My Dad

I'm not sure if my dad is a kid, like my brother. Or if he just really, really loves his grandkids. It's probably both. =)

I never figured out the reason behind this, but Dominic and Lexi were trying to push Grandpa around the kitchen.

 

I bet my dad was very grateful that he only had four grandchildren.

The kids were hiding from an imaginary monster and convinced my dad to crawl under the breakfast bar with them.

 

 

Tickling Caitlin's feet

Riding on Grandpa's back again

My kids (and my nieces) adore my dad and it's obvious why. Grandpa thinks his grandchildren are the best thing in the world. Just ask him, he'll tell you how smart, good looking and precious they are. =)

My Brother - The Kid

My brother is a great big kid.

He enjoys spending time with Dominic and Dominic adores him.

He is with the kids much more than with me whenever I see him. =)

 Teaching his daughter and nephew how to climb a tree.

 Showing Dominic more points on tree climbing.

 

 Playing on the slide with the kids.

 Swinging Dominic

 Buddies

 Watching something on the computer

 

 

 

 He had a ton of fun buying Dominic's Christmas present. We teased him that he bought it so he (Zeb) could play with it as well.

 Testing out the kaleidoscope

All pictures in this blog were taken by Bethany Steele

1st Christmas Weekend

My children will experience two Christmas weekends.

My parents came a week early because my mom and sister have to work Christmas weekend.

We had so much fun. The next few blogs will be about our short, but great weekend.

We woke up Saturday morning to a tiny bit of snow. The kids were totally unimpressed. I guess the 5 inches we had last week ruined it for them. But I was happy to see it. Enough to say it snowed, but not enough to keep us from heading to church.

My family is great and it's wonderful to be close to everyone again so we can get together like this without super expensive airline tickets and long drives.

 

 

 

Our tree with everything under it.

Bethany is great with a camera. Quite a few of these pictures were taken by her.

After church we had lunch and then the kids went outside to play (more on that later) while Caitlin took a nap. Several of us (who shall remain nameless) joined her.

After Caitlin woke up we opened presents. I had thought that with the adults not exchanging gifts it would lessen the amount of wrapping paper and confusion. Turns out it was the kid's fault all along. =)

We really enjoyed our 1st round of Christmas and are so thankful that we are close enough to see our family often.

Library - Next stage finished

 

Bear Bear gets breakfast

Every morning when Caitlin gets up we have a disagreement about bear bear.

I don't want her to hold him while she eats her breakfast. 

But she's still sleepy and doesn't want to give him up. 

So I decided that bear bear needs to eat breakfast also.

And this makes her happy - for the most part.

2 year pictures

When I took Caitlin for her two year pictures I was afraid she would still be afraid of the flash again. She was! She refused to let me put her down. If I even tried she would cry and start the static cling. So the photographer told me that she would try to crop as much of me out as possible if I would hold her and try to get her to smile. So the brown in the picture is my sweater. But considering what we had to work with, I think these pictures are great. She was laughing at bear bear. I knew taking him would help. I just didn't realize how much.

Potty Time

Caitlin went pee pee in the potty all by herself today!

She had acted interested in going when we were in the hotel back in August. But we were out of the hotel all morning and she was napping in the afternoon so I ignored her. It just wasn't convenient. Then back in October I decided it was time. So I took a day with nothing going on and had the little "you are a big girl" talk. She said yes and then proceeded to totally ignore everything she was supposed to do. By the end of the day I had given up. She just wasn't interested. I figured I would start again in January after the holidays.

She came up to me about an hour ago and asked to go potty. If she asks we take her. But she's never done anything. Today she did! So we gave her some candy and really praised her. Just now she did it again. Silly girl is not going to follow my time table. It appears that she is now ready. So here we go. It will be funny if she potty trains herself. =)