Rockin' in the New Year

We had a fun time playing Rock Band with our friends on New Years Eve. Here are some pics.

Christmas 2009

Part I

We went to my parents' house for the first half of our trip. We relaxed, celebrated my birthday, and opened presents Christmas morning before heading to Beaumont for the second half of our time with family.

Big chairs are fun!

Reading with the Cat in the Hat

Trying on her Santa hat

Our family pic

The group for my birthday dinner at Macaroni Grill

Part II

We spent a couple of days in Beaumont with Kyle's parents and were able to have the whole group together on the 26th.

We enjoyed trying out Pop's new toy, a Polaris Ranger, and rode around in the neighborhood.

Aunt Kimberly made sugar cookies and icing for the kids to decorate. Julia seemed a little confused by it, and Madison and Shane preferred to just dip their cookies in the icing instead of decorating them first.

Relaxing in the bean bag

Recent Videos

Here are some recent video clips of Julia:

Enjoying her first bowl of Cheerios

Talking

Playing and dancing

Recent Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Julia...

Her first bowl of Cheerios with milk. She did really well with her spoon and even wanted a second bowl.

This is actually what her hair looked one day after her nap!

She is very proficient with using a fork and wants to eat everything with one, even raisins.

Playing in the waiting area of the dentist office. This happens to be the dentist office that Mommy designed, and the dentists are good friends of ours. She knows them well and calls them "Babbis" (Travis) and "Ninny" (Kenny).

"Ninny" had to play the dentist role for Julia's first exam. He was trying to continue a game they were playing, but this picture shows she started getting worried about the situation.

Julia got pretty upset with him during the process, although start to finish was no more than 30 seconds. He looked at her teeth and gums, then cleaned them quickly, then brushed on a fluoride treatment. Afterwards, he handed Julia a balloon and they were friends again.

For some reason Julia decided to take her doll stroller out to the back yard. And for some reason she thought she should put as many pebbles into it as she could.

One of Julia's Christmas presents was her very own rocking chair. She loves it!

Julia definitely prefers not to have a bow of any kind in her hair, but one day she found a pile I had as I was packing for our trip and brought them to me one by one, saying "hair?" as she handed them to me. After I put one in, she said "thank you" and turned around to get another.

We tried out her dog backpack (leash) at our neighborhood Christmas activity. She loved wearing it and cried when we finally took it off at home.

Season's Greetings!

Many thanks to our good friend Sarah for taking our family portraits and creating this collage of our favorites.

Tacky Sweater Party!

We hosted our first Christmas Party last night. It was a Tacky Sweater party and everyone had fun finding one to wear and show off. It was so much fun to have our friends together.

Tiffany & Matt

Kristen, Israel, & Raegan

Travis & Megan

Sarah & Kenny

Misti, Ryan, & Gracie
Misti won the people's choice award for the best / tackiest sweater.

Christmas Stroll

Every year we go to the Christmas Stroll on the square. There is a parade, a craft market, Bethlehem village, entertainment for the kids, and of course pictures with Santa.

Waiting for the parade to begin.

There was a lot for Julia to see in the parade.

We home after the parade so Julia could nap, but returned later. It was very cold so we bundled her up while we walked around.

We tried getting Julia excited about seeing Santa. She knew what he looked like and would say, "Danta", but when she saw him up close she said, "no, no!" We put her in his lap anyway and she cried and yelled, "Daddy! Daddy!" over and over again while trying to leap out of Santa's lap. Once the pictures were captured and Daddy rescued Julia, she stopped crying, turned to Santa and said, "BYE!"

Julia: 15 Months

Here is what Julia is doing these days...

• She is still talking a lot, although for some reason she doesn't use her "p" sound anymore and says words like "peas" and "p'ease" with a "b" sound instead.
  
• She still eats well and is getting better and better with her fork. She is also eating more textures, even though she still has the same 8 teeth she has had for several months.
  
• She is transitioning into one nap per day, so some days she takes one and other days she doesn't.
• She understands what trash is (she calls it "gosh") and enjoys finding it and putting it in the trash can. When she finds something that she thinks is trash, she will usually bring it to one of us or head straight to the trash can, saying "gosh" over and over again.
• She really likes having socks and shoes put on her feet and gets giddy with anticipation as we begin putting them on her.
• She loves being chased and surprised and will giggle and squeal with excitement.
  
• She says "hi" and "bye" to everyone, even her toys and the dogs.
• She is very appreciative and says thank you ("deh deh") anytime anyone hands something to her, helps her with something, lets her do something she asks to do, etc. and even after she takes something from us.
• She wants everything back in its place and says "ba'" when she wants to do it or have us do it for her.
• She often corrects herself and says, "NO!" when she does something she isn't supposed to do or thinks she isn't supposed to do.
• She has learned how to smack her lips when she gives kisses and when she blows a kiss. Sometime her timing isn't perfect, which is cute.
• She has learned to say, "again" (she actually says, "ginn") when she wants you to do something again (like throw her around or do something funny).
  
• She is still very much like a parrot, attempting to repeat what we say. But, her favorite word is "no". She definitely knows she has her own identity and doesn't have to do everything we want her to, which can be very frustrating at times.
• She knows when to make a word plural, and emphasizes the "s".
• She can now smack her lips when giving kisses or blowing kisses, which is really cute. She often gets the timing wrong, but is getting better.
  
• She is still loves dogs, balls, puzzles, necklaces, babies, and horses (her latest obsession).

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful week away for Thanksgiving. Julia and I headed to Houston to spend time with Mamaw and Papaw while Kyle hunted for 4 days. He joined us later in Houston for a couple days, and then we all went to Beaumont for the weekend. It was wonderful to see all of our immediate family on both sides. Here are some photos and video clips...

Reading a book with Papaw

One of Julia's favorite things at Mamaw and Papaw's house: the tree swing. She would stay in it for a really long time and almost fell asleep once.

Julia's other favorite thing: the rocking horse. The video shows her getting on and off the horse on her own and having a great time. The rocking horse was Mamaw's when she was about 3 and has been used by all the kids on her side of the family. Many thanks to my Uncle Mike for rebuilding/refinishing it for Julia to use. It is as good as new and she loves it!

Mamaw treated Julia to her first ride on a mechanical horse while we were out shopping.

Pillow fights with Papaw became an evening ritual during our stay there. So much fun!

I went in to get something out of Julia's room while she wase napping and was surprised to see that she had her hood on her head. Don't know if she put it up herself or not, but I had to snap a picture.

On Thanksgiving Day, Gigi & Pop, Kimberly and Mark, and Madison came to spend the day and enjoy a wonderful meal together.

Relaxing in the swing.

Julia tried her best to play croquet.

The group, minus Madison, who was napping during our meal.

We had another "Thanksgiving" in Beaumont.

Julia played on the indoor slide at Gigi and Pop's house for much of the time. She enjoyed having her cousins to play with. They were both very nice to her and waited patiently for her to climb up and always let her have a turn, even if it wasn't her turn.

One night we all went to Chuck E. Cheese. Julia went about a year ago but was too young to enjoy it. This time she had lots of fun and rode her first "rides".

Her favorite was the carousel, which we expected since she is obsessed with horses.

She even played ski ball, and threw the balls over and over again about 2-3 feet.