Turkey Poop

Our friends, the Johnsons, gave us a precious outfit for Callen and a wonderful big brother gift for Carter---a talking Diego magnetic doodle board! He loved drawing on it and was very into having people trace his hand.

At one point, Carter recruited Uncle Steve as tracer. Steve showed Carter how you could turn the outline of your hand into a turkey.

When Aunt B came over, Carter wanted her to doodle with him too.
They ended up doing the whole hand trace thing, as well, and turning it into a turkey. Carter kept asking Button something that she couldn't understand. When she looked at me to figure out what he was asking, I remembered what Steve "taught" Carter the night before.
"Make him poop." That's what Carter was saying. So, Aunt B obliged.
Turkey poop.

***as I type this Carter is saying, "Uncle Steve, make him poop. Turkey poop." Thanks, Uncle Steve...

Christmas Bingo

While we were visiting family in Alabama after Christmas, we celebrated Christmas with Nick's family with the {non}traditional Christmas Bingo. My SIL posted about it here. In addition to Bingo, there was lots going on...

Carter got some help opening Christmas presents

Nick protected our Bingo loot...Stacey still made off with my pepper jelly {which Andrea replaced for me!}

Owen decided it was pretty cool to have someone his size around.

Carter finally got to swing his new golf clubs outside.

We got a shot of all of the Willis children and their families and significant others.

We got a shot of all 5 of the grandchildren for the first time.

Rice Cereal

So, I mentioned that Callen started eating rice cereal. Here are a few pictures from the first try.

The good stuff all ready to eat

Not so sure about this

Still not sure

Better...or at least entertained.

She has been eating it pretty well for about the last two weeks. Last night, however, was the first night that she really got into it and was opening her mouth like she wanted more!

Four Months!

Although I am a little late in posting this, this little lovey is four months! It seems hard to believe! Callen turned four months the day after Christmas. We went to the doctor on the 28th and the current stats are: weight--13lb, 12oz; height 25 and 1/8 inches. Everything looks great and she is developmentally on track. We have also spent the last week practicing eating rice cereal. I say practicing because until last night, I think she spit most of it out. However, last night she ate all of it. I guess she has finally figured out how to get it to the back of her mouth and how to swallow solids.

She is more alert and happy these days. In the past week, she has also started "talking" up a storm. She's getting better about sleeping at night {though still not great}, and she still likes to protest naps during the day--taking only little cat naps here or there. Oh, well; we'll have to take our challenges on one at a time!

Merry Christmas to All...

We hope that your family had a Christmas celebration as wonderful as our family's. We celebrated the birth of our Savior and absolutely delighted in the joy of both the season and of our children.

There are too many precious pictures to put them into a collage where you can't see expressions, so please forgive the picture overload.

Our living room after Santa visited

Carter first spying his train table

Playing with the trains

Carter's new golf clubs. It rained here all day, so he didn't get to go outside and play with them, but he asked no fewer than five times. The boy LOVES to play golf. When he told one of his teachers that he was asking Santa for golf clubs, she said, "oh, yes! Everything is a golf club: spatula--golf club, bat--golf club," etc.

This is his excited face as he opens gifts. It is too precious. Here he is opening some magnetic balls and a wand that he has played with at school and loves.

Almost shoulder deep in his stocking to see what else is in there!

Another excited face...this time over Dora, Boots and Diego "action" figures, as Nick would say.

Now, it's Callen's turn to open her gifts from Santa. Big brother was happy to help.

Carter is so funny because, unlike most children, he doesn't really care much for ripping the paper. Once he opens something, he wants to play with it and keep playing with it. We have to encourage him to open more presents. So, we were still opening presents at 4:00pm. Carter was very excited to see that he got a "Roll Tide" puzzle, as he calls it.

Even Callen was too excited today to take too many good naps. She was very alert and was happy to play with one of her new dolls that Bamma and Big Pat gave her!

We had a lovely Christmas full of love, family, food, & fun. My cup runneth over.

...and to all, a good night!