Merry Christmas, everyone!

We've been busy with baking cookies.

Decorating them was quite a lot of fun.

Eating them was even better!!

Uummmm!

Pretty nice lookin' batch of cookies, don't ya think?

Mommy & I worked on this gingerbread tree.

The little "lights" kept rolling off the table though.

We did manage to save enough of the little balls to decorated the tree.

On Christmas Eve I opened one present.

My little bus that I received shortly after coming home in May quit working in the summer. Well, I like buses so much that it didn't matter. Wow! Was I surprised to open the box and see ANOTHER ONE!

It's the SAME!

("Same" is the word for the week. Everything that could possibly be the same gets labeled as "same". He's getting the idea! He even lined up the people from the two buses and matched them up as twins and proudly exclaimed, "Same!")

Ah! Just what I always wanted.

Christmas morning I was SO SURPRISED to find a tractor hiding behind the Christmas tree.

At first I was a little bit afraid of it because it moves whenever I put my foot on the little foot holder. But Daddy quickly taught me that THAT is what makes this tractor so fun. I can make it go all by myself. I do admit that I need a few driving lessons!

Uncle Tom & Aunt Judy sent me the sweatshirt that matches my tractor. They didn't even know I was getting the tractor, but it's fun that the two match.

Getting the hang of driving this machine.

Go, go, go!!!

I think I like my new tractor.

For supper we went over to the neighbors' house.

Since their dog didn't want to come out to play with me, I just went into the kennel to play with her.

We were blessed to have such a Christmas feast with such good friends.

We miss Gramma, Grampa, Abuela and all my aunts, uncles and cousins and wish we could have been together for Christmas. Although we weren't together physically, we hold them near and dear to our hearts. We are thankful for each family member and for all of our dear friends.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you had a great day celebrating Jesus' birthday.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Bad hair day?

Who's having a bad hair day?

Not me!

Surprise! I'm your Christmas present this year!

Now that is one tasty chicken leg!

Shhh! I'm sleeeeeeeeeping.

(Sometimes on the way up or down the stairs I just lie down and say I'm sleeping. I've been told not to play on the steps, and Mommy & Daddy do a good job of watching me. One day I decided I was big enough to go down the basement, without assistance, to visit Dad. I got down that first step before Mommy saw me. She told me to sit down. So I did. As I sat, my head got ahead of the rest of me and, yep, you guessed it... there I went. Head over heals. Sideways, backward, kerrrr-plunk! Mommy & Daddy both ran fast and picked me up. I must have squished several of my guardian angels on the way down because I never did get any bruises from that trip down the stairs. We are all very thankful for that and I am a LOT more cautious on those steps!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

This is the first snow that I got to play in!

I saw snow in October while we were in Iowa, but I didn't play in it.

Thank goodness for snowpants, boots, a warm coat and mittens!

Rolley-poley

Hmmm... it sticks to my mittens.

And it IS kinda cold.

I was so excited to get to pick up sticks that blew down during the storm last week.

Nice fluffy snow that cleaned up with a broom.

I need to get a shovel!

Decorating the Christmas tree with candy canes started out to be a serious task.

You must place them CAREFULLY on the branches.

Or... throw them on.

That works too and it's a lot more fun.

Strikin' a pose with the red hat!

If I don't get a chance to blog before next Friday, I want to wish you a Happy CHRISTMAS.

I know that Santa is just a fun thing, and the real reason for giving gifts at Christmas is to remember the greatest Gift ever given. God gave his only son and sent him as a little tiny baby to come and live on earth, then to die so that we might have eternal life with Him, if we believe in Jesus and ask him to be our personal Savior. Now, that's quite a gift, wouldn't you say?

The hat is pretty cute, though.

Merry Christmas!

I guess we HAVE done things lately.....

Hi People! I'm back!!

It's hard to believe it has been nearly a month since I've blogged.

I thought we hadn't done too much, just stay home, play and grow.

When Mommy put the pictures on the computer we saw that there were almost 300 pictures since we last blogged! Wow, I guess we HAVE done things! I won't show you all 300 pictures, just some of them. The next month is going to be a busy one, but I'll TRY to update a little more often that I did last month. Ready to see what we've done? Here we gooooooooo.....

I spent a lot of time just being silly.

I get REALLY excited when I see yellow school buses!

Playing with my toys has taken up a lot of my time.

As you can see, I do have a few toys to keep me occupied.

I've also been working on dressing myself.

I've got taking my pants off perfected and now I'm working on putting them back on.

It's hard not to get two legs in one hole! Tricky walking when that happens!

Socks...keeping them on my feet is a chore for Mommy! Sometimes I pull HER socks off and wear them!

Who needs pants when your socks come up to your diaper?

We said "good-bye" to an old friend. Yep, the box finally had to go.

It has been a favorite toy since I first got home from China.

Oh, the thought of throwing this great toy away is just too much!

We went to a parade of lights. We had a great spot to watch the parade...

We got there early.

I was ready to see my first parade!

This nice lady gave me my first pack of parade candy.

Cool! I think I'm going to like parades!

Mmmm! Candy!

Our great viewing spot quickly got overrun by other people who stood in front of us.

Daddy put me on his shoulders, then taller people stood in front of him. So finally I just sat on his head!

We've been working on cleaning up brush from the side yard.

Daddy had a pretty big fire going, didn't he?!

While Daddy was busy tending the fire, I checked the tires and made sure the car was ready for our trip.

We were getting ready to have our family picture taken.

Good thing Mommy decided to see if my shirt fit.

The sleeves were a LITTLE bit short and the shoulders a BIT tight.

Plan B!

Here we are. All three of us together in one picture!

After we got our pictures taken we went to see the Cleft team.

The doctors said that everything looks good, no problems, no food restrictions!

I'm good to go. They'll keep a close check on me, but I'm doing well!

Thanks for all the prayers.

Then we headed out for Delaware.

Daddy had to give a talk at the university out there, so Mommy and I rode along. While he was busy working, we drove out to the inter-coastal waterway to see if we could see any big boats. It was rainy and foggy, but we had a good time anyway.

Nope, no boats in these leaves.

I couldn't see the ship off in the distant fog,

but I had fun looking for it.

Hmmm, I wonder if there are any animals inside the hole in this tree.

I went to the ticket booth to buy a ticket for the train,

but nobody was there.

(New Castle - Frenchtown Railroad c.1832)

The streets were made of rocks.

Mommy said they are called "cobblestone".

Try as I might, I just couldn't pick up any of those rocks that were in the road.

Time to leave the hotel.

Gotta take the important things to the car!

On the way home we went to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum.

They had toy trains and really big REAL trains.

I even got to sit in the conductor's chair

and wave at the people passing by.

Driving the train with Dad.

This shoveling coal is hard work!

"I've been workin' on the raaaaaaailrooooad..."

"...All the live-long day...."

After we left the railroad museum we headed up to Hershey.

I was sleeping when we arrived, but decided that since

Chocolate is so yummy I would wake up and check it all out!!

Mmmm! I'm glad I did!

We rode on these little cars on an animated tour of how they make chocolate bars.

So many souvenirs to choose from.

I think I'll take one of each!

We saw some really pretty scenery on the drive home.

You've heard the joke about the kid who licked his finger and stuck it into each piece of cake saying "Mine, mine, mine"... Well, this is MY method of claiming all the crackers. One bite out of each pretty much assures nobody else will eat them!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our dear neighbors.

Wow, what a spread!

We have so very much to be thankful for this year:

becoming a family of 3,

extended family,

friends,

health,

God's provision for all we need!

Baby Raya and her Mommy & Daddy were home for Thanksgiving too.

So much food, then...

DESSERT!

Wow!!

Oh, goodness! I don't know if I can eat all this.

I gave Raya a ride on my horse.

Riding my truck at home.

Riding on Daddy's back!

'Tis the season for making cookies.

I got to lick the beater.

Hey, as long as I get to lick the beater, I'm going to lick it clean!

Spatula licking is almost as fun as licking the beater.

It's a lot easier.

Is this the way to roll the dough?

Roll it, then eat it, right?

Expert dough ball roller!

Are they done yet?

Oh, yes they are! MMMmm!

What a fun day with Mommy.