The Holiday Season

Things have been absolutely crazy lately, as I'm sure it is for everyone finishing up their Christmas shopping. On the night of Sunday, December 5th Saint Nick came and placed a gift under our tree with Kate's name on it. An extremely excited Peanut (who was being held by Dad in the door way of Mom & Dad's room) yelled to Mom, "Quick Mommy, under the tree....there's something there. (While pointing) It's over here Mom...hurry!" Actually, I think it was just Dad "talking for Peanut" but we'll never know.

Anyway, the three of us went to the Living Room and watched Kate open her first ever Saint Nick gift.

Hurry with the pictures so I can attack this "bad-boy!"

Finally! Let me at it!

Alright! The classic Ring set......Score!

Who needs a Bumbo?

Things seem to be changing with our little lady more and more rapidly by the day. A little more than a week ago while we were practicing sitting up, Kate was able to hold herself up for more than 20 minutes. The following day, she made it somewhere in the ballpark of 40 minutes and she hasn't stopped since.

Well, perhaps I'm speaking too soon. Our little lady (while not able to crawl yet) has become quite the mover. We brought our Christmas tree up after Thanksgiving and while we're well aware of the fact that she can roll over, she's never gotten very far. That all changed one evening last week, when both Shelly and I went into the kitchen for no more than 15 seconds to get her bottle & bring in some dishes. We came back and our little Peanut Brittle (as I like to call her now) had barrel rolled roughly 3-4 times and was half way under our tree grabbing onto the lights and (fake) branches. We just about died laughing, but also came to the realization that from now on we'll have to put her in her pack-n-play, jumperoo or exersaucer when we have to leave the room for a moment. Now, even though Kate hasn't figured out how to officially crawl yet, she gets wherever she needs to go via the barrel roll and turning 180's on her stomach. It's beyond entertaining to watch.

As for my "speaking to soon" comment earlier, Kate is so close to crawling its unbelievable. Just last night after moving around, she started lifting her entire body up as if she was doing push-ups. (Sidenote: She must get that upper body strength from me. I've seen the Burch girls and Jeff try to climb the "Ice-Berg" in Mexico and let's just say....it wasn't pretty.) She did this atleast 5 times and then after a little bit, while also on her stomach she started bending her knees up toward her stomach and began the phase of rocking back and forth. From what we've read, this is the beginning stage of learning to crawl. We're extremely excited and can't begin to express how proud we are of her!

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season. We'll be posting again very soon with a bunch of new pictures, video from trimming the Christmas tree and a picture of our little lady with Santa Claus! Take care everyone!