Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We've celebrated Christmas the past two weekends and there's more celebrating to come this weekend! We had Christmas with Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Tom last weekend, Santa came this past weekend, and we are looking forward to Grandma Laura and Grandpa Roger's visit to ring in 2007 this weekend. We had a good time with Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Tom. In addition to opening presents, we went for a horse-drawn carriage ride in New Brunswick. We had to wait in a long line in the cold for a shortened ride (shorter than advertised), but it was fun to be pulled by the Clydesdales. Then Mommy went with Natalie on a school field trip last week - it was Natalie's first play. We went to a nice theatre in Red Bank, NJ to see "A Winnie the Pooh Christmas Carol." We had fun riding the bus, and Natalie was really well-behaved during the performance. She clapped at all the right times. Then she got to hug Pooh and give Tigger a high five after the performance. It was a lot of fun! Owen was fighting a cold all week and was very crabby, but he seemed to be feeling better by Christmas. Aunt Karen came out for a couple days before Christmas, and we had a good time. We each opened a present on Christmas Eve before bedtime, and Natalie picked out cookies to leave for Santa. Santa actually came - we all managed to stay on the "Nice" list - although it must have been a close call with Natalie - Mom and Dad had a few conversations with Santa on Christmas Eve morning. Natalie was thrilled to open the Santa presents, but Owen was mostly concerned with when he was going to get breakfast! (He was much more excited about presents once he had some waffles in his tummy!) Natalie got a new dollhouse among other things, and Owen was very happy with his Little People zoo (and he is enjoying throwing the animals around the room!). No snow for Christmas - rain instead, but maybe snow sometime soon. So now we are looking forward to Grandma Laura and Grandpa Roger arriving on Friday.

Dad's Birthday

Yesterday (Monday) was Dad's birthday. We started celebrating on Saturday, so he had presents to open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday! He was in D.C. last week for a couple days, so we are happy to have him home. Other than celebrating Dad's day, we put up Christmas decorations and did a little shopping. Aunt Karen came out for a visit on Sunday and helped with the tree. Natalie helped a bit, but after breaking one ornament and another decoration, Mom sent her to watch Rudolph. We saved the soft decorations for her to put on at the end. Owen is also excited about the decorations, and has tried to climb the tree several times. We'll be lucky if it stays up until Christmas!! We had Dad's party with ice cream cake last night. Natalie missed out because she went to bed not feeling well. After high fever last night and this morning, we found out at the doctor's office today that she has bronchitis and an ear infection! There had been too long a stretch without visits to the pediatrician!!! We're hoping she'll be feeling better for Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Tom's visit this weekend.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving in North Carolina, and we were very excited to meet Carrie. She's precious, and tiny!! Natalie was thrilled to see the baby, but also disappointed that she couldn't hold Carrie or play with her (not yet). Owen decided that he was officially going to walk over Thanksgiving weekend, and since we've been home, he's perfecting his walk and prefers walking to crawling. Owen was pretty cooperative for our roadtrip - he slept in the car as we hoped. But Natalie was wired and did not want to sleep. She spent this week catching up on her sleep with rare afternoon naps. We are getting ready for Christmas - the decorations are coming out this week! And we may have our first snow sometime soon....Natalie and Owen are ready to get out there and play!! We spent this weekend Christmas shopping and hanging around the house. After a week of 70 degree weather, it was cold!!