Christmas Recap

We made it through the Christmas season relatively unscathed... Ok we may have suffered several random maladies these past two weeks but all are well at this reporting and nothing stopped us from celebrating a wonderful series of Christmas festivities with our family.

First, we had visits from Grandma and Papa bearing gifts of Woody and Buzz jammies, toy story games, and a state quarter map! Yee Haw!









Greg, Jeff, and the adorable Alan Callaghan all came by to visit bearing books for the kids and fun for Finny.

Later, we had Christmas Eve dinner at our house with Nana and Jen































That night Santa lined the stairs with little green army men, guiding the way to Tommy's present, the walking Rex dinosaur from, you guessed it, Toy Story.







After a nice Christmas morning we hit the road stopping for lunch and a visit with Papa Tom and Arlo in Santa Clara

Tommy opened up Slink Dog



Lucy got a toy pot with some fake food, which she quickly learned how to pretend to eat









I love our three sets of feet in this picture


Next stop was Gilroy, We arrived to find Jeff and Brian boiling ravioli in a giant pot in the rainy backyard. Looks like a Gilroy Christmas! All the cousins had a great time, Kami as always was babysitter extraordinaire, and our family actually walked away with good gifts from the game!

Lucy gets caught playing with Rexy (in front of Jeff's homemade bread)






















Finally we went downtown on Sunday to hit Old Navy and met up with Uncle Mike at the Metreon




We all had a wonderful Christmas and are very blessed to have such wonderful and local families! And now Tommy's live dramatic recreations of Toy Story can be complete with Woody, Buzz, Potato Head, Rex, an alien, Slink Dog, and 90 little green army men. He says, "a good soldier never leaves a man behind!".

Here's to more fun and family in 2011!

Merry Christmas from Our Family!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May you have a wonderful season of love and peace and a Happy New Year!
Love Tom, Meredith, Tommy, & Lucy

yes, this is the only Christmas card you're getting from us. Print and enjoy! :)

The Festive Final Product

Here's what we walked away with after the cousin photo shoot:




Very impressive for 6 kids, some low blood sugar, a little bloodshed, a crawler and a new sitter.

Some other pics of our evening out

Precious Memories

It wouldn't be a family photo shoot if a little blood wasn't shed and someone didn't come home with a black eye. Good times.

Winter Wonderland

Tommy's gymnastics class had a winter performance this weekend. He has now been taking gymnastics for a year and aside from Miss Nicole recently moving to another gym, he has really loved every minute of it. He has grown a lot this year! He is stronger and more coordinated. He listens, follows directions, and remembers sequences of instructions very well because of his gymnastics. He did a great job on Saturday and even got to hang on the high bar for the first time, with Coach Micah's assistance.

Baking Cookies

On Saturday, Tommy and Nana sat down for their annual cookie baking project. Not surprisingly, in addition to stars, trees, and snowmen - we made gingerbread Storm Troopers and Boba Fetts.

We had a yummy time and have a ton of cookies to show for it!

Check up

Lucy had her 1 year checkup the day after her birthday and she's doing very well. Doctor was happy to hear that she claps, waves, points, and even gives "high fives". She also showed off this new "change the channel" thumb move she's got. She got 3 shots and had blood drawn for a lead test (that's what happens when you live in an old house). She was totally a trouper and is feeling fine today!

She weighs 18lbs 14oz - about 15 %ile ( for reference Tommy was 20lbs 15oz, Clara was 20lbs 2oz)
She is 27.5 in long, about 10%ile (Tommy was 29in, Clara was 28in)

As far as talking goes, she is sticking with mama, dada, and buh buh, which currently applies to both her bottle and Diaper Bag Dolly. Tommy actually suggests that Lucy has named Diaper Bag Dolly "Bubba". This could stick. She also frequently uses "GaGa" but we're not sure to whom this is directed. We suspect it is Tommy, but he doesn't like that.

Doc swears he feels a tooth about to poke through. He said that 3 months ago. I've learned with Lucy, not to expect her to do anything on the time frame people expect. If someone tells me she's going to do something "very soon" like, say, be born, crawl, or cut teeth - I'm not going to hold my breath. This girl clearly has her own time line and things are working out just fine for her. That said, the doctor says he expects she'll be walking and talking soon.

Now that she is crawling she seems to be accelerating her mobility time line rapidly. Today she brought out this new trick



She is proving to be very different than Tommy as far as eating goes. She will eat anything and everything you put in front of her right now. Now that she's 1, she is enjoying the wonderful world of peanut butter and anything else she desires. At Grandma and Nana's house she's known to enjoy butternut squash ravioli and other such delicacies.

Here she is testing out our baby proofing (she is drawn to the gate like a magnet. It's really protecting the electronic equipment from her!) Please stay tuned for our sure to be upcoming post "Lucy bangs her head on the bricks"


Or perhaps the stairs will be her "downfall"

(hmm, think we'll be figuring out a stairs gate tomorrow...)

Her gift from Tommy - retro Fisher Price cash register!
Cheering Tommy on at his gymnastics performance
Thumbs up!