Christmas is Here!

I love love love the glow of Christmas lights! They're just so cozy and make everything around them beautiful. These pictures aren't super clear, but I love the light in them. I love Christmas time so much.

Here's our giant tree.

Here's our mantle.

Our stockings are ready for Santa.

One of my favorite new ornaments.

Justin made the front of our house beautiful.

Dear Family and Friends - Have a very safe and merry Christmas!

Ornaments

I thought I better post something new so that awful picture of Natie's eye wasn't the first thing you see on our blog! Her eye is looking a lot better, by the way.

So here are a few pictures of when we decorated our tree a couple weeks ago. We tried to show Natalie that you put the ornaments on and then leave them, but she still insists on yanking them off. So we moved the fragile ornaments up above her reach and put some unbreakable ones down at her level. I've also caught her twice now trying to unwrap the presents under the tree. Christmas should be lots of fun this year!

Here's Justin showing Natalie her new ornament.

Here she is putting it on.

And here she is running away with it after pulling it off.

Eye Injury

Natalie had her first bloody injury yesterday. She banged up her eye. It looks pretty bad, but thankfully, she doesn't act like it bothers her much. All I want for Christmas this year is for her swelling to go down.

I took this picture about an hour after it happened. I was trying to get a close-up of the injury so the flash was pretty bright in her eyes, which is why she looks totally wiped out.

Doesn't look much better today.

Soon she'll be healed up and look like her sweet self again (took these a few days ago). :)

Climbing the Stairs

I took this video this morning of Natalie climbing the stairs. At first, I started recording because she was saying "Daddy" over and over again. If you listen close, you can hear her say "Daddy" at the very beginning, then "Poppy", then "Baby", then a bunch of babbling, then "Mimi", then "Mommy", then "Nana", and a bunch more "Mimi"s. She covered a lot of people in under a minute. :)

Here's one of Natalie enjoying Nana's Chex mix the other day.

And here's one more. I love the look on her face when I ask her where her teeth are.

I finally ordered our Christmas cards (thanks Jenni!) and I can't wait to send them out later this week!

Say Papa

Click HERE to see a video I took the other day while Natalie was having lunch. She's been saying some new words lately and this day, we were working on "Papa". A few days ago, she said "ham" and yesterday she said "Elmo"! Its been so fun to hear her figuring out sounds and words!

Santa

We saw Santa on Sunday. I guess this reaction was to be expected. :)

Beach

We spent Thanksgiving in Pacific City with Justin's family this year. Rachel cooked us another fantastic turkey dinner. Her warm, homemade rolls are heavenly! It was really nice to spend a few days away with our family and Natalie especially had fun with her cousins!

It finally stopped raining on Friday, so we decided to walk a couple blocks to the beach. The sun was peeking through the clouds, but the wind was strong and COLD. We stayed for about 2 minutes and immediately headed across the street for some hot coffee!

Quick, take the picture, we're freezing.

Natalie doesn't like the wind in her face. :)