Christmas in Houston

I'm seriously behind on my blogging, so I'm trying to play catch-up.  We went to TX for Christmas and first went to Houston to spend time with Ben's family.  We had a great time visiting with them.  Highlights of our time there include... playing with Maycee (the girls are still talking about how much fun they had with Maycee), Chloe LOVED spending the night every night with Maycee, Mindy cooked us some delicious meals while we were there, Gracie playing lots of games with Grandma, we went to see Christmas lights (which were spectacular), playing Pictionary Man, going out to eat at a Tex-mex place, introducing Julia to Grandma, PaPaw, Aunt Mindy, & Maycee, and just hanging out with our family.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Julia at 16 months

I was just realizing that I haven't done an update about Julia lately. She is 16 months old now and is very entertaining! I thought I'd put up a few recent pictures and a few tidbits about our sweet baby (although she's not really a baby anymore)

Julia had only 2 teeth for several months. She finally got her two front top teeth over Thanksgiving, and 2 more top teeth while we were in Texas for Christmas.

Julia tries really hard to keep up with her big sisters. She loves to run with them, dance with them and is quick to dodge out of their way to keep from getting run over. She's quick to join in with the laughing or screaming even if she doesn't know what's going on (our girls like to scream when they're excited, and Julia will look around and see Chloe & Gracie screaming and join right in)

Here's a sample of her dancing...



Julia is starting to talk more. Her first words (in addition to Mommy & Daddy) were "Baby" and "Puppy" Soon after that, she started saying "My" and "Me" (as in "don't forget about me", or "where's my milk") We've thought we've heard her say a few other words (including something similar to Gracie & Chloe, but she hasn't started saying them very regularly. (Chloe swears that she's heard her say 20+ words...she's keeping a running tally)


Julia is a very good tantrum thrower. If we tell her no, she will very dramatically throw herself on the floor. Thankfully, she's fairly easy to distract still.

Here's another video of Julia with her cousin Clara (while we were in Texas)

Julia is very independent and likes to do her own thing. We have to watch her closely if we let her walk. Here's a picture of her in a park. We were walking on a path, but she was just wandering all over. The path meant nothing to her...

Julia is a climber. If a chair is left out at the table, she'll be up in the chair and on the table in a flash. She likes to climb onto the back of the couch and wander around. And she loves playing at the park and being free to climb around.

Julia is a sweet and fun girl. She's always doing something silly to make her big sisters laugh, and if they laugh at her, she'll keep doing it over and over. She's definitely turning into our little clown.

Gracie's Writing

Chloe has been trying to "teach" Gracie to write for awhile now, but Gracie's never really had any desire to write letters (or "numbers" as she calls them). But this week we made a couple of cards, and she decided she wanted to sign her own name. So, I pointed out the letters, and she wrote her name.

This is a "thank you" card she made for her gymnastics teacher, and the first time she wrote her name. (She likes to write LOTS of lines for her E). The picture is of her and her teacher (who has long hair...can you tell?)

Then, for Ben's birthday this week, she wanted to write her name again, and also wrote "daddy".  She was very proud!!  And then on the back of the card is a birthday cake.  She was so excited to give the card to Ben!!

A Chilly Hike by the Lehigh River

We went hiking by the Lehigh River again on Sunday afternoon. We've been wanting to go ever since Thanksgiving (Ben had to miss out on our Thanksgiving Day hike here, so he'd been wanting to go see it). It had been really cold the several weekends we'd tried to go, so finally we had a little warmer day (it was 45, so WARM is a relative term here), so we decided to head out and have a picnic lunch.

We've had lots of rain the last week or so, so the river was really full and really moving! It was interesting to see the difference from when we were there just a couple weeks ago.

Here's Julia having our picnic. I thought she looked so big, sitting there at the picnic table all by herself...

Here's Ben & the girls. We even got to see the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway train go by. The girls had fun waving at all the people on the train. It was the highlight of the day (especially since the wind started to pick up during our picnic, making us all extremely cold).


We were ready to head back after our picnic and get to the warm car...

Chloe's First Grade Christmas Show

Chloe had her First Grade Christmas Show last week. There are 4 first grade classes...they each had a separate little show, and then all came together for a few songs at the end. It was fun to see all the hard work come together into a cute show. Chloe had 2 little lines by herself, and she did really well. (I'll see if I can post a little video clip later). She went right up to the microphone and said her lines, and had a great time singing her heart out with the rest of her class.

Gracie & Julia had a good time watching the show (although it was a little long, and by the time it was time for Chloe's class, they were both done with their attention span). Julia had a great time clapping for everyone. She wasn't really paying attention, but as soon as everyone started clapping, she would perk up, and clap her hands right along with the crowd.

Here's another of the 1st grade classes. They did a play about Christmas trees (notice the "woodsmen" on the left....they come and cut down the trees)

Chloe's play was about a bear family who learns that Christmas is not about the presents you receive, but about spending time with family. (Chloe's in the middle in a red shirt)

And here are all the classes together singing a few songs. Chloe's in the middle of the back row.

Here's the video. Chloe's line is "I want a Ninteddy DS". The bears are all asking for what they want for Christmas and then the song is "Gimme Santa". But later on in the play, they learn that if they get presents, their big brother can't come home from Bear College, so they all give up their presents and learn that family is the most important thing.

You'll have to pardon the shakiness & baby sounds in the video. Julia was in my lap, and Gracie was climbing on me...so, it's not the best, but thought I'd post it anyway so you can get a little piece of the show.

Here's another video of all 4 classes singing a couple of songs. (Once again, you'll have to ignore the giggling in the background...Gracie and Julia were so bored at this point, they'd resorted to poking each other...which they both thought was hilarious...)

Our Disco Party

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Decorating for Christmas

Chloe was so excited to decorate for Christmas. We started setting up the Christmas tree, and the girls were very helpful...at first.

Here are Chloe and Gracie helping to put the branches on the tree...

Before long, Gracie gave up and started reading... and Chloe decided that she'd rather be "the boss". She grabbed the instructions and helped me to know which color branches went on next.

Izzy enjoyed playing in the branches, getting tangled up and chewing on her ball.

But once we got the tree up and the lights on, the girls were excited to get started putting the ornaments on.

Julia was taking a nap during all of this, so she was SO excited to come downstairs and see this new, exciting thing set up downstairs.

She walked around and around the tree, just looking at all the ornaments, pointing at them, and pulling some off (although she's been better than I thought she'd be...at least so far... about not taking all the ornaments off).

Here's the finished product...Chloe took these pictures because she was so proud of how beautiful it looked!

...And our official Christmas picture for this year... Aren't they cute?...even Izzy got in on the action!