Charlie is 8 months!

At 8 months, we are aren't sure how much Charlie weighs, but his 6-9 month clothes are getting a little short in the arms.  He is moving into 12 month clothes for pajamas and shirts, but the pants are still way too big in the waist.  He continues to be a delight and so so happy!  Not much has changed developmentally with Charlie.  He is babbling a little more, mostly saying "dada". And getting into more stuff as he is becoming more and more proficient at the army crawl....which is adapting a little bit more into a real crawl.  He follows his brother and sister everywhere and loved chasing balls!  He has also begun to wave.  

December 2015

What a whirlwind was December!!  The kids had a lot of fun decorating the house this year and were much more talkative about Christmas than they have been in years past.  Ethan was not a big fan of Santa, but Hannah loved him and talked about him all the time.  We also were able to get deeper this December into the true meaning of Christmas.  We loved going through Ann Voskamp's advent book for Children each night and talking through all of the wonderful aspects of God's promise to us, and look towards the birth of Jesus.  We had a great time at my parents for the "Branen" Family Christmas.  We are so thankful that the cousins love to play with each other, and as always it was great to be around my siblings and parents.  Then we had my parents for Christmas Eve/Christmas morning and again that was so fun!  While it was so fun to watch the kids excitement over their gifts, it was also amazing watching Hannah's excitement to give!!  Before reaching for a present with her name, she reached for the one that she had helped Daddy wrap for me!  We had a wonderful Christmas, and loved the hectic excitement of Christmas with three littles!  After Christmas, we drove down to the Florida and boarded our first ever cruise!!!  It was so fun and the kids just loved their time on the big boat!  We stopped at two ports in the bahamas, and had fun days exploring and playing at the beach.  The kids loved the water slides on the boat and had a great time in the kids club.  Matt and I enjoyed the warm weather and hanging out on our balcony at night.  It was overall a fun, relaxing vacation!!