Roll, J.R., roll!

Smack in the middle of the parachute!

Molly and J.R. "at the bar"

Roll Molly, Roll!

Molly getting Dizzy at the gym!

wendy and molly on the balance beam

Here are some videos from discovering all the presents and playtime with them. OOPPS! the first video is sideways. what can i say, it was 8am and I hadn't had my coffee yet. Molly is practicing her "thank you" which you can hear in the second video.



We needed to help her to open the kitchen package. She would look at it but never went over to it to see what was underneath. it took some coaxing on our behalf but she loved it. We had a great day playing with our new stuff and had friends over for Christmas dinner. When our friends arrived we realized that Molly was still in her pajamas. She didn't care at all. She was comfy. Bonus: it was easier to get her ready for bed-which she was ready early with all of the excitement of the day.
We are very blessed to have had such a wonderful Christmas. We missed all our family and friends this year but it was nice to have a quiet day just for family play. We hope everyone had an enjoyable, blessed Christmas. We love and miss everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas tree!

Molly picked the smallest gifts to open first.

She would tear off the smallest pieces of paper at a time and had to throw them away-right then before tearing any more off. We needed to "assist" her in unwrapping otherwise we would still be unwrapping. Don't worry we would just hold onto the package and she would pull on the paper. At least the paper tore in bigger pieces.

She got books, puzzles, blocks, and a leap frog reading thing. And of course.......

HER kitchen

Santa, AKA Jonathan

getting ready for Christmas

We started Christmas Eve by delivering pumpkin bread to a few neighbors and then off to church we went. Molly was invited to take part in the children message during service. Wow! what a challenge. She played with the nativity scene, talked, ran around on stage all while Jan was telling the kids about Angels. Jan was thrilled Molly was up there taking part. From the parent of the child running around---AAAAGHH! The rest of the service was nice but we ended up having to take Molly to the back of the church since she could not sit still or for that matter even sit down. Seriously, how do you reign in an 18 month old for a church service. She is usually in the nursery on Sunday morning.

Shelly, Roger, and Jonathan came over for a few minutes.

Nearly impossible to get a good picture of 2 adults and 2 kids.

Molly's big Christmas present was her Kitchen. The consumer reviews stated that it was taking people around 4 hours to build this kitchen. Really? Floyd had it all assembled in 2 hours flat. Molly is very lucky she has such a handy daddy.

easiest gift to wrap.

Christmas part 1

Last Sunday, we joined Rich and Kate at Shelly and Roger's house for an early Christmas celebration. We had a wonderful dinner and the kids got to open some presents. Molly and David helped each other open the presents and played with each. Molly got a baby doll (how do they instinctively know what to do with a baby!?), a bucket of food for her future kitchen, a talking dog which she loves to take in the car, and a fairy treehouse. She loves playing with all her new toys. here are a few pictures from round 1, the preview for Christmas Day.

Pudding time

Floyd teaches on Thursday nights so Molly and I get to play all day and night. Last night, we made pudding together. She was a great help. She wanted my apron on so it took some tying but I made it work. She did a great job trying to stir the pudding. But the most fun came when getting to taste the pudding after waiting the longest 5 minutes for it to chill in the frig.

"More Pease"
If she got any pudding on her face/mouth she would immediately use her thumb to scoop it into her mouth and then suck on her thumb to get every last ounce off. Too cute!

Early Christmas Present

Molly got her first tool box from Grandma and Grandpa, who specifically said for Molly to open this present when it arrived. She loves it! Molly says "daddy" a lot when she is playing with it.

Learning to saw.

Packing up for the day. She gathered up all her tools into the box and tried to fit it into her train. The tool box came with 2 pieces of "wood", 2 screws, screwdriver, hammer, saw, and a vibrating drill. She is a little scared of the vibrating drill. She threw it in the air the first time she felt it. Molly is also practicing her new phrase "thank you". We were on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa when she opened it and started playing with it. She told Grandma "thank you" in her cute little voice. I'm so proud of our little girl.

photo shoot

I just don't know where the blond hair and blue eyes come from. She is beautiful though!

She is such a lady.

She's got the run way walk down. Molly loves pockets. I think this is the favorite part of this dress. I just love the dress on her.

Decorating our Tree

Molly's stocking that Grandpa picked out for her last year.

Molly was a great helper hanging the ornaments on the bottom half of the tree.

She wore her Christmas dress to church the other Sunday. She loves her dress and most dresses in fact. I loved the expression on her face.
Molly has been doing a great job not playing with the tree too much. For the first few days she would pull off the wood ornaments so she could play with them. Floyd and I painted them years ago. They are Santa, a snowman, a soldier, and a king. they have a string to pull that moves the arms and legs and a little bell that jingles.
She loves Christmas lights like her momma. She looks out our slider to see the lights on the street behind us so we decided to hang lights on our deck so she can look at them too. She tells us to plug in the lights. She also tells us "more" when we only plug in the tree. We have eventually added lights wrapping the banister on the stairs so we would have "more". She is too cute.

picking out our christmas tree

Molly had to step on every stump we walked by. She had a great time running around the tree farm. It took all 4 adults to keep track of her.

Family photo in front of our tree before Floyd cut it down

Shelly, Roger, and Jonathan came with us to find the perfect Christmas Trees for our homes. It was fun to go on the hunt for the best tree. the great debate if a tree was too big or not big enough, the right style, spacing of branches, etc. And of course, every tree I looked at Floyd was ready to cut it down. In the end, Floyd and I walked up to the same tree and said this is it. Of course, we ended the event with Hot Cocoa to warm up by the fire.

David and Molly

Molly is the cutest elf ever. She looks like an elf! Even more so these days since she is getting chubby again. Her belly is huge and her cheeks aren't far behind. Her legs and arms are stick skinny. At least some of her pants are fitting her better these days.

Molly loves her puzzles. She is now able to put the farm animals in the right spots and make them fit. Thanks Stacy for the puzzles. oh, don't ask about the shirt around her neck. That was an old shirt of mine she has taken to wearing. Stylish, huh?

David playing with Molly's train. He thought it was pretty cool. I can't believe how old he is!!! they are going to have so much fun playing together. So far they like each others toys.

Christmas Tree Lighting

Santa arrived to light the Christmas Tree in downtown Edmonds. Santa got off the truck right in front of us. We lucked out having never been to the tree lighting ceremony before.

Molly was checking out the tree

We ran into a friend of ours from church who offered to take a family photo of the event. Santa was available for pictures at the museum. We walked around town for a little while to let the line go down and to check out the Christmas lights. Molly did a great job meeting Santa for the first time. She didn't cry right away but we didn't get the picture taken with him before she started crying. So this year, we have a family photo with Santa. Mommy got to sit next to Santa on his sleigh. I'll see if I can scan the photo to post it.