Holiday Crafts

*This is posting while we are snow skiing in Red River, NM. A post on that will follow next week.*

Lillian spent a lot of time before Christmas coloring and crafting. She is extremely creative and is constantly coming up with an idea or project she wants to do. There are many things happening in this picture so I'll explain everything.

1. The people circled in the background: She wanted to create a duplicate of herself and Lucas so she could play paper dolls. I helped with tracing and cutting. She chose the clothes colors.

2. The coloring: Lillian dug through a box of cards and found an Easter card from grandparents and decided to color the characters.

3. The snowman at the bottom of the picture: This was her idea to use to decorate the house once the Christmas stuff is put away. She used glitter and crayons to embellish. I had forgotten how messy glitter can be!

By the way, this is how our dining room table looks ALL THE TIME! We simply push everything over to eat then it goes right back to art central.

Santa Surprised Me This Year!

It would be wrong of me to call these my "favorite" gifts because I should be thankful for healthy children, a loving family, and a job in this troubled economy. Don't get me wrong; I am thankful for all of those things and many others. But... I LOVE THESE GIFTS, TOO!

Brent bought me a little Canon camera so I could carry it in my purse on excursions with the kids so I can snap pictures without lugging our Nikon around. I had hinted about it for months but decided if he didn't buy it for me, I'd buy one for myself after Christmas. I love how small it is and the neat features like color enhancement and image stabilization. I also love that it is small enough for purse or diaper bag. In fact, I've been carrying it there ever since I got it. The picture quality is pretty good, especially for what I'll use it for.


I have secretly wanted an ipod for a while now but never voiced it out loud until recently. I happened to mention to my sister that I would kinda like to have one but it wasn't a necessity blah, blah, blah. She told "Santa" aka my parents and so I got a big surprise at Christmas this year. I discovered that it makes menial tasks like folding laundry and taking down the Christmas tree much more interesting when I have music right at my fingertips. I think I'll try an audiobook next; I have never been one to listen to books in the car but my limited time these days might make that a better option for "reading" books.

Young Christmas 2008

After leaving Elgin, we drove 10 minutes to Apache for Christmas Day. There are 5 cousins with this side of the family so Christmas gift opening proved to be entertaining. Here are a few pictures of the mayhem:

Brady is the new arrival this year.

Cole and Lucas wore (almost) matching pjs and loved dumping the blocks.

The perfect grandparent/grandchildren pic still alludes us. One or more is always crying/fussing/or, in this case, watching tv.

Lucas, PaPa, Lillian, Cole, Jackson, Grandma Charlotte, and Brady

Kirkpatrick Christmas 2008

We headed to Elgin Tuesday afternoon to start our Christmas adventure. Ty, Lindsey, and Heather were already there and, of course, Trace, Sarah, and Nathan weren't far away. We traditionally have our Christmas on Christmas Eve morning with stockings, a big breakfast, and tons of gifts. Here is my parent's tree with presents galore!

Granddad Doug with Lucas, Nathan in the carrier, and Grammy with Lillian

Lillian with her "stash"

Lucas opens a gift with help.

Grandma Loretta and Granddad Connie with Nathan, Lucas, and Lillian

Santa made a stop on Christmas Eve before heading out for the big trip around the world. Lillian knew he was coming so she colored him a picture. You should have seen her eyes! He came walking up the front yard, ringing a bell and carrying a big sack.

He brought her a special gift all the way from the North Pole!

Christmas Day sported beautiful weather so everyone went outside to enjoy it. Granddad took Lillian to feed the cows and both kids helped feed horses.

Trace, Sarah, and Nathan came over for lunch. Sarah had spent the previous afternoon and evening in the hospital so we were all glad to spend some time with them. After lunch, we packed up and headed to Apache. More of that in the next post...

1st Birthday

*Warning: Excessive pictures!*

We celebrated Lucas's first birthday on Sat., Dec. 20 with lots of family. I decorated in a cowboy theme with red bandanna plates and napkins. I used red and blue bandannas to decorate and blew up several red and blue balloons.

Menu: BBQ sandwiches and chicken wings, potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, chips, and relish tray.

Birthday boy

We started with presents around 4:30.

It took him awhile to get in the game so Lillian helped.

Lucas starts to figure out unwrapping.

Nathan is a quiet spectator.

The other birthday boy: Trace's birthday was the 21st.

The most popular attraction for Lillian, Lucas, and Cole was a wagon.

Cake!

Crying when I took it away...

Our final event of the night was to visit downtown Guthrie and tour the Victorian Christmas Walk. I think it will become our tradition! Despite the 20 degree temps and a brisk north wind, there were several people and it was a festive way to celebrate the holiday. Lucas and Lillian were bundled up in the wagon for the trip around downtown.

Santa and his elf

Our Christmas

We asked Santa to come to our house on December 20 since we would be traveling on Christmas Day. He obliged and made an early delivery. Lillian helped make cookies to leave for him and she sprinkled glitter in the backyard so the reindeer would know where to land. They decided to land in the garden instead because she found sleigh tracks later that afternoon.

Lillian sees the gifts for the first time. Note the clock in the background; I expected this to start MUCH earlier! Both kids "slept in".

Lucas gets in on the action; Lillian isn't so sure.

Santa didn't wrap any of Lucas's gifts.

The unwrapping begins!

This was top on the list- a Curious George lunch box.

Our Christmas sunrise

Sucker!

Our Christmas Gift

Lucas turns 1 today at 11:46a.m. Last year was a whirlwind of his birth and Christmas and snowskiing within the first 2 weeks of his life. He was a wonderful newborn then and is a joyful toddler today. We feel like he makes our lives complete!

Lucas @ 12 months:

- walks alone

- no more bottles!

- waves bye-bye

- shakes his head for "yes" and "no"

- has discovered lasagna, cookies, and suckers

- still hates diaper changes

- stubborn and strong willed

- still taking 2 naps a day

- gives a "high five"

- likes to play catch with any ball

- likes cats and dogs

- has 8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom)

Christmas #1

We celebrated our first Christmas of the season at Grandma Joyce and Granddad Ernest's house Sat. night. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and spent time visiting and playing with babies. Of course, my camera was trained on Lucas trying to get a picture of him walking. I never had the camera ready at the right moment and/or he wouldn't oblige. He is taking 8-10 steps at a time and is getting very sure on his feet. Here are some of his antics while waiting for Lillian to let him in the bedroom to play:

"If you won't let me in, I'll wait here until you come out!"

"I think I'll try a somersault while I'm waiting.""That didn't go quite like I'd planned."
"After all that waiting, she comes out to tickle me!"