It's been so long ago, I don't know if I remember everything from Christmas, but I'll try!
Here are some pictures of the kids after we put up our tree.
We also took the kids to see Santa at the Riverwoods Shopping Center in Provo. Anna fell asleep on the way. Then when we woke her up she was all excited to see Santa...until it was actually our turn, then she screamed and cried anytime we asked if she wanted to sit on his lap. Paul didn't mind though.
We celebrated our 6th anniversary a few days early, also at the Riverwoods. We got a sitter for the kids and went out to dinner and took a little winter walk to see all the Christmas lights.
The next day was our ward Christmas party. The planning committee went all-out with the decorations and we had a full cardboard Bethlehem backdrop. The evening included dinner and a program with songs and messages about the Savior. It was a change from the usual Santa visit, and I really loved it.
Anna testing out the cookies I made for the Christmas party
The day before we left for SD, Derek took the day off work and we had a little early Christmas with just our family. We opened our traditional pictures of Christ and the gifts we got for each other (excluding Santa gifts). The kids loved their new cars and car tower, and Anna played with it almost all day. (Paul couldn't really put the cars down the track, but now that he can stand up on his own, he loves it a lot more.) We built Anna's first snowman in our front yard, using baby lid jars for eyes and a jalapeno pepper for a nose. :) We just had a really fun day together as a family.
We left for Mitchell the next morning (Saturday before Christmas). Paul thankfully did really good on the drive. We were nervous because he didn't do so great on our San Fransico trip, but I think he figured out that it was going to be another all-day trip and just resigned himself to being stuck in his car seat haha.
My whole family was home for Christmas which was so nice. We got to see Maggie for the first time since she got home from her mission (and, for Paul, for the first time ever)! Our week in SD was pretty laid back. We went to see a Christmas concert by Point of Grace at the Corn Palace and Maren and her choir got to perform couple songs with them! That was fun. We got family pictures taken OUTSIDE and they turned out really good despite the fact that our teeth were all chattering. We baked and (intricately) decorated Christmas cookies...seriously, some of those cookies were works of art! Grandma watched the kids one night while the rest of us went to see the new Star Wars movie. We went ice skating. We played lots of games. Anna played lots of Littlest Pet shop and doll house and Pretty Pretty Princess (mostly with my dad haha). Paul practiced standing on his own, learned to climb the stairs, and tried (unsuccessfully) to corner the cat. We all ate way too much food. And just enjoyed being all together for a whole week. I was terrible about taking pictures, but here are the few we took.
Our beautiful cookies
Playing Pretty Pretty Princess
The Reindeer food and poem my sweet dad put together for Anna.
The ball pit Paul got from my parents was a hit!
Anna riding the tractor in the lobby of the Corn Palace
Just having a little heart-to-heart with Aunt Maren!
The day after Christmas we were planning to drive to Denver to spend a few days with Derek's dad and stepmom, but we got about a foot of snow Christmas day and were stuck in Mitchell until Sunday. Luckily, the kids had lots of new toys to play so it wasn't too bad sticking around an extra day. Anna also had a blast playing in the snow with Uncle Trevor and Aunt Megan. Luckily, Megan is awesome about taking pictures, so I was able to steal these from facebook.
Being pulled in the sled
She's the cutest
The next day was Sunday, so we went to church and left right after sacrament meeting to drive to Denver. The roads were pretty clear, and we made it in just over 9 hours. We enjoyed spending a few days with Mike, Joy, Kyle, and Amanda, and also enjoyed seeing Emily and Quinn as well as Derek's grandparents. We also took the kids to see The Good Dinosaur...Anna's first movie in the theater, and she loved it! And technically Paul's too. He wasn't too interested in the movie, but LOVED the popcorn. He ate about half the bag and then promptly fell asleep haha. And I don't think I took a single picture the whole time we were in Denver. Sad! I really need to be better at taking pictures!
For New Year's, we had lots of Derek's family in town for his cousin Kailey's wedding. We had his mom and aunt and their husbands stay with us and had the whole crew over for New Year's Eve (again, no pictures!) But here are a few from the wedding reception, which was Jan 2nd.
I can't believe my baby boy is already a one-year-old, but he definitely is in every way. He is growing up way too fast!
Paul took his first steps at 10 1/2 months old, and really took off walking at 11 months. He's really steady on his feet now, and I think he will be taking off running before we know it! He loves walking and being able to keep up with Anna. His favorite game is running away from us. If it's time to change his diaper or get his jammies on, he runs away and then looks back with this little mischievous grin and then giggles his head off when you start to chase him. I finally found him a pair of shoes that fit (he has the chubbiest little feet), and he loves wearing them. Now that it's getting nice outside, he loves to play and explore outside.
Video of him first learning to walk
Paul loves climbing. He escapes up the stairs almost any chance he gets. He finally figured out how to go down them, so I don't worry so much about him getting stuck or falling. He also loves climbing on Anna's step stools and her little Mickey Mouse chair. He was trying really, really hard to climb on the coffee table, and was getting super frustrated and start crying when he couldn't, until the other day, he finally made it. He was so proud of himself! He's taken quite a few tumbles off of chairs, steps, and once off Anna's bed. It seems like he always has some new bump or bruise.
He's becoming quite vocal. He is always babbling and loves to put his hand over his mouth to make an "ah-ah-ah" sound, kind-of like Tarzan. He also loves to scream, especially when he wants food. He says "Mama" and sometimes "Dada" and he just started saying Anna, but it sounds like "Na-na-na-na." He also says "Yeah" whenever you ask him a question. :) He also just learned the sign for "more."
Some of Paul's favorite toys right now are toy cars, the lego train, toy phones (or anything that looks like a phone), Anna's doll stroller, toothbrushes, and glasses (especially Anna's). He is also really starting to love books, which makes me really happy. I think his favorite right now is Five Little Monkeys or maybe The Hungry Caterpillar. He will find a book and bring it to me or Derek and then immediately climb onto our laps to read.
Paul loves his binkies. He usually goes to sleep with, not just the one in his mouth, but one in each hand as well. When you go to give him a pacifier, he always opens his mouth wide and says "Ahhhh!" haha.
Anna likes to steal his binkie
Paul gives the best hugs. If you are sitting on the ground at his level, he will just come up to you and wrap his arms around your neck and lay his head on your shoulder for several seconds before going off to play again. He loves to be cuddled. He also gives kisses...open-mouthed slobbery ones on your cheek or lips haha. And he still lets me rock him to sleep most of the time. He is a little snuggle-bug.
Hug!
Eskimo kisses (or, as Anna calls them, "nose snuggles") Melt my heart!
Paul is the messiest eater. Every time we put him in his high chair for a meal, food ends up all over the floor, in the seat, stuck to his pants and socks, and sometimes in his hair. That is usually because he likes to put the bowl on top of his head. He insists on feeding himself all the time now, and is getting pretty good with a spoon. He also likes to share bites with whoever is sitting closest to him.
Eating his birthday cake
Chocolate beard!
Here's a video of him putting the bowl on his head. And another one of him putting Anna's underwear on his head. He really loves to be silly and make us laugh!
Have you noticed the gap in his front teeth? I was trying to find a good picture of it, but you can really only see it if he's laughing. Here's a video where you can see it. He has six teeth now, two on bottom and four on top. The gap between his top front teeth is so big that the bottom two teeth can almost fit inside it! Hopefully it will go away when he gets his permanent teeth, but for now it's pretty cute.
Paul is almost always happy, but when he's upset, he gets REALLY upset. Sometimes he's very inconsolable. And it's happened three times now where he gets crying so hard that he doesn't breathe, and then passes out! It's the scariest thing. The first time it happened, it was so scary! He had been playing with a little flashlight and fell and cut the inside of his mouth on it, but we didn't see what happened, we just heard him fall. And then he was bleeding out of his mouth and wasn't breathing and then passed out, and we freaked out and called 9-1-1! But seconds later he was alert and crying and we could see the cut and figured out what happened. I was still on the phone with the dispatcher and told them he was fine, but they still had to send someone to check him out. The EMTs told us that sometimes kids just do that...they get hurt or really upset and cry so hard they don't get enough oxygen and pass out, but then they are fine because they start breathing normally and are calm again. So now we know he will be fine when it happens, but it is still scary!
Paul's HATES getting his diaper changed. It is pretty much a two-person job, one to change the diaper and one to pin him down. When Derek isn't home, I can usually hold him down with one arm (or sometimes a foot) long enough to get the dirty diaper off and wipe him clean before he twists over and runs away half naked. I keep telling Derek he will be a good wrestler because it's impossible to pin him down!
He also hates his car seat. He cries and fights almost every time you go to put him in the car. Again, it's a wrestling match that I sometimes only win by giving him a treat or a binkie to distract him while I buckle him in. We finally switched him out of his infant car seat into a bigger one, and he doesn't seem to hate it as much so that's good!
Paul still loves baths. It might be his favorite thing. He loves to splash and play with cups and also to drink the water out of the cups. He doesn't really love when Anna helps to wash his hair.
Paul loves going to the park. He's always loved the swing, but the slides might be his favorite now. He likes to go down head first!
Lately, he's been helping to clean up, which is really cute. He will put toys into the toy box or help put socks into the drawer. We always clap for him and he gives us the biggest smile. He also likes to help sweep the floor with the broom.
We sure love our always-moving, full-of-energy, giggly, snuggly, happy boy!
