Just doing his job!

Joe pulled out the camera the other night to take some pictures/video of Abby because she was being silly. She, of course, stopped as soon as she saw the camera. But, Sam saw the camera out and came to get in on some of the action. He kept jumping into the picture at the last moment and posing with Abby.

Finally, Joe said, "Sam, what are you doing, I'm trying to get a picture of Abby?"

Sam answered, very matter-of-factly, "Dad, I'm just making the picture cuter!"

Apparently, he knows his job and he's very good at it!

She's well trained...or maybe it's the other way around!

Everytime we sit down to eat a meal, we always say a prayer first, with very few exceptions. Abby caught on to that very quickly. We noticed around the beginning of the year that anytime she wanted something to eat she would do this...

She doesn't even have to be in her high chair, she could just be walking around, playing, or my personal favorite - standing in front of the pantry. She'll just fold her arms and know that she's communicating with me!

It's very cute!

Her new love

Abby LOVES books!!! She is always wandering around with a book in her hand. Whenever she catches me sitting down, she grabs a book and runs to plop herself down in my lap and we read together. It's very cute!

The biggest snowman EVER!!!

We had quite a bit of snow the week after Christmas. Joe had the week off so he was able to be home and play with the boys in the snow. Here's the snowman they built...

Christmas 2010

I did not take many pictures on Christmas this year, I'm not sure how we forgot that! Here's a quick look at Christmas at our house...

Opening their pajamas on Christmas Eve...
Here's Abby checking out her new PJ's. That's such a classic Abby expression!
Sam got "reindeer food" from his teacher that he had sprinkle outside so that the reindeer would remember to stop at our house. For those who are not familiar with reindeer food, it looks an awful lot like oatmeal and glitter :-)

Hanging the stockings...
New PJ's!! I actually made the boys pants this year, they love them!

The note and picture that Sam left with the treats for Santa.

The living room after Santa came but before the kids were awake...

Sleepy boys at 6:00 AM! It's not just their fault, though, that we were up so early! I woke up at 5:00 and laid there waiting for any sounds from their room so that I'd have an excuse to get up! It drives Joe nuts, but every year I'm worse than the kids on Christmas morning!

That's where the pictures stopped! We had a very long, drawnout process of opening presents. Some we brought downstairs to open on the webcam with Joe's family in Virginia. Then we went back upstairs and finished off the rest. My family came over for a brunch a little later on. After plenty of playing and then some naps (for me especially) we went to my parents house to talk to my missionary brother and eat a yummy Christmas dinner of Mexican food. It was a great day!