New Year's Day brunch

We will miss Uncle James!!

Sitting down for the meal


Saying "goodbye" to Aunt Caroline :(







Having fun with Great Grandmama

The past two years, we have invited our immediate and extended family over on New Year's Eve and stayed up till past midnight. I guess that David and I have aged tremendously over the past year......we didn't host or attend a New Year's party and were asleep before midnight. Instead, we had our parents, David's brother, and my Grandmama over on New Year's Day for a brunch.

Playing in the snow, potty-training, and pregnancy

Raleigh joined in the fun, too.
David had to chase his dad with snowballs....one of which was rather large
Grandpa and John Harrison
Grandpa helping John Harrison stand on top of the snowman

Grandpa's snowman
We had fun playing in the snow last Monday. We got about 4-5 inches and John Harrison had so much fun playing outside. John Harrison especially liked that Grandpa came over to play with him in the snow and make snowmen. David made a huge snowman that was taller than he is and also made a huge snow "sculpture" that was going to be a snowman, but the base was HUGE and the mid-section ended up being too heavy to stack.
Other things going on with us recently.....John Harrison is well on the way to being potty trained! We are about 8 days into potty training and today, John Harrison only had one accident. The first few days were very challenging and left me wondering if potty training was possible with our 22 month old toddler! At first, I was letting John Harrison run around in underwear, socks, and a shirt, put him on the potty at frequent intervals, and taught him a symbol that indicated he needed to go potty. After cleaning up numerous urine puddles....many of which came as quickly as 7 minutes apart, I was really frustrated. My mother-in-law suggested that I look into cotton training pants----David went out and bought some and they definitely helped control the puddle size when John Harrison had an accident (I was trying to avoid pull-ups or diapers as I thought that John Harrison wouldn't have motivation to learn to go in the potty with these on). We did buy some pull-ups today to put on John Harrison when we are out running errands, but keep him in the cotton training pants (and hopefully regular underwear soon) while we are at home. My primary motivation in potty training John Harrison has been the fact that our baby girl is due in less than 10 weeks! I think I could have easily put potty training indefinitely unless such a strong motivation had existed.
With the pregnancy, I am up to doctor's visits every 2 weeks now. I am feeling pretty good and my belly seems to be growing rapidly. I am still buttoning two pair of my regular jeans and wearing many of my normal tops, sweaters, athletic pants, and leggings. Thankfully, many clothing styles this season include long shirts and sweaters:)...(I really don't like maternity clothes very much). Elise is very active and we can't wait to meet our precious little girl in a little over 2 months!

Christmas with Grammy and Grandpa

John Harrison curious about Grammy's candle

playing with his new ring-sorting board from Uncle Jon

eyeing a gift

David's parents let John Harrison open a Fisher Price Precious Planet monkey that they bought for Elise and he immediately loved pushing the buttons to make monkey talk and sing...I'm sure he'll have fun entertaining Elise with this new toy at Grammy and Grandpa's house.

John Harrison and Grandpa
John Harrison has been having so much fun playing with his new toys that he got for Christmas. So much fun, in fact, that he still has several gifts left to open. We've divided most of his current toys between his room, the bonus room, and the living room (where he plays most often). One of his favorite new toys is a Fisher Price Little People Farm set from Grammy and Grandpa. John Harrison loves taking the animals in and out of the barn and gets a huge smile on his face and swings his arms around when the rooster plays "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Grammy and Grandpa also gave John Harrison a Duplo farm--John Harrison's favorite thing to do with it is to drive the tractor into and out of the barn. A few days after Christmas, John Harrison and I were playing upstairs and he decided that every single toy in the bonus room...including the recently put together Duplo farm....needed to be moved into his playhouse. It was quite cramped with all of the toys and John Harrison and me in the playhouse, but he seemed happy with this arrangement.
Christmas lunch was the first meal we had ever hosted at our house on Christmas (or any major holiday for that matter....other than Fourth of July this past year). David's mom and I both cooked various dishes and David smoked a turkey....everything turned out really well! We had so much fun having everyone in our home for lunch and hope to repeat the tradition in years to come. It was really nice being able to put John Harrison down for a nap at our own house (and also having him contained to one area of the house while we visited and opened gifts). We are so excited that David's parents live in our neighborhood now and really enjoy being able to drop by for a short visit or drop off John Harrison when we need a babysitter (my dear mother-in-law will almost never say "no" when we ask her to babysit, so we have to be careful not to take advantage of her generosity:).