Run, run, GLIDE!

Despite the cold weather lately, we've been taking advantage of the sunshine to go use Matthew's run bike at the park. He has been practicing really hard running fast enough to pick up his feet to glide. I think he has finally mastered it. His balance is so good now that he glided from the far end of our complex to our driveway without putting his feet down! By next spring he should be able to graduate to a pedal bike - no training wheels. Yeah Matthew!

My sweet (gingerbread) boys

3 days, 5 cups of flour, a bowl of icing sugar, a bag of smarties, christmas carols, and a hyper 3 year old, but in the end we have gingerbread. Matthew and I worked during Michael's naps to make the dough, then we let it chill overnight. The next day we cut shapes and baked them. Finally, the day Matthew had been waiting for - decorating (read eating) with Smarties, gum drops, and m&m's. Our decorating day was fun- but maybe too exciting for Matthew. We ate some candies, created a mini Matthew and baby Michael, had a surprise visit from Grandma and Poppa, and got to eat the T-Rex gingerbread cookie that John & I had secretly created for him. (I forgot to take a picture of it!)

For those of you who got to eat some of these cute creations, I hope you enjoyed them. If you missed out, I think we are baking sugar cookies next week.

Tree Trimming

Everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. This afternoon we went to my sister's house to help her decorate her Christmas tree. She has a gorgeous tree all decorated in silver, white and a touch of blue. Nana and Papa came too. Corey even came home from work for a while. Matthew was thrilled to get some play time with his Uncle Corey!


Matthew also got a Santa hat from Papa today - which made him very happy since he was upset that Michael has a Santa outfit (which was Matthew's for his first Christmas) and he had nothing.

Dear Santa

Last week we went to Photo Express to have the boys see Santa. We got the photos back yesterday. Aren't they cute!?

This is the first year that Matthew wasn't scared to sit with Santa (he doesn't really like guys with beards and/or mustaches). I think he was able to overcome his fear because he really wanted to ask Santa for 2 specific gifts - sunglasses and a Buzz Lightyear doll. Lucky Matthew, Santa had already made arrangements for those things to be delivered.

Merry Christmas!!

We decorated our Christmas tree this morning. Matthew had a great time looking at all the ornaments. He especially likes the one of Opus on the jet engine powered toboggan (sorry no picture, yet). After John went to work I took photos of the boys in front of the tree. Michael loves the lights and then feel of the branches.

Moving Backwards

Michael is on the fast track to crawling. For the past week he has been pushing up onto his toes and yesterday he finally got the knees bent. His arms are still stronger than his legs though so he only manages to shuffle himself backwards. Once he backs himself up against the coffee table or the wall he can use those to push forward. It shouldn't be long now before he is crawling all over.

The Good with the Bad

As many people who have large dumpsters know - rats and mice love garbage. This has been a HUGE issue in our townhouse complex, especially this past summer. Tonight we got to see the up side to having rodents around. Owls like to dine on them and so not more than 4 feet off the ground one sat waiting for his dinner to scurry out when John took the garbage out this evening. He came back, bundled up Matthew and they went to bird watch. Matthew thought it was pretty cool.