November

Since we haven't posted in almost two months, it's time for some catch up and a WHOLE bunch of pictures. Nana spent many, many hours at our house playing with the girls during the month of November as we adjusted to life with Simon.

He loved to sleep during that first month...

anywhere, anytime.

But especially cuddled up on Mommy.

And his sisters loved to hold him.

We got to inspect every inch of our new guy. His very long toes are our favorite little quirk. If we put our fingers by his toes, Simon curls them around our fingers like a little monkey grabbing onto something.

Occasionally we got a peek at his blue eyes.

The girls also got to hang out with one of their favorite babysitters while Mommy and Daddy went on a Christmas shopping date (Simon tagged along and basically slept the whole time). They made these fun "Barbie" Christmas trees. She always brings along fun, crafty things to do. And crafty things are right up our alley!

Tim took the time to visit the girls at lunch at their school. This is such a treat for them. With a new baby in the house, our people aren't getting all the attention they're accustomed to, so a lunch with Daddy made them feel extra loved.

Mommy has worked hard to make sure Felicity still has activities to do during Simon's morning nap (or should we say first nap...since most of his day was sleeping...). We did Pumpkin Week. Here she's making pumpkin pies. Yum!

And a Gingerbread Week. She made a paper sack gingerbread house. Felicity loved this so much we should probably do it again just for the fun of it!

And all three girls discovered the funniness of mad libs. They laughed so hard at the first one we did that Miriam could hardly breathe!

Vivian lost another tooth...making Miriam pretty jealous. We've got a tooth wiggling rivalry happening every day now as they try to get their other baby teeth to fall out as fast as possible.

Simon also met most of his family during November...

Tim's cousin Celena at Thanksgiving

Aunt Bridget and baby Elijah (before we knew it was baby Elijah in there!)

Aunt Maria made a special trip home from college

Watching his first football game with Uncle Michael

Cuddling with Aunt Nichole

Teaching Uncle Ryan how to hold a baby before his own baby arrives...

Last but not least, Simon met Santa!!

We love to experience Fort Wayne's Light Night and Gingerbread Festival with Sarah's family. Aunt Annette, Uncle Tom, and Catherine were in town which made it all extra fun.

Seeing Catherine with an actual baby (Simon) made it clear to the girls that Catherine really isn't a baby anymore so they've stopped calling her "Baby Catherine". But they still love her SO much...maybe more than she can tolerate sometimes.

Simon also laid in the antique bassinet at Tim's parents' house that all the Speer babies have rested in. By one month old, he'd almost outgrown the bed!

And at four weeks we started to get a peek as his first smiles! This early smiling gave us a hint at what a social baby we have on our hands!

Looking back on November is such a good way to count all our blessings. Having a new baby and the busy-ness that comes with it made us miss some of these high points. Good thing the blog is here to make us reflect a little on how good we've got it and thank God once more for how spoiled we are!