Is it really almost Christmas??

The past month has just flown by! We have been very busy getting ready for Christmas and partaking in a bunch of holiday fun.

Ruby is asking Santa for a camera for Christmas this year. We told her that she can only ask Santa for one present -- so when she was sitting on Santa's knee and he said "what else would you like?" she was kind of taken aback and finally said "something for Hallie and James." How cute is that?

Ruby is really ready for the holiday to get here. There are presents under the tree, lights on all of the houses and we had snow on the ground, so why isn't Santa here yet??? We've been passing the days baking cookies and delivering them to our neighbors, buying and wrapping gifts for our friends, making Christmas cards, and decorating sugar cookies. It has been a lot of fun and extremely messy. Ruby seems to think the UPS man needs to come to our house every day because every time he's here there's a tasty treat to eat or gift for under the tree!

In other big, exciting news, James is walking! He took his first steps on December 5 and is getting more and more adventurous each day. He is also sporting a new black eye -- but that's what happens when you fall face first into a table. It didn't faze him a bit. I really think he is going to be a daredevil.

Hallie, on the other hand, is not making any moves toward walking. I think she sees her brother making a fool of himself and doesn't want any bit of it. I'm certain that one day she's going to just take off walking without all of the starts and stops that James has. She's watching him so she can perfect it for herself! Hallie is our big eater, just like Ruby was. I think she enjoys when the UPS man comes, too, because it means she gets to sample the treats!

Ruby is starting to read some basic words. She can identify her name and knows all of the letters and the sounds they make. Her favorite "game" lately is asking what everything starts with. And, when I turn it around on her, she is usually able to tell me what the word starts with. (Though she doesn't like the trick words, like "knock.")

Tonight some of the neighborhood girls came caroling, so we let Ruby listen to them for awhile. And then I lined them up to babysit on New Year's Eve! Enjoy the pictures from our holiday festivities ...

Riding the carousel at the Festival of Trees.

Yummy, sprinkles :)

I thought the frosting was for my face ...

Yummy sugar cookies!

Look, mom, I can decorate them too!

Making the frosting for cookies with September.

School Christmas party!

Exercising at Nursery School.

Visiting with Santa at Nursery School.

I think we got about 4 inches and Ruby loved it!

Getting ready to go out in the snow!

The family reinkitty!

Thanksgiving & Other Stuff

It has been a long two weeks since the last update!

We thought Ruby had kicked her pneumonia, but I ended up taking her back to the doctor -- she got a chest x-ray and a different antibiotic because her lungs still sounded terrible. Then, a week later she was back at the doctor again because of the same issue. Our pediatrician ended up sending us for blood work at the children's hospital and then to a pulmonologist. When we visited the pulmonologist, she got another chest x-ray which showed the pneumonia had cleared, but her oxygen level was pretty low (in the mid-80s). That doctor said she should probably be admitted to the hospital, but since it was Thanksgiving week he would try a breathing treatment first. That got her levels up to the low 90s. He said while the pneumonia was gone, she has asthma! He let us go home, but we have to go back on Tuesday for a follow up appointment.

But, we had a great Thanksgiving! I cooked up a storm and we had some friends and Grammy in town to eat it all. Ruby had a blast playing with her friend Anne, and James and Hallie thoroughly enjoyed their first Thanksgiving. Jason and I, however, failed to take any pictures of them eating that meal ... sorry!

We spent a couple of hours relaxing and then decided to venture out to Toys-R-Us for their 10 p.m. opening. We got there about 8:45 and were about number 400 in line. We did get the "ticket" for one of the kids' Christmas presents though and found a few more items while we were there. We got in the door at 10:30 and made it home about 1 a.m. It was a long day, but we had a lot of fun and it was definitely worth it.

Finally, I will post some pictures. We went to Portrait Innovations to have some Christmas pictures done and some pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Back in Tennessee

The first weekend in November we took a trip to Arizona for my grandfather's 80th birthday celebration. Many of our friends thought we were crazy to take three kids on a plane, but it actually worked out really well and we are so happy that we made the trip! Ruby, James & Hallie got to meet a lot of family and I think everyone was very happy to see them. While we were there, we took a day to go to the Phoenix Zoo (which is amazing) and do breakfast with one of my friends from law school.

We made it back and promptly took Ruby to the doctor because she was sent home from school. I didn't think she was very sick -- I was thinking she was run down from a long weekend and couldn't get her ears to pop from the plane ride (In the waiting room, she told me that she "burped her ear" and it was all better). So, I was a little surprised when the doctor looked in her ear and found a "nasty infection" and then listened to her lungs and discovered she had pneumonia! She has been on antibiotics for about a week and seems much better.

Now we are preparing for Thanksgiving! Jason's mom and one of his co-worker's families will be joining us for dinner. So I am preparing a menu and hoping that it will all turn out well ...

Oh and we did a big Flickr update, so if you want to see all of our pictures from October, go to www.flickr.com/jasonhill1627 and click on the October 2010 set.

Here are some pictures from our Arizona trip:

Grandma and Grandpa with the babies.

James and Aunt Maggie.

Hallie and Aunt Tanja.

Having fun on the tree stump.

There's a squirrel monkey right behind us. This was a neat exhibit!

Ruby's first camel ride.

Ruby named the camel "Sally."

Standing like the flamingos.

Trying to be as tall as the giraffe.

James needed a nap.

Hallie getting her snooze on.

Eating a snow cone.

She loved checking out all of the cacti!

Ruby riding the carousel at the zoo.

My cousin, Elizabeth, seems like she'd do really well with twins ...

James & Hallie -- 9 month Stats

I can't believe the twins are already 9 months old! I took them to the doctor yesterday for their 9-month check up and they are definitely growing. Here are the numbers:

Hallie
27.75 inches (60th percentile)
19.2 pounds (50th percentile)
45.5 cm head circumference (75th percentile)

James
27.25 inches (25th percentile)
17.8 pounds (10th percentile)
45.5 cm head circumference (50th percentile)

Hallie has a half inch and nearly 1.5 pounds on James! I knew she was the bigger one, and now I refer to James as the runt ... Just for comparison, Ruby was 18 pounds, 13 ounces at 9 months and almost 29 inches long ... so Hallie is heavier than Ruby was!

Hallie's bloodwork came back as slightly anemic so she gets to take prescription vitamin drops every day. The doctor said she was "barely" anemic, but we're going to take care of it before it gets worse.

James is going to see a GI doctor today. His pulmonologist wanted him to be seen to see if his spitting up was aggravating his asthma and after talking with his pediatrician we went ahead and made the appointment (and they got us in right away!) Apparently at 9 months James really shouldn't be spitting up any more ... it still doesn't bother him to spew, but we might as well get it looked at too.

No pictures today, sorry folks!

Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to Oaks Farm. It seems that we are making that trek an annual family tradition. This year they had really expanded. There was a kids corn maze, a bouncing balloon thing and new slides. We went with Christy and Lea Ann and the kids had such a good time! We tried to get Ruby and Lea Ann to pick out giant pumpkins in the field, but they picked out some of the smallest pumpkins out there ... Anyway, here are some pictures!