Christmas time is here!

Hi everyone
I guess you all are getting in the Christmas spirit with only 9 days left of the most wonderful time of the year. We have been having extra fun this Christmas because Preston can actually understand a lot of what's going on. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to any Christmas parades just because of other plans we had, but we've been caroling with CWOW and riding on the hay ride and singing was just about too much for an excited little boy to take in. He was literally in awe. He loves seeing Christmas lights and has done very well with the tree. He knows that we're only supposed to look at the ornaments, but every now and then when he's in a super stinkery mood he'll yank one off the lower branches and come and ask me to help him put it back. All of the ones near the bottom are safe for him to play with anyways. We've gotten all of the children's Christmas books off the shelf, and we'll spend what seems like eternity reading them and talking about the pictures in some of them if the story is too long. I'm very thankful that he really loves reading. He has learned all about Jesus' birth, gingerbread men, snowmen, snow in general (for a while he would argue that it was rain), and other christmas things like toy soldiers, santa, and chocolate covered cherries. Its been a lot of fun.
A couple of weekends ago Chris and I went to see the Nutcracker with our friends Shane and Jeannine from north Louisiana. They visited for the weekend, and so we took them to dinner and the ballet and had a super time without the kiddos. I'm not really into ballet, but it was fun to see the Nutcracker as a chance to change up the normal date night routine by doing something different and special. Luckily, my pregnant belly was hiding under the table for our photo! Ahhahaa.


Chris is finished with his Fall Semester of Seminary!!! Yay! We are so excited. We've been doing some much needed nagging little house projects (and some fun ones) and enjoying being able to spend more time together. Chris is building Preston some bunk beds. I think I've mentioned this in a previous post. They should be finished and assembled by this weekend. Chris hasn't done any wood working of this sort before, and is really enjoying it. I think its becoming his new hobby. We'll post some pics when its all done so that you can admire his handywork too.

Preston is growing and changing....the usual I guess. He's as active as ever. Usually we get the comment, " Wow, he's a busy boy" at least once a week. Usually about 10 times at church on Sundays. He is our little explorer, and not scared of anything. He's lots of fun too though. His new thing this week is snuggling. He watched the end of The Polar Express with Chris the other night and they were talking about snuggling. So now Preston will snuggle on request. He takes his face and buries it into your neck. Its very sweet. He's also very excited about baby Clint as we've been talking about him more. He gives him hugs and kisses and likes to smoosh my belly and watch him move. He's very excited to know that Clint can ride in the truck with him when we go places. He's also learned all of our close friends and families' names. He's still very social and loves going places and people in general. Our challenge with him righ now is staying in bed and going to sleep. He is a terrific climber and has figured out how to climb anything that doesn't contain straps to hold him in place...including the crib and pack n play. I guess the scary part is him waking up early early in the morning and sneaking out of bed to find something to get into. Recently, it was Chris' leftover cup of coffee from the office desk. Maggie came to our bedroom and I couldn't figure out why, until I heard Preston chanting "Cockey, Cockey" (coffee) and running to our bedroom with the coffee cup in hand. I guess our ears are in tune to his sneaky noises now. We made some improvement this week because after his naps he'll usually call me to get him up.

We don't have much other exciting news other than we've just been enjoying a slower pace and more free time this month. Its very nice. Here's a few more pics to finish up.

The pic above is his favorite sleeping position, and in the one below he's wearing some seal skin boots that were Chris' when he was a baby.

looking very grown up...

our attempt at taking a self portrait in front of the tree...

Merry Christmas everyone!