Photo Bomb!

Nana and Pops got the little guy a complicated lego garbage truck for Christmas. It took a day and a half, but he put it together by himself! The baby totally photo bombed his "I DID IT!!!" picture. Hilarious.

Lego-Man

Nana and Pops got the little guy oodles of legos for Christmas. We started putting a garbage truck together the other night. It's tough! He's doing a really nice job building it, especially since it took about 45 minutes to just put together the chassis. Yikes!

Lazy Days

Our lazy day at home started on the couch.

It ended on the couch, too (we did go out in between these pictures, I promise).

They were watching a docufiction on mermaids, hence the intense looks on their faces. They are also eating chex mix. Turns out the baby really loves that stuff.

Fa la la la la

The kids started the morning by opening their stockings. Their stockings are filled with snacks (goldfish, applesauce, and a juice box), giving us time to get a little extra sleep (or at least a cup of coffee) before heading downstairs. The little guy was pumped about the rainbow colored goldfish in his stocking.

The baby was excited, too, although she had a different way of showing it.

When we started opening presents, she grabbed two, toddled off, and put both in the play oven. It took some convincing to get her to come back and hand over the presents.

It was a really great day. Hope yours was as well!

Merry Christmas!

I tried to get a picture of the kids in their cute red plaid outfits, and we started out ok…

… but quickly descended into ridiculousness.

And yes, that is a brown paper bag hanging from the tree in the first picture.

First Haircut!

The baby's hair was getting a little unruly, so she had her first little haircut tonight.

Granted, we only had her bangs and the back of her neck trimmed, but she was really good! Her haircut is super sweet, and she still looks like a baby. I'm excited to start putting barrettes in the sides (poor thing).

 Hooray! What a big girl!

Everywhere!

The baby has really taken off. She's walking everywhere! Nothing is safe…

Where's Waldo?

The little guy crept into our room this morning and said "I made her crib a JUNGLE!!" When we went into their room to see, it was actually kind of hard to find the baby. Her camouflage pjs weren't helping, either.

Yup. The boy filled her crib with every single stuffed animal we own.

Great Expectations

The little guy wore my mortarboard while watching a Christmas special on TV tonight. I'm glad he's getting used to the feeling… we have high expectations for these kids! (Speaking of geniuses, that's red m&ms on the baby's cheek, not blood.)

Helpful Helping

The little guy is actually helpful in the kitchen now. We made chicken boobies tonight (we may have to change the name of that recipe-- he left daycare today hollering out "I LOVE CHICKEN BOOBIES!!!" which seems inappropriate). Anyway, the little guy did almost all the dipping and rolling! I think next time he can make them alone, especially since his 'guys' help.

How's that for a secret ingredient?

The baby is starting to play with kitchen stuff now, but she's still a bit young to put to work.

Pigtails!!

Rough-housing

The baby is finally sturdy enough to rough-house with the boys. What fun!

In other news, our entire family takes spaghetti seriously.

Yum.

Peekaboo!

One of my aunts got the baby an adorable book called Eyes, Nose, Toes, Peekaboo! It's a great book-- and both kids love it. We probably read it five times a day.

She's learning from it, too. If you ask her "Where are your eyes?" she'll poke herself in the eyes with both her index fingers (one per eye). It's adorably hilarious.

Trimming the Tree!

The baby helped Eric take the net off the tree when we got it home last Friday night.

Then the little guy helped me hang ornaments Saturday morning.

See this branch? It has FOUR ornaments on it. So, our tree is, um, oddly decorated this year.

It doesn't really matter-- he was thrilled with the final product.

Four

Now that the baby is turning into a toddler, I'm really feeling like a family of four. We have four toothbrushes in the bathroom, we buy extra cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning's breakfast, and we ran out of pizza tonight! The little guy helped me make the pizza-- he's really helping now.

The baby ate two whole slices! I had to supplement my dinner with chips…There are worse things.

New Favorites

I have a new favorite recipe… I was scrounging for dinner during our hellacious Thanksgiving week and heated up shredded rotisserie chicken and salsa in a skillet as the base for tacos. It was really yummy! I made it again tonight, but with some diced chiles in adobo added for even more flavor. All four of us scarfed our tacos, and I managed to get this shot of Beau's typical dinnertime position:

Hope springs eternal.

Pigtails!

I managed to get the baby's hair into pigtails before church yesterday morning. She pulled them out before we left the house (grrr), but look how cute!

Christmas Finery!

Our church had a big Christmas-y service tonight, and the little guy sang in the youngest choir. It was adorable. Both kids were dressed in their fanciest clothes, so Eric tried to get a nice photo of them by the tree. Although the little guy makes the strangest faces, all the pictures Eric took have a beautiful softness (from a haze of peanut buttery fingerprints on the camera lens).

O Christmas Tree!

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather today and picked out a Christmas tree.

The little guy had a blast! There was SO MUCH ROOM TO RUN!!!

There were so many trees! We ended up finding a nice one that fits perfectly in our house. Running around at the tree farm has it benefits, too… here's what the kids looked like when we got home.

Asleep.

And sleeping.

Potato Nose

The baby had a little something on her nose tonight during dinner…

She's so funny.

Puppet Show!

Some nights, the little guy puts on a bedtime puppet show. They are always completely hilarious and bizarre. Here's one act (of three) from tonight:
 And here's a transcript, in case you need it:

(Faint sounds of the FSU war chant, coming from Cimarron, a.k.a. Mr. Southie)

Mr. Southie: Hey! My name is Mr. Southie!

Me: Your name is Mr. Southie?

Mr. Southie: Yeah. Southie is my first name, and Mister is my middle name, and Griff is my last one!

Me: Oh. Well it's nice to meet you Mr. Southie. Can you sing a song?

Mr. Southie: Well, my mom can but I can't.

Me: Oh yeah?

Mr. Southie: I can't sing any, but-- I just can sing Away in a Manger, but I won't do it right now. Bye!

Me: Bye.

End scene. 

Popovers!

We've recovered from our week of pestilence, and the little guy and I made turkey and cheese popovers for dinner tonight. This is yet another recipe from his little Cook it in a Cup book. That thing is awesome!

Dinner is clearly a very serious undertaking.

Eric and the baby played while we were making dinner. Can you see her top tooth? It's finally broken through!

Whee!!

More Legos!

After building the firetruck the other day, the little guy has been playing with his legos a lot more. He and his dad built a really neat house Friday morning.

The little guy tore it down that night and built an even cooler one!