Christmas Fun!

I can't believe all the holiday festivities have come and gone... It sure seems like a lot of preparation and then it is all over so fast!  We had a special Christmas this year as it was the first with a little one.  He did not get what all the fuss was about, but it was still fun to watch him just be a baby.  My parents came to Amarillo, so we celebrated with them and Gabe's family.  We were just missing Kevin and Kristen :-(   We had Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning brunch at our house and then went to Gabe's parent's house for Christmas dinner.  Michael was of course spoiled with lots of cute outfits and toys, and Gabe and I were also spoiled with lots of big kid toys.  Our families are sure generous!
     Even though Christmas is over commercialized and turned into a major indulgence of all the senses with all the food, decorations, presents, ect... I still love it all.  I love that it promotes generosity towards others, we have to intentionally think about others and what special gifts we can give them. I love that family and friends get together to feast and be merry. I love that we take time to think about what is truly important. I love that it is a holiday that the world knows about and whether they choose to believe or not- it is celebration of the birth of our Savior - the best gift of all.  I hope the holidays were a special time for all of you.  Here are some highlights from ours...  

The Decorations 

The Uglies

We had an Ugly Sweater Party with our small group at our house.  However, there was a shortage of sweaters this year, so people mostly just came ugly :-)

The Family

Our sweet friend Cynthia came over to take some Christmas card pics (which were sent out a little late this year due to our cards getting stuck in New Mexico because of a snow storm).  These are a few of my favorites:

And then there was this one... can we say heart attack!  Cynthia was screaming as she took the picture and luckily I was around the corner so I didn't see it happen.  Gabe thought it was really funny... me, not so much.

Christmas Baby

I could tell from my pictures what my focus was on this year.  We didn't get a whole lot of pics of the adults, but there were plenty of Michael :-)  Here are some favorites...

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  I wish you much peace, love, joy and adventure in 2012!

8 Months!

I have not been very good about keeping up with this blogging thing.  I am now at a one post per month pace.  I hope to post more in 2012, but I'm not making any promises that I will more than likely break.  December is a busy month!  We celebrated Christmas here with my parents, Gabe's family and Gabe's Grandma.  There will be a Christmas post to come... soon... I hope...  but for now I will tell you about Michael's new accomplishments/milestones...

• According to our scale he now weighs 22 lbs and looks to be about 28 inches long.  He is passing up many 1 year olds that we know.
• He is sleeping pretty consistently from 8:30pm-7:00am and he takes 2 nap 1hr-2hr naps during the day, one at 10:30 and one at 3:30.  
• He is crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything and walking while holding on to stuff.
• He can give high fives.
• He is starting to ham it up a little for the camera (see below).
• He dances all the time.  Anytime there is music, singing, clapping, etc it is as though he can't help himself, the music takes over and he just can't help but rocks back and forth to the beat.  It is pretty cute.  This may be due to playing a lot of "Just Dance" on the Wii while I was pregnant.
• He tolerates pretty much any food (so far), but rocks back and forth when he is eating something he really likes.  (His dad did this too when he was a wee one, which is kind of strange.  Is there a happy food dance gene?)
• He will roll the ball to Hugo (brother dog) and Sadie (his auntie dog)
• He loves... doggies, his grandparents, his uncles and aunties, puffs, carrot souffle (discovered this on Christmas), eating, talking Carl (its an app), his talking bear, any toy that he can stand up to play with, his mommy and daddy, music, dancing, and baths.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Everyday his personality comes out a little more.  It is a joy to go into his room after a nap and see his little smiling face.  His curiosity and unabashed emotions are a wonder to watch.  He is a precious gift from above and I am so grateful that I get to be his momma.  We love you Mr. Michael!

Here he is hamming it up for the camera...