Santa Claus is coming to town...

It was a lot of fun having "Santa" come over and take pictures with his grandson. Topher like most kids had issues with a long white beard and a bright red suit, but fortunately Santa came to our house and Topher had time to warm up.





















So I had been waiting to post some of these pictures because Photoshop hasn't been cooperating, but I couldn't wait any longer.

Family Photos

We attempted our first family photos, with other people taking it. We have tried a few times to take our own family photos but we ran into a few obstacles. One, sometimes it is hard for Chris to set-up the picture and then run and jump in before the picture takes AND be in the perfect position. Second, it is hard to get an infant to look straight a head and smile at nothing. As you can see it was hard to get him to do this even with someone trying to get his attention. Third, It is hard to get the perfect lighting at night without extra lamps/lights. It is not easy holding an extra lamp next to you while holding a 7 month old or just having one sitting next to you without him staring at it while trying to grab it. Yeah ... I think you are starting to picture the dilemma.

We were very grateful to have close friends of ours come over and take some photos. Toph was pretty cooperative. He was happy and more than willing to pose. It was hard to capture his great smile while we were also looking and smiling. Also, in most of the pictures he is looking ... who knows where. Probably watching TV. HAHA

Here are a few where we are all insinc, well sort of.

Laughs and Giggles

Bath Time!!

Toph loves bath time. This was his first time sitting up in the tub. His interest in bath toys has grown over the past few weeks, but it is hard to play with lots of toys laying in his bath chair. So we decided to let him sit up for a little bit in the beginning of his bath. He loved it.

I'm Thankful for ....

I am thankful for many things this year. I am grateful for the opportunity to be married and be blessed with such a beautiful little boy. I am grateful for a home with heat and food, for a car that runs (Monday I was at the store silently complaining that it was raining and I had to get out of my warm car and go into the store when I looked over and a gentleman was out in the pouring rain trying to get his car to start. This made me rethink my perspective and really humbled me.) and gets me from point A to B, and for many modern conveniences. I am reminded every morning when my husband gets up to go to work how blessed we are to be employed
(this is something I think many of us take for granted, maybe even think of an a nuisance) and how amazing it is that I get to stay home with Toph. I look at Toph several times a day and give thanks to the Lord for the opportunity to watch him grow. I enjoy being with him each time he does something or discovers something new; like his toes and chews on them, make razz sounds in excitement, squeels because he learned to make a new sound, or wakes up to my voice and smiles bigger than ever before. We are so thankful for our families and there support over the years and the many friends that surround us. Our family away from home. Thank you to everyone that makes each day more special than the last.

Here are some photos of Toph's first Thanksgiving .... ENJOY!!!

Father and son. Relaxing before the big feast.

First time eating mashed potatoes ... Yummmm.
He also tried yams and cranberry sauce.
Toph liked mashed potatoes a little to much.
He is in the process of taking a whole handful. Dad wasn't watching very closely,
he was suppose to be getting his attention for the picture.

This is right after he put his hands in my mashed potatoes.
Look closely ... his hand and sleeve is covered in potatoes. He wasn't happy.
I guess he wasn't done.
Good thing his angry face is so darn cute. HAHA

Mommas boy, as of right now. Unless he is tired.

Lately he prefers his dad to put him to sleep.

This is Toph and his Grandpa Nelson. Toph has had a few issues with beards, mostly his grandpas. He is OK once he warms up. This is him warming up. Bob slowly has to get closer. Sometime Bob has to come up behind Toph and hold him until he warms up. We try to tell Toph that the beard is fun, but he doesn't get it. We even got a book that talks about different objects to touch, and a beard is one of them. Maybe it is helping he had a really good time with his Grandpa.
Toph is starting to look more like his Daddy.
He sure does have his daddy's crazy fun personality.

Toph and Grandpa ... AKA Santa. He is Santa in his spare time.
Looks just like him. Don't you think?

I was trying to get a picture of Toph's shirt. It says .. I ate Santa's cookies. His face looks like he really did eat Santa's cookies and he wasn't suppose to. I thought it was pretty cute.

Christmas has arrived

I know .... it might be a little early BUT I love Christmas. Sometimes I wish that Christmas would last all year (and no it's not because of the gifts. Haha) although, I am sure the spirit of Christmas might not be as amazing if it were all year.

I started listening to Christmas music over a week ago and was thinking over the weekend that is would be fun to deck the house with Christmas. I thought it mught be a little early, beside we didn't even know where we were going to put the tree. We currently have to much furniture. It was to my surprise on Monday when Chris asked if I wanted to get out the Christmas decorations. Of course I said yes; I was extremely excited. I think Chris was also, until about 30 minutes into pulling out all the totes, dumping the Christmas tree out of the box and fluffing the branches as we put it together.

It was then that we realized something was missing. No Christmas music/movie. What were we thinking? We put in The Santa Clause 2. One of my favorites next to A Miracle on 34th Sreet (the one in color) and made hot chocolate. The day was amazing. We decorated for hours. Talking, laughing, taking pictures (mostly of Topher playing with the beads and so awe struck'n by the lights. We finished the night with Albertsons chicken and a movie.

A fabulous way to begin the holidays.

Sometimes I wonder if Chris just wanted to set up the Christmas tree so that he could experiment with his camera.

Our pride and joy ... 6 months

TOYS ... WHAT TOYS

WHO NEEDS TOYS OR A TEETHING RING WHEN YOU HAVE TOES? HE MIGHT THINK DIFFERENTLY WHEN HE ACTUALLY GETS TEETH. HAHAHA

Spoon Lick'n Good

AND .... This is just rice cereal. Just wait until the good stuff starts coming. Well ... actually I added a little bit of sugar to the last couple of spoon fulls. After he tasted the sugar I couldn't get the spoon in fast enough. I no longer had to do the airplane to get him o open his mouth. He even started helping me and then proceeded to lick the spoon clean. Like mother like son.

All Done!!!!!

Leavenworth

My mom was in town just this last week and it was great. We spent each day together, it was great to spend time talking, shopping, and hanging out with the Toph. Friday we went to lunch with my aunt Gaile and checked out the new mall in Bellevue Neiman Marcus was pretty cool. Although everything was out of our price range it was great to see the new fashions. My favorite were the shoes and purses. There is some pretty awesome things out there, maybe someday I will actually buy something.

Saturday we went to Leavenworth. I had never been there before and thought it was so cute. We treated ourselves to homemade chocolate, gingerbread cookies, and danish treats. We enjoyed lunch in the park and walking the cute little streets and looking through shops. We then went out to Asian food for my moms birthday. All you can eat Asian food is the best.



It rained on the drive all the way, but when we got there it was so nice!



Street view of some of the shops and hotels.



Fun old bus that fits right in with the town!



We tried to get a good picture of Topher with all the dolls before the store owner came back... This is the best we got.

Cereal Does a Body Good

Toph tried cereal for the first time on Sunday. We put a bib on him, strapped him in his chair, and began the fun. He knew that something exciting was going to happen because we were all standing around him with excitement and the video camera running. He just sat in his chair smiling and kicking. I don't think he had any clue. He was such a great sport smiling the entire time. He ate all of it, we were so proud. He didn't do as great the second night. I don't think he was as hungry or maybe he knew what was coming. He didn't wine or fuss at all but he wouldn't open his mouth. My mom told me I should get out the video camera and see how well he does. Maybe next time. HAHAHA!!! Here are a few photos of his first time.