anticlimactic

a wonderful morning earlier this week...

all dressed up for our cbs Christmas party

the kids playing outside. of all the toys, this little hill and brick wall is always a favorite!

the hodges kids came and played the other day. i decided, as much as i love them and as awesome as they are, i don't want six kids under seven!!!

our feat of the week. nora has had a FEAR of mr potato head for six months. can't figure it out. if she knows where it's hidden, she won't go near it. but, we got it out for the friends to play with. this was her initial staredown with him. i found her like this. she stayed that way for a few minutes. however, she has decided that she now LOVES mr ph. he's her new favorite toy!!

you can't quite see it in the picture, but while i was cleaning up breakfast the other morning, i realized that both of my kids were in the family room, reading!!!

we did our Christmas last night...

nora loves the new easel she got!!!

i went to a cookie exchange this morning (after my 7 mile run!!!), and this was the display i took!! david was disappointed that i couldn't just come home with my own cookies!!!

meanwhile, david had a couple from his work over to watch the army-navy game (go navy, beat army!!!). they have twin girls about a month older than james. he LOVED having babies his age over to play. it was so much fun!!! they all swapped pacifiers and just stared at each other!!! such a fun day... and navy won!! that helped a bit!

so, dec 11 2009 was a big day for us. and, it passed just like any other day. it was the day that james got freedom from his shoes! starting yesterday, he only has to wear his shoes at night. (although, i admit, there were a few days last week that i forgot and they were off most of the day anyway.) but it was weird. no appointment, just an arbitrary day that we take his shoes off! it's nice to have the freedom. we are, in essence, done with that phase, i hope. just follow-up visits from now on!

james is crawling all over the place. it's so fun to watch him. and, like any good kid, he beelines straight for the dog food and water. every time. nora still has the lock on her door, and several mornings this week, i have heard "mommy, can i get up now??". once, i was feeding james, so i said "can you hang on just a minute". she said "sure, no problem". it's the sweetest little voice when she says it, too! what an angel!!