Merry Christmas

These are a few pictures of Tori and James in their Christmas outfits the Sunday before Christmas. Tori thought her dress was very fancy wanted to wear it all the time.

Here are Tori and James on Christmas morning. John had to work at the hospital on Christmas morning so I kept the kids happy up in our room having breakfast in bed and watching all of the classic Christmas cartoons we recorded off TV until John made it home at around 9:30am. It was the first time I can remember being showered and ready before opening presents on Christmas morning- which I actually thought was pretty nice.

These pictures are of Tori and James with their presents from Santa in front of the tree. As you can tell, the airplane and tiana doll were both a big hit.

Below is James in the new jumper he got for Christmas (probably one of my favorite Christmas presents :)).

Christmas Parties

Tori was a very lucky girl and got to sit on Santa's lap three times this year. We were just very glad that she was consistent when she told him what she wanted for Christmas - a Tiana doll (the newest Disney princess from the Princess and the Frog movie). Above is a picture of Tori at the dance studio's Holiday party for the 3-4yr old kids. Below is Tori and some of the other dancers eating so of the treats after dancing and sitting on Santa's lap.

Here is Tori with the very silly dance party Santa. Tori loved everything to do with Christmas and Santa this year. She loved seeing him, talking about him, making him cookies, we wrote him a letter and an email (he replied to both). This is Tori's first note to Santa that she wrote all by herself (just a little help with spelling the words from me):

"Dear Santa, This is your note. I want a tiana doll. Love, Tori."

Above is Tori with Santa from the church Christmas party.

Below is James also enjoying the Christmas party.

Snow Much Fun

Here is James all ready to play in the snow! He wouldn't be smiling if he knew how cold it gets here.

Tori, James and Dad on the mound of snow Tori and Dad made.

It was really cold out that day, so I was pretty impressed with how happy James still was.
Cute snow bunnies.

We took the picture of James above in the snow and it felt like just yesterday we were taking the same picture of Tori in the snow, so I went back and found it because I wanted to see how much they really do look alike (everyone's comment lately when they see James is that he looks so much like Tori).

Tori trying to teach James the joys of being pulled around in the sled by Mom and Dad (we really need to find a hill around here).

Still smiling after his adventure in the snow.

6 months old

6 Months Old

Weight: 19 lbs. 70th percentile

Height: 29 in. 97 percentile

Here are some fun pictures of our big boy. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!!

What is James up to at 6 months?

He can roll both ways, but usually if I set him down on his back he rolls to his tummy and is then very frustrated because he can see all sorts of things he can't get to. No crawling yet, but he really wants to. James can sort of sit up, but he generally chooses to dive to his belly or side instead (just like his sister used to do). He has discovered how much fun toys can be/taste. Still his favorite thing in the world is his big sister Tori. At his 6 month doctor appointment he was starting to get really tired and fed up and I asked Tori to play peek-a-boo with him. She started doing that and dancing all around in front of him making silly noises and he just started to belly-laugh so hard - it was adorable! All the nurses in the nurses' station came to watch, it was really cute.