Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas Party #2

Our second Christmas party this year was at the Campbell's house in Nelsonville. Shane's sister, Cathy's family also spent the day here. We always have fun here and Seth and Isabelle love that they get to see their cousins, Jacob, Jennifer and Jessica.

For the first time, Parker posed and said, "Cheese"! That's our Clifford dog that he brought along.

Seth is good at posing for pictures.

Also for the first time, Parker rode the horsey all by himself!


And he loved it!

"Happy Birthday, Jesus" cake - Jacob, Isabelle & Seth
The boys play the piano.


Christmas Bingo game

Shane & Lance

Parker with his new mower

Seth. Jessica & Jennifer opening presents
 
One of Parker's gifts from Grandma & Grandpa was this small, wooden rocker that was found at an antique store and spruced up. Just his size!

Isabelle enjoying the day
It was a great day!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas Party #1

Our first Christmas party this year was the Smith party. Most of our relatives on Mom's Smith side of the family get together this time of year. In addition to a lot of good food, we played a family trivia game (I won!), had a kids coloring contest and a visit from Santa. I'm guessing there were around 50 people there.

Connor and Seth hung out together


Parker and me

Isabelle and Shane watching Santa

Seth visits with Santa & Mrs. Claus and gets a present (a Junie B. Jones book)

Isabelle's turn with Santa (her present was the dice game, Farkle)

Mommy carried Parker up to get his gift from Santa (2 doodles boards). There was no way he was going near Santa on his own!

"Chapman Family"

Connor and Seth coloring and doodling

Most of the grandkids and great-grandkids (Parker did not want to be in the photo and Lilly was off to the left)

This photo is of the Smith family children in 1952:

Back row: David, Sharon, JoAnn
Front row: Nancy, Vicki, Barbara
A good time was had by all at the Smith party!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Monday, December 24, 2012

First Snow

A little bit of snow made it to Grove City! Just enough to cover the ground with a dusting. Parker really liked it - we opened our back door, scooped up some snow and let him feel it. Last year we only had 2 inches of snow all year and Parker was too young to remember it.

Here's Parker looking at the snow - he just looked out the back door for about 10 minutes, so I had to get a photo of his cuteness.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Baking

The kids helped me make a lot of cookies this year! Both of them like to measure out the ingredients and put them in the mixing bowl. They also took turns using the hand mixer with some of the doughs. Teamwork! Sugar cookies, shortbread, peanut butter blossoms, yellow cake cookies and red velvet cake balls... yum!

Rolling out the sugar dough

Baker Seth

Pretty snowman

Shane helped with the frosting! Parker is just waiting for his cookie...

Someone, who can now reach things on the kitchen counter, snuck just one bite of this cookie and put it back!
We also decorated our annual gingerbread house. Isabelle likes to decorate it, but not eat it. Seth likes to decorate it AND eat it.


The finished product
2 days until Christmas!!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Letter from Santa

The kids received their letters back from Santa this week! To see the letters they wrote to him, here's the link: Letters to Santa.


 
 
Sounds like we need to have cookies, milk and carrots ready!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Going Away Party

In October we went to a Going Away Party for our niece Katie and her husband, Travis. They are moving to Fort Meyers, Florida while Katie goes to school to become a nurse anesthetist. They'll be there for just over 2 years. Their going away party was also a costume party, and a good opportunity to get some family photos:

Cousins: Connor, Sarah, Jon, Isabelle, Katie, Seth

I love this photo - for Connor and for the half-Phoebe, half-Oakley dog in the background

Connor & his Mommy, Sarah

Me chillin' with Seth

Katie dressed as a palm tree. Fitting for her move to Florida.

No, this is not really how Stephen looks! It's a costume :)

Trying to get all the cousins/grandkids in a photo. Parker wasn't thrilled. Do you see Shane?

I think this is hilarious - smoke from the firepit interrupted the photo shoot.

Another attempt!

Strike a pose, Isabelle

A nice moment between Dave & Barb

Two train conductors

Connor / Woody from Toy Story

Travis & Katie - Florida-bound!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Parker's 2-Year Snapshot

Terrible two's? Not terrible yet, but we can see that Parker knows how to let us know if there's something he doesn't like! Luckily, he's pretty good at following directions. At his 2-year doctor appointment, we found that he is in the 75th percentile for weight (30 pounds) and the 75th percentile for height (35.5 inches). His eating habits, mostly snacking all day, is perfectly normal at this age. He's actually started to eat a lot more foods, and pizza is one of his favorite. Although he had no vaccines at this doctor visit, he still cried and cried when the doctor examined him. He really doesn't like unfamiliar people to mess with him! The doctor is not concerned about Parker not saying many recognizable words and thinks that within 6 months he'll be talking in full sentences. The important thing is that Parker understands what we're saying to him.

Parker loves bath time and when it's time to go bye-bye. He also loves to wave bye-bye to anyone who is leaving, and he's now pretty good at giving people kisses and hugs. We often find him barefoot - he's not too fond of socks even when his feet are chilly. Putting puzzles together and looking at books are two of his favorite activities. He also loves to sing and we typically hear him singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and We Are Young in his crib at bedtime.

Here are a few recent and really cute photos of Parker:

This seems like a cozy spot for a snack and tv time

Cutie after a bath


Play time!



Someone likes Hershey's kisses!




Action!

Love this guy!