in-tent on coloring...

sorry for the cheesy blog-post-title, but i just couldn't resist!! daddy found this princess tent at work for $5! we put it in my bedroom & i wanted to sit inside to do some coloring. my crayon/pencil grip is definitely something i've been working on for a while now. and check me out! i held the crayon like this without mommy even correcting me. i stayed in the tent for 30 minutes or more, very happy to color my pictures. and i kept saying "ms susan says 'use your fingertips!'"

taking care of my babies...

i decided that my babies needed to play & dance together. first we did "ring-around-the-rosies" & then i read a story to them.

i also thought it would be good for each baby to have their own book. reading is very important to me. and seriously -- i set all of them up like this by MYself... with no help or requests from mommy!

cooking for real...

remember how i posted about pretending to cook? well, recently i have been ReALLy helping mommy in the kitchen. i pour things into the pot for her & stir up stuff. i am becoming quite the little chef. in these pictures, you can see me helping to make tomato-garbanzo-sausage soup that mommy took on their recent ski trip. and i have done a good job of being patient & only adding ingredients to a pot that isn't actually ON the stove. tonight, i helped mommy make eggs for supper. i selected eggs from the carton (mommy cracked them open), added real garlic salt, pepper, & parsley and i dumped in the cheddar. it was pretty exciting.

building blocks...

one of my Christmas gifts was these smaller-sized mega-blocks. they are just like legos, but i think the mega-block company has some more interesting variety. this is a "hello kitty" block set. i enjoyed building a tall tower for the prince & then kitty would go and save the prince from the witch. this scenario is a variation of one of my dora-the-explorer videos.

Christmas with daddy's family...

i think i am finally posting the last of our Christmas fun! these pictures are from our day at morningside where grammymommie lives.

that huge box that i am unwrapping is a big castle that i can color & play in!

here is a picture of the big loopsy that judy & craig gave to me. her name is pickles BLT.

daddy, drew & matt enjoyed putting this puzzle together.

i taught uncle craig the song about "5 little ducks went out to play. over the hill & far away. momma duck said quack quack quack but only 4 little ducks came back..."

zoolight safari...

the birmingham zoo puts out lights every year at Christmas time. we actually visited the zoolight safari on new year's eve & we had SO much fun!! i got to go ice skating, ride the merry-go-round & a hayride!

while madison & i waited for mommy to finish putting on her skates, we entertained ourselves (and everyone else) by screaming as LouDLY as possible!

the more, the merrier Christmas...

so my uncle kyle, aunt trudy & cousin madison were visiting from missouri. then my uncle curt & cousins elijah & levi arrived from new hampshire! this was the first time that all of us cousins have ever been ALL together!! it was a FuLL & CraZY house!

while everybody was in town, we made a couple of trips to the boulder field. this is a wooded area with LotS of HuGE rocks to climb -- and i mean big kids (adults!) like to climb on these too! when curt & kyle were younger, this area was secluded & less well-known, but they enjoyed going there. now the city of hoover has decided to preserve it for future generations.

uncle kyle had just returned from his army sapper training (congratulations, kyle!!!) so he was letting elijah use his climbing gear. i tried to get in on the action, too. but i had a lot of fun watching elijah go up so high! (actually, i had a fit & mommy & i had to return to the car so i did not get to see the climbs with ropes. but you can see elijah freestyle climbing in the photo below.)

and remember i mentioned that we planned to make gingerbread houses with my cousins? madison, levi & i had so much fun doing this. actually the icing did not act as a very strong glue, so we had some struggles. but mostly, i enjoyed eating the decorations.

here is the house that levi built. pretty impressive, right?

finally it's Christmas (on the blog)...

here are some pictures from Christmas eve at grammy & pappy's house. mommy was pretty excited about the red & green outfit i have on (she made this one!) but i did NoT like it. i obliged her for this one evening & agreed to wear it. i really enjoyed visiting with my cousin madison who was in town from missouri. we went to a candlelight service at st mark. the last carol we sang at the service was "silent night." as we sang, people lit their candles until all the candles were lit around a huge circle of people. the minister began the benediction, but i yelled out, "do you want to sing it again?" i did not wait for an answer, but just began my own solo. many people at the service heard me -- i actually think it complimented the benediction nicely. i sang on-pitch & at a very respectful volume. i wish we could have had some pictures of that!

we opened some gifts on christmas eve. you can see how excited i was to get this pirate ship!! i had admired it on various trips to costco!

everyone got a kick out of watching madison & me fight over the light switch. she wanted the lights off & i wanted them on. we were quite civil with each other -- no hitting or even screaming. each of us would just turn the light off/on & the other one would pout a little. pretty funny.

here is our den on Christmas morning before i plowed into all the new toys. my BiG present was the dollhouse. on Christmas day, i played with it for about 14 hours -- no kidding.

i love this dollhouse. i think it is sized for barbies, but i am not really into barbies yet. i played with my loopsies & little people & squinkies. maybe this is the perfect house for them because there is plenty of room for me to move them around.

and i can fit a whole bunch of them in the bed at one time. i enjoyed putting them in the bed & then singing, "there were 10 in the bed and the little one said, roll over, roll over. so they all rolled over & one fell out. there were 9 in the bed..."

christmas is almost here...

well, at least for the purposes of this blog, christmas is almost here!! mommy had a LOT of pictures to sort through because she had not done that since october. but now she is almost done organizing the christmas pictures. here are a couple of photos of me enjoying some christmas tree fun. i LOVE the purple & gold ornament in this first picture. i know it is pretty dark & hard to see, but the gold lines make the ornament look like a purple onion to me. so i was pretending to eat the purple onion ornament.

we also set up a christmas tree at morningside for my grammymommie. i LOVED the silver sparklies that we put all over her tree.

my gingerbread house...

we bought a gingerbread kit to make with my cousins at christmas, but we wanted a little practice first. so we decided to use graham crackers, cookie sprinkles & some leftover marshmallow fluff. honestly, this is all a pretty good combination. i worked VeRY hard on this project -- and i enjoyed a little taste every now & again too!!

TA-DAH!!! here's the finished product!

thanksgiving at school...

i made a turkey out of a pinecone -- don't the feathers look great? i even wore my indian head-dress for a few minutes! there was actually a thanksgiving feast, but i guess mommy's camera battery died. oh well...