Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Snowmobiling trip, January 2010

We started off the year right (well, at least according to the boys): we went with Alan's side of the family to a little cabin for some snowmobiling and hanging out. Alan's cousin Corby is a HUGE outdoorsman (like the word 'huge' doesn't do him justice, seriously-- he is way into any manner of outdoor activity; being that he is a dad of four little ones, he is also really good at planning for kids during all these activities) and brought a small snowmobile along so Mason could drive it himself. Big hit.

We played games, ate tons of food and enjoyed quality family time before everyone went their separate ways--which we'll get to in subsequent posts. Here are the pictures! (In random order because I still am not sure how blogger uploads this junk.)

The frosty view from upstairs of our cabin.

Baby Claire, all bundled up and ready to go.

Hey look! We were all sitting still and looking at the same camera.... almost.

Alan being...himself. Paul being a fun uncle.

Mason was a little skeptical on the first go--grandma and grandpa had to help convince him it was okay.

Mason and his dad, all ready to go.

Mason was not necessarily excited. In the end, he loved it so much he napped ON THE SNOWMOBILE.

Mason got the camera; mom fed the baby. The trip summed up in two sentences.

Mason got the camera. Again. Sorry, Paul and Leah.

Corby and the kid-sized snowmobile were a huge hit.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter

So I made two executive decisions. The first was that I'm not going to stuff our Christmas cards with Christmas letters like I normally do. I am far too lazy to try condensing this crazy year down to one page, find the paper, print it, fold it, and yada yada yada.

The second was that I'm going to actually post on the blog and utilize it as our Christmas letter.

So starting from now until Christmas, I'm going to use each day in December to catch you up to speed on what we've done this year. I'm going to leave a link to this post at the very tip-top of the blog so if you're new here and you were referred here by the note in our Christmas cards, you'll know where to look first. If I get really ambitious with this goal, I'll come back and link to every day I post in this spot so it's like a one-stop sort of deal. Don't hold you breath on the last one. As you can tell I have not been blog-ambitious in a long, long time.

So tomorrow's post will just start in January 2010 with the things I've meant to post but haven't done and will go chronologically through the year. I hope you all enjoy it and I hope I keep up with it.

18 months and counting!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.2

Length/Height: 32.7 inches (80th percentile)

Weight: 21.31 lbs. (1oth percentile)

Likes: stuffed animals, hugs and kisses, watching movies, iced tea and ice water, her Piglet blanket, her brother, shoving her fingers up your nose, her Five Ladybugs book, dogs and cats, bubble baths, singing songs, dolls and anything doll-related, food

Dislikes: when the yogurt is gone, meat, not getting her way, her carseat

Commonly Spoken Words/Phrases: "Go, go, go!", "What is it?", "Outside", "Snack", "Uh-oh!", "Oh, no!", "Mmmm" (when she wants a kiss or wants you to kiss an animal), "Where's the ninja?", "Thank you", "Holy cow!"

This string bean is still a sweet little firecracker. She sleeps and eats on a tight schedule. Within her waking hours, she shows absolutely no fear. She plays hard, she laughs hard, and she picks up new things every day. She sings songs (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Rock-a-Bye Baby are the recognizable ones -- but she almost always sings and dances to the radio in the car or otherwise). She tries to jump but hasn't quite gone airborne yet. She will happily chatter your ear off with a new and recognizable word thrown in when you least expect it. She's currently learning colors. I've been told she says "Purple" quite clearly and with near-perfect accuracy, but I haven't witnessed it yet.

Halloween Preview Continued

Introducing the sweetest puppy dog in the world.

Not Dead Yet

And I even remembered the password to get in and post. I've got some catching up to do. First, though, a Halloween preview....

Our Seventh Anniversary?

It was technically yesterday, even though the day had the appearance of a normal day. I met my mom for coffee first thing, then we forgot about swimming lessons (it's never a good feeling to look at the clock and realize you were supposed to be somewhere 10 minutes previously), took Mason for a haircut, took the kids for a picnic at one of our favorite parks, then took Mason to see a movie while grandma watched "baby" Claire, then home again for dinner and bed. After dinner and bed for the kids, mom and dad made a "fancy" dinner and ate just the two of us.

A hot meal, with no interruptions, and candles at the edge of the table. We finished off by watching our wedding video as we do each year. It's amazing how things change and all at once how they stay the same -- there were people in the video that we miss and it was good to see them again, kind of frozen in a happy place. Most of us are a little older, a little wiser (in theory), and hopefully still happy.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite a normal day.

(sorry about the photo quality -- our wedding pictures are difficult to scan as it turns out)