Cousins!

Thank you Joy for this great picture!!

Christmas

My mom got Katie a rocking horse that makes horse noises. JD enjoyed it too!





Ember and Katie with the cat (Anyone want a cat?)

Christmas at my Dad's

We spent the afternoon and evening at my dad's. Christmas dinner was really good.



Auntie Joy and Katie





Grandpa and JD

Christmas Day

We had a fabulous Christmas! The kids even let us sleep in until 9:30! That was a great present.








Katie helping herself to lots of fudge

Christmas Brunch at our house

Including us and kids we had 16 people at our house the day after Christmas for brunch. It was a lot of fun. I would definitely do it again!!



My cousin Seth and his daughter Ember





Cousin Gregory and JD

Growing too Fast!!

JD can now easily pull himself up and stand by furniture. He started this about 2 weeks ago and is now a pro. He continues to be a very happy vocal little guy and we take great joy in him.

At Great Grandma's house

We took a break and went for a nice walk outside. I think Katie ran 3 blocks. I had a hard time keeping up with her so I had to hand JD off to a cousin.

Santa

Katie asked Santa for stickers. She asked me for chocolate and cake. She asked Grandma B for a red present and for a green one for JD. All her wishes came true. Grandma even got her a red (ok dark pink) bear and a green frog for JD. If only Christmas wishes stayed this simple. Katie was at a great age for Christmas. She enjoyed each of her presents before we moved on to the next. We didn't even open them all because she was enjoying what she had. We talked about Jesus and I think she understood a little bit.

JD

7 and a half months

This little guy is really happy. Lots of smiles. He is all hands. I mean he is always after something and he is so fast. Within the past couple of days he has learned to clap and he finally is saying mama or muh-muh. And I really believe he associates it with me. He's been saying dada forever and his favorite thing to say is buh. He loves those little puffs that you can give babies. He's nuts about them actually. If he see the container he'll stare and talk about them until I figure out that's what he wants. Then when I finally clue in he waves both arms up and down, smils and squeals.

Awww...

I hadn't taken a shower yet when John got home (which actually happens a few times a week) so pretty much as soon as he got home I handed him the kids and took a long leisurely shower. This is what I found when I came out. John uses Youtube to put the kids to sleep. He just plays them a music video and voila! He's a good dad.

Napping while eating

Here's my girl again showing how she doesn't need her afternoon nap. This was taken at around 6:30 pm. I went in the living room to answer the phone and when I came back this is what I found. I washed her hands and face, took her to her room, changed her diaper and put her in her crib all without waking her.

The guys.

John styled JD's hair the other day. It turned out really cute. The fact that they were dressed similarly was an added bonus!

Tahoe!

We went to Tahoe November 1-8. Had a great time not feeling like we HAD to do anything.

Below is a play area for kids that we found in a casino. We were the only ones there.

We had fun in the hot tub one day and brought the snow inside to play with.