10 & 11 Months

I forgot to post Hannah Kate's 10 month picture so here is a combo post. Hannah Kate turned 11 months old yesterday and I can't believe we are 1 month away from a year!!! She has learned to walk quite well, especially in the last week. She is so proud of herself. She has also mastered waving, saying "hi", and most importantly she has learned to put on a necklace. Parker and Emma Jane wears fancy necklaces all day long and evidently Hannah Kate was tired of being unfancy. It is hilarious to watch her try and try and try to put it over her head and FINALLY get it. 

Hannah Kate has also developed a little bit of a temper and has quite the stubborn streak. Again this is not surprising given who her parents are and being that she can watch the 3 year olds have meltdowns every hour because something didn't go their way :) Parker and Emma Jane still love her to death which is such a huge blessing. They call her pumpkin (which is what Jason calls her) or Hannah Katie (which is what I call her) and its the cutest thing in the world. 

10 Months 

11 Months

 This is Hannah Kate's new favorite activity along with actually playing in the toilet. Disgusting. And yes we now keep the bathroom door closed.

 A few weeks ago we had a visit from Paul and Emily which is always so much fun. It was great to see Imogen and Hannah Kate interact.

Hannah Kate's just having a fake french fry to eat...

Parker is wearing her "wedding dress"

Parker and Emma Jane have been busy little girls as well. We took gymnastics for several months which they loved and have now moved onto swimming lessons. Emma Jane is a little more athletically inclined than Parker but they both are so determined. At home we pretend all day home long. We usually play doctor as seen in the pictures below. In this instance Parker is the doctor and Emma Jane is the mommy taking her baby to the doctor.

Taking pictures at swimming lessons is hard but I tried. They came such along way in 8 weeks. Parker screamed and cried the whole time the first 4 weeks- she did everything they asked- just cried the whole time. It was awful but Jason and I really didn't want her to quit. Then a flip switched in her head and she was fine- even smiling and laughing. Some bribery also helped the situation along. Emma Jane also did fantastic and even willingly went under water. We have now started another session and I am hopeful for even more progress before we get to summer. 

Christmas

Well... Christmas has been over for a month now so here are some pictures from our week long celebration. We got to see both of our families which was wonderful! 

Decorating the Tree

Making Cookies

Playing the piano with Lily

Christmas Monkeys!

Coolidge Park

The best we could do. Parker was holding on to Lily with all her might.

Stockings on Christmas morning with cousin William

9 months

Two days before Christmas Hannah Kate turned nine months. Her big accomplishment was waving and she is so proud of herself! 

Standing is much more fun that sitting for a picture. 

Christmas Part the first

Christmas started a wee bit early this year with a small group Christmas party.  This year we (read Liz) decided to do something special and have our very own small group Christmas pageant.  The girls (all three) were tapped to play the wise "men" and, as you can plainly see, Parker was thrilled with it

After a fabulous holiday dinner that all the families helped put together the girls were sent over to Mrs. King to get costumed.  All seemed to be going well.  Parker sat there looking intense but okay while getting her fancy headdress (pictured above in exhibit A).  When she was done Parker walked over to us and completely broke down.  I guess she just couldn't handle how cute she looked.

Luckily she didn't need to exist in cuteness alone for long, and once she had her usual partner in crime all was smiles once again (see exhibit B below)

Hannah Kate on the other hand just said "no" to the headdress...but in a nice way.

The pageant was an overwhelming success.  The New York Times described it as "...the kind of Christmas production some of the “Peanuts” kids put on in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”...and that it "...sticks to the familiar details of the narrative and dramatizes them with sincerity and good taste..."  What more could you want from a Christmas pageant?


The production was bolstered by a number of staring performances, in particular there was an amazing performance from one of the Born children who recited the entirety of Luke 2 from memory.  Oh, and she is four.  Four.  And recited all of Luke 2.  It rocked.

It was a wonderful night and a fantastic way to kick off the Christmas season.

8 Months

You know what I have realized in the past month... its a miracle your 2nd (in our case 3rd) child survives once they are mobile. Hannah Kate is always always on the go. Aside from naturally picking up the smallest piece of dust, food, etc. she can find on the floor, she can also find Parker and Emma Jane's smallest toys despite my attempts to hide them! 

She is such a happy baby 95% of the time. We went to Jason's parents house for Thanksgiving which had lots of carpet and Hannah Kate was in heaven. She pulled up to stand on every piece of furniture in sight and would just fall down and laugh. She was even able to stand on her own for a few seconds. 

In the past month Hannah Kate has also learned how to drink from a straw cup. She has an unhealthy obsession with Parker and Emma Jane's water cups. They are.her.favorite. And with this obsession she has learned to drink from them- so we will just skip the sippy cup! 

An attempt at a group shot

"Oh... I'm not supposed to play with that??"

More Fall Fun

Between May and this coming December (including our upcoming Christmas trip) the Broges will have traveled 7 times to places at least 5 hours away. This doesn't include the 4 extra trips Jason or I  have had to take without the children.... thats a whole lotta car time for some little people. No one can say we don't try :) Anyway, at the beginning of November my brother's little girl Lily turned 1 and this was a party we definitely couldn't miss. Off to Chattanooga we went. Lily had a great party. It was good for Parker and Emma Jane to experience a birthday party where they weren't the center of attention and they didn't get to open presents. Hannah Kate and Lily also got to have some bonding time which involved sticking their fingers in each other's mouths. 

Lily was a master cake smasher!! 

This was one of many attempts to get a group picture... Lily thought jumping on the couch would be more fun. 

Fall also means leaves! The girls once again "helped" Jason rake some leaves and were rewarded by getting to jump in them. So much fun!