Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  We had a wonderful Christmas day.  Today is Norah's first Christmas.

After breakfast Brock opened his presents from Mama and Daddy.  He got some moon shoes, a voice changer, and a book.

Brock was excited when all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins came over.  He especially loved Aunt April's Christmas cookies.

Time to open presents! Brock wanted to wear his Santa Claus costume. Grammy and Papa gave Brock a new pair of cowboy boots.

 

Norah had fun opening her presents and observing Christmas chaos for the first time.

This year we had a white Christmas!  Brock loved playing in the snow.

 

 

Santa Claus Comes to Visit!

We had a surprise last night - Santa Claus!!!  He came to see us early this year.  Brock was very happy but Norah was scared of Santa.

 Brock helped Norah open her present from Santa.

Mama, save me!

Brock gets a big hug from Santa.

Bye Santa.  Thanks for the basketball goal.  See you next year.

Christmas Party

The Christmas party at Daddy's office was on Friday.  They had real snow for the kids to play in and Brock loved it.  It's nice to have snow in 70 degree weather.

The theme was the Grinch and the Whos.  We met the Grinch and heard the Who Singers.  Unfortunately the food was also Who themed - Who pudding, Who hash, roast beef sandwiches - not what I was expecting.  The Who hash looked really disgusting and no one was eating it. The Grinch was awesome!

Brock's Christmas Spirit

Brock has more Christmas spirit than anyone I know.  In August of last year he wanted to get out the Christmas tree and O Christmas Tree is his favorite song.  We been singing it at bedtime ever since then.  Last year he got a Christmas tree for his birthday to put in his room.  This year he wanted to put up his tree on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  He was on vacation from school and it was after his birthday party so why not?  Of course he wanted to wear his Santa suit.  After we put up the tree we listened to Christmas music.  In our house the Christmas season officially starts after Brock's birthday.

On Friday after Thanksgiving we put up our tree in the living room and got out all of the decorations.  Brock told Jared exactly which box he wanted, the car Christmas box.  This is the box that our garage door opener came in and it has a car on it.  When he opened it he got out his Mickey Mouse reindeer antlers hat and it them for the rest of the day.  He wore it on several trips to Home Depot and to the restaurant.  Here are some pictures of him helping get out decorations.

He began waking up very early every morning and going into the living room and turning on the Christmas tree lights.  I would get up after a while to check on him and find him sitting in the chair staring at the tree.  He would notice me and say "Christmas tree".  No other words were necessary.

In the evenings Brock will turn on the Christmas tree and dance to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and several other songs.  Then he sings Christmas songs.  His favorites are Jingle Bells, Rudolph, and Frosty.  I try to get it on video but as soon as he sees the camera he stops.  Sometimes he wears his Santa suit.

He also loves to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  We hope everyone is as excited about Christmas as Brock!

Norah is 11 Months Old!

Norah was 11 months old yesterday!  She's made a lot of progress in the past month.  Unfortunately I did not do a 10 months post.  Her 10 months birthday was the same day as Brock's birthday party and I completely forgot.  Shortly after 9 months it became obvious she was waving hi and goodbye to people and she does it all of the time.  She also pulled herself up to standing.  Between 10 and 11 months she got 2 new teeth, began clapping, ate Cheerios, and did the sign for more.  She loves Cheerios and it's usually the only food she wants to eat.  I am not sure if she knows the more sign means more or if she thinks it means Cheerios because she only does it for Cheerios.  But, if it's the only food she wants to eat then I guess it's also the only food she wants more of.  She doesn't seem to like food.  We've tried oatmeal, bananas, green peas and the only one she likes is Cheerios and sometimes Puffs.  She is also babbling a lot, ma-ma-ma-ma and da-da-da-da and some other sounds.  These don't mean mama and daddy yet as far as I can tell.  Another interesting development is fighting over toys.  Whatever Brock is playing with Norah wants and she messes up his toy set ups or spelling words by grabbing them or crawling through them.  Sometimes Brock gets frustrated but usually he keeps moving away from her and then will finally pick up his toys and go to another room.  Sometimes he pushes her and then she gets mad.  We are working on this.  Here is her sweet 11 months picture.

Brock's Birthday Party

Brock's birthday party was on Saturday.  This year he wanted to have a guitar party.  For the first hour the kids played in the backyard.  Everyone loved the tube slide and the bouncy house.

Then everyone came inside to see Mr. Richard!  Mr. Richard is Brock's favorite musician and he did a concert in our living room.


After the concert we had cake and ice cream. 

It was the greatest birthday party ever.  Brock didn't want it to end.  After everyone left he went back to the table where he had some leftover cake and put one of his candles back in it.  We lit the candle and he sang Happy Birthday to himself and blew out his candle.  He did this 4 or 5 times. If only it could be his birthday everyday!

Brock is 5 Years Old!

Brock's birthday was November 15th.  I can't believe he is 5 years old.  He had a great birthday.  One of his classmates has the same birthday and they had a party at school.

After school we went to Kindermusik class and Brock got to wear the birthday hat.

After music class some friends came over to play.  We ate Wendy's for supper and then opened presents.

Thank you to everyone for the birthday presents!