Babies are great

When John was born, cousin Paige, who was 4 at the time, thought he was the greatest thing. He was a real doll. She would help hold him, feed him and was a terrific helper when anything needed to be done. As John got a little older, and could move on his own, he would voice his opinion, and still does (where does he get that from?) whenever Paige helped him too much. When Paul and Kathleen annouced that in the fall a new Cribari would be joining the family, we knew that Nettie would now be the guardian over the newest baby. It started right away that she wanted to hold the baby. She loves seeing her new cousin, and playing with all the new toys at Uncle Paul's and Aunt Kathleen's. On Thanksgiving, she decided that she wanted to hold the baby, and did it several times. I am sure that in a few short months Lily will be letting Nettie know that she doesn't need as much assistance as Nettie would like to give, but for now, it is just fun to see another baby join the crowd, and her older cousin loving her.

Getting ready for Christmas

We have a neighbor who has one of those annoying signs that actually counts down how many days there are until Christmas. As we drive by every night we look and it and I cringe. Ben and I took a vacation day to shop, and have most of the shopping done. We have a few more gifts to get, but I still have decorating to do and baking to do. We made cookies last weekend at Mom and Dad's which was fun. and now at least those are done.
The kids are LOVING the holiday season. They are enjoying the advent calendars that they open each night after dinner. The lights on houses and on the tree. They play all the musical animals we have in the house ALL day long. It is so fun to watch the excitement in their eyes. Nettie has her Christmas program next week, so video will soon follow. Nettie sat on Santa's lap at school this week, and was excited to do so, what a change a year makes. We will be taking them to sit on Santa's lap soon, special torture for John! We hope that everyone is enjoying the season. IT has finally started to snow in Colorado, so we are getting more in the mood everyday, so if I can just finish the decorations we will be ready.

The World Through John's Eyes

So I have spent the last couple of days observing my son. He is now much closer to 2 than 1, and you can really see a difference. He is talking more and more every day. He repeats words constantly. He calls everything with 4 legs a dog - and gets equally excited for all 4 legged creatures. He is following Nettie around everywhere and tries to keep up with her. She of course likes to remind him that she is 4 and he is still little, so he can't always do everything she does. The other morning he spilled milk and when he noticed it (right away) he went to the drawer, got a rag a cleaned it up. While we have been working with him, I am attributing most of this phenomenon to school always making him clean up after himself. He is getting into the order of things and stacking. Here are a couple of picture of his handy work.....

After taking all the hot pads out of the drawer and being asked to put them all away:
This morning after he played with the Tupperware:

IT has been a busy fall for the Wismer family. Ben and I went to Italy for 2 weeks, and thank you to my Mom and Aunt, we were able to go kid free! The kids enjoyed having 2 weeks with Nanna and Aunt Pam, even letting us know that they were more fun sometimes. We spent a week by ourselves in Rome and Venice and then joined the Stein clan for a week in Londa, a small village outside of Florence. The time was very fun and relaxing, we can't thank all those that helped with the kids enough!

October started with Nettie's 4th birthday which was of course a week long - if not a little more celebration. Unfortunately for Nettie, she caught a stomach bug for her birthday, so we had a quiet day, but she was feeling better by the following day. Nettie enjoyed her birthday this year, a little more than other years. She has started to understand that this was all about her! She has turned into a great kid overall. She loves her brother, which is always great to see. She has a great time a school and loves her teacher Ms. Ruth (the feeling is mutual). Nettie is Ms. Ruth's shadow during the day, even during nap time when all the other kids are sleeping. Tiffany's college friends came into town for our 10 year reunion. I wasn't able to go to the game, but it was fun to see everyone for a brunch on Sunday.

We were also able to spend some time with cousins during the month, Paige and Luke, Ollie and Noah. We missed Abbie and Mia!

Right before Halloween we welcomed the newest cousin, Lily Cribari to the world. She is a beautiful little girl who is a great addition to the family. Nettie is VERY excited to have a new baby cousin and I have a feeling will love to watch over Lily in the future.

Halloween was full of parties, 4 nights of events and the finally Nettie was able to wear the Dorothy costume every day. For those people who have had us over with the Dorothy costume, I apologize for all the sparkles all over the house!

John is doing well. He is definitely close to 2. He has started to communicate more, using both words and signs. He loves to read, play with cars and trucks. His favorite time of day is anytime he can play outside, so there are definite times that we bundle up and head out even when it is cold outside. He is still a bit of a Momma's boy, and that is an understatement. We are working on trying to break him of that habit, but that will take time.

So far, November has been a great month. WE spent last weekend jumping in the leaves at Geema's and Geepa's house to celebrate Geepa's birthday. The kids had a blast and can't wait until next year.

We are getting ready for the holidays, it is hard to believe that we have another year almost over.

A Princess Cowgirl

Ben has been in San Antonio for work all week, and returned just in time to celebrate Nettie's birthday. In th mean time, Nettie stopped throwing up later in the afternoon in time for Daddy to help her celebrate! When he got back he had brought her a little bit of Texas. This may be her new favorite crown!

Nettie turns 4

It is hard to believe that 4 years ago tonight our beautiful little girl joined our family and changed us forever. The poor little thing has spent the day before her birthday throwing up, but trying to convince me that she is going to feel better in time for tomorrow and I believe her!
Nettie has gotten to be such a big girl, it is truly amazing. Ben and I recently returned from a 2 week vacation in Italy and we both agreed that of the kids Nettie had changed the most over the time we were gone. She is enjoying school, learning new things everyday. She has transitioned to her new classroom with Ms. Ruth rather well. She and John are starting to play together more and LOVE to be around each other. This would be a different experience for me as Paul and I played together sometime, but we were nowhere near as close as they already are. Nettie is patient with John most of the time - unless he has her Cinderella brush.
We are looking forward to a weekend of celebrations for Nettie's birthday and looking forward to the birth of Lily Grace sometime in the next few weeks. Hope everyone is doing well!

I will post pictures soon

Fun July Adventures

So the month of July was full of things going on for all the Wismers. John is fully walking now, not just doing it when it suits him, he is working on running! John's picture is my example of why you never feed a 17 month old beefaroni on his own. He was having fun and I was home by myself while Ben was playing softball, so I figured "what the heck!". HE was taken immediately to the bath tub and enjoy a good scrub after that dinner.
Nettie enjoyed having her cousin Cindy paint her face with a butterfly at a local church feast (a weekend of food, gambing and fundraising for the church). She loved having the butterfly on her fave and was careful not too mess it up. She is keeping us busy as she gets excited for her forth birthday. She has already picked up about 100 things that she would like and has decided on a cake. I have a feeling it will be a Cinderella themed party!
Ben and I finished out the month with a trip to NYC with my family for one last game at Yankee stadium (on Ben's birthday)before they tear it down. The weekend was fun and the kids enjoyed the 5 days with Geema and Geepa. We saw lots of sites, and enjoyed a day with Ben's cousin Jen and her husband Ted. It was nice to have a couple of people who know the city bettter than us take us to a few places off the beaten path. But een better to get to spend a day with 2 such wonderful people!
We hope that everyone is having a terrific summer so far!