December to January

Somebody asked me the other day what I've been up to the past few weeks....what on Earth is keeping me so busy? These two kiddos have literally kept my hands full. In the past month we had five Christmas celebrations, James had his first stomach flu experience, I had a 24-hour bug, James fractured his foot, and we've all been battling a yucky cold bug for weeks! In addition to that, Clara is more and more alert every week. This is a LOT of fun for us but also makes it more difficult as I'm learning how to delegate my time between two children!

Here are several pictures from the past month....

James is obsessed with 'helping' in the kitchen. I'm learning to be more flexible and he's learning a lot about cooking! He loves to say " raw chicken! need salt! very hot! be careful!" Here he was helping my mom and me make ham sandwiches for my grandmother's birthday party. His job was to peel off the wax paper between the swiss slices and throw it away. He was listening to silly songs while he worked. :)

James has painted a few times. He likes to use the brush but refuses to finger paint. It sort of surprised me! He did, however, desperately want squeeze the paint out of the bottle by himself...am I a bad mother for not letting him?

We celebrated Christmas with Mark's family first. Here is my dear mother-in-law. We have been following her through quite the journey lately! Less than a week ago, Lois had major surgery to remove cancer from her right lung. She has been so brave and strong. The surgery was successful but there is still quite a bit of recovery to deal with. Please pray for her as she is recovering and still in the hospital.

Our annual hand bell and caroling at the nursing home

After getting his cool blue cast on, we had to keep James off his feet for a few days. Here he had fun making gingerbread cookies with my parents a few days before Christmas.

My grandmother turned 80 on Christmas Day. We had quite the party to celebrate the day after!

James and Clara with their cousin Annie, my brother's daughter. James had fun playing with Annie!...perhaps too much fun? He passed his cold on to her. :(

This was the best we could do for a Christmas picture of our family. Kind of pitiful, huh? It is very typical, though. James is nearly always checking on Clara, touching Clara, hugging Clara, poking Clara....and she just tries to take it all in.

My extended family...grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...the works!

The week following Christmas my girlfriend Amy was available one afternoon before heading home so a few of us got together. As you can see from the picture, we all have kids and are all busy mamas now! It was great to catch up a little!

10 weeks old

11 weeks