January

Here are a few pictures I missed from December:

Playing Head Banz with cousins

Grandma Kara took the grandkids to the Nutcracker. She said Benjamin sat through the whole thing. He asked her a few questions like "why do the boys dance like girls?" and "why are the boys wearing tights?"

Peter is very self-sufficient. He pulled down the pizza box from the table to get a piece of pizza even though we were right there.

My students are so patient with Peter and how he enjoys going through all their things during lessons.

Benjamin spends many hours a day at our bar counter coloring.

Joseph came for a visit.

Look at these faces I get when I ask for a smile!

At Chick Fil A looking longingly at the cupcakes next to us and the ensuing tantrum when we wouldn't let him take one. The nice family ended up giving him one...

More "smiling" faces

At a Subway where we filled up gas $4.15 per gallon on our way to California........

What handsome boys! It took looking at this picture to realize that Peter has outgrown 18 month clothes.

The most exciting news of January is that Charity had Nathaniel! The boys are enamored by him. I thought Benjamin would be more into him than Peter, but although Benjamin loves him, Peter is obsessed. He would gladly hold him the entire time we're with them.

Lamoni got to move offices and likes his new one.

Zoo visit with the other Sams and Ryan.

I gave up on potty training again. He will happily sit there as long as there's a movie on and then stand up to pee with no thought of it. We'll try again in a few weeks.

Another of Benjamin's creations. He and Katheryn made this city.

This is how cool guys pose I hear.

Sunday morning movies with daddy while I'm in church meetings.

We live in a nice neighborhood for walks.

2 Captain Americas

Captain America plays the cello

Peter's favorite person (even above me) is Papa. He LOVES Papa. 

Katheryn spent some time with us after Nathaniel was born.

Christmas Week

Santa brought a toy car

Christmas night seemed so cozy after Santa came.

The Haribo gummy bears were by far Peter's favorite.

This is the most exuberance we got out of him. 

This happy play time lasted just a short while. The boys were so fussy all morning and not feeling well. We headed over to Grandma and Papa's to open gifts and see if they would cheer up. 

They didn't. They didn't even want to open gifts and Benjamin fell asleep on my lap, which is extremely unusual. Grammy and Grampy were visiting and gave Benjamin the sweater in the picture and Grandma gave them the tool set on the right. I think someone took pictures of us with Grammy and Grampy but I don't have them yet.

Grandma and Bampa came and stayed with us for 5 days after Christmas. 

One of the nights we had Charity and Jarrett and Grammy and Grampy over for games.

Anna and D'Marco came to visit for a few days over Christmas. Benjamin had fun but still wasn't himself yet from the sickness.

I took a week off teaching for Christmas, so I was able to have sick baby cuddles. Poor guy.

The adorable outfit Grammy gave Peter.

Peter adores Pumpkin - Grandma and Bampa's dog. 

Benjamin gave his Twinkle recital while everyone was in town. It took him about 3 songs to focus and then did his best!

Over at Faith and Jason's house playing Mario Kart. Charity and Jarrett also have Mario Kart. The other day I walked into Benjamin's room and saw him crying. I asked what was the matter and he said, "I just want to be at Charity's house!" After further questioning I found out it was because he wanted to play it!

New Years Eve tradition of Chinese food. This year we made it and it was so much fun and delicious. Faith/Jason and Mel/Melinda were over. My family stopped in for an hour and then Deruchette came into town. 

Reading Christmas stories

Not really a Christmas picture, but I love it (him)!