Smile!

I've been a little uninspired lately, hence the lack of blog posts, but I can't help but smile when I see my boys having fun together. Here's a little peak into bathtime the other night:

Seriously, I think those smiles can cure any case of the winter blahs! Now if this snow would go ahead and melt already...

Our Pianist

A few weeks ago Malachi went in to the piano room and started playing around on the piano. Before I knew it, he had picked out the first few notes of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." I immediately went in to tell him what a good job he was doing and he asked me to show him the rest of the song. I did and he played it a couple of times with help. Then a few days ago, after not playing it at all for at least a week, he sat down and played the whole thing by himself without help! I was very surprised and impressed. I guess it's time for music classes to begin!

Try and Try Again

Last night I decided to keep the camera close in case Elliott was in the mood to walk, and it turned out that he was. It's funny, but he does seem to do better when he is carrying something. In this case he has two remotes - some of his favorite toys!

Snow Days!

Erik's pretty sure the snow is never going to stop here, and based on what it's been like the last couple of days he may be right! Everything is white and beautiful. And cold. Very cold. But, we didn't let that stop us! Malachi, Elliott, GranMols and I went sledding yesterday and Erik joined all of us today.

Elliott is not one to be outdone, so of course he had to try a solo trip just like his big brother. He loved it and immediately started crawling back up the hill for more. Don't worry, we didn't make him crawl all the way up by himself!

GranMols may or may not have crashed into the barn on her very first run yesterday, hence the helmet today. She also may or may not have suffered a slight concussion, but thankfully she shielded Malachi from any harm at all!

To Walk or Not To Walk?

I don't really think Elliott could care less about this question. He began taking a few steps about 4 weeks ago, but crawling is still his preferred mode of transportation. I'm pretty sure he just can't move quickly enough on his feet yet! Over the last few days I've caught him standing up in the middle of the floor and taking a few steps, but each time he sits down and crawls as soon as anyone acknowledges his walking. It excites me each time I see him taking a step on his own but then I realize that life is going to get a lot more difficult (at least for a while until we adapt) when he's walking full time!

And because I haven't been able to get a good video of him walking, I thought I'd share his latest technique - the bear crawl. It's really funny when he gets going fast...he usually ends of nose-diving!

Drums

Seriously, Elliott received his first drumset for Christmas thanks to Grammy Litter and Aunt Laura. We're okay with it this time, but please no larger sets in the future! Or at least until we have a soundproof barn somewhere at least a hundred yards from the house!!

Christmas in Tennessee

The day after Christmas we were lucky enough to make the trip down to Tennessee and spend a few days with Erik's side of the family. As always it was a lot of fun to be together with everyone. In fact, the whole family minus Laura and Meck (we missed you!) was there.

One afternoon Yaya had a special activity for the kids - to make musical instruments and put on a show for the adults. They had fun using beans, rice, cardboard tubes, plastic tubs, construction paper, and various other supplies to create their music-makers. Malachi then named their show the Music Station and they planned and practiced their songs. It was a lot of fun seeing them work together and perform for us.

It wouldn't be a trip to 'Buelo and Yaya's without a hike on the agenda, so of course we worked one in. Our hike was really more of a walk around a frozen lake but with Malachi in tow I think that was more than enough "hiking" for all of us!

After the hike the kids got a chance to play on the playground for a few minutes in spite of the cold temps. Malachi practiced his snowball throwing skills, Cindy and Whitney had a contest to see who could swing the highest and even Grandpa Gene started to head up the jungle gym to try out the slides!

After seeing Malachi fly off the end of this slide I think Grandpa Gene was glad he decided against trying it!

Elliott decided to hang out with Aunt Jessica in the warm house instead of going on the hike. Or maybe I decided that for him? Either way, Aunt Jessica was happy about having extra time with her nephew!

I think Austin had fun with his cousin too!

What better way to warm up after a cold hike than to read a good book together!

Because of the battery dying on my camera, I don't have pictures of all the other fun things we did together. Oh well. Thank you all for such a wonderful time together and for playing with, reading to, caring for, etc. our boys. They love spending time with each of you and that makes me happy. We love you!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was so much fun this year. Luckily for us, the boys don't take after my side of the family and wake up in the middle of the night. Instead we had to wake them up at 9:30! Elliott got some practical items in his stocking.But, he still seemed pretty excited about them!

Yep, I'm not sure why we even bothered getting Elliott anything other than a new sippy cup, an empty box and a couple of Hot Wheels cars. I think Malachi's favorite gift was his pillow pet, which now has a name - Güino, after the Spanish "pingüino" for penguin.

The house got a little smoky from the caramel-pecan monkey bread I made for breakfast (very yummy!), but I still liked this picture of me and my boys. They definitely made my morning a lot of fun!

Christmas Memories, Round 3

Christmas Eve 2010

The boys didn't need new Christmas outfits this year since Elliott fit into one of Malachi's old outfits and Malachi fit into his from last year. Gotta love hand-me-downs! Enjoy this look back:

Christmas 2007

Malachi, Christmas 2007
Christmas 2009
Malachi and Elliott, Christmas 2010
Elliott's outfit was a little big so I'm thinking we'll be good again next year!

Christmas Memories, Round 2

On Christmas Eve Malachi received a special note in his Advent calendar that said he would get to decorate Christmas cookies with Grace and Liza that day. He was very excited and I think they all had fun!

Christmas Memories, Round 1

It's hard to believe that it's already January and that the holidays are all behind us. Wow! We were incredibly busy but we definitely enjoyed every minute of it.

I have a lot of pictures of all our various holiday activities, but instead of posting them all at once today I thought I'd stretch it out over the week. (This is for those special people who get excited about having something new to read each morning!)

Santa visited us at the Litter family Christmas party! As you can see we had a full house, although we missed the 22 family members who couldn't be with us.

Malachi was sure to take advantage of the chance to talk to Santa.

Elliott wasn't so sure about him.

I think Walker asked for lots and lots of diapers....or maybe that was Kelsey?

Even Grammy Litter got a chance to give him her list!

Adeline was much more interested in the stuffed animals and bells.

Check back tomorrow for more Christmas fun!