Christmas and Winter

I guess it has been a while, since my last post is titled "Halloween." Well, we went to my parents' house in New Mexico this year for Christmas. I'll just put up a bunch of pictures and tell the stories that go with them, starting with pictures in Arkansas before our trip.

We had lot of fun decorating sugar cookies. Thomas called them "shapes" and he only wanted to eat the "clean" ones (the ones that didn't have frosting).

Thomas and Stuart got a roll of ribbon that I had left out and started playing with it. Eventually, part of it was upstairs and part of it was in the downstairs bedroom. I put some tape on it so it wouldn't unroll any farther, but that didn't work. They had a lot of fun with it, and believe it or not, there was still some left on the roll.
It snowed here in Arkansas before we left. I pulled the two of them around in the sled and then Thomas pulled Stuart by himself. They had a lot of fun!
Stuart didn't have a hard time getting the concept of unwrapping. We opened presents with the Nance family before we left. This was at their house.
There was snow on Stuart's first birthday. I love this picture of him with David.
It was cold and wet outside, so we went the the church and played with balls and balloons for Stuart's birthday party. He loves balloons! The kids had a blast (the big ones and the little ones).
I had my mom buy a piñata that we did at the church. Since there were mostly little kids, they each took a little swing and then we let Matthew bust it open (his birthday is the 27th, so the party was for him as well).
Anna and Lauri made vegan cupcakes (so Levi, who is allergic to milk and eggs, could have them). They were really good. Stuart obviously thought so!
One day Thomas and Cora were playing outside and they started to lick the snow. Every time one of them did it the other would run over and copy. It was hilarious. They kept at it for quite a while.
Thomas made a gingerbread train with his cousins Cora and Benjamin (Isabel helped as well, but had to leave). Anna was their helper. They had a blast. Thomas loves trains!
This was definitely Stuart's best Christmas morning yet! (Last Christmas he was in the hospital.)

Thomas with his Santa gift. His "road," as he calls it.

Thomas and Cora crawled into her pack n' play (Thomas set the example of course!) and were reading stories together. It was so cute!
Jonathan brought his Wii and we all enjoyed playing Just Dance. Thomas and Benjamin even got in on the action. (Jacob and Benjamin beat us bad.) Dad wasn't excited about it, but once we got him to play he was all into it and was trying to get everyone else to dance and matching each other up.
Everyone except Josh's family and Anna left the day after Christmas. That week the weather was beautiful. We went to a place called "The City of Rocks". It was really fun. It is a bunch of cool rock formations in the middle of nothing. David had a little accident, but he survived.

Stuart bonding with Grandma.

Thomas didn't always want to go to bed at night. We had to hold his door shut to keep him in bed. On this night, though, it was Stuart who was crying, but he stopped abruptly. When we went into the room later, this is what we found. It was pretty cute. They got up at 6 a.m. every day we were there, but we survived.

Game day with my girls and my boys! We watched quite a few games over the break. We were happy that both our teams won. Go Cougars! Go Hogs!

David, Dad, Thomas, and Stuart up on a big rock. (I don't know why blogger can't keep my pictures in order, but I'm too lazy to change them today!)

I have started babysitting again. I watch a baby boy named Ryan. He is 3 months old, but was 7 weeks early. I watch him starting at noon and usually just the afternoon, but sometimes into the evening (if his dad has to work late). It has been going great. I love having my mornings, but still being able to babysit.

Life is good, but busy. I will try to update my blog more often.