Things we have learned this Christmas...

We have WAY too many stockings considering only 3 people live here.

Things we have learned this Christmas.....

Lydia likes presents.

Now that she can roll over, Lydia doesn't mind being on her stomach.

Santa Clause is coming to town!

We did it! In the midst of all the holiday hubub, we managed to get Lydia to the mall to see Santa. Hmmm... realistically, we got Lydia to the mall so WE could see HER with Santa. Either way, mission accomplished and with no tears shed! Jen and I snapped pictures while mom placed Lydia on Santa's lap. I love that first shot where it looks like Lydia is looking up at St. Nick as if to say, "Really, Santa! I'm waiting for my PONY!"

Saturday Silliness

PJ went Christmas shopping and came back with antlers for the dog that also happen to fit Lydia. They have a piece of mistletoe hanging from them and say "Kiss Me!" As if we didn't already have THAT idea!

It's my birthday!

It's my birthday, so here is one more picture with the presents. This is one of the two good family photos that we recently took at JC Pennies. I think the best gift for today is that at exactly 2:50pm Eastern Standard time, I begin a much needed 2 week vacation. Posts may slow for a while as I avoid averaging the last few midterm grades, but I promise to reveal the remaining Christmas pictures soon.

My Best Gift Ever!

I think PJ is realizing that my handmade Christmas cards may take a lot more time to finish and send out, so the moratorium on showing the Christmas photos has been lifted. One set of grandparents already got their pictures and my mom will be in town soon to get hers. So here are some of the pictures that we ordered from J C Pennies. I got the idea to put Lydia in a gift box from searching Christmas photographs online. Lydia is still working on sitting, so we needed a box that was big enough to also hold her bumpo seat. I wrapped the boxes to match the pedal car because it originally did not have wheels and I thought we would need to hide selective parts with packages. The car ended up looking so good that we used it by itself and just did a series of package pictures and a series of car pictures. So here is Lydia, the best gift this year! I can’t decide if I like the smiling one best. There is just something poetic to me about her sitting by herself, looking a little lost, and trying to figure out what her crazy mommy is up to!

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

This is one of the first shots with my new camera. I'm still learning some of the settings, but it has lots of them and seems to do well even without the flash, which I prefer for pictures of Lydia. Here she entertaining herself with her feet after a bath. We also got some cute video of bath time with the new camera as well. It does BOTH still pictures and video, COOL! I need to see if there is a way to link video to the blog so I can show you all the stuff she is able to do now, like sqeeling at the top of her lungs! Hmmmm, just one more similarity to her mom. This girl is LOUD!