The 12 Days of Christmas...

We had so much fun leading up to Christmas. You were very in to the Christmas Curious George movie and the first song talks about "Christmas preparations you can see it all around...I think you'll find that getting there is half the fun." It's so true, especially with you that half the fun of the holidays are all of the exciting things to do. So aside from watching the typical Christmas movies, here are some pictures of the activities we did. 

Decorating Christmas cookies. Or in your case, just eating the frosting for the cookies. I don't think you ate hardly any of the cookies. Then you would proceed to have a sugar crash later. It was totally worth it though. 

Your first baby cousin was born!! Caitlyn Rose was born on December 15th. Here are some pictures of her from the hospital. We went to visit her a few days later at her house and you were pretty jealous. 

I baked holiday plates for our friends and family. You wanted to help and you LOVE chocolate - this was the result of you helping. 

We were in desperate need of a new kitchen table and had people over for Christmas dinner so we bought a new larger table to help accomodate our growing family. This is you helping Dad put it together.

It took a while, but we finally got the tree up. I tried to get a nice picture of you next to it. This was the best I could get. I even bribed you with cookies and this was all I got. Still cute though. 

We also decorated gingerbread men. You did actually decorate yours this time, but then proceeded to eat all of the toppings off of it. 

From left to right: Daddy's, Marcus', and Mom's

Your daycare class had a Christmas book party exchange. Parents were invited so I came. They loaded you up on sugar first which was fun to watch. You all had such a good time. In between the goodies and the book exchange you showed me all of the toys in your classroom. 

One last picture of you running around in your Christmas jammies being a stinker-winker!

Nana's 60th Birthday

Your Nana turned 60 this year and so she wanted to celebrate with all of us. So tonight we went out to Luciano's for dinner and had some fabulous Italian food. You certainly tested our patience and Popper took you on a few walks outside to work off some of your energy. Then after dinner we headed off to the Winter Garden A Glow. You absolutely loved it. Your favorite part which we just so happened to see first was the moving train sets they had set up. It's always so special for me to go to the gardens because that is where your Dad proposed to me and where we got married. This visit was particularly special because it marks 5 years from when your Dad proposed to me at the Winter Garden A Glow. I loved that we got to share it with you and our Harper family. Here are the pictures from the visit. It was cold, but that didn't dampen our spirits!

I bought a new camera for myself to take a bunch of fabulous pictures of you and this was my first time trying it out. It takes brilliant night photos as you will see from the pictures of the lights.

Oh Christmas Tree...

We took our hopefully yearly trip to go pick out our Christmas tree this weekend. In preparation for Grand Jean in January (we are going on a 7 mi snowshoeing trip with you and the Bailly's and Fuller's) we decided to go with the Bailly's and Fuller's in order to test out the bike seat we are going to pull you and Sean in. So, it was quite a troop going up to Idaho City. The more the merrier though!

We actually got our first huge snow fall on Saturday and it was still snowing when we woke up to get ready. So when we got to John and Loren's we bundled you up and let you really experience snow for the first time. You LOVED it. You threw it in the air, you ate it, you fell down in it and giggled. It was the best.

After we were all packed up at the Bailly's we headed out to get our tree. When we got up to the area we decided to look at I took you sledding down the small incline of the road. You thought that was great and we even set Sean on you so you could go together. You didn't like that as much though, as you said 'off' while he was laying on you. Needless to say all of the parents got a kick out of it. You guys did awesome in the bike carrier and even fell asleep on the way back in from getting the tree. Your Dad went all the way up the side of the mountain to pick us out a tree this year and it is beautiful. After our mountain shenanigans we stopped for lunch in Idaho City and even got some huckleberry cheesecake to go. You were one tired boy after the events of the day but somehow didn't sleep on the way back to Boise.

Due to the snow coming this was a very long trip - 7 hours to be exact just to get a tree. It was fabulous though filled with wonderful company.