snow and a little bit of Christmas

 We had some snow this year earlier in December. In fact, it was to the point where school was cancelled on Thursday and Friday both of the last two weeks of school. The second snow was better for sledding, and we had fun sliding around in laundry baskets (note to self, get a new sled - our old one had cracked). 

 Here are some pictures of our Winter Wonderland.

At first we were skeptical of the laundry basket working, but we found that we just needed to tamp down the snow by going down the slope a few times, then it slid very nicely. 

 Sonia enjoyed it too, although you might not guess it from the pictures.

 In the background you can see some of those Tupperware tub lids. We tried those as sleds but they did not work. Laundry baskets it is, then!

 We also got to build a snowman!

 Or two! Oh, those little cold feet! I don't know why she went out there like that.

 In contrast, we had beautiful weather on Christmas. You can see more Christmas pictures on Sonia's blog. 

 Isaac had fun (with Papa and Boompa and a little help from Sonia) building a dam at the beach. 

Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy New Year!

stomp rocket

Isaac is a lucky boy. He got a "stomp rocket" for Christmas from Great-Uncle Chris. This is probably his very favorite toy. Since this picture, we have lost one of the rockets on our roof. Apparently some people are coming to clean the gutters though so maybe they can help us get it. 

 We had fun bringing them to the park to launch them, but unfortunately Sonia had other ideas about being outside, and we had to go home earlier than we would have liked.

Thanks, Uncle Chris, for this great gift! 

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas eve with Nana, Boompa, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chris, Uncle Mikey, Uncle Greggy, Papa, Mama and Isaac all together! Here are Papa and Isaac spending some time together two days ago.

Papa and Isaac dressed up similarly for Christmas Vigil Mass, but we couldn't get a picture with both of them looking. You can see that they have similar sweater vests, and they both had white collared shirts and suits! At Mass, well... let's just say it wasn't the ideal time of the day for Isaac to go to church. He spent a lot of the time out in the vestibule with Mama or Papa.
Isaac was interested in the tree, but very gentle with the ornaments.
He was also a big fan of all the tools that people received for Christmas!

Isaac did not go and rip open the presents. Contrarily, we found out that he is a very careful present opener! He waited patiently for presents to be given to him, and only helped other people open them when they asked.

We love you Isaac! Merry Christmas everyone, and happy birthday to Jesus!

let us go and make our visit

Here are some more Christmas pictures from my new camera! I really like the picture quality! It's like taking film pictures again. I'm sure that as I get more familiar with it there will be more pictures in focus. Still, I picked out the good ones for you now.
Isaac played with the photo album.

We went for a walk to the beach.

We saw a man with a wind car and had Isaac pose for a picture.

Isaac had a picnic lunch.

And here is a cute smile - although this picture isn't in focus. I know, I look ridiculous with a Santa hat on - who doesn't? But, it fit nicely over my bun.

Here we are at dinner at Great-Grandma's house on Christmas. Isaac is sitting in the high chair that was originally used by Great-Grandpa Wally.

Isaac serenaded everyone after dinner.

He modeled his new outfit that the Greats got him.

In case you were wondering what I wanted for Christmas - All I wanted for Christmas was a pair of nice fat baby legs - and I got them! On the 23rd we took Isaac to a checkup to make sure that dip in the percentiles was just him finding his eventual growth trajectory. His weight is at 18 lbs 8 oz putting him still right on the 50th percentile, and he measured almost 29 inches, meaning he is still at the 90th percentile for height! I guess the other measurement was either erroneous or he just had a growth spurt soon after that. I was glad that he was still gaining weight consistently instead of continuing to drop in the percentiles.

And finally, here are my handsome boys outside of church this morning. I don't know why Isaac was so serious... maybe he wanted to stay to hang out more with his friends. Next time we will.

baby's first Christmas

Isaac is so sweet. Look at this picture. Take a guess at what Isaac would be interested in. It's in this picture.
No, it's not the ornaments on the tree. Nor is it the tree itself.

Nor is it the wrapping paper or bows or presents. Isaac bypassed all that and went for the boombox you see in the back of the first picture. Only once did he seem remotely interested in the presents, and that was for a fleeting moment. He is definitely not too materialistic.

Mama and Papa might be though. We gave pictures of him to several people. We hope that wasn't too narcissistic of us. Actually, probably it was fine since those people were in his family. Here is Great-Uncle Chris proudly displaying his present.

Here is Isaac in the shirt Great-Grandma gave him a while ago. I thought he should probably wear it sometime around Christmas. We had him dressed up for Mass but took off the fancier clothes for opening presents. Perhaps I should be more chronological in the telling of this story.

We went to Christmas Vigil Mass at 5:30, which we have always done, it seems. I like the 5:30 Mass. I guess it's one of our traditions. Midnight Mass is pretty too, but there isn't actually a midnight Mass in Newport... Anyways, it was pretty and the church was actually pretty full. That was nice to see since last year it was not so full at Christmas and that made me a little sad. Isaac was very good. He rode with Nana, Bumpa and Uncle Mikey to church, and Mama and Papa followed close behind. He sat and looked around quietly on Nana's lap, then fell asleep during the rest of Mass. He woke up at the very end.

One interesting thing that Father Mark from St. Mary in Eugene said last Sunday - about Christmas - that I thought is something to think about:

"So, last July I received a card from Fr. ? (I don't remember who.) I actually thought he had gone into early retirement for dementia! But, here he was sending me a Christmas card in the middle of July. And inside, it said, 'If He doesn't come every day, He doesn't come any day.'"

So think about that. I think it's pretty profound.

After Mass we came back to our house and Great-grandma and Great-grandpa and Great-uncle Chris came over and we ate dinner, which consisted of vast quantities of delicious seafood, including black cod, salmon, clam chowder, and the traditional oyster stew, in addition to much other food. After that, we opened presents.

Mama got a new camera, a Nikon Coolpix, and tomorrow, she will post the pictures from that. These are all pictures from the old camera, which was actually Nana's, and we had been using since Isaac was born. I thought we shouldn't overdo it with the pictures in one post, so we'll space it out and it will be quite enjoyable.

Papa got a big box...

and inside that box was his old drum with a new skin! The old skin had broken and Nana had it repaired for him. He was very surprised and happy, and Isaac wanted to try it out with him!

Isaac wasn't really into the presents, but he got a lot of board books and a few stuffed animals, as well as a sweet, very soft blanket with his name embroidered on it from his cousin Louisa. She really is good at embroidery! I can't believe she can already do that at just 10 1/2 months! :)

One present that interested him for a little while was his first ornament, which was a little glass float.

Today we came back. We very much enjoyed our Christmas and visiting our family. Now little boy is tired and we are going to sleep! Tomorrow, we will show you pictures from the new camera!