jori 5 months

so here i am trying to play catch up again before this sweet thing turns SIX months old on me. on dec 20th jori turned 5 months old. she is just the sweetest thing ever.

jori can sit up now without help. she mastered this by the time my parents were here to visit so it was fun for them to see her sitting up. she also loves playing with toys and now grabs the whole basket and spills them out to play with.
finally her sweet smile on camera :)
and this is her famous "sky diving" pose. we love it and crack up when she does it.

some other 5 month milestones:

-she has started some solids. mostly rice... and prunes to balance out the rice that is making her constipated :( poor girl. she has also had some peas and sweat potatoes. i am trying to make some of her baby food again as well. she is a good eater and has liked everything she has tried so far.

-some nights she sleeps straight through the night 11 hours, some nights she cries a little and goes back to sleep and some nights i am up with her numerous times. not sure what that is all about. i try hard to keep her schedule during the same pretty similar from day to day.

-she had her first christmas and first time out in the snow.

-her room is almost complete. finally had some time to sew the bumper for her crib. (pics to come)

-the kids love playing with her now that she is sitting up. she also spits up ALOT and seems to always get the kids. when she does spit up they call it a "spit up bomb" pretty funny. they laugh and then she laughs. it super cute.

well i hear the sweet girl waking up from her nap now so i better go.

new years with the poiriers

mom, dad, and mack came up to TN on the wednesday after christmas and helped us bring in the new year together. they of course came bearing gifts and the kids were excited to have another christmas with them. they just love having time with the three of them. kenzie and the kids all got along really well this time and it was great having them here. the picture below might be one of my favorites right now! i just love it. (poor jori slept through another christmas)

me and my beautiful sis, mackenzie.
gram snuggling with her girl raelyn
since moms birthday is on new years day, we always try to do something a little special for her. on new years eve, her brother and sister in law came over for a visit and we all went to a fantastic rib place for dinner. the kids and i made her a blueberry cake that was super yummy and we even got fireworks and put on a little show for her. the kids loved it, probably more than mom did :)

daves parents came to dinner with us and then watched the fire works show as well.
we had to grab a picture of the kids with the grandparents and mack. we sure did have a run time together. wish kenzie could have seen some of the great snow, but we did have some really nice weather while they were here.
and one last shot of all the girls. kenzie got the little girls their camo shirts. :)
happy new year!

sledding

it snowed all night christmas night so the next day it was a winter wonderland. we got all suited up and went out to play...the above picture is of the dining hall at the camp
jori staying warm with grandpa george
the little cousins
rae and her daddy... two peas in a pod. they have such a neat relationship. i love watching them together.

big cousin katie pulling the girls back up the hill
i dont think she is having fun at all... :)

this kid was a snow maniac... he couldnt even stop to let me take a picture. he had a blast sledding. the camp has a really good hill that goes really fast. he couldnt get enough. fun times.

Christmas morning

we spent christmas eve at the wids so we woke up christmas morning at there house with all the cousins. (see everyone in the background? we had a full house!)
brenna wanted a flashlight :)


jori enjoying some cuddles from grandma kay while the big kids opened gifts

Christmas Eve

2010 was a Widmaier family christmas. we spent a couple of days out at the camp with daves parents, brother and family and sister and family. christmas eve we spent some time doing the advent wreath. steve and katie had brought theirs with them and i was so glad because we have been doing it as well at our house and i didnt bring ours. we lit the candles, read the scripture and sang hymns. the kids did a great job being calm and respectful. it is a tradition i want to continue from year to year.

at the end we lit candles and turned the lights out and sang Silent Night. it was a really special time.

wordless wednesday- playing with new toys

christmas blogging coming up soon...

the NEW DINING ROOM, DEN, and "MUD ROOM"

so here are a few more pics of the downstairs changes... in the original part of the downstairs we did a lot of switching around. we moved the our bedroom stuff upstairs to our new room, the couch and tv moved into our old room and we call it the den, the dining room table moved into the old family room and the old dining room is now the "mud room".

this is the new dining room. this used to be the family room, where our couches and tv were. one day it popped into my head to make this the dining room. where our dining room used to be was right where you walked in the door and everything got dumped on the table as you walked in. each night we would spend a good bit of time clearing off the table before we could eat. this was beginning to drive me crazy. i am not a fan of having a separate formal dining room what you only use on special holidays but i sure do love having our everyday table in its own separate room. i just spent a long time searching for a before picture of what this room looked like as the family room and i cant find one, oh well. you just get to see the redo part of it.

this is the new "den". this is the room that was our bedroom. now we have moved the tv and couch in here. we both really like how this turned out. still nothing on the walls yet but we'll get there. the couch fits perfect in here and dave even gets to have his green chair back out of the garage. someone had given us this great chair but we just didnt have any room for it... well now he does. this is also where we have the wii set up. it is a great little room for the kids to hang out in when we have company over too. we have already tried it out :) (below the first picture is of the room as our bedroom)

and this is the new "mud room" or "mommy central". this is the room you walk right into when you come into our house. this used the be the dining room. (below is a before picture, when it was still a dining room) since we now have three kids in school and lunch boxes and backpacks and coats and shoes..... and all the other STUFF that goes along with growing kiddos, i really wanted a room i could keep all that stuff organized in.

we used one of the wardrobes from our bedroom and turned it into a coat closet and i have plans for dave to build benches and cubbies for the kids to each have a place for their shoes, backpacks, lunch boxes and coats. we want to make a total of 6 cubbies so each family member has their own spot. i am excited for the potential of this room. right now it is pretty much just an empty room.