So we played it safe this year and just decided to stay home for Christmas this year.  And looking back on the crazy weather we’ve had this past week, we think it was a wise choice!  Molly has anxiously been waiting for Santa and his reindeer to visit ever since Halloween.  So you can imagine our shock when we asked Molly on Christmas Eve if she was ready for Santa to visit.  “I don’t want him to come into the house,” she replied with a sigh.  “I have enough presents.”  Wowzers!  We were not prepared for that!  But we convinced her to set out some cookies and reindeer treats and she was very happy in the morning when she saw that Santa left some gifts in her stocking. 

I’m not usually impressed with kids’ toys, but we got Molly this Leap Frog Tag reading pen thing and it is super cool!  If you have kids ages 3-7, check it out!

During our holiday family time, we got caught up on some Christmas movies, including Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Grinch (animated and the Jim Carrey version), and Shrek the Halls. 

Check out new photos in our December album.  And Happy Birthday, Mom!!

~ Erin

This year, Molly is really getting into the Christmas spirit… as she tries to figure out the concept of time, every day she states that Christmas is just two days away!  Not sure where she came up with that, but she’ll be right one of these days! 

We took the girls to visit Santa last weekend… Molly was very excited about it and was all prepared to sit on his knee and tell him that she wanted a Sleeping Beauty dress - the blue one - and a crown.  Well, as we were standing in the Santa line, Molly suddenly became very upset.  There was a woman standing next to Santa and Molly demanded to know who she was.  We had to quickly explain the concept of Mrs. Claus and then Molly was OK.  Whew! 

As we’ve been playing familiar Christmas tunes, Molly has picked some favorites.  It’s fun to hear her renditions of “Jinger Bells” and “Rudolph the Reindeer’s Red Nose”.  She has also seen the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer movie a few times and has repeatedly asked to watch “The Grinch” which should make Grandma Peggy proud! 

I started my new job late last week and Doug and I attended the holiday party Saturday night.  We had a good time getting to know my coworkers and honoring some long-term retirees.  During the meal, Doug shared a story about the origins of the NORAD Santa Tracking initiative… I’ll admit, I thought he was making it up, but it’s true!  Read all about how it got started here. 

Finally, I’ve got some good news and bad news… I don’t think I’ll be able to get our annual Christmas card/photo/letter out in the mail until AFTER Christmas.  (I’ll let you decide which part of that is the good news and which part is the bad news!)  Life is just a bit crazy right now and I’m waiting for our family pictures to get developed.

~ Erin

Hey, all!  I’ve been experiencing problems trying to upload photos into our gallery, so I just insert some of them here within this posting. 

We went in last week for our “official” holiday portrait.  I was so concerned that Nora would be the one who was going to give up trouble during the photo shoot, but it was Molly who was our little drama queen.  Unfortunately, Nora decided to grab a handful of Molly’s hair about halfway through the session and Molly didn’t exactly think that was fun.  But we were able to dry the tears and get a few decent pictures.  (Can’t wait until NEXT year… oh boy!)

Nora turned 6 months old on Thanksgiving, and lo and behold, she got her two bottom teeth, too!  Super cute! Doug enjoys making the Thanksgiving feast, so I gladly step aside and give him full reign of the kitchen… this year, he decided to try a new “brine” technique he learned from Alton on the Food Network.   Apparently, Alton failed to mention that your whole house would fill with smoke once you placed the brined turkey and roasting pan filled with oil in a 500 degree oven.  Live and learn I guess!

The newly engaged Amanda and Dan (AmanDan) came over from Columbus to celebrate the holiday with us.  They let me take some potraits of them, so check those out! 

Doug and I took advantage of the free babysitting to go out and brave the shopping crowds Friday morning.  We were in the market for a new washer/dryer and found a good deal.  We also found a Wii Fit balance board and we’ve all been having fun working off the extra calories! 

 Now it’s time to go decorate the tree… gotta go!

- Erin

I have to say that Doug seems to be really enjoying fatherhood lately… he’d be the first to admit that he doesn’t totally get into the “baby stage” but he’s having a lot more fun with Nora now that she’s starting to reach some major milestones.  We have started introducing solid foods to Nora.  So far, she’s tried rice cereal and sweet potatoes and she seems to like it a lot!  Nora is also starting to sit up on her own and can stay on her tummy for quite a while before getting cranky.  She’s drooling nonstop, so we expect that first tooth to appear soon!

Molly is quite the little chatterbox lately.  She tends to start off a story or sentence with the phrase, “When I was a little girl…”  She likes to make up wacky stories about when she was younger, and she loves to play with stickers.  Molly has also befriended a beanie baby dog whom she calls “Ghost Scary.” 

Here are some recent photos, featuring daddy and his girls:

- Erin

I finally got around to putting the finishing touches on a slideshow video of the family from June thru September 2008.

Here is a low-resolution video that I posted on YouTube:

If you want the hi-resolution copy, please download the 114MB WMV file. It will take some time (about 2 minutes over DSL/Cable) to download, but it looks MUCH better than a YouTube video.

Stay tuned for an actual video with motion and sound, but don’t hold your breath…I have a lot of footage to go through.

Take care,

Doug

So Halloween is here… and I was tempted to turn on the A/C today!  What an unseasonably warm day for trick-or-treating!  It was so nice to not have to slap a big coat on Molly before she went out tonight.  Doug reported that Molly became very adept at taking multiple pieces of candy from each of the neighbors’ bowls.  And judging by the contents of her loot, I think she likes M&Ms!  Here are a few pictures of our little ladies:

Okay, if you don’t back up your computer data….you should. Mozy Backup is a free program that is easy to use that can back up your data for free up to 2 gigabytes.  It is even available for Mac if you are lucky enough to have one of those.

You’re on notice! Don’t come crying to me if your hard drive crashes and you don’t have a backup.

Have a nice day knowing your data is backed up,
Doug

Ps. It shouldn’t take long before Erin posts something interesting now that I have something like this as our top post.

Erin’s parents came out for a “grandkid fix” this weekend and we all went out to the Sugar Grove Nature Center on Saturday.  It was a beautiful summer-like day and we almost had the whole place to ourselves!  The only other family out there was from church, so that was a fun coincidence! 

The nature center is such a great place for taking pictures… so many scenic opportunities!  Erin’s favorite place is the corn crib - complete with rocking chairs.  The lighting is so perfect for portraits!  Check out some highlights below:

Exciting times for Nora lately… she’s 4 months old and things are changing left and right!

She recently learned how to roll from her tummy to her back… lots of fun to watch her use her head as a counterweight! 

Nora is starting to babble often, too.  She’ll just get into rants where she repeats the same sound over and over and over… very adorable.

And I suspect we may see a tooth soon because she is drooling and chewing on everything that she can get her cute little hands on.  Molly has her first tooth at 5 months old, so we’ll see what happens.

Here are some cute pictures I snapped today… she takes direction very well!

Just had to share… Check out www.yearbookyourself.com and get ready to laugh!  Here are some results for me, Doug and Molly!  We’ll wait a few years before getting Nora…