Christmas Photos

Below are some picture we had taken by a friend of ours in search of quality pictures for our Christmas cards. You can check out her work at Terrible Speller. We had a great time that day and a lot of fun doing it.

Wyatt, our newest walker. Like most things that he does, it takes him a little longer to do something initially, but his learning curve goes straight up from there.

Wyatt would eventually warm-up and cut loose, as you will see, but Parks would not smile for any of the photos.

"Wha'cho talkin' about Willis?"

This is supposed to be a picture of them giving kisses, not a pre-fight standoff before a heavyweight bout. Personally, I think it resembles the latter more.

All together now.

We both love this one.

I told you Wyatt would warm-up. He is really enjoying his new sense of freedom with walking. He rarely is caught crawling anymore.

Mommy and our little man.

"For real, what's up with all the picture taking?"

The Lighting of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

This year we decided to scale back on the Christmas tree a little and go with a 4.5 ft Target special for a few reasons. One, we are in a transitional dwelling that would not accommodate a normal size tree without losing a couple of main pieces of furniture. Two, Duke has been on a recent destruction rampage when we leave the house for any length of time. A few casualties have been the remote control, throw pillows, and an arm cushion to one of the boys' chairs. Don't worry, we're working to get this issue resolved. Three, we were not sure how the boys could handle glass heirloom ornaments within such ease of reach and we wanted something they could enjoy without breaking.

This is a video of the first time we plugged in our Charlie Brown tree for the boys. As you can see, they were a little excited about this strange occurrence. Why were mommy and daddy bringing a tree in the house? Why were pretty, colorful lights covering this tree? Why were mommy and daddy putting it within reach? Fortunately, the novelty beyond this first encounter has faded. Now, there's no screaming or prodding. They simply point and pause upon passing by. We have enjoyed the beginnings of what we hope to be lifelong Christmas traditions in our family, but it will probably be another year or so until we can explain the "reason for the season."

Also, I am very proud. They are both saying "da-da," clear as a bell. You will hear a little of it on the video. By the way, one of my favorite parts of the whole thing is when they both decide to take a drink break in the middle of their Christmas cheer.

Walking Wyatt

This is a video of what has become part of our evening bed time ritual. It involves, as you can see, daddy crawling around to the various nooks and crannies of the boys' room popping out and scaring Parks and Wyatt. The boys' have also discovered that Daddy is a good ride-on toy as well. We also take time to read a book or two. Their favorite right now is The Moon Shines Down, by Margaret Wise Brown the author of Goodnight Moon. As if you couldn't tell by the fact that Parks doesn't put it down the entire video.

Besides showing you all how goofy I can be, it also shows Wyatt walking. He was released from physical therapy today. Apparently, in this instance, he's like our second child. We have all kinds of video of when Parks learned to walk, but somehow failed miserably in capturing Wyatt's first steps. We wanted to post this before it got too late to be relevant. It has really opened up a new world for him. He is interacting with the other kids at preschool more, largely because he can keep up better. He and Parks are starting to play, argue, and interact more at home as well. Enjoy. I am working on editing a couple other videos that we hope to get up soon.

SEWING 101

I decided some time ago that I wanted to try my hand at sewing. (This is Randi, by the way. I have a pretty domestic husband, but the most sewing I'm going to get out of him is a button.) So, I took a beginning sewing class back in September and was able to complete a corduroy longall for Parks. The people at the local sewing center were kind enough to allow me to use their embroidery machine to apply a cute applique on the outfit as well. Between not having my own machine and several deadlines at work, I had been unable to sew Wyatt's matching outfit until now. There really wasn't a real sense of accomplishment after finishing Parks' outfit because I knew I still had another whole outfit to sew. I ended up working on it over our very boring Thanksgiving holiday and they donned their new outfits for preschool this morning. I was so proud. Too bad Parks' was sewn so long ago he's almost outgrown it. Wyatt's fits perfectly. I now have several projects lined up, most of which I need to finish in the next couple of weeks. I think I might have the bug.

Below is my attempt at capturing photos of them before school this morning. Can you tell the container drawer is our favorite place to play?