Christmas Continues -Anglesey Style!

The holiday cheer continues this week - and as always we seem to be having more than our share of fun.

Tayne was excited
and Pallas too,
about seeing their cousins Lindsey and Megan (and of course Uncle Scott)!
There was lots to catch up on and chat about - so naturally the Nintendo DS set was called into play...
Lindsey and Megan had fun pictochatting (sending each other little drawings and scribbles) with the help of their Mom (Aunt Jen) and Dad (Uncle Scott).
Tayne even managed to join in the chat from time to time,
Meanwhile, Pallas was content to get some girl time with Aunt Jen and counsins Lindsey and Megan - there was lots of girl power over on that side of the couch!
After the day of fun, we were all pretty much feeling as tuckered out as Pallas, but we were glad to get the chance to see everyone for the holidays and have a chance to play.
Play-do, Nintendo, and Dinosaurs - hooray! It couldn't have been a more wonderful day!

A Merry Christmas Day!

A Merry Christmas to All!
Well Christmas at Grandma Sharon & Grandpa Dan's is winding down - time goes too fast on visits, and this one was no exception. The kids had an especially fun time - Tayne got to help with some baking & decorating and Pallas got a lot of lap time with Grandma.
This year Tayne got to hand out the presents - it's funny how many with his name ended up getting handed out first (wink,wink)
but Pallas managed to get a few things
and I think Grandma and Grandpa win "best gift" according to Tayne and his new Baby Alive - she's toted as "the baby so real" so here's a side by side comparison - Which one is Pallas? Which one is Baby Alive? And can you tell Tayne loves them both?

Everyone had a wonderful time (ok, Pallas looks a little annoyed in this one, but 4/5 are smiling and majority rules)And after a while, even Pallas found something fun to do (crinkle, crinkle!)
SO it's been a very Merry Christmas with all the hospitality at Grandma Sharon's and Grandpa Dan's, we love and thank them for sharing the Holiday
-both putting us up and putting up with us!

2 month check-up

Yesterday was Pallas' 2 month check-up.
Her current stats :
Weight: 13 lbs, 6 oz (95%)
Length: 24 inches (95% -and no, length does not include mohawk height)
Head: 38cm (25% - I know, the 25% seemed troubling to me too, until I found out that 38cm is 25%, but 39cm is 50% and 40cm is 75% so I guess if it's not bothering the Dr. and she's doing fine we'll just accept it and buy small hats ;) )

She seems to be doing well developmentally (not that 2 month old babies do that much anyway) and she's pretty healthy (of course now I say that she'll probably get some kind of cold or sickness over night) and happy.

I can't wait for her first Christmas!

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...

Well,still no camera - it turns out Christmas is a difficult time to actually buy a camera - it seems the ones I like are pretty popular because every store I tried to buy one in was sold out of what I wanted. I'm sad to say I did fall for a poor recommendation from a sales guy and bought and tested a Samsung L730 - that was a horrible camera, so it went back the next morning. I guess that will teach me to wait and buy what I really want next time, hopefully I can find it before Christmas.
The exciting news this weekend - Tayne finally decide it was time to buy a bicycle! It's probably a bit small for him, but we wanted something that he could easily get on and off and manage at least while he's learning to ride (hopefully that will minimize the falls) & he really seems to like it so far - sometimes it's a bit of scramble to grab Pallas and my stuff before he gets the bike out of the house for a ride, but I love all the exercise I'm getting walking around with him while he rides. Oh, and by the way -he looks so adorable riding it!! And, it's small enough that we can bring it to the Grandma's houses for Christmas so he can ride there as well, so we'll have some confirmation of that opinion soon. It would have been a Christmas gift, but he decided rather spur of the moment that he would like a bike, and since it's taken us forever to get him to even consider it we decided we had to induldge him a little so he wouldn't lose enthusiasm for trying it between now and Christmas. It made for a few surreal moments this weekend though - The four of us making our way through around the block, Tayne riding his little red bike, Troy and I walking along either carrying the baby or pushing the stroller - I see families doing this all the time & think they are so cute, but I never really pictured us doing that, so to actually be that family was a little strange. I guess now there's 4 of us I'm going to have get used to the idea of us as a little family doing family things instead of us just doing things and bringing Tayne along or us going along with what Tayne wanted to to do. -Norman Rockwell, eat your heart out!

Christmas is coming!

No fancy picture today - sadly it seems our camera is suffering from some sort of lens error -personally I thought is was bad timing on the camera's part because it's the perfect time of year to be replaced, but Troy and Tayne love it, so I think we are going to see if it can be repaired. -I'll probably buy myself a less fancy camera just so I can take pictures, I've been wanting one anyway & I finally found one I'm happy with the shot-to-shot recovery time, and that is so simple looking on the outside that Tayne really doesn't want much to do with it ( When we were looking at the cameras in the store and I tried show it to him for testing and his opinion he took one look at it and actually seemed insulted I would try to get him to use such an unimpressive camera. So since I'm looking for one I don't have to share I think I found a winner -Merry almost Christmas to me!) Speaking of almost Christmas, I can't believe it's only 11 days until the day! I know it, would have been cooler to point out 12 days to CHristmas, and really I meant to write this yesterday when it was 12, but Pallas was a little fussy last night and by the time Tayne went to sleep & she settled down my momentum had all been used up. Last weekend I thought I was doing pretty good managing all the holiday stuff, but now I'm starting to see I may be a little behind...it't interesting how much extra time I have to alot for another kid - I didn't think having two would be much different, and I've been pretty good at organizing all the standard baby tasks (things like extra laundry, organizing diapers and bottles, etc.) into my routine without adding much to my regular work, but I guess I hadn't accounted for the tag team effect - where one kid desperately needs help with something, then when you think you have that one squared away for a while and you think can get back to what you were doing, the other one desperately needs something after which the first kid has finished whatever and now needs your attention for something else. It's not been overwhelming or anything, but it certainly gives me a fresh appreciation for how much everyone else with two or more kids actually accomplishes by any sort of deadline. (Translation, if I'm mailing you something this Christmas, feel free to be impressed if it makes it there on time!) Well, I guess that's enough of an update and rambling for now - I'd better go work on our Christmas cards while the house is still quiet. By the way, I love the ones we've recieved so far - especially the one with pictures! It seems like all the kids I know are growing up so fast & turning out so cute!

What should the weather be like for an accurate recreation?

Last night we took the kids to the drive through Bethlehem City a local church puts on every year - it's a pretty fun to see they have a little village set up with merchant stalls, a tax collectors office, the inn with live animals outback (they have the most gorgeous donkeys every year) and the manger area all in about a 200ft stretch and they direct traffic around either side. It was around 8pm at night but it was still unbelievably hot and muggy, but the people of the city didn't seem to mind much - they were probably enjoying it because those costumes didn't look very warm (which is probably why most Christmas pagents are held inside). On the drive home I got to thinking about last year when we went to the same event and the weather was really cold and rainy; the actors looked pretty gloomy that year, and I'm pretty sure the manger area had a space heater...naturally, my thoughts turned to wondering what the weather is like in the real Bethlehem (West Bank) this time of year, and since my bringing up probably makes you wonder too - turns out for next week at least, it's highs in the 60's lows in the 40's - So there's your little tidbit for the week to keep that holiday spirit up! Mine is getting there...

On the commercial side of stoking holiday spirit this week, I bought one of those little holiday balls from Jack In the Box - he's been busy making the rounds in our photos...
He does seem to add a festive touch - with that little string of lights wrapped around his head and tinsel in wrapped around his neck, it reminds me of how I looked putting up the outdoor Christmas lights.

Lucky for me there's no photos of that...

Highlights from a visit to Santa

It's that time of year, although you wouldn't know it from the 80 degree weather. Tonight we headed out for a visit with Santa. Here are some photos (of course) and some higlights...

1. Tayne comes home from and outing with Troy & sees Pallas' outfit - "Oooh, Pallas you're dressed like a Parade!"

2.Tayne has to eat dinner before we go - the rest of us get to see "fast eating," which as far as I could tell was the same speed as any other eating, but with the addition of Tayne telling us, "I'm not ready to go, but this is fast eating."

3. We go to see Santa - Tayne, "Which one is Santa?" Troy, "He's the one sitting in the chair by the tree." Tayne (looking at a tray with like 100 cookies left on it and a family of 3 each taking one cookie), "Hey, those people are eating all my cookies." Val, "The cookies are for after Santa, get back in line."

4. We make it to see Santa - Tayne hugs Santa. Santa & kids pose for a picture. Santa to Tayne, "What do you want for Christmas?" Tayne, "Presents."

Ho,ho,ho!