A Few Pictures from Christmas

As you can see from this picture of a very pleased with herself Caroline, we have made the trip back to Washington from Indianapolis.

Hooray for nice ticket agents. A very nice man gave Caroline the empty seat on the plane. So, we were able to strap in her car seat on the way home. This picture is from the very beginning of the flight. A few minutes later, Caroline put her thumb in her mouth, held onto her green ball (on her lap in this picture) and went to sleep. She had no concerns again until someone turned the lights on when we landed. Wow was having her in her own seat great (especially since it was free).

Christmas, of course, is not about presents. But, it is hard to capture the moments of our family reading Luke 2 together on camera well. (And, let's be honest, Caroline was busy eating cheerios while her Grandpapa read. She's a little small to grasp what was going on.)

But, here are some pictures of what we could get. But, I also recommend that you check out this picture of Jack. It is by far the funniest picture of our Christmas in Indy that I have seen.

Here is Caroline on one of her favorite toys at Nana and Grandpapa's house. This is Grandpapa's toy, but he takes great joy in watching his grandchildren play on it. And Caroline really did have a great time (particularly if Daddy was pushing her).
Caroline had a great time with her Aunt Laurie too. Of all of the people we know, Aunt Laurie is the person (so far) that Caroline reminds us of the most. They are both fun, inquisitive and ALWAYS moving. It was funny to watch them together.
Caroline also had a great time with her cousin Micah. She wasn't real clear on the fact that some of the toys weren't actually hers. But, Micah was a champ and great at sharing (thanks Micah!). So, here she is playing with him and his musical toys.
She also tried (not as successfully) to share with him. Here they are playing with Caroline's present from Mom and Dad--mega blocks. (And, yes, we bought them because Jack and I want to play with them).
Caroline wasn't so clear on what she was supposed to do with her presents, but we had a great Christmas anyway. We hope you did too!

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Merry Christmas

We hope all of you are having a blessed and restful Christmas!

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Traveling makes me tired!

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Over the river and through the woods

We are off! We made the 2 hour treck to BWI, made it through TSA and
Caroline is rechecking our bags. She is 10 months old today and all
ready for a trip to Nana and Grandpapa's!!

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SNOW DAY!

I thought I would add a new picture on this post. You can see Caroline all bundled up when we took her out in the snow. She was fine so long as she was all snuggly. She DID NOT like getting out from under the blanket. But then, who can blame her?

As I mentioned in the last post, we have a lot of snow here in DC.
Removal of 18" isn't quick here in DC. So, the federal government is
closed today. That means Caroline and I have a snow day.

She isn't super excited about being out in the snow yet. So I brought
some snow in for her. As you can see, she still wasn't too sure. After
putting her hands in it a few times, she crawled off. She apparently
doesn't understand how fun snowballs are quite yet.

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Happy (Snow) Birthday to Jack

Happy Birthday to Jack!

We had big plans for today to celebrate Jack. We were going to go to the Newseum and then, later, The Source for dinner. That didn't happen.

Instead, we got the biggest snow ever in December (I think based on this story). But, rather than spoil the day, it made for a pretty great present for Jack. He loves snow and these sorts of days. But, they always seem to pass us by. The running joke around here is to take whatever the forecast is, then divide it in half. With that, you've got the upper limit of the snow that we'll get. But not today...

This is a picture from early this morning, maybe 8 am. This is not long before Jack shoveled the stairs. By the time he was done with our little walk and these stairs, there was already 1/2 - 1 inch of snow on the areas where he started. In all, it looks like we got 17-18 inches of snow since about this time last night. SO FUN.

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Peeking

This was just too cute to pass up. This is Caroline, checking out the world. She was taking a gander just after she finished lunch. I'm not sure what she was looking for...maybe more lunch?

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Upwardly Mobile

As I mentioned, Caroline is now heading up the stairs. Luckily she has
so far only made her way under parental supervision (and a new gate is
on its way). Here she is on our first steps.

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Away in a Manger

We continue to enjoy the Christmas season here at our house. One of my favorite memories of the Christmas season when I was little was playing with the nativity set. My mom had the nativity set on the sideboard in our entry way. I thought that I would try to give Caroline the same opportunity. As you can see, Caroline is having a great time with the Fisher Price nativity set.

In other news, Caroline climbed all but the last two steps of our stairs today. (She can't do the last two because of the gate that is there). Luckily I was right behind her as she climbed. The gate for the bottom of the stairs arrives Tuesday.

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Whew...

Well, it was touch and go there for a bit, but the stocking is hung with care...on the stairs. The third time was the charm.

After making the stocking pull by cutting the backing too small (and then ripping it off...sigh), I gave it a second try. The second time I had some serious tension issues with my sewing machine (threading it correctly is always a plus). But, the third time was a charm. (It may have helped that Jack was there providing moral support).

It has great burgundy velvet backing (thanks Jennifer Glade for the idea). It has super fun lining material that Caroline helped me pick out. (That is, she grabbed at it because it was hanging off a shelf and thus in her reach). But, I wouldn't have noticed it without a little assist from Miss Caroline.

So, after three tries, it is backed, lined and ready for some Cheerios (she still a little small for candy!!). It is now hanging next to the stocking my mom made me and the stocking that Jack was sent from the hospital in when he was a newborn. Hooray!

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A Event worth noting

In the category of "I'm not going to get a picture of this for a while" I thought I would let you all know that Caroline took her first "step" yesterday. I was sitting on the floor with her and she was walking away from me holding my hands. She outran the length of my arms (which is, let's face it, easy to do) and took another step before realizing she was without support and sat down. But, a step is a step. Hooray for Caroline!

Just for fun I thought I would a picture of her "almost" walking with Jack.

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Noel, noel

You saw that our tree actually made it up in our last post. I thought I would put up some of the pictures of us heading out to the tree farm.

As you can see, Caroline was very instrumental in getting the Christmas tree up. She was extremely helpful in patting the tool boxes and making sure that Jack knew just where all of his tools were... just in case.

Last Sunday we went out to Snicker's Gap Christmas tree farm. We were able to see our friends the Johnstons briefly while were there.

They were kind enough to take a (if I do say so myself) cute family photo of use on our first Christmas tree cutting expedition since the addition of Caroline.

It was a great day to be outside. But, it was a little weird to be cutting down the Christmas tree without hat, gloves or scarves. Warm weather or not, we did make sure that we had plenty of hot chocolate though!

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