Stockings

Our little family "opened" our stockings before we left town.

The kids enjoyed their little gifts.

They didn't necessarily enjoy taking pictures together.

After Margaret went to bed, Henry joined me in the kitchen.

Santa Party

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Melanie had her 2nd annual Santa party. She has her dad dress up as Santa and invites friends over for cookies and play time.

I was a little afraid Henry would react like he did last year. Nope, I was wrong. Once Henry warmed up to him, I think Henry thought Santa was his best friend.... especially since Santa gave him a candy cane.

Henry told Santa he wants a backhoe loader for Christmas... we'll see!

Sweet Margaret Gray. She really didn't know what to think of Santa. No tears, though.
MG's funny face here makes me laugh. I think she was blowing air out of her mouth. Maybe she was thinking about the rocking lamb she wants from Santa.

Thanks, Melanie! We had a great time and the pictures you took are beautiful!

Christmas Tree Farm 2010

(If you want to revisit our last 2 years at the Walls Family Tree Farm click here for 2008 and here for 2009)

I think this is the 8th year I've gone Christmas tree hunting with the Louis Family and I was excited to take Margaret Gray on her 1st hunt.

PawPaw, PatPat, the Wood Family, and Link the dog were all there, too.

PatPat and PawPaw were quick with their search and found their tree in record time.

MG got a handful of Tom's hair

This year PatPat did a little online research and bumped up our post-tree hunting dining experience.

This Mexican restaurant was a step up from our usual American cheese-serving restaurant.

Out with El Nogalito... in with Taqueria Dos Aces.

Plus, we celebrated Brent's birthday- only Terrell's finest for him!

Kids behaved, food was good... it was a great day!

11 months

Whoa little sister! This has gone by fast!

(these pics were pre- Rudolph nose, but post hitting eye on crib= purple right eye)

1st word- "up".
Uses it all the time.
Margaret's definitely has her days where she wants to be "up" most of the day... especially while I'm cooking dinner... pretty challenging.

Tries to make animal sounds, but most of them sound the same- kinda like a cat clearing a hairball. We say this is her lion sound.


Sweet girl will snuggle with me in bed in the morning.

Getting down from her chair all by herself.... a little daredevil.

Walking around like crazy.

Likes to greet Henry when he wakes up... sometimes she goes in his room while he's still asleep... sneaky little thing.

Gives open mouth/ tongue out kisses.

Into everything... can empty a drawer in seconds flat.

Knows where her belly is... We're working on nose and head.

Likes to bring books to you and plop right down in your lap.



Likes to play "Where's Margaret?" She'll cover her face with her hands and also likes to duck behind objects.



Happy 11 months, little sunshine!

Our very own Rudolph

Margaret's face met the concrete yesterday.

It was about time...

Has only fallen out one time.

Christmas Tree

Last weekend we went to Lowe's to purchase our tree.

Henry got a little sidetracked.

MG loved walking around in the trees.

Tom found the perfect tree.

Henry "helped" decorate this year.

Margaret's already broken some ornaments. She's quite determined to touch as many as she can before we catch her.

Thanksgiving

With our camera on hiatus, these are the only pics I got from our Thanksgiving.

We spent a relaxing day at PatPat and PawPaw's with sweet family and great food.

Well, most of the day was relaxing... there was an incident where a napkin caught on fire and then Grandmother Herndon's sleeve started to flame... that was a bit stressful.

Margaret's 1st Thanksgiving- she loved it!

See? My camera is sick (80% of our pics come out underexposed... I have to "fix" using Picasa) -- camera shop told me it would take 4-6 weeks to get fixed, so I'm better off keeping it through the holidays and take a million pics... some come out normal.

Normal like this pic:

I found Margaret in the Louis' bathroom, sucking her toilet water soaked fingers.

Eww.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, we headed over to Tom's uncle's for a post-Thanksgiving-throw all of the leftovers into one yummy dish- meal.

Henry always enjoys time spent with family.

We have so much to be thankful for.

All glory to God.

I would blog more...

... if Blogger and my internet connection got along.

and my camera is broken... just in time for the Christmas season.

I'm ready to throw in the towel.

Uploaded Some Videos

Here are some of Henry.

He's quite the singer.


"Trust and Obey" and "Holy Holy Holy"




Good Morning God. This is your day. I am your child. Show me your way.

So I found this stuffed animal dog I gave to Tom when we were in college (ah, young love) and gave it to Henry. Named it George. It's evolved into Georgie Porgie.

Thanking Jesus for his New Orleans family

Margaret the "walker"

Some shenanigans

10 months

Lots of new developments this month!

"Stepping"... I won't say walking, cause she's really not a walker yet. But Margaret will definitely take several steps and then sit down and crawl.

(Videos coming in a future post... I'm working on that)

Waving bye. Clapping.

Babbling more. For a while there she had become pretty mute, but now is back to chit chatting :)

She loves to climb.

I don't think that this is great at all.

I looked over one day and she was standing in one of the kid's chairs, holding on to the back... at least she was holding on, right?

She's learned to climb up into her rocking chair, too.

Loves to sit a look at books.

Hugs her stuffed animals.

Loves her pig that she sleeps with, but loves her cousin Alice's stuffed horse even more.

Margaret snatches is right out of Alice's hands.

Here is Margaret playing peek-a-boo.


6 teeth, working on 2 more on top.




Is a good eater... will pretty much eat anything we give her.
But I'm bad about offering her a variety on a day to day basis.




The time change rocked Margaret's sleep and we're still recovering :)




Oh, and her eye is so much better!
Thanks to Dr. Rocky's advice, I should have been massaging, then pressing down, not up.
The next day, it was all better and has continued to stay clear.

She and Henry are working on sharing :)


I can NOT believe that our sweet sunshine is almost one!

Zoo

Tom took off a Friday since he was going to have to work Saturday and Sunday.

We took the opportunity to go to the zoo as a family.

Henry is usually pretty anxious about the lions.

Before we went that day, we told Henry that the lion might want to say "hi" to him and not to be scared.

I asked Henry what the lion's name was and he said, "Big Lion Louis".

Well, Big Lion Louis did have a hearty hello for us.

With fear in his eyes, Henry held it together and then said, "Go see elephants."

"If I can't see Big Lion Louis, BLL can't see me."

(BLL isn't even in the pic)

By the time we got to the elephants (or as Henry called it, Big Elephant Louis),

Margaret was pretty sleepy. Such a sweet tired look, though.

(HERE we are in the same spot when MG was 3 months)


We enjoyed our day as a family.