12 months later.

I was trying to do a little bit of a redo of the first picture. It didn't work so well.  :)

OK, it's about time for an update I suppose.  Nothing big to report, but here's a run-down of the last few weeks.

We decided to do a little bit more (a very little bit more) for New Years this year.  We watched Ratatouille as a family over on the big screen at Michael's office.  Chandler spent the entire time trying to skoot across the table so he could snatch the remote.  We let Jessica stay up until 9pm when we watched a YouTube clip of the ball dropping in 2008 (it'll be sad once she realizes the difference).  :)  We rang in the "new year" with party horns. 

We've had a lot of snow this winter, but it's also been FREEZING.  Because of the cold we've stayed inside a lot.  At the start of the year we had a few warmer days so we went outside to have some fun in the snow.

 

The first Sunday of the new year was a big one for Jessica.  She is now in Sunbeams at church (3yr old class) rather than nursery.  She's lucky to have two AMAZING teachers and she loves ever minute of it.  Here she is before her first day.

I also teach little kids at church.  I'm over the 4 year olds.  They are a cute little group.  I have a set of twins and two kids out of a set of quads (the other two are in different classes due to developmental differences).  I also have a few other cute kids (only one of which is in the picture).

 

And here are a few pictures of Chan.  Can you believe he's almost a year old!?  I can't.  Maybe that's just because he STILL doesn't have any teeth.  Goofy kid.  :)

He's so proud of himself being up at the table instead of in his high chair. And yes, he is seriously always smiling like this.

And I saved the best for last.  Jessica has personality... I'm not sure how else to explain it. :)

Christmas!

Christmas Eve and Christmas were busy for our family. We started a new Christmas Eve tradition and made tamales for dinner. Michael was busy all day with the preparations. Yum!

The evening of Christmas Eve Jessica watched the new Christmas movie Prep and Landing (ABC - it's too funny) with her Uncle Jon, we went to the temple visitors center and listened to a presentation about the Savior, made cookies for Santa, and read the Christmas story.

We finished off Christmas Eve by opening our PJs from Grandma and Papa Hales - Thanks! Who doesn't LOVE getting new pajamas?!

Christmas morning began with the stockings. Jessica had a ridiculous haul just from that. It's too easy to find fun things for that girl. Chandler was thrilled with his new binkies. :)

Opening the rest of the presents...

The favorite toy of the day had to be Chandler's remote control airplane from G&G Hales. Jessica also loved making a crazy amount of noise on her new recorder. Don't you just love her face in the bottom left picture? That is pure Jessica. :)

And in case we missed you, here was our Christmas card for the year. Merry Christmas!

P.S. If you didn't receive a card from us in the mail feel free to send me an email (laurageese@gmail.com) with your address for next year. There's a good chance I didn't have an up to date address for you.

December so far...

Here's a run-down of what we've been up to this month:

We discovered open gym at the local rec center.


Jessica wrote a letter to Santa asking for "musical instruments." Well, she told me what to write and she decorated it with stickers and drawings about naughty monsters. Silly kid.


We made Christmas cookies.


Jessica and Michael got down with their bad selves. :)


I had a b-day (25!).
FYI - The New Moon poster was a gag gift. I like the books; the movies... not as much.


Chandler got into his Mommy's magazines, just like another little baby a few years back.


Chandler mastered the art of crawling... sort of.


Christmas post to come soon...

He's Crawling (Kind Of)

I took Chan with me to teach the Deacons today and ended up setting him down to play while I expounded on the mysteries of womanhood. To my surprise, he got down and started crawling military-style over to me. Looks like our little guy is finally going to be mobile.

The Car Wash!

The car's needed a good cleaning the last month, but with the temperature jumping between -14 and 28 degrees, we weren't very motivated. So I took Jessica too the car wash yesterday and she had a blast.

New Talents

Nope, he's still not crawling... but Chandler has developed another very exciting talent. :)

Spaghetti

Chandler has discovered a new favorite food.

That smile makes the clean-up so worth it.