I'll Be Home for Christmas

We spent the night at our house on Christmas Eve. Simon woke up on Christmas morning to see that Santa Claus had come and brought him a new basketball goal. Granted, he will need to grown into it a bit, but he already loves shooting baskets with Daddy.














We exchanged all our gifts with each other, and then hit the road for a Christmas breakfast with the Vances in Glasgow.

Due to scheduling conflicts, the official Vance Family Christmas Celebration was postponed until Saturday, December 27 -- Simon's 2nd birthday! More pics to come ... In the meantime, here is a picture of Simon in his new Christmas pajamas.

Over the River and Through the Woods to YaYa and PaPa's House We Go!

To begin our holiday travels, we headed to YaYa and PaPa's house a couple of days before Christmas. Here is Simon opening his stocking!

In the beginning, he was more interested in stacking the presents than opening them.

But then he got the hang of it. Here Uncle Dooney shows him how to use his new broom.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Mamaw and Papaw Basham's house to celebrate Christmas. Simon always looks forward to one of Mamaw's cookies when we visit their house.

Afterwards, we headed to Mamaw Preston's house for the big Preston Family celebration. Simon enjoyed eating chips, chocolate, and opening gifts.

Early Christmas Gift

On Friday, December 19, I went for my monthly baby checkup. I was flying solo that day -- Cort had to stay home with Simon who had pinkeye and an ear infection. Unexpectedly, we were able to get an ultrasound that day that could possibly reveal the sex of the baby. They were successfull! Thanks to a good friend, I brought home a picture in a sealed envelope so that Cort and I could find out together. So, over dinner that night, Cort, Simon, and I opened the envelope and got an early Christmas gift...

Forgive the poor images -- our scanner died, so I just took a picture of the ultrasound pics.

It's a GIRL!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Bashams!

Very Hungry

OK, first watch this without reading what's in this post after the video:

Now, here's a translation of the objects Simon is "reading" about in Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Chocolate cake, ice cream cone, pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, cupcake, and watermelon. The beating on the table is his response to "That night he had an awful stomachache!"

Knowing this, you might want to watch it again and see if it helps with the "Simonese."

A Family Playdate

Cousins Ada and Henry spent last weekend with NanaB and Granddaddy. Since NanaB and Granddaddy had a previous engagement in Bowling Green on Friday night, Ada and Henry came to play with Simon for a few hours. Although Aunt Laurie/Mommy was very tired by the end of the night, it was a lot of fun.

Ada, Henry, and Simon decided to treat Aunt Laurie/Mommy to a special Christmas song.














Ada borrowed Mr. Potato Head's glasses so that she could read everyone a story.

O Christmas Tree -- 2008

This week we got our Christmas tree from WKU's Horticulture Club. We got it in the stand with water on Tuesday night, but didn't have time to decorate until Thursday night. This year, Simon really got into helping.














He really like these cheap boxed ornaments ... right up until he stood on the box and broke them with his little bare feet. No worries -- all was well.

He really liked helping put up our crazy candy cane garland.

Our Christmas tree -- minus a tree skirt.

Turkey: Bobble Bobble

On Thanksgiving, we first headed to Glasgow for lunch with the Vance family. As you can see, there was so much good food, some people couldn't handle it without a nap.














After a big lunch, we decided to take a family walk since the temperature was so nice outside. Below, Simon, Henry, and Ada pause for a stroller photo moment.

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Breckinridge County for Thanksgiving with the Bashams. We began on Saturday with breakfast -- below is a picture of the biscuits Cortney made ... he was so proud.

After a big breakfast and before our big Thanksgiving dinner, Simon got his exercise crawling through YaYa and PaPa's giraffe tunnel ... several hundred times.