First Steps

It's official. Carter is our earliest walker. The first clip shows his first, shaky steps about a week ago. He was just delighted with himself and got excessive amounts of praise from his parents and two VERY excited big sisters. He spent lots of time practicing his walking. Pretty much that's all he's interested in doing right now. He was walking all over within a couple of days...and bending down and getting back up...and turning himself around in a circle. We are super impressed by his skills, in case you couldn't tell! The last clip is from today. He's pretty steady now, but we already miss watching him march around with his little arms stuck out for balance.

The Nativity

This year was the first time Emily played the role of Mary in our nativity on Christmas Eve. She loved her chance to be in the spotlight and took her role very seriously. It was pretty cute to see her and Ethan and Mary and Joseph (and Chase and the baby). Kelsie was sick, but she mustered up enough strength to be the angel for a few minutes. They look forward to doing the nativity all year.

Carter found some nativity fun of his own. He loved playing with this Little People Nativity. By playing, I mean he loved seeing how quickly he could toss all the pieces on the ground. When he was done he would crawl off to wreak havoc elsewhere. The minute someone set it back on the table he was over there tossing them back on the ground. And he is such a fast little thing that he would have the whole table cleared before we turned around to check on him. This little charade went on all night. My mom and sisters kept setting the nativity up (not realizing who kept knocking it down) and Carter kept clearing it off. I couldn't help but take pictures of him enjoying the festivities in his own little way, on his first Christmas.

Holiday Break

Snow Day

All month I had been longing for a true snow day like I remembered having as a child. You know those magical days when you wake up and look outside and see so much snow that you know school is canceled. Then you lay around the house relaxing all morning and head out in the afternoon to play in the mounds of snow. I am starting to come to terms with the fact that I am never going to get a true "snow" day here. But, this was almost as good. The first day of Christmas break, over a foot of freshly fallen snow, and no where to go and nothing important to do. The kids tromped through the mounds, helped shovel, built forts, and pulled each other on sleds. It was the perfect start to the holidays.


Gingerbread Houses

My mom started a new tradition last year of getting everyone together to decorate Gingerbread houses. It's one of our favorite holiday activities.