Snow Angels

Well, not exactly angels ALL the time. Here we are enjoying the snow.




We got a sled for Christmas and used it to go down the very slight hill in the neighbor's backyard.

A Long Post about Gabriella

Gabriella has been quite the traveler lately. It began in August when she and I went to visit her new cousin Madeline. The thought of flying with her made my palms sweat, but on the way there, she proved to be quite entertaining to the bored business travelers behind us. On the way back, she persistently tossed a granola bar onto the leg of the gentleman sleeping in the seat beside us. Incidentally, there is nothing quite as weird as fishing a granola bar out of a stranger's lap. Anyway, we had a terrific time with Caleb and Christina, and that seemed to be when Gabriella turned the corner from the squalling infant in the backseat to an easygoing baby.

There was a hiccup in this journey, however. On a visit to Will's parents, we stopped at a McDonald's for a lunch break. Will went inside with the boys while I got Gabriella out of the van. When I picked her up, I noticed her leg was wet, which seemed strange. That's when I saw it--the worst blow-out diaper I have ever, ever seen. I had to stop a woman in the parking lot and ask her to find "the man inside with two little boys" so Will could come out and help me get her clothes off. There was, um, poo everywhere--in the car seat, all over my clothes and hers, on the trash can, on the van floor, and (by the time Graham was done climbing around) on the front seats of the van. We used an entire container of brand-new wipes. And all of this was done in full view of the long line of the drive-thru, which I'm sure made more than a few people rethink their menu selections. When clothes were finally changed and lunch was over, we came back outside to find that a police officer had stopped a car behind our vehicle. We sat in the parking lot for 15 more minutes. We are never stopping at that McDonald's again.

In November, the kids and I accompanied Will on his way to a conference in Charleston, SC. When he went on to the conference, we stayed with our friends Matt & Leigh Ann and their girls Kaelyn & Evie. It was so good to see them again (since we usually see them for few hours a year) and they were very patient and gracious hosts. Gabriella turned 1 on November 10 and Leigh Ann did a wonderful job of planning a fun day and then documenting it for us.



Here they are at a museum...








That night, we took a cake to the local Chick-Fil-A and had a mini party.





Everything was going fine until Graham decided to copy something he had seen in a Veggie Tales movie. See the guy behind me in the red shirt? Graham threw a ketchup packet and hit him square in the head with it.

Gabriella had several firsts while Will was at his conference. She got another tooth, she took a few steps on her own, and she said a few new words. None of those was quite as impressive as her last feat, though. That night in the Chick-fil-a, she climbed to the top of the indoor playgym all by herself. I finally noticed and ran up after her as fast as I could, only to see her at the top of the slide with about 6 kids in between us. I ran back down to the bottom in time to see her slide down, unaided. She did it 2 more times by herself before we left.

We had a party for Gabriella at home the following weekend. Lots of friends and family were able to join us, which made it a lot of fun.






We love you, Gabriella! You are a sweet, sweet little girl!

What A Year Christmas Card

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Conversations

I love how Graham talks. It took him a while to get started, but now I think that makes us treasure it even more. Here are some of his conversations lately.

Me: Grammie said that you are getting to be such a big boy lately! You aren't fussing and throwing fits like you used to.
Graham: I throw fit in bathroom today.
Me: Oh. I guess you did.
Graham: Mommy forgot about that.

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[Around the campfire last weekend with Kim and Chris. Told by Aunt Kim after Graham moved his chair away from the fire and sat by himself.]
Kim: Graham...
Graham: I right here!
Kim: What are you doing?
Graham: I watch fire.
Kim: Do you see all those stars?
Graham: Those not stars. Those airplanes.
[later, as the clouds roll in.]
Kim: Look! The stars are gone. Where did they go?
Graham: Home Depot.

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And finally, after years of Graham's screaming fits when I clip his toenails, I finally discovered how to get him to sit quietly through the process--save the clippings in a little bowl for him to look at. Seriously, he was even encouraging me to cut more.

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By the way, if you are ever wondering why we don't have more pictures and videos of Chase, it's because every time we grab the camera to catch him doing something cute, he stops what he's doing and starts crying or runs away. This phase will not be well-documented, but hopefully we'll move out of it soon.

Flips and Rice Krispies

Halloween

Here's our belated Halloween post...

The kids all had different reactions to the process of trick-or-treating. It was a cold night, so Gabriella wasn't thrilled about riding around in her stroller (that's fair, since she technically wasn't wearing pants.) Chase took it all in stride, although he got tired of walking (no pun intended). Graham was totally, totally freaked out by other people in costumes, which was unexpected. He was thrilled with the candy, though, and I think that's the only reason he kept going.







On Halloween night, we were sitting down to eat dinner when Graham started yelling "Tractor! Tractor!" Sure enough, the church behind us was having a Trunk-or-Treat event. With the promise of a hayride, Graham reluctantly pulled on his dragon costume and went out for a frigid ride and another bucket of candy. We now have enough to last us until Easter 2012.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!