Happy New Year!

May your year be merry and bright (and full of bird-watching or polka dots, if that's your thing)!!

 The little guy was actually looking at an osprey here. Pretty cool!

Back Home

We spent the past several days in Florida visiting my family-- although it is nice to be home again. We did a little sightseeing in Savannah on the way home. The little guy said that it wasn't very pretty there, because there are too many buildings in the way. I've always thought the buildings are the beautiful part! Oh well. Different strokes, I guess. The kids did enjoy the view outside our hotel room this morning, though.

I'll post some of our Christmas pictures over the next few days.

Cooperation

The kids play nicely together on occasion-- it's always nice to capture it for posterity. Here they are assembling legos together.

Merry Christmas!

The little dude has been singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas all month. The other day I chimed in with the so bring us some figgy pudding verse and he just looked at me and said "What are you singing?" with complete disbelief in his voice.

Bus Ride!

The little guy and I got to ride a city bus a few weeks ago. He was SO EXCITED!! Here we are at the bus stop.

He wore my gloves on the walk to the bus stop and on the bus. After we got off the bus, he looked at me and said "YOUR GLOVES!!" with a horrified look on his face. Luckily the bus hadn't left yet, and we were able to get back on and get them. As a chronic loser-of-things, I am SO proud of him for remembering (eventually)!

Great Ideas

What could possible go wrong here?

Injured Role Model

The little guy hit his mouth pretty hard this evening. He and the baby were crawling around under the table playing and then he started crying and there was blood coming out of his mouth. After he calmed down a bit, the baby quietly crawled under the table, came out the other side, stood up, and announced that she had hurt her mouth, too.

It made the little guy laugh, which was a nice improvement.

Jingle Bells

Our family performed a lovely rendition of Jingle Bells this evening. Eric played the jingle bells, the baby played the drums, and the little guy is off-camera playing the kazoo.

Nutella!

The baby and I both like a thick layer of Nutella on our biscuits. It's so, so, so good. I sure hope my face is cleaner than hers when I'm finished eating, though.

She's such a mess.

Movie Night (again)

The kids have had a lot of special-occasion-type events lately, and they are pretty beat by the time dinner is over. We've been watching a lot of Christmas shows in the evening instead of playing since they are so tired.

It's nice to have the quiet time together.

Tired Teddybear

The baby was a tired little teddybear tonight. We let the kids watch a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie this evening so they could calm down a bit after the holiday celebration at Eric's office (which was very kid-friendly!).

She's sound asleep now... if only the little dude could follow in her footsteps!

Hair Clips

Thanks to a genius friend of mine (you rock, Courtney!), the baby and I picked up some miniature hair clips over the weekend.

Victory!

Christmas Cooking!

The little guy and I made three batches of cookies today: m&m, thumbprint, and vanilla kipfel (thanks for the recipe, Gram!). His special job was to make all the thumbprints!

He's getting to be so big!

Xtreme Selfies?

The little guy got ahold of the camera again on Friday, and there were about 10 pictures that looked like this:

Those were followed by about 15 pictures that looked like this:

I only saved one of each.

Somebody's Feeling Better

The poor little guy was home sick with a fever for three days this week. He's finally feeling more like himself.

Hooray?

Failure

I'm trying to grow out the baby's bangs. They are exactly eyeball-lenght right now, so I keep pulling them back into a ponytail. This is how she came home tonight.

I am a complete failure at styling her beautiful, beautiful hair. Could it look worse?

Dress for Success!

This is how the little dude dresses for pretty much anything:

We don't let him wear the baseball pants to school, but he's definitely worn them everywhere he can. What a goofball.

Candyland?

The kids got out Candyland tonight. They dumped all the pieces out and promptly started playing with their plastic food instead.

Look at her striped tights! Squee!!

Your Beard Is Good

The baby likes to sit on Eric's lap and absentmindedly rub his face. It always makes me think of Flight of the Conchords. Anyway, here she is in one of her Christmas outfits, watching a Christmas movie, rubbing Eric's beard.

Hey, Eric-- your beard is good.

Makin' Bacon

We had pancakes and bacon for dinner last night. The kids both helped stir the pancake batter. Eric took this great picture of them helping, but I had just realized that all the bacon wouldn't fit on the griddle and am making a TERRIBLE face. Yikes!

Oh well. The food was delicious!

Before and After

I've been doing the 21 Day Fix workouts (which are awesome), and they encourage you to take pictures to document your progress. The little guy saw Eric taking my picture the other morning, and he posed for some, too. Here he is-- not sure if this is a before or an after.

Every Vote Counts...

... but some count more than others. The little dude has been creating ballots so we can vote on things. If his side is losing, he'll pencil in votes from his grandparents. For some reason they always vote for what he wants!

Today we voted on whether we should buy more Legos (More Legos vs. No Legos).

It was unanimous in favor of more Legos!

Up in the Air

I took the kids to Grandview National Park a week ago. It was the windiest day ever, but they had a great time. The baby insisted on sitting in a big swing-- but no pushing!

The little guy did his own thing.