Santa's Lil Helper

Jackson was extra good today in hopes that Santa would bring him a present for Jesus' birthday tomorrow. We had a great day. It started with a little yard work, and Jackson was ready to help!

Audrey was a great supervisor.

They also had fun playing in the piles of leaves.

The afternoon was spent at the Christmas Eve service at our church. We got there early to take a family picture and have some cookies and hot chocolate with our friends. Jackson went to the service with us tonight. It was his first time in "big church". He loved the music but had to be taken out during the sermon. He came back just in time for the candle lighting, which was beautiful.

Before going to bed tonight, Jackson very carefully picked out cookies for Santa...

This was our first Christmas Eve at home, and while we have missed our families, it has been a great beginning to new traditions. There are more pictures of our fun day in the album.

Christmas Cookies!

Jackson and I had a cookie date the last two afternoons. Yesterday I picked him up from school early, and we went home to bake cookies. He helped spread the flour and sugar on the counter, roll out the dough, and cut out the shapes.

Then today I picked him up right after nap time, and we spent the afternoon decorating! It was a messy process, but it was lots of fun! We made red, green, and white icing together. Jackson poured in the milk, added the food coloring, and helped stir. When it was time to decorate, he preferred drizzling the icing as opposed to spreading it. He also preferred dumping the sprinkles over gently shaking them, so I quickly learned to pour a little in his hand and let him dump from there. He was very proud of his work, and I was too!

Jackson loves singing Christmas carols. Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Clause is Coming to Town are sung regularly, which means every snowman cookie was Frosty. He loved making a smiley face and buttons for him. Jackson even tried to make a Rudolph out of a candy cane cookie by giving it a red nose! Here is a picture of the finished cookies. Jackson contributed to each and everyone!

Party Weekend!

Last weekend was a little bit of a blur, but we enjoyed every minute of it. So much so that I actually didn't take many pictures!

Friday afternoon Jackson and Audrey's day care hosted Santa Claus and had their class holiday parties. Audrey's teachers had some delicious cookies and drinks for the parents since the babies were really too young to do much. Jackson's class was ready to party though. They had lots of goodies and even did a little gift exchange. They were adorable!

One of the other moms came in early and did face painting and balloon animals with the kids. Jackson got a snowman!

Jackson was super excited about his gifts, and his Uncle Bud would be too. He got a truck and trailer with a horse in it! He spent most of the afternoon at home driving the horse around and taking him in and out of the trailer. He also got some great books from his teachers!

Finally, the big moment came...the kids got the opportunity to sit in Santa's lap! Jackson did pretty well, but Audrey wanted nothing to do with that nice, bearded man.

We quickly rescued Audrey and made our way back to the class rooms before heading home. There are more pictures of the adorable kiddos in JD and Audrey's classes in the album.

The rest of the evening Friday was spent at our house with our Life Group from church and their families. We had a jolly old time eating, talking, and playing.

Saturday was my office Christmas party. We hosted the ODIN flight control group and their families. We had chili and all the fixin's, and everyone brought an appetizer or a dessert...we definitely weren't short on food! Jackson and Audrey actually made it to bed before anyone showed up, and they slept through the entire party!

Sunday was Ross' birthday! We went to church as usual, and then came home to a special lunch. Jackson helped me bake a cake for Ross, and after naps we all enjoyed a piece!

Sunday evening we celebrated Ross' birthday with a small group of friends at one of Ross' favorite restaurants, The Grille at Cullens. One of Jackson's teachers baby sat for us, so we got to relax and enjoy the evening!

The Great Outdoors!

We spent most of our weekend finishing our Christmas shopping, so when we were home long enough for Jackson to play, he was eager to get outside, and he even stopped to smile for a picture or two.

There are a few more pics in the album.

Audrey is 9 Months Old!

It's hard to believe another month has slipped by, but Audrey is 9 months old now! Her personality is really beginning to develop, and it's clear that she has a very different personality than Jackson. We've decided that if you try to figure out which of the 5 love languages (words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch) are most important to each of them at this age, Audrey's would be quality time, and Jackson's would be physical touch closely followed by words of affirmation. Jackson has always loved to be hugged and to give hugs. A pat on the back goes a long way for him. Audrey on the other hand, doesn't care much for a hug. I think it just interferes with seeing what's going on around her. She wants to be with you though. There's no doubt about that! She wants to watch and talk and laugh and play. It will be interesting to see if their love languages change as they grow.

Here are Audrey's milestones for the month:

• She is an expert crawler as you can see below.
• She pulls up on everything, stands unsupported for short periods of time, and is cruising around.
• She is becoming a climber...today we found her sitting on top of one of those huge packages of toilet paper as we were unloading groceries.
• She has 5 teeth with a 6th that has just been waiting to pop through for a while now.
• She is eating all types of table foods including meat...Lupe Tortilla is one of her favorites!
• She drinks from a straw.
• She waves "hi" and "bye".

Here are a few pictures of our adorable 9 month old! There are more in the album.

Audrey loves to put everything in her mouth...something Jackson rarely did, so we have to keep a closer eye on what she's trying to grab!

She doesn't mind sharing yet though.

Daddy knows how to make her smile!

Our beautiful little girl...

Christmas Pics

This weekend we took advantage of the weather, dressed the kids up, and took them to the park to take some Christmas pictures. Here's what we got of the two of them together...

There are more pictures of the two of them in the Christmas album.

We also played a little while we were there and managed to get a few cute individual pics too.

There are more individual pictures in each of the kiddos' albums, Audrey and Jackson.

Here's an extra picture of Audrey from earlier this week. They took pictures at school, so she was dressed up and decided to check out a star on our Christmas tree.

Playing Around

We had a lot of wonderful family time yesterday. I didn't get pictures of everything, but we put together puzzles, built forts, and spent a lot of time outside enjoying the hot December weather...it's Houston.

Jackson has learned to entertain himself outside. The swing is still his favorite place to be, but he's beginning to spend a little more time on the rock wall, slide, and drums.

Jackson continues to be an amazingly sweet big brother. He is sharing toys (by taking turns or giving Audrey a toy of her own if she has something he wants), as well as his water cup, which means Audrey has learned to drink from a straw. I guess it's time to get her a cup of her own!

She is pulling up on everything and even stands on her own for a few seconds from time to time. She is very deliberate in everything she does. When she's ready to sit down, she reaches her hand down to the floor and slowly lowers herself. Jackson, on the other hand, would just plop down when he was done standing at this stage. She's also beginning to wave, both by opening and closing her hand and waving her arm up and down.