Family Date Night

Pictures at the top. Videos at the bottom.

Every Thursday is Family Date Night at the Helms house. We plan some kind of fun activity as a family. Our plan tonight was to play bowling on the Wii because it has not stopped snowing now for more than 24 hours and it is extremely cold outside. After we got Emily out of the highchair she walked over to the door and tried to open it. When it didn't open she began to knock on it and cry. We changed our plans and had a lot of fun outside in the snow as a family. I didn't realize how ruthless Laura was with a snowball in her hand - she even threw them at Emily.

Forget the .45, I'm gonna buy a Bazooka or a Missle Launcher when they start dating.

There was over a foot of snow this morning. It has melted since. It's the very wet kind of snow that makes great snowballs and snowmen.

They were not enthusiastic about taking pictures, they wanted to throw snow. Laura was in the front yard making a mound of snowballs and we were clueless. I told you, she's ruthless when it comes to snowball fights. Once the snow drys and it warms up we'll break out the croquet set and I'll pulverize her.

We came around the corner of the house and Laura started hitting us repeatedly with snowballs. We didn't know she was outside yet. Emily was checking the mail.

Allie is our little snow bunny. She loves the snow and the cold doesn't bother her much. Haley has grown out of her coldafobia - the fear of cold weather - and snowistouchingmefobia - the of snow touching exposed skin such as fingers, ears, cheeks, etc.

Emily walked up and down the sidewalk. She has about a six house radius in which she loves to walk. She is a stinker. She would not wear the mittens and she kept playing in the snow. She wanted to throw snowballs like the rest of us. Plus, she wanted to retaliate against Laura's attacks.

He's telling Allie a secret.

Obviously, it was inappropriate. You get 'em Allie.

He apologized.

Pictures this week

This is Emily after eating a plate full of food. Actually, she did not eat it, she spread it out all over her tray and sat in it.

Joseph updates

Above: Joseph at a 1 1/2 weeks. Joseph at 1 week old.

Riding home from the hospital. He didn't even cry!

In his bassinet at the hospital. Getting dressed to come home.

We took Joseph to the doctor on Tuesday. He's 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 21.5 inches long. I call him our little piggy. He eats every 2-3 hours. We're still working on his night time schedule. Last night he did much better, only waking at 2:30 and 5:30 for feedings and he went straight to sleep when he finished. He's a very happy and easy baby, which we're grateful for. He smiles a lot in his sleep and he heavily favors Brent. He's been a wonderful and natural addition to our family. We're so glad he's here and that he's healthy.

Updates

Sorry I've neglected the blog!

We have some serious catching up to do!

Emily walks all the time now. She has most of her teeth in and now that her hair is getting longer, we can tell that she too has curly hair. She's also becoming quite talkative. She says: here, hello, ball, bite and a few others that I can't think of right now. Of course, she only talks when it's absolutely necessary, but that's okay b/c she doesn't whine to get what she wants. She loves her brother and hasn't been a bit jealous. Wherever Joseph is, that's where Emily is. She loves to hug him and kiss his hands. She's been sick with RSV so I won't let her get close to his face!

The girls loved all the Valentines they received. Thanks for thinking of them. They were on a sugar high for probably a week. In this situation I did what I always do...let them eat all the candy they want so we can hurry and have it gone. They felt very loved! Allie is still loving preschool. Her friend Tyler invites her to his house fairly often. Tyler has toy trains and dinosaurs so Allie loves to play over there. Preschool will end in May and I know Allie is really going to miss it. I wish she could start kindergarten next year because she's really enjoying school and needs these kind of activities now that she's older. We're thinking about signing her up for soccer in the spring. Haley is also loving school, although she's usually very happy when Friday comes. She loves books and is becoming a great reader. We read every day for twenty minutes and I make Haley read to me for the first 10 minutes. She's very good at sounding out the words she doesn't know.

These pictures were taken one afternoon this week while Haley and I baked star cookies. Haley decorated them with yellow sprinkles and they turned out super cute and super yummy. She was so proud of them she carried them around to the neighbors. Grammy supplied the star cookie set and the aprons. Don't worry Grammy. We still have more cookie dough so we can make cookies with Allie. She was at Tyler's house.

Thanks Brent!

I finally got to look at the post Brent did of Joseph being born...Let me just "thank" my husband for posting such terrible pictures of me on the internet! Those are scary!!!