Jack's First Basketball Game

Jack played in his first basketball game this morning! His team is called the Dolphins and it is made up of several of our friends from soccer plus some other kids that go to school with those friends. It's a great team with lots of sweet kiddos! Jack really enjoyed playing, although he suffer his first sports injury- a twisted knee. Even though it was difficult, Jack jumped back into the game so bravely and limped his way through the second half. I am so proud of him!

Cute little 3 1/2 Month Old

Graham is Three!!

Graham Arthur Biggs celebrated his third birthday yesterday! We all had a wonderful time loving on sweet Graham and celebrating his life. We started off by lighting three candles in his favorite breakfast, cereal bars, and singing Happy Birthday. He had one purple balloon tied to his chair since that is what he requested. He was so excited to finally be three and kept saying, "I am THREE, one, two, three!" Later that day, he opened his presents from us, Spencer the Engine, and... a new train table!!! Graham loves train table more than anything in the entire world. We have spent hours at the Crossings library and Barnes and Noble just "playing trains." I always said that we didn't have room for one at our house because, well, we don't. However, Graham's train tracks have sort of taken over the living room anyway so I figured they may as well be on a table rather than on the floor! So we gave in. He is stoked.

Graham at three:

- He is really looking like a little boy now as opposed to a baby. He has lost all of his baby fat and looks so tall and thin. He had his first haircut last month so although it is still long and shaggy, it is cleaned up a bit, making him look older.

- He is talking so well and his vocabulary is expanding every day. All of the sudden, I feel like we are having real conversations with him! 

- He is potty trained!! I pretty much just waited for him to be completely ready and did not try to push potty training early on. It worked out really well as he just sort of did it on his own about a month ago. I am very proud of him!

- He still loves to sing. Usually when we're driving, Graham will be back in the backseat, lost in his own world, singing a song. Some favorites are the Thomas theme song, Our God is an Awesome God, the Thomas theme song, God Bless America, This Little Light of Mine, and the Thomas theme song. :)

- His favorite food is hot dogs. He would like to eat hot dogs every day. Unless you count ketchup as a "food." Then it would be a toss up. 

- He is sleeping in a big boy bed and sharing a room with Jack. We moved him from the crib over the summer and at first it did not go well. He got out of bed over and over again and honestly seemed confused when we continually told him to get back in bed. Also, he talks so much before falling asleep that he was keeping Jack awake. So we demoted him back to the crib for awhile. After Reid was born we did the bed again and it took awhile but he is not doing wonderfully. It helps if we put him to bed before Jack so that he can fall asleep alone in his room. I'm so glad things are better now and we are all getting rest again!

- He no longer naps. This is so bizarre to me because J napped for three hours/day up until age 4 1/2. Graham hasn't slept at naptime in months. I still make him get in bed and rest most days for my own sanity and he does well with that, but he just doesn't need as much sleep as Jack. Thankfully, he still sleeps well at night from around 7:30pm until 7:30am.

- He cares about what he wears. He likes wearing his Thomas shirts and pretty much always insists on wearing his new Toy Story boots.

- He is messy. He is clumsy. :)

- He has finally learned how to pedal his bicycle! He has been riding the trike for awhile now but wasn't quite able to ride the bike. Yesterday, on his birthday, all of the sudden he was riding like a pro.

- He loves to read and his current favorite book is a Thomas book that BB and Grandad got for him where they were able to record their voices reading it to him. It is pretty sweet!

- He loves to play Wii and it is hilarious to watch him play! Those sensors aren't great so he'll literally jump in the air and the bowling ball with fire down the lane for a perfect strike. He is the reigning champion of boxing. :)

- Some other favorite things to do: play trains, have playdates at Chick-fil-a with Cayden, play outside with his brothers and Parker and Madi, go to the park, ride his tricycle, play trains, go to music school, play with play doh, fawn all over his baby Reid, play trains, play his leapster, go to BB and Grandad's house, go to Gigi and Papa's house, play trains, play trains, and play trains.

Graham is awesome. That is all there is to it. He is just an easy going kid who is so happy all the time. Even his whining is cute because it is usually half hearted and he's quickly distracted and can move on to something else very easily. He loves to laugh and make others laugh. We are enjoying getting to know him more and more each day. 

Reid is Three Months!!

My sweet little Reidy is three months old! He has grown so much over the past month and is doing new things every day. I forgot how quickly babies grow up when they are this age!

- Reid continues to be an easy going, sweet little guy. He loves to look at Daddy, Jack, Graham, and me and could smile and coo for hours. 

- He is sleeping through the night and has been since about five weeks of age. He will sometimes go as long as 12 hours straight and we can count on about 8-10 (unless he's sick and horribly congested like the past two nights!) 

- He is still just barely beginning to laugh. It is such a sweet sound!

- He rolled over!! The other day when I went to get him out of bed, he had rolled over. Then he did it again the next time, and the next time. I couldn't believe it! We tried to get him to "show" us while we were playing but so far he is only doing it in bed, possibly in his sleep. 

- He is still a big eater although he goes through spurts where he only wants to drink a tiny bit at a time. I think he is easily distracted and wanting to play and not miss out on anything! 

- He went through a phase where he hated the car and screamed every time we put him in his carseat but that passed about as quickly as it started. Thank goodness!! We drive a LOT between Jack's school, Graham's school, church, BB's, errands, etc. He is back to cooing or sleeping in the car the past few days.

- He started Mother's Day Out today. I almost backed out because he is still so little. I never took the older boys to MDO until they were over a year old so it seems weird. I haven't even left him with my mom for more than a couple of hours! However, he loved it and I loved it. It was nice to have a few hours to myself to clear my head, run some errands, miss my boys, and be ready to love on them again. I'm thankful for wonderful teachers that eased my nerves. (Third time mamas shouldn't have those nerves, should they??!)

- He is huge. Seriously, he is outgrowing the 3-6 month clothes but I can't bring myself to put my three month old in 9 month clothes so he's just wearing them a bit... fitted. :)

- He loves his new exersaucer! I honestly didn't think he would be using it for another month or so but he has such good head control that I let him in there for a few minutes here and there. He loves it and can even reach for all the toys and push the buttons. I'm afraid this kid is going to be walking at 8 months like Graham. And that was a disaster!!

We love our sweet guy so much! Having three kids has been...challenging. I'm not sure if having three is really difficult or having a BABY is really difficult. Or both. Either way, it is certainly tough to balance going out and doing things with the big boys and staying in and meeting Reid's needs. I feel like it's already gotten so much easier though so I'm looking forward to Reid continuing to grow and being able to join in the fun with his brothers! 

Crazy Christmas

Christmas was so different this year! We started early at Gigi and Papa's on a Saturday. Then on Sunday we went to church for the Christmas Eve candlelight service (only it was the 23rd and it wasn't evening). The service was wonderful this year and I loved that we were able to go with my family. Usually it is just Randy, me, and the kids because of how the schedule works out. We decided it was a Christmas miracle that we made it through the entire service with no... ahem... issues considering we had Jack, Graham, Reid, and Brooklyn with us in "big church!"

Because of the storm predicted to come in on Christmas day, Hayley and Nick decided they needed to go back to Dallas on the 24th. Also, Nancy, Collin, and Cody came into town that day since they figured they would not be able to make it on the 25th. So everyone scrambled and we sort of had Christmas on the 24th. It was fun but a bit weird since Randy had to work and missed most of the day! :( We were thankful though that we were all able to have dinner together and enjoy the family time.

On Christmas Day, the kids woke up and were so excited to see what "Santa" brought. Jack was thrilled about his new globe and leapster and Graham was very excited to have a leapster and his very own Tag! Reid got a rainforest activity mat and seemed satisfied. :) Luckily the roads weren't as bad as expected and we were able to make it to my parents' house with the breakfast casserole. It was fun to have all the cousins do "Santa" again especially since he brought an extreme roller coaster! It was crazy trying to do it in the garage because (due to the "extreme" speed) someone had to catch the kids before they hit the wall. Grandad ended up knocking a finger out of joint. I think he's looking forward to better weather and the kids being able to soar out of the garage and into the grass. :) 

All in all we were so blessed to be able to spend so much time with family and give nice things to each other. My favorite gift was a book that Jack wrote for me. It is so sweet how he enjoys writing stories and illustrating them. Another highlight was being with Brooklyn for her first Christmas. And of course it was Reid's first Christmas as well. That made it our first year as a complete family of five and we look forward to many more with our three sweet boys!