Santa, Daddies Birthday, The Christmas Party and Gardner Village

 On December 10th we went to visit Santa for the first time.  I thought Kail did pretty well for meeting the big guy for the first time.  We were at Layton Hills mall, so after meeting Santa Kail got to climb around in their kids area.

There were a ton of really big kids so unfortunately he didn't get to play as much as I would have liked but he really liked climbing on the little turtle.

Then we headed over to Walmart for a little grocery shopping, this kid loves Walmart he starts smiling as soon as he realizes where we are.

The next weekend was Jordan's birthday so mom and dad took some time off and we all had a nice long 4 day weekend together.

Jordan's birthday was on Sunday but we decided to celebrate on Friday to coincide with the release of Rogue One - Star Wars.  

Its amazing how much Kail has grown in a year.

On Saturday Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Larry had their annual Kids Christmas Party.  This is time for all of the grandkids and cousins to get together and celebrate Christmas with each other.

We played games.

And decorated/ate giant gingerbread men cookies

And then all Kail's cousins were nice enough to play in the play room with him.

Finally we got to open our first Christmas presents.  Kail didn't quite get how to open the presents but he sure did love them once he found all the buttons.

 Then on Monday we went to Gardner Village and walked around to see all the elves.

 We always love the ornament shop.  Kail particularly liked the light displays.

We loved having our long weekend together.  Its so much fun to go do things together as a family.

Day Care Photos

Just because I have a few more minutes, here are a few photos from Daycare.  Sadly Kail will be moving to the toddler room "any day now".  It all just depends on when they have a spot in that room open up. He is the oldest and definitely biggest "baby" in the room now.  Moving will mean fewer, if any photos from daycare as he will be changing caregivers.  We like Ms. Sherri who will be taking care of him (and he would rather play with her then come home with me) but as she is old enough to be my mother I doubt her cell phone is attached to her hand the way Ms. Melissa's is.  You will probably notice that MOST of these pictures involve him being asleep or contained in a high chair or both.  He knows what her phone does and immediately tries to take it from her if she tries to use it. So for her to get a picture, she ether has be to further away or he has to be contained.  She also seems to find it adorable when he falls asleep while eating.  

If Kail can figure out how to climb on it, he will.

Kail absolutely loves books.  

Per her text this was taken a full 25 min into looking at books by himself.

These pictures are about 1 min apart, notice same clothes same bib, same food.

These next two are selfies taken with her phone 

because she tried taking a photo and he got the camera.

The Christmas Tree

Every year Jordan and I have a tradition of setting up our Christmas tree the day of or after coming home from our Gunnison Thanksgiving.  Decorating a Christmas tree always takes time, but this year we discovered that decorating a Christmas tree with a one year old, who is far more interested in practicing going up and down stairs, can seriously take ALL DAY.  If you notice in the pictures Kail and Jordan change clothes because literally it took us that long to finish.

We also have a tradition of getting a new ornament every year and we started including Kail in this last year. I was SO very excited when I found that Hallmark came out with an Ornament this year that is actually his favorite book.  I have read this book so many times that i can recite it to him word for word from memory and on occasion, i do just to calm him down.

I love this last picture.  Its hard to tell but Kail is actually putting a cat toy on the tree.  Its a small fuzzy ball with a bell in it and he would put it on a branch like he was hanging it on the tree.  I was really worried about him breaking all the glass ornaments and cutting himself but so far he just likes to sit on the couch and stare at the tree.  He has to have his own spot on the couch while he does this, and we have to do it at least once a day after the sun has gone down.

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving was great, as usual we got to spend time down in Gunnison with family.  Kails first Thanksgiving was spent at our house as we didn't think a 3 week old would travel well and to be honest I would not have traveled well ether, so it was nice to go down for the holiday this year.

A few days before Thanksgiving as I was planning what we would need to pack, I realized that every part of a traditional Thanksgiving meal except for the turkey is pretty much baby food consistency.  Think about it.  Mashed potatoes - mushy, candy yams- mushy, cranberry sauce - mushy, stuffing - mushy, pumpkin/chocolate/coconut cream pie and whip cream all mushy . . . . even if Kail had fewer teeth then he does (I think we are up to 9 or 10 now), he could eat pretty much all of it.

When we are out or there are new people around, Kail refuses to nap, the kid can go ALL DAY, even when I try over and over again to get him to go down.  So it was amazingly nice that as everyone gathered for the meal, Kail decided it was time for a nap, which meant that mom and dad got to actually eat a warm Thanksgiving meal.  Kail woke up just after we finished cleaning most of the meal up and got to have his own Thanksgiving.

The rest of our holiday was spent hanging out with family and Kail got to spend some time playing with is cousin Nora.  They really are cute together.

Walking

Sorry I'm so late on this post.  The Holidays have got me busy shopping on all my breaks.

On Kails 1st birthday he decided it was time to start walking.  He had taken a few steps before and he was cruising around furnature but this was the first time he took a few steps, stopped and then kept going so we are going to count that as walking.

Sense then he has really started to move  I have some videos but unfortunately they are too long to put on here.  I wouldn't say he is quite running yet as, as soon as he really starts moving that fast he falls down but he is so close. And he doesn't need anything to pull up on anymore he just stands up on his own.  A lot of people told us to treasure the time we have before he can walk but there is something about a toddler "toddling" over with his arms wide open to give you a big bear hug.  I love it!

One Year Photos

Sadly these photo's complete our "First Year Package"  Kail is such a happy little boy he makes taking pictures fun, he was laughing and talking through the entire shoot.  I absolutely love some of these shots.  We also thought it was funny the difference in his hair color from the outdoor to indoor shots, he is truly a strawberry blond.