Larger than Life

	Recently, Daniel has really gotten interested in Legos (thanks to the influence of his best friend, Drake). Due to his intrest, he got some Lego sets for Christmas, has bought some with his own money, and got some as gifts from family and friends. We have really enjoyed putting these creations together. Daniel and Maggie have also just started making their own creations and playing with them.
	At Christmas, Daniel wanted to buy Drake some Legos for Christmas (since he knew that he liked them), so we went to an outlet mall that had a Legos store. We have since been back several times. The store has a Darth Vader made out of Legos so we were excited when we saw that they were going to be building an 8' R2-D2.
	It was a three day event and the kids were able to help out by making Lego "bricks" for the R2 made up of numerous little legos put together. Daniel and Maggie made several bricks.
	Once they made some bricks they turned them in to get a coupon to take to the Legos store for a certificate of participation. While we were there we learned that the R2-D2 would be completed the next day, left on display for an hour before being taken down to travel to the next city.
	So we decided to go back the next day to see the finished product and get our picture taken with the larger than life Legos R2-D2.

Two Months

On Monday Joshua turned two months old. Yesterday I took him to his two month check-up. He now weighs 13 pounds and 7 ounces and is 22 and 3/4 inches long (short and stocky and very cute). He also got his first round of immunizations. It was great that they had this combo shot that had DTaP, polio, and Hib all in one, so he only got two shots rather than the four our other kids got. He was a bit fussy and uncomfortable during the day, but he gave us our first 5 and a half hours of sleep in a row last night. He is sleeping in his crib a good portion of the night and napping in there during the day (unless I feel like snuggling at my nap time). It's amazing the difference a month makes. Now if only I would go to bed at a decent hour and get up and ready before the kids I might feel more like a productive human being (I'm taking baby steps).

All he wants for Christmas . . .

I took Daniel and Maggie to the dentist in January. It was there that I discovered that Daniel's two front teeth were getting loose. I had no idea before the hygenist pointed it out because we don't go over his teeth everytime he brushes now, and they just barely wiggled. Fast forward to March and the loose teeth are looking kind of rough. They are getting discolored and cadywonked. My friends Kim and Rachael offered to help pull them out but Daniel said no thanks and I got the heeby jeebys thinking about it. Well, finally I couldn't take it anymore so I asked him if I could use the floss on it and after several attempts I managed to get one out, but then he didn't want me to do the other one because it hurt a little.



So this morning with my new found tooth pulling confidence I asked Daniel if I could give it a try on his other tooth. He reluctantly agreed. After just two tries I managed to pull out his other tooth.
















So now he just needs his two new front teeth.

Snowy, snowballs and stats

I thought I had put a picture of the aforementioned snowman named Snowy in the last post, but aparently I'm not as techno savvy as I previously thought. So here is a picture of the snow configuration that Davis, Daniel and Maggie made on our snowday.

Here's a picture of Maggie and Daniel with some freshly made snowballs. Daniel looks like he is about to let his fly. Daniel managed to get one into his daddy's coat pocket.

Joshua is snug inside the house during the snow storm of 2009. At his one month check up he weighed 11 lbs and 8 oz. He's also grown an inch since birth. He's a solid little guy complete with double chin.

Let it Snow

It snowed here yesterday and the kids absolutely loved it. You would have thought it was Christmas day with how excited they were. Once we made it safely home from church we bundled them up and sent them out to play in it. They decided to build a snowman which Daniel named Snowy. Joshua and I only went out long enough to get a picture. The rest of the time we stayed inside making brownies and hot chocolate. Daniel and Maggie were soaked and frozen after playing outside for over an hour so we ran a hot bath, put on dry warm clothes, and drank hot chocolate while watching a movie. It was a really lovely and wonderful day.

Bears and Babies

Uncle Bennett holding his newest nephew next to his oldest nephew. It's always great to have a bunch of Hipps men together.

Maggie adores her Aunt Lynley as evidenced here by wanting to sit on her lap at the same time as her holding Joshua.

Joshua with his Vermont Teddy Bear.

The teddy collection. Uncle Bennett continues the tradition by giving Joshua a teddy bear just like he gave to Daniel and Maggie after they were born. It is one of the sweetest gifts and we just love that the kids will have them their entire lives.

One Month and Counting

Here is a picture of Joshua when he turned one month old (Friday February 23rd). The time has really flown by. It seems that the more children you have the faster it goes. So I guess if we have any more children we will have officially hit warp speed (we are currently in fast play). I will say that as much as we adore Joshua and love having a sweet baby in our home, it has been a more difficult transition than I expected. I just thought I would be out and about all the time since his food source is with me all the time, I am ready with the baby sling, and the older kids are great helpers (plus they can strap themselves in). But, alas, we have been house bound for over a month (except for a few outings and doctor appointments). I am so very thankful for our awesome church family that has been providing us with delicious meals for the last month. It has been an incredible blessing to not have to worry about meal preparations during this time. I was shocked when I saw that they would be feeding us for the entire month of February, but now I am just so very thankful (although we could stand about six more months of it). I really do think that we are starting to get the hang of things and I hope to start visiting friends and making it to outings with the kids. Overall, life is good. I thank God for our three amazing children!