Christmas Clip

Here is a clip from Christmas Day - Delanie opening one of her many presents under the tree! For us, Christmas began a little after 6 am, when Delanie woke up. She was quickly fed, then we began opening presents. First off, let me say, being able to experience our first Christmas as parents was truely a wonderful, memorable experience. There was nothing like the feeling of watching Delanie's excitement and wonder as she progressed through the day. And, although she doesn't quite "get it" yet, Dave and I were still very excited to sneak around and play Santa after she went to sleep the night before.

Of all the gifts she opened, Delanie was most drawn to the books. She loves all books! She is so funny now, because she actually will sit down and "read" books, only occasionally nibbling on the binding. She uses lots of inflection in her voice and just talks nonstop, glances at pictures before turning pages. She is so fun to watch when she really gets into a book (this trait she gets from her Dad, not her mother!!).

After presents, we were able to take a nice walk with the dogs at some trails at the high school. Those poor dogs! The walk was their only gift this year, other than what Mamo sent them! But, they were as content as ever. We had pot roast for an early dinner, played with toys some more. We drove out to a cool light display - the homeowner synchronized all his lights to a local Christmas radio station. We sat out on the grass and got lost in the beauty of the Christmas lights for a while. Once we got home, it was an early bedtime for all.

A big thank you to all our generous friends and family - it took until mid-afternoon to open all of the presents we received! We had such a wonderful Christmas as a family, but missed everyone we did not get to see. Christmas celebrations will continue until mid-January, as our plans to see family spans over several weekends.

We hope everyone was as blessed with a wonderful Christmas Day! We look forward to catching up with so many people in the coming days!

Christmas Day

A picture of me in front of the Christmas Tree

A picture of me crawling AWAY from the Christmas tree! Thank you Caleb for the bib!

Here I am reading one of the many great books I received... I love books!

I enjoy playing with my new Care Bear's nose! He is as big as me!

Christmas Morning

Here is a picture of Daddy and I coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.

I started the morning by exploring in my stocking of course!

Dancing with Daddy in our pajamas!

This is my face upon opening the gift from Great Aunt Kathleen!! The stuffed dog did not make the best first impression, but has since grown on me!

First Presents!

The first of what will likely be a string of posts of Delanie's first Christmas! We opened gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Blatchford and Aunt Kate on Dec 22. Delanie loves paper - newspaper, tissues, etc - so opening gifts wasn't a huge stretch for her!

Dancing Queen

On Friday, we had a small open house for close friends and family. Here is some video of Delanie and Mommy warming up before guests arrived!

How Time Flies!

December has been a busy month for us, thus far. We have been rushing to get Christmas shopping done when we are not getting the house ready for some renovations or attending one of many events we seem to have this month.

That said, this will be another "short but sweet" post from us! As you saw in our last post, Delanie is crawling! And, as you can tell by the pictures, every piece of furniture, every pillow, every storage bin has now become a barricade to keep her in one area. The whole "open floor plan" idea was obviously not developed by a stay-at-home mom of an 8.5 month old!

Delanie is really developing a humorous personality now! She makes silly faces all the time. She is currently enthralled with sticking out her tongue and making mumbling sounds. She also loves to make the messy motorboat sounds that result in peas all over the person feeding her - usually Mommy. She takes her socks off EVERY time she is in her carseat, and proceeds to chew on them and make noises through the material. Just today, she has learned how to click her tongue, so laughs at the noise it makes.

Last weekend, we went to a beautiful wedding. Delanie did lots of dancing with family, and outlasted most of us by going the whole day without a nap! She loved watching the other kids play on the dance floor!

We are turning the bonus room into a more kid-friendly playroom. We have been
clearing out the room and painting before a contractor could put in some built ins. The room is starting to come together now, but I think our timing was off, because we still don't have the tree up!

On The Move!

Delanie began crawling on Friday! And boy, can she move! She is fascinated with a floor lamp in the family room, which she grabs hold of and tries to drag across the wood floors. She also loves Daddy's toys - electronics, remotes, newspapers, etc.