Another Christmas has come and gone...almost!  We still have one get together tonight.  My poor little nephew Aiden was sick with the stomach flu on Christmas and the day after (when we were originally going to do our Christmas), so we postponed it until today.  So far, our holiday season has been great.  We went to my Dad's family gathering Christmas Eve, Travis's Granny's Christmas afternoon, and we opened our gifts at home that evening.  I worked for 4 1/2 hours on Christmas morning, so we stayed at Mom and Dad's the night before, and that was definitely a bad call!  Elliot was up half the night for some reason--could have been the Pack 'n Play or the fact that Travis and I were in the same room as he was, so I was lucky if I got 4 hours of sleep before heading off to work.  Maybe he was taking all of this Santa stuff seriously??  All's well that ends well though, everything else went very smoothly. 

I can't believe my eensy baby has had his first Christmas already!!  It absolutely, positively blows my mind!  Harry was definitely more involved in Christmas this year.  He and Travis spent some time on Christmas Eve tracking Santa on Norad, and periodically he would come running out to me saying "Christmas is coming!!".  He was really good about opening up his presents, but the process is sooooo slooooow.  Every gift he got he wanted to open and play with right then and there.  It was cute at first, but I didn't want to sit for 97 hours straight opening presents so we had to speed him along a bit.  However, things came to an absolute grinding halt after opening his very own Little Tikes bowling pin set.  After that, all present opening ceased and he was determined to play with that for the rest of the evening.  And the next day.  And the next day after that.  He loves them to say the least.  The day after Christmas brought the biggest gift though--an aquarium!!  We are now the proud owners of four two (yep, two have already kicked the bucket!) fish and Harry couldn't be happier!  They also have another big fan, Roxy the kitty cat.  She is having fun sitting on the table watching the fish...I can only hope she is not plotting some sort of murder against our only remaining fish friends.  Here were our favorite gifts this Christmas:  Travis and I got some gift cards to Dick's for our hopefully coming soon workout room, cash, Aldo shoes (Trav), and a Tiffany's necklace (me).  Harry's were definitely the bowling pins, fish tank, Little League Baseball game for Wii, GeoTrax Airport, and Elefun.  Elliot likes his new Leapfrog table, Sesame Street pop-up toy, and all the wrapping paper he can get his hands on.  We couldn't be any more blessed, I really don't think it's possible!

Enjoy a few pictures of our wonderful Christmas.  Of course, my memory card decided to be full on Christmas so I don't have a ton.   

Can't beat it--striking baby blues with the cutest shirt and sweater ever!  With Santa slippers thrown in as a bonus!!

A little too much holiday cheer perhaps??

Huh?  You want us to look at Mom??

 Watch out all of you pro bowlers out there!

December has flown by at absolutely break-neck speed!  And to be truthful, in my old age it is exausting!  Here is a quick snapshot of what we have been up to lately:

Who needs toys when I have my trusty gate to play with?? 

• Elliot is now 9 months old!!  3/4 of a year old if you can believe that!  He got a perfect report at his well baby check.  Here are his latest stats:  Weight is 17 lbs 11 oz (20th percentile), length 28 1/4 in (75th percentile) and head was 46cm (50th percentile).  I continue to be baffled about how is weight stays on the low side, because I'm pretty sure the kid could eat a mountain of food unless I cut him off first!  His hemoglobin was good and he got a flu shot to boot.  Hopefully we can make it out of the cold and flu season without having to go back to the doctor until he turns one.
• Work has been so hectic and so not fun.  We got a new computer system at the beginning of the month, and that coupled with being busier due to the time of year made for some bad times.  Thank goodness that I had a few vacation days to use by the end of the year so I have been off work for about a week.  I am working about 4.5 hours on Christmas morning, the weekend after, and my regular Monday and Tuesday, and then.......hello my new best friend, Part-time!  Hip hip hooray!!  I really could not be more excited or grateful for this new opportunity and chapter in my life.  Work for Travis is having it's typical holiday slowdown period which is both good and bad.  He will be extremely busy when the new year starts, so I think the short break in action is good for him.  He actually took yesterday off, we took the kids to Katrina's and we did every bit of our Christmas shopping since we haven't had a free weekend all season.  It was fun, but tiring, and reeeeally stinking cold.  But it's all done and I can officially be excited for Thursday.  We have some big things up our sleeves for these boys!
• Harry is pretty much non-stop from morning to nap time, then from the afternoon till bedtime.  For the most part though, he's not wild or out of control.  He's just really active, funny, and extremely talkative.  It is almost humorous to think back a few months ago and remember that we were actually worried about his speech.  Just this morning (after sleeping in until 9:30--not sure what I did to deserve that!) he came in and started telling me immediately about what we did Friday night.  He is also into singing songs--unfortunately he doesn't know too many of them so we sing the ABC's, Jingle Bells, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and The Backyardigans ad nauseum, but it's still fun.  He is also still obsessed about the Wii, so much so that he now imitates what all of our Miis look like and act like on the games.  I really think acting could be in this kid's future some day!  : )

Our plan for today is to relax and rest up for an action packed next few days.  Harry's 3rd Christmas (and the first one that I think he will start to realize exactly what is going on!) and Elliot's 1st, definitely things to be excited about and grateful for!

Look at us being soooo good.....are you watching, Santa???

So, yeah.  It's reeeeeally cold outside.  The kind of cold where you kinda feel like a bad parent getting your kids out, especially when they won't wear hats or mittens.  Since when do eight month old babies learn to be defiant of their parents anyway??  Elliot always gets so mad when he gets put in his carseat and covered up with a blanket, and forget about the hat because he won't wear it for longer than 5 seconds.  Harry is getting a little bit better in this department.  When the weather got cool enough to wear a coat or jacket all of the time, he was having absolutely none of it.  It was such a battle to get him to put on the thing that a few times (when it wasn't this cold, of course!) I gave up and let him be cold.  However, lately he hasn't protested and will even---gasp!!---let me put his hood up.  Yay for Harry!!  Maybe since things are going so swimmingly I will try mittens.  I am such the optimist! 

 Harry has really been knocking it out of the park with his speech lately.  Every day we have a moment where we are like, did he just say that??  He has been cracking me up lately with his new favorite question:  How 'bout dis one, Mom?  As in, how about this snack, or this game, or this shirt, whatever he wants at that moment.  He also switches it up with "how 'bout dis way?" when he wants us to turn on a certain road.  It is really cute.  He also still loves to talk about the car wash even though it scares him to go through it.  Travis must have told him the price of it because now he add that in to the car wash conversation.  "Car wash fifteen dollars.  Water and soap."  You're telling me, buddy!  Outrageous!  "Dora, Elmo, and Mickey in seat at car wash (they have dolls of some cartoon characters in the drying part of the car wash for the kids to look at).  We go bye-bye car wash, Mom?"  Um, nope.  That's why your dad told you it was fifteen dollars each time we go in because we can't afford to go every day!  He has also started to ask why questions a lot.  This morning we went around and around about not being able to go all of the places he was listing off because I had to go to work.  We go bye-bye to store, Mom?  No, sorry buddy.  Why?  Because, I have told you about a hundred times today that I have to go to work!  Grrrr.  I am beginning to think that he hates to be at home because he is always asking to go somewhere.  Hopefully that is just his way of making conversation! 

The Christmas spirit is starting to kick into full gear around our house.  We put our decorations up last Saturday which was fun.  We have a little tree for the kids' playroom and I bought some Sesame Street ornaments last year after Christmas on sale, and I think Harry thought it was pretty cool to decorate his own little tree.  Friday night after doing a little bit of shopping, we drove through a Christmas light display that a tractor dealership sets up in our town.  I think it is pretty cheezy (sorry if you live around me and think it is cool!), but I agreed to go through for Travis and Harry's sake.  I'm glad I did because Harry was totally eating it up!  He pointed out every thing, he even spotted things up ahead that I hadn't noticed.  I will be excited to get the shopping started after my monster week at work coming up....I am working this weekend, and on top of working extra for a co-worker whose wife just delivered their new baby, we are getting a new computer system next week which I will need to come in extra for as well.  Fun times!!  I don't typically have to go the extra mile for my job so it's okay.  I'm just ready for it to be over!