First Tooth (x2)

After months of wondering when she was going to get her first tooth, she now has two. We have blamed many afternoons of fussiness on the fact that she was "teething," but apparently there were other reasons for her grumpiness. You can barely see them, but they're there all the same, her bottom two teeth are starting to come in. Although it was a few days late, it seems like her Christmas wish has come true... "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth".

Play Time

Now that we've opened all the presents, it's time to test them all out. All of the kids enjoyed playing with their new, awesome toys.

Emily with her new sorting toys. She's not quite sure what to do with them yet (besides chew on them), but I'm sure she'll figure it out soon. In the mean time, they'll look pretty cool.

Josh blowing bubbles in the back yard. Emily isn't quite sure what these bubbles are all about, but she's keeping a close watch on them just in case.

Christmas

Our first stop of the day was a Grandma Jan and Grandpa Jim's house. We spent time there hanging out and opening presents. It's nice to spend time with loved ones on the holidays.

Emily and Grandpa Jim hanging out in Grandpa's chair.

Andrew opening presents.

Emily playing with coasters at Grandma's house. No matter the season, that never gets old.

After we finished hanging out with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Jim, we headed over to Grandma Jane and Grandpa Royals for dinner and more presents.

Emily checking out her loot in her stocking.

Caleb showing off his new goggles. He can't wait for the temperature to get warm enough for him to try them out.

Josh in his goggles, practicing holding his breath.

Emily playing with her new bowling pins.

After dinner and presents, we all sat down for an exciting game of Apples to Apples. I had never played, but it was a lot of fun.

It's official, I am now a member of the family! Jane makes a stocking for all of the new family members. I am privileged to have mine. I love it!

Christmas Morning

Andrew and I are very excited to celebrate Emily's first Christmas. I'm sure she won't remember any of it, but we're having a great time. This year, I thought it would be fun to get everyone their own Christmas pajamas so we'd all have them Christmas morning. As you can see, everyone was good this year because Santa came by for a visit and left a little something for everyone. Andrew and I were exhausted Christmas morning. We were a little late getting to bed, and by the time we made it there, Josh woke up after having a bad dream and couldn't sleep. The night ended with Emily, me, Andrew, and Josh squished in our queen sized bed like sardines. Needless to say, I've slept better.

Presents under the tree. Emily got a new walker with blocks in it and Josh got the iPod Touch he's been dreaming about all year long.

Another shot of Emily's walker with blocks. She's not quite ready for it, but I'm sure she'll be using it to run all over the house soon.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Josh and Caleb sorting through their loot.

Emily checking out her new blocks. She tried to take her walker for a stroll, but it still moves a little too fast for her. She's going to have to work on her balance a little more before she takes it out again.

Emily unwrapping the presents Josh got for her in her snowman pjs.

Emily eating the wrapping paper... that's what it's for, right?

Christmas Eve

Christmas is only a day away, and Emily is getting very excited.  I can't believe Emily's first Christmas is almost here.  We spent the day hanging out around the house, making cookies for Santa, and going to candle light service at church.  

Emily showing off her newly perfected crawling skills.  With her new skill comes increased speed.  She can get all over the house now... watch out.  One of the ladies at church gave Emily these pajamas... they were a little small, but we made them work for a night.  

Emily helping make cookies for Santa... yum.

 
Emily is constantly pulling up on everything.  We had to avoid putting presents under the tree until today or else we would have had to rewrap everything.  

Emily made sure Santa got his milk and cookies... I've heard Santa gets pretty upset if someone forgets his milk and cookies.  She even left a piece of cheese out for Santa Mouse.

I got this little dress for Emily because I thought it was too funny.  It also had a matching cape with fake fur around the edges.  Everyone at church thought it was great.  

Oh Christmas Tree

In our continuing effort to be more green, we decided to buy our Christmas tree from a local tree farm instead of one that had been shipped in from across the country.  When we got there, I was surprised to see some very beautiful cut trees.  I was thinking that you got the option of picking one from the field or picking one that had already been cut.  Well, I was a little disappointed when I found someone to explain things and they told me that I could choose from one of the trees that they had shipped in (ie all the big beautiful trees I'd been eying)... or we could go to the field and pick one out there.  Apparently all the trees I was wanting to get can't be grown in Oklahoma.  Something about not being the right climate, blah, blah, blah.  I was a little deflated, but I decided that it would be worth it to stick to my guns.  We headed out on a little hay ride to look at the trees they were going to be cutting this year.  

Once we were there, we had fun looking up and down the rows of trees to find just the right one for us.

Emily and I watching the boys do all the work.  You may also notice that I chopped off all my hair... more on that later.

Once we'd spotted it, Andrew, Josh, and Caleb took turns cutting it down.

Then they all carried it back to the wagon, and we were on our way home to decorate.

We spent the next day putting all the lights on it and decorating the tree.  By the time I'm done putting lights on it,  I always wonder why I decide to do so many lights... but then I see it and I'm usually glad I did.  (Until I have to take them all off that is...)

Josh and Caleb let Emily help with the decorating too.

In the end, our Oklahoma tree turned out beautifully.  We had fun picking it out and cutting it down ourselves.  I think we'll make that a new tradition

Corpse Baby

As you may have noticed, Emily spends a lot of time napping on the couch (against her mother's better judgement).  When I came home from work, I found her on the couch like this, and if I didn't see her breathing, I would have thought that she was a goner.  I tried to cross her arms over her chest before a picture, but she started to wake up, so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we decided to head to El Paso to see Kathleen, Johnny, and Layla since we hadn't gotten to spend much time with them yet since Layla was born.  We made the decision to drive instead of fly after we saw the ticket prices for Thanksgiving weekend.  As the weekend drew near, we started to regret our decision, but it was a little late to change our minds.  We stopped on the way to cut our 12 hour trip in half.  That definitely helped.  We also made some pit stops along the way to add a little bit of interest.  While we were there, we visited three national parks and added three new stamps to Emily's passport, so in the end I guess the long drive was worth it.

Here we are at White Sands National Monument.  We were very surprised that they were open on Thanksgiving day.  

We drove through part of the park, and made a stop to take a quick walk and a few pictures before we got back on the road. 

Emily had so much fun playing with Layla... and with Layla's toys.  Toys always seem to be more fun when they belong to someone else.

Kathleen and Layla.

Andrew and Emily hanging out on the couch.

Layla is 5 months younger than Emily.  It's amazing what a difference 5 months makes when you are less than a year old.

Layla's chair vibrated, and Emily likes playing with it.  The last time she was there, we let her sit in it, but I don't think that would last too long now that she's bigger.

On Saturday, we decided to start the long drive back, but we had Kathleen, Johnny, and Layla come part of the way with us  and we made a few more national park stops on the way back.  

Here we are at Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  It looked like they had some good hiking trails and camping, so we decided we would have to make another trip there some day when we could hike and camp together.

Here we are at the sign for the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  While we were there, we got Layla her own passport to fill up with all of her family's travels.

The next stop on our trek was Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  I remember going there several times growing up.  I doubt Emily will remember this trip, but I'm sure we'll make the trip again some day.  

Andrew in the cavern.

Kathleen, Johnny, and Layla.

Andrew and I.  (Emily slept through most of the trip on my back.

Kathleen and Layla before we headed the rest of the way to Tulsa.