Nothing is safe...

Anna is now pulling up on anything that is remotely stable. Sarah is learning to keep things out of Anna's reach, but has not yet figured out that moving any of Anna's limbs causes her to immediately fall over. This, I am convinced, will be the cause of many bumps and bruises.

The budding photographer

It feels like ages since I've posted. I intended to post pictures from the wedding as soon as we got home, but b/c there were SO many other people snapping shots at all of the events I didn't feel the need to take any pictures. It was nice while I was there, but I got home and have no pictures of how beautiful my sister was on her wedding day. I will save all details from the trip to share with you once I have pictures.

Instead I'll start 2009 with pictures from Sarah's camera. Last night she requested that we "please down-low the pictures." There were about 200 from the last 6 months or so. Most of them were close-ups of some unrecognizable object. I picked a few of the "good" ones to share.

Christmas Morning...

I got in trouble for posting Christmas pictures on my Facebook page before posting them on the blog. TuTu informed me that it's not cool for "old" people to be on Facebook. You're not old TuTu; however, when I was explaining to Sarah the other day what ancient means, her response was, "Like Granny and TuTu?" Don't worry... I set her straight, "Yes, like Granny, but not like TuTu."

Santa brought Sarah everything she asked for, even the last minute request for a Purdue Ornament. Cheerio the elf hopped on Santa's sleigh to go back to the North Pole, but he did leave a note reassuring Sarah that he would find us in our new house next year. Santa ate all but one of his cookies which Scout decided to finish off for him.

Anna had no idea what was going on, but really likes the pink school bus and the stacking cups. She is starting to abandon the Army crawl for a real crawl and has pulled up on us several times. I predict walking will occur MUCH sooner than we would like!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have grand plans for New Years. We head to St. Louis this week for Christie's wedding. We are VERY excited and hoping that we don't forget anything that we need for the kids. :-)

It's amazing how much time I have at the computer when JB isn't reading or writing a paper. Hooray for Christmas Vacation! Just a few pictures from this month that haven't already made the blog.

Sarah reading to Pierce and Anna.


The most complicated Kid's Meal toy... EVER! It took JB and his engineering skills at least 20 minutes to put it together. We feared it would be in pieces almost immediately, but she has been surprisingly gentle with it. I think it still has all of its limbs.


Sarah put her hopscotch together by herself. She was VERY proud.


She also surprised us by writing Anna's name. She just called me over the the table one morning and said, "I made this for Anna." She's a genius.

Meanwhile, genius numero dos continues to improve her gross and fine motor skills. Now a crawling pro, she has moved onto climbing... mostly through the Exersaucer and into our laps. We had to move her crib mattress all the way to the bottom. Anna also eats almost anything she can get her hands on. Chunks of bananas, avocados, apples, sweet potatoes. Squished green veggies are still a challenge (she must've learned that from Sarah), but if you dip them in applesauce they go down with very little protest.

With her new found love of words, Sarah has now started writing "emails." It takes her about an hour to hunt and peck then she erases it all by holding down the backspace.

I will never again buy a Gingerbread House kit. Words of advice... read ALL of the directions first. There are at least 2 instances of "wait 2 hours before proceeding." Not what you want to read with an excited 3 year old dancing at your feet for a chance to stick candy all over the house.

Anna has discovered that Sarah has a HUGE bathtub. I told her she must learn to sit up for more than one minute before she can bathe with her sister.

Visit to Santa

Last week we went to visit Santa. Luckily there was no line. We were in and out in a matter of minutes. Sarah immediately assumed her usual posing position. Anna was... well, I'll let the pictures tell the story!

Go Tell It On the Mountain!

Sarah could easily be the star of TuTu's Christmas Pageant!

In her words, "Go tell it on the mountain, Jesus cried, he's born!"

Deck the Halls!

We are definitely in the Holiday Spirit around here! Saturday we decided to get our Christmas Tree. Since we now have 2 kids to tote we opted to skip the tree farm and head straight to a road side stand. We found a beautiful tree that is now standing with pride in the living room. This was the first year we let Sarah help with the "big tree," so it is loaded with ornaments from about 3 feet down. Anna watched the festivities from her bouncy chair, which she is very close to outgrowing. After most of the mess was cleaned up she resumed her position on the floor to help Sarah tie bows on some ornaments. Sarah was extremely patient with Anna... didn't totally FREAK out when Anna got too close and started reaching for things. This is a BIG step for us.

Sarah only has 2 more days of school before the holidays, so we have lots of holiday crafts and baking to do in the next few weeks to keep us busy. Maybe some of it will be blog worthy!