Benton has been on the move! He is pulling himself up to stand on everything, and over the weekend began stepping along side of things as well (like along the edge of the coffee table). His favorite thing to get on is Adaline's trampoline. All of this has led to more falls, but nothing more than a little ego bust, luckily.

He is also getting better with the sippy cup, but still cannot get much more than about an ounce of water a day from it. Oh well, he will get there.

Adaline thought Benton would look good in her sunglasses...just thought this was funny.

This is a video we made this weekend. Adaline likes to see herself on the phone. It shows how her speech is improving, and you can see a bit of Benton as well. (I think she says "please", not "peace" after watching it.)

Big Girl Bed

Over the holiday break, we decided to go ahead with the big move to a toddler bed for Adaline. Shane and I had a full week at home with the kids with daycare closed, so it was a good opportunity to sleep in after possible rough nights.

To Adaline, this new bed set up only meant more playtime. She is able to get out of bed and move freely around the room (but not out of it, as we put up a gate at her door). She didn't nap the whole week out of school and hasn't on a weekend since. At night, Adaline will play for several hours in the dark, emptying her dresser drawers, taking all her books from the shelf to her bed, putting on her shoes (over footy pj's), making meals in the play kitchen, and whatever else her heart desires.

Adaline caught with her swimsuit on her head at nap time...notice the cups on the handles of the rocking horse.

We make a big deal of cleaning up before bed, but this is what we usually get in the morning or at the end of nap.

and...

Here are a few missed pictures from our Christmas holiday. I took these from Betty (Thanks).

Four Christmases

We were fortunate enough to have several Christmas visitors and events this year. The first was when Shane's dad came up from Fayetteville, NC the Saturday before Christmas. The kids had a good time celebrating with Granddad, as did we. Ryan and Jennifer joined us as well, and we finished the evening with a Mexican dinner out.



Our second Christmas was at our own home on Christmas morning. Santa filled our stockings and left a baby doll and stroller for Adaline and found some of Adaline's old walking toys for Benton. :)


Next we packed up the unwrapped presents and headed to Greensboro to continue Christmas morning at Ryan and Jennifer's house. Betty and Jerry were in from Texas, and it was so great to spend several days and another Christmas with them.


Adaline got a trampoline from Grandma and Grandpa, and she has been loving it every day.
Benton was worn out from all the excitement of the morning and decided to nap through much of the present time.

Finally, after our afternoon nap time back at home, the whole family gathered at Nana and Pop's house for more presents and a fabulous dinner.

We were so blessed to be able to spend time with many of our loved ones over the holiday. We wish we could have seen and visited with more of you, but we send out our love and hope that God has blessed you all as well!