bouncer! She stayed this way for 5-10 minutes and wouldn't lay back. She used the toy bar to pull herself up and loved sitting up and all she could see! What a happy five-month old!!

Sleeping Girls

 This is what happens when Madeline doesn't get enough sleep at night! During a movie she will nod off. Luckily Seth doesn't mind that she was using him as a pillow--he's obviously too interested in the movie.

Here is sweet Lily. She has learned how to roll over (the first time was on my birthday--Aug 26) and will often roll to her side or stomach to sleep for naps. She stays on her back to sleep at night though.

For this picture, she fell asleep with her book. She loves to sleep in the living room with all the noise of her siblings and life happening around. I've gotten better and getting her into her room for the occasional nap but most of the time she sleeps in the living room, in her bouncer or on the floor.

Sorry this update is so long in coming--More will be coming soon!

Lily Christine's Baby Blessing

 Here is the latest family photo taken at church after Lily's baby blessing. Lily is wearing a dress I made for her, and the pink afghan is one Justin made for her. Continuing our tradition of giving our children heritage middle names, Lily's middle name Christine is from my father's grandmother.

 Thanks to Aunt Marianne for the headband and the photography!

 Lily is so sweet and such a good sleeper--she's been averaging 10 hours a night with no waking up for eating! (she goes to bed the same time as the other kids--now in the "girls'" room!--and wakes up to eat around 4 or 5 then back to sleep for a few more hours)

 As a side note, at the doctor today Lily weighed 11 lbs. 8 oz.!! She is smiling and interacting so well with everyone!

The "crazy" photo we promise the kids to get them to smile happily for the "nice" pictures!