Cool Picture

Mike took this the last time that he on a trip. Mike was on his Dad's plane and Wake Island is in the background.

Toddler

Chris loves to crawl up the stairs, and every night before bed, he gets to! We usually start from the den, crawl through the kitchen, the dining room, living room, and up the stairs. Lately, Chris has been trying to walk more than crawl. He's walking more every day! This was recorded in the evening afer his birthday party. Since we hadn't cleaned up the dining/living room yet, there are a lot more distractions than normal, and it took me awhile to get him up the stairs. There's nothing extremely amusing about this video, but I wanted to show family and friends who don't get to see Chris very often. Have patience, he walks at the end...and its about a 1:15 clip.

Like I said, not extremely amusing, but it is kind of funny when he falls on the pooh bear glow worm and then is surprised by it singing under his tushie.

Sledding!

We finally had all the right conditions to go "sledding!"

Lately its been below zero with even farther below zero windchills...
Before that, there was ice...

and before that, more ice...

Before that, Rain. Rain. Rain.

Today was cold (in the high 20's), but warmer than other recent days with very little wind. We have had a couple snow falls recently. While Mike cleared the driveway this afternoon, I took Chris for a sled ride. He giggled and smiled the whole time! Such a dare devil...

Here's a video of one trip down the driveway!

Chris' First Birthday Party

Chris turned one on Friday the 9th. Mike had to work all that weekend, so we had a small party for Chris on the 17th. All of Mike's family, my dad, and our friends Matt and Angie were able to come. Chris seemed to enjoy his cake, and didn't make too big of a mess. Oh yea...he HATED the hat! I put it on and he seemed to tolerate it. I took it off...and then put it back on again. TEARS!! So the hat stayed off...

Per Aunt Pam's advice, we used chocoalte icing to make sure it would show up in the photos :) I did make the frosting myself and used cream cheese, and about 1/2 the sugar that the original recipe called for. It turned out really yummy!

Since Chris didn't get too messy, the clean-up wasn't too bad. I held him while Mike rinsed him off in the sink.

Mike's mom made Chris a really neat quilt! The actual quilt stitching is airplanes and clouds as well. It should be about the perfect size for his toddler bed when he's ready for one.

Aunt Sandy gave Chris some cute clothes.

Angie and Matt got Chris a Little People Airplane.

We appreciate the gifts and the company and were really glad that everyone who was able to come did!

"Spring" Cleaning

Chris decided to get a head start on spring cleaning this year. We figured that once he started emptying that cabinet, we'd just let him finish since there was a shelf that needed to be put back in anyway.

Playing Catch Up #4--Christmas with the J side

By official Christmas day, we had celebrated Christmas with Laura's mom and Mike's family already. Christmas day was very low-key and relaxing. Laura's dad came over to visit and had dinner with us. We had a small ham and fixins. After dinner, we went to Grandma J's house to have dessert. She was invited to come over and open gifts, but she didn't feel like getting out in the cold weather. Maybe next time!

Playing Catch Up #3--Christmas with the G side!

Christmas with Mike's side of the Family! This is everyone except Uncle Bob who was unable to come :(

Mike's grandparents recently moved here from WI. The unfortunate part of their move is that they moved into an assisted living facility because grandma had a stroke in the summer of '08 and isn't as independent as she used to be. The WONDERFUL part is that they are so much closer to all of the grandkids and great grandkids now. We celebrated Christmas at their apartment building. We had a pitch-in style dinner and exchanged gifts. It was a really nice afternoon. I think we all enjoyed ourselves! Chris made out like a bandit!! He got all sorts of new things from his grandparents and Aunt Sandy and Uncle Michael.

Chris got a curious george monkey and book, a lawn mower push toy, some college savings bond money, a little toy tractor with large lego-type blocks, and a Purdue outfit. He'll be able to wear his Purdue outift in a couple months. He's been playing with all the toys and enjoying them since Christmas.

I think this is the biggest collection of pictures I have of people NOT looking at the camera!! So many cameras, so many gifts to open, and new toys to play with...no one knows which cameras to look at! Oh well, at least you can see who all was there.

Playing Catch Up #2--Chris' First Haircut

Chris had his haircut for the 1st time on Christmas Eve. I was worried that he would fuss and fight, but he didn't. He was his usual easy going self and just sat on Mike's lap. He got a little squirmy at the end. Mike would bounce his knee for a couple seconds and when he stopped, the stylist would swoop in and take a couple snips.

Pre-Cut

Getting a trim

Playing Catch Up #1--Mom's Visit/Five Generations

My mother and step-father came to visit in November around Thanksgiving. While they were here, we spent a lot of time at my Aunt Pam and Uncle Doug's house. My grandparents (mom's parents) were here from Florida as well. It was nice to have everyone together. The last several years, this has been the norm in November--that the out of towner's visit that time of year--and I really look forward to it!

Uncle Doug was playing with Chris. To coax him into the living room, Uncle Doug crawled and hollered for Chris to come with him. It was really cute, so I took a picture :)

Since my mom and Perry wouldn't be able to see us at Christmas, they brought us our Christmas gifts to open in November. The red present was mine, but Chris was really into checking out presents by that time! He got a "Little Snoopy" pull toy and some cute clothes from his Grandma and Grandpa Tibbits.

While my mom and Grandma were in town, we took a 5 generations photo. In this photo is my Great Grandmother Hollingsworth, Grandma Dawson, mother, Chris, and I. When I was around 18 months old (I think), there was a five generations photo taken of my Great Great Grandmother Devore, Great Grandma Hollingsworth, Grandma Dawson, mother, and I. One of these days, I'll have to get around to making a copy of that photo and scrapbooking it next to this one.

Chris on the move on Mike's 30th Birthday!

Chris has been taking 2 or 3 steps at a time lately. Its so fun to watch him try to walk. Matt, Stefanie, and Oscar came over to celebrate Mike's 30th birthday with us. After dinner, the boys were playing on the living room floor. Chris thought he could just stand up and walk just like Oscar. He was doing a good job!

But then he got tired...

Mike spent all night flying home from Guam and was really tired. He got about 2 hours of sleep during the day. He knew he needed to try to stay awake as much as possible though to get his schedule back on track. We went to Texas Roadhouse with our friends, and then had cake at home.