Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given,
   and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We had our first family Christmas tonight and it was such a fun day!  Before everyone arrived I asked Carys to help me clean.  Her version of cleaning involves making a giant mess and then putting two things away.  Baby steps...that's better than nothing, right!

   

And yes, I put her in this crazy outfit - I pulled out everything she has that is Christmas-y and put it all on!  Next year, I may need to step it up a little in the holiday apparel department.

My sister, nephews and mom all came over early in the day, so we could hang out while the guys were working, and we quickly got to work ourselves making some sweet treats.    

Of course, lots of silliness ensued, but eventually we managed to assemble something that resembled the cute,  tiny village on the box.  I can't say that every house had the correct number of walls (and one may be missing a roof, that we decided would be the open air theater), but in the end we were pretty proud of our sweet little village! Oh, and in case you are wondering, "Yes, it's all eat-able" at least according to Tyler.

The tall white one is the theater - the entire left side is missing open.

And no cookie village is complete without a tall glass of milk to wash it all down, so Travis and Tyler are wondering....

Got Milk? 

Unfortunately, Carys missed the crazy, cookie village party because she was napping.  Probably a good thing though because we would have been missing a lot more of our "materials" if she was around.  I swear the only candy that child has had is a dum-dum sucker, but somehow she has learned to quickly identify all varieties, and is not happy (to say the least) when she's told she can't have any! 

She was super happy to wake up and see that her cousins were still here though - she loves playing with them!

She was also really excited to see that there were quite a few more presents under the tree.  

Shortly after her nap, Daddy, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Dave, Great Grandma and Bumpa arrived and we had dinner and opened presents.

Visiting with Great Grandma

Trying to steal the candy canes off the top of the boys' gift.

Opening her first present 

The family representing the "D"

Lovely pot holder Uncle Kevin!

Boys with Bumpa

And last, but not least, our elusive family photo.

We had a great day, it was so fun to hang out with my family and it's even better to watch Carys playing so hard and having such a good time.  I'm looking forward to every moment of this season, and so very thankful that the Reason for this magical Christmas time has so greatly blessed our family.  

Wishing you the JOY and PEACE of the season that only comes from HIM!

Merry Christmas!  

O Christmas Tree

Today we went to cut down our Christmas tree and it was a winter wonderland outside!  I was ready to get our tree in November, but Scott has been working a lot of hours, so we wanted to wait until he had some time off.  I was so excited to wake up this morning and see snow!  It was a perfect day to hunt for our tree!  

First I have to show you what Carys looked like this morning.  Scott got her dressed and then she wanted her mittens and boots on, so she was running around the house looking crazy!  She's been wanting to wear these boots ever since we brought them home.  Auntie Jenn, mom of our favorite quads, passed them along to us.  They are a little big, but Carys loves them!

We all got bundled up for the cold, and headed out to the farm.  Carys is not looking too happy here because Dad went outside without her! 

We were excited to get Carys outside when we got to the tree farm.  She hasn't played in the snow yet, but we were pretty sure she was going to love it...and she did!  They had sleds to help you drag your tree back, so we grabbed one, put Carys in and told her to hang on!

Not sure at first...

 but I think she liked it!

 Dad even let Mom climb in and he took us both for a ride!

After sledding through the trees, we found one we liked and stopped to let Scott cut it down.  Carys did pretty good walking in the snow, as long as she stayed on our sled trail.  It got a little too tricky for her when she veered off and tried to break trail!

I gave her a snowball and of course she had to taste it, yummy!

Scott didn't waste much time - he cut this down before we could yell "timber"!

Eating more snow...

Our master tree chopper!

After we got our tree bundled, we loaded up and headed home.  The snow had been coming down pretty good, so Scott started shoveling and of course, Carys wanted to stay outside and play too! 

She was having a blast, but the snow was pretty wet, so her hands were soaked.  I decided it was time to head inside before she got too cold, and she was not happy about this idea.  I think she would have played out there all afternoon!

After we got inside, we got down to business decorating the tree.  Carys loved checking out the lights, and I so wish I would have gotten a picture of her face when we first plugged them in...it was pure joy!  She helped pull out all of the ornament boxes and stayed so busy getting them ready for me to hang on the tree.  

(notice she has her boots back on!)

Today was one of the reasons I so love this season.  We got outside in the beautiful, white, fluffy snow, listened to Christmas music while we decorated the tree, and had a great time together as a family.  And now we are going to curl up in the glow of the lights with the whole house smelling like fresh pine, and watch a movie - pretty much a perfect day in my book!

16 Months

Our baby is 16 months old and here's what she's been up to...

• Learned to climb up on the couch
• Is trying to climb on just about everything else.  Anything left on the floor is fair game for use as a footstool!
• Loves hugs and kisses, and is an equal opportunity kisser.  If she gives me a kiss, she'll look around the house for Daddy and make sure she gives him one too!
• She does NOT like for Scott and me to hug or kiss without her getting in there too!  If we hug, she'll beg to be picked up and hugged too!
• We do a group hug every night before bed and then she waves good-bye to Daddy, I sing her Jesus Loves Me, and then lay her down for the night.
• She sleeps with her baby doll and polka dot blanket.  Some nights we have to search the house for her baby.  Thanks to Grandma Alice - she's a really good hider!
• She's a great eater still and I can't think of anything that she has absolutely refused to eat.
• She has started making all these funny faces and when I ask her to do something she doesn't want to or she doesn't like something, she squints her eyes, wrinkles her nose and purses her lips - it's pretty hilarious, so I have to try really hard not to laugh.
• She's not shy and loves to wave at everyone - except for when we ask her to wave then she doesn't want to.
• She's not a great shopper.  She wants to get down and run or she starts fussing and is really loud!  Suckers usually make her a better shopper, so I now travel with suckers.
• She takes one nap a day, usually from 11 am - 1 pm.  I jinxed myself a couple of months ago when I blogged that she was still taking 2 naps - she pretty much dropped the 2nd one the next day!
• She is sleeping well at night, but lately has decided to keep getting up earlier and earlier, so that's our latest challenge. 
• When I pick her up in the morning, she pulls out her pacifier, says "Dada", and points to her door.
• She's not happy when she checks the house and he's already left for work (I wouldn't be surprised if this is why she keeps getting up earlier!)
• We only give her a pacifier to sleep and sometimes for long car rides.  Most of the time she doesn't mind handing it to me to put it away.  I think it may be more of a habit for us then her.
• In the car, she doesn't want to listen to anything except her Veggie Tales CD.  We have listened to this CD at least 136 times, but she still loves it.
• "Dada" is her most frequent word, sometimes she says "Mumma" and "uh oh" (if that's a word), and I also think that she's said "all done" a few times.
• She learned how to open her closet door and loves to bring me her shoes to put on.  She wears about 3-4 different pairs a day and has started insisting on wearing certain ones.  She wore her black patent dress shoes with her sweatpants to swim class the other day.  I'm picking my battles! ha!  
• She loves to "help" and will dust, put her clothes away, and sweep.  She'll also help pick up if we sing the "Clean up" song. 
• She likes to try to do the motions for Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (she usually only gets head, toes and nose) and Itsy Bitsy Spider (this one she holds her hands together until Itsy is washed out - she likes to do out!)

That's about all I can think of for now - she does so much everyday and we have so much fun with her.  She is such a sweet little girl!  Here's a few pictures of her in action...

 

Coloring with her new crayons

Helping mom make mini pizzas!

"Helping" with the laundry 

And finally - her teeth!  Here they are!  I think she's working on some more, but for now it's just these two.