Christmas Eve
The Animal Train that Santa brought Adam
Opening a present
"Playing" a new Wii game
And this is what my wonderful parents got me....
"Ahhhhhhhh!" Can you hear the choir of angels singing?
Here's a video we took at my parents' house last week. Adam had been talking back to the giant nutcracker but of course as soon as I started filming he stopped. Still, it's a good representation of what we do when we're together.....laugh at the toddler! (at the end I was trying to get him to say "Pooh Bear" because he had said it for my sister Danielle earlier.....you can kind of hear him say "ooh beh" in the same inflection we had been using so I think that counts!?
All his helpers....aka cousins
Cow Cake (that took me 2 hours to bake and 4 hours to torte, fill, & decorate!)
"What is this? Should I eat it?"
"Let me get a closer look" 
"Yum!"
He was a very tidy eater and didn't eat much past the frosting! Maybe that had to do with eating an entire piece of pizza shortly before?
After we put Adam to bed that night, Nat and I talked about how lucky we are to have such a wonderful little boy and how we couldn't imagine the past year without him. I'm sad my baby is moving into toddlerhood but I'm looking forward to all the fun things we'll be able to do with him and watching his funny personality blossom!
A few days ago Adam took his first difficult little steps and now he is taking 7, 8, 9 or more steps at a time! It's always a struggle to try to capture it on camera because the minute he sees the camera, he wants to grab it. But we were able to get this video using the camera as a lure! :)
Adam will turn 1 in 10 days and I have a feeling he might be totally walking by then if he keeps this pace up!
My little lion cub
I found these socks literally the morning of Halloween in his drawer! I'd forgotten about them and they were perfect for his costume. There are lions at the top and "ROAR" written on the bottoms!
Aunt Annie the Farmer Girl and Little Lion (Annie got a kick out of painting freckles on her face and making fun of me who has lots of freckles....I take great offense to the stigma that girls with freckles are farmers and hicks!!)
He was fascinated (and a little scared) of this skeleton that sang and danced on the front porch of a neighbor. At one point it clacked its teeth together....he didn't like that much.
Playing with his loot
On a side note....this is the tree in front of our house and it has been the most amazing shade of red the past few weeks! I'm pretty sure it's a maple tree and I told Nat that we HAVE to plant some in our future yard someday.
I sometimes watch a quirkly little local TV program called The Home Team (on KJZZ 14 for those who live in Utah). The other day, one of the hosts read this poem and I really liked it. I am guilty of wanting a perfect house and often have to remind myself that I should be on the floor playing with and reading to Adam instead of worrying about cleaning. I thought I'd share it with all my mommy friends.
EXCUSE THIS HOUSE
Some houses try to hide the fact
That children shelter there-
Ours boasts of it quite openly,
The signs are everywhere-
For smears are on the windows,
Little smudges on the doors;
I should apologize, I guess,
For toys strewn on the floor.
But I sat down with the children
And we played and laughed and read;
And if the doorbell doesn't shine,
Their eyes will shine instead.
For when at times I'm forced to choose
The one job or the other;
I want to be a housewife-
But first I'll be a mother
Author Unknown
I have officially entered the world of kid-contracted illnesses! Adam threw up his "Thanksgiving" dinner (yes, Thanksgiving....Nat's cousin Jason is home from Iraq for a few weeks and his family wanted to make him Thanksgiving dinner since he missed last year and will miss this year too) in his crib in the middle of the night last night. Then, as I was putting the sheet, blanket, and bumper in the wash, Nat heroically made it into the bathroom to have Adam throw up in the sink. About an hour after getting Adam back down to sleep, he threw up again in his crib. So far this morning he has not thrown up but now I'm getting the pleasure of dealing with diarrhea! I love being a mom.
We had lunch last week with my friends and Katie's baby was sick a few days later so I'm going to bet that's where he got it from. So thank you Lexie for spreading your germs to Adam! I guess their mothers shouldn't have been trying to make them kiss. Serves us right.
She stuck another rod onto the other end of the glass and is now rolling and shaping it
Pulling the glass piece into a rod
The finished rod
This is an example of what the canes turn out like. These patterns were made on a larger scale and then pulled into thinner rods to create small patterns. Each slice of these canes will have the image on it. Pretty cool huh? These are WAY beyond my skill level however. 
These umbrellas are part of a mexian restaurant we ate at that night
I have no idea how he managed to get his arm completely out of his sleeve!
