Beautiful Elise

My mom took this picture of our beautiful Elise on Thanksgiving.

Sibling Gathering

"Hi, Aunt Margaret....I can't wait to play with my new cousin next Christmas---it's going to be a blast having a cousin almost my exact age"---Elise
"You seem a lot more trustworthy without those creepy chops, Uncle James"--John Harrison
We had my parents, Grandmama, and siblings over for dinner a few days after Christmas. It is rare that we are all together since my brother and his wife live in CA and my sister and brother-in-law in FL.

Belated Christmas Pictures

My sister-in-law Caroline brought this man with her to Christmas? Should I have trusted him to be near my daughter??? Notice Elise leaning away from him :)-- (I'm kidding of course---the kids love my brother and he is great with them)

Jonathan (my brother-in-law), James (my brother), and David all grew beards in December and them trimmed them into incredible stashes for Christmas. Every time I looked at David, I about burst out laughing. Needless to say, the stashes were one of the highlights of the festivities.

For several months leading up to Christmas, John Harrison asked for a "blue choo choo train" several times a day. "Buy blue choo choo train Christmas, mommy" he would say OVER and OVER. Well, at the first of three Christmas celebrations, he got Belle, a Thomas the Tank Engine train. That night he also got a train crossing that dings and lights up----he was beyond excited.


Here are some pictures from Christmas at my parents' house. Hopefully soon I'll post pictures from Christmas with David's parents and Christmas at our house.

John Harrisonisms for the new year

Hopefully new pictures to come soon.....I wanted to post a few cute things John Harrison has been saying recently.

"Too big to hold"---John Harrison will spread his arms out and move them back and forth and say "too big to hold" when something is large or heavy....he also will do this as an excuse not to pick up certain things

"Let John Hair do it"----John Harrison has been saying his name for a little while now and it sounds like he is saying "John Hair" instead of "John Harrison"---if we ask him to repeat his name, he will say "John Haira"---anyways, he is getting into the highly independent stage typical for his age and has started to make this known to us by saying "Let John Hair do it"

Back in December, we let John Harrison watch a Thomas the Train DVD episode before bed---he was not happy when we told him that it was past eight (his bedtime) and time to turn the movie off. He said, "No go to bed eight. New bedtime nine." This was especially humorous because he figured out that nine came after eight and made it known that his bedtime should be moved forward an hour (good try, but didn't happen).

Elise is quickly approaching one! She started sitting up really well in early Nov. and then started pulling up a lot in mid December. She side-steps, occasionally stands up on her own, transfers, and constantly pulls up, but no walking yet. She is entering into a stage of expressing her will more, becoming clingier, and fussing more. To combat her clinging to me and crying to be held by me, we make sure that David takes her from me, walks into a new room, and doesn't give her back until she has stopped fussing for a while. Elise still nurses once during the night and at least four times during the day. I will probably start trying to wean her to a bottle after she turns 11 months in Feb. so she will be done breastfeeding right around a year old. We have a long way to go between now and then because now she won't even take a bottle:). She does drink out of a sippy cup, though, so maybe that will help. Elise is a precious baby and we can't believe how much she is growing up!!

I guess I let the busyness of December get in the way of blogging. Then, we have been sick for nearly the past three weeks (are finally all better, I think!), so blogging has not been a priority. I also got a Chromebook to replace my dying laptop and given that a Chromebook is more of an Internet machine (basically, the browser is your desktop), I have not quite mastered photo uploading and posting.