Winter and Christmas-time pictures!

We went up to Crystal Mountain this past weekend and spent some time in the snow.  We haven't had snow yet this year (but I'm hoping!) and we wanted Miriam to have a chance to play in the snow and experience it.  It is about a 1.75 hour drive.  Luckily, both kids (it is still strange to say that!) slept on the way up to the mountain.  When we got there, we bundled them up in the back of the car and then went to the bottom of the mountain to play.  We had bought a sled and we pulled her around on that, although she said she didn't like it very much because "it was bumpy".  She did, however, enjoy throwing snowballs, making snow angels, using her snow shovel and running/jumping/skipping in the snow.  We also rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain...there was a lot more snow up there and it was much foggier and colder.  Miriam enjoyed the ride up the mountain, and we ate at the restaurant at the top of the mountain.  It was very uncrowded that day, as it was a Friday and it is still early in the ski season....but Miriam enjoyed watching the skiers and pointed them out as they passed beneath our cable car on the way up the mountain.  Mathias spent most of the time in his snowsuit in the baby carrier on my chest.  

Here are some pictures of our trip to the mountain:

Top of the mountain! 

We've also been slowly decorating our house for Christmas.  We normally get our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year we've been a bit slower than normal.  We also had to get a new tree and some new yard decorations this year, and Miriam wanted to help with all of the decorating.  It has been a great Christmas season so far - Miriam turns the lights on and off every day, she's helped me wrap presents and bake cookies, and she's in charge of turning on the Christmas music whenever we are home.  :)  

Here are some pictures of Miri decorating the tree:

And finally, a quick Mathias update.  He's still fussy most of the time, but he balances it out with an amazingly sweet temperament when he's awake and happy - he smiles, coos, and sometimes even laughs.  Miriam loves to be close to him, and has recently put herself in charge of his "spit-up".  She watches him closely and runs for the nearest burp cloth if he spits up just a little bit.  And he loves to watch her when she's close to him - he follows her with his eyes and gives her big smiles.  

Here are some recent pictures of Mathias:

My tired boys

Mathias has big smiles for his big sister!

He likes to look at the Christmas lights!

Fuzzy hair after his bath! 

Mathias is 1 month old!

Well, he is just over 5 weeks old, but I'm not as efficient as I used to be, so this post is a little late.  Mathias turned 1 month old last week - hard to believe!  We've had some tough times with him - he's got a lot of gas/tummy troubles, as well as reflux, so he fusses most of the time that he's awake.  We have a difficult time putting him down because he screams and we know he's in pain, but we are hoping that he improves with some medicine.  The doctor diagnosed him with reflux and gave us some meds for him, so we are crossing our fingers that it helps!  There is nothing worse than seeing your baby in pain and not being able to do anything about it - we feel so bad when the poor little guy is uncomfortable and unhappy.  As he's gotten older though, he's slowly started having more awake time, and when he's awake and not in pain, he's very alert and loves to look around.  At his 1 month well baby visit, he weighed almost 10 pounds and was 22.5" tall - he grew a lot in the last month!  We've had to put away his newborn clothes and get out the next size, because he was getting too tall for his newborn sleepers!

In other recent events, my mom came for a week over Thanksgiving to spend time with the grandkids (and us as well).  We loved having her around the house, and I know she loved being here!  And Miriam has a busy month at preschool this month - she had a "jingle bell run" this past week, and she's got a Christmas program coming up later this month.  I have a feeling she'll either (a) stand with her class and not sing or (b) not want to stand with her class at all.  But I went to observe her jingle bell run earlier this week and I was impressed with how happy she is in class and how well she follows directions.  She still seems a bit shy and reserved (which you know she really isn't when she's comfortable!), but I think she likes it.  And she LOVED that I went for her jingle bell run - she kept running around, saying "Mama, you run with me and bring my baby brother!" and then she invited me back to her classroom for snacktime.  It was special.  :)

Here are a lot of pictures from the last couple weeks...we've been good about taking pictures, but not so great about blogging recently:

Jingle bell run! 

Stretch!