Christmas morning 2012

Santa was good to Ryder this year and brought him the bicycle he'd been talking about for months. Ryder was excited to find the bicycle under the tree but wasn't a fan of wearing the helmet. He spent the day playing with all of his other toys instead, and I honestly think he was just overwhelmed with the whole gift-opening experience. He has since become a fan of riding his bike after opening an early birthday gift from Ali and Steve--a much cooler shark helmet than the original black one we had. Harper was content to hang out in the Rock 'n Play and listen to her big brother run around. There wasn't much that this 4-week old needed, so she just had some stocking stuffers this year.

"Hmmm... what should I ask Santa to bring me next year??"

Harper: 1 month

December 27th
It was a little more difficult to stage this one-month picture of Harper than it was to do Ryder's one-month picture. Perhaps there's a little more going on in our household now? ;) It wasn't until after I had taken the pictures that I realized I hadn't made a "1 month" sign to tape on the chair.

Harper likes...noise, being held, rocking in her swing, big brother's kisses, diaper changes, warm baths

Harper dislikes... having the hiccups, not being held, having shirts pulled over her head

Just in the last few days she has started sleeping longer stretches at night: 4 hours between feedings instead of 2-3, which Mommy appreciates. :) She has more "awake" times during the day, and she enjoys looking around the room and tries to focus on our faces and other objects. Her next well-visit is on Wednesday, so we'll find out how much she weighs. Andrew and I feel like she's gotten so big and changed so much in the last week!

"We have to do this every month?" (Doesn't she look concerned?)

focused on her big brother, as always

modeling her snowman bib

Oh so sweet

Some sweet pictures of my sweet babies...

dressed like a "candy cane", according to Ryder

snoozing at the park in her new winter coat

I mixed up the dough for my grandma's spiced sugar cookies, and Ryder helped me use cookie cutters and add red and green sprinkles.

such a mess but so much fun!

love my boy!

the finished products!

sampling one of his cookies

Ryder's newest trick: showing us his "surprised" face :)

fish lips

dimples!

Santa, Ho Ho Ho!

Thanks to an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (that we've seen way too many times now), Ryder has been chanting, "Santa, Ho Ho Ho!" for the last several days. We ask him what he wants Santa to bring him for Christmas, and he'll say "bike". Little does he know that he will be getting exactly that on Christmas morning. :) Today was cool and dreary, so on a whim we decided to head to the mall to walk around and pick up our final few Christmas gifts. Before leaving the house we made sure both kids were in Christmas colors just in case the line to see Santa was short enough that we could stand waiting in it. The timing couldn't have been more perfect! There was literally no line, and we walked right up to the entrance for a picture. Ryder pointed and grinned when he saw Santa, but was a little more leery when it came to actually talking to Santa or sitting on his lap. Out of the five pictures the photographer snapped, this was the best one. And of course I had to pay an arm and a leg to get one 5x7 and 4 wallets because any picture of my kids is absolutely adorable to me!

After the Santa visit, Ryder spotted the small train that makes laps through the mall. As it drove away, he said, "Train, where are you? Find that train." Andrew and I knew Ryder would get a kick out of riding on it, so we headed to its "parking spot". At this point Harper was getting hungry, so the boys hopped on the train together for a ride around the mall while I fed Harper. Andrew said Ryder grinned the entire way and kept saying "choo! choo!", so it was well worth the $3 ticket price.

Trimming the tree

We finally got our Christmas tree put up this week, and I didn't realize what a process it would be now that we have two kids' schedules to work around.  :) We had to consider nap times, feeding times, and bath/bed times, so trimming the tree became a 2-day event: the lights got put up on the first day, and we decorated it on the second. Ryder had more fun actually unpacking and playing with the ornaments than putting them on the tree, so Mommy (the perfectionist) held on to her current job as the ornament-placer. We had both kids dressed in their Christmasy outfits, hoping to get some good pictures to use for our Christmas card. Ha! Silly me. Ryder had no intention of sitting still or looking at the camera, and Harper insisted on being held the whole time so I ended up swaddling her and wearing her in my Moby wrap. We got some cute pictures, but not exactly Christmas-card worthy!

"Hmmm, where should this snowman go?"

playing with an airplane ornament

not exactly pleased with the hat

"Hey! Where did everybody go?"

making the two puppy ornaments kiss

a Starbucks cup ornament he became slightly obsessed with

He got the nice red scratch on his forehead just moments before we got out the camera. 

taking a break

"Sip! Sip!"

A watched oven never bakes

After mixing up a batch of cookies with Andrew, Ryder wanted a front row seat to watch his cookies bake. He ran into the other room, grabbed his orange chair, and plopped it right in front of the oven window.

You can see the flour on his shirt from mixing up the dough.

 "Daddy, I think they're done!"

A few miscellaneous pictures from today...

"Pirate Ryder" in some of his Christmas pj's

Harper loves Ryder's beanbag chair!

...and our latest project--> trying to get Ryder to use the "big boy potty".

Notice the huge cup of water along with puzzles on the Kindle to keep him occupied. He went a little bit last night, so the waiting paid off!