Christmas 2011

We had a nice Christmas (as always) and was able to spend time with the families.  I always feel so spoiled when it is over!  This year was fun, Korbin still isn't to the point where he understands what is going on but he sure loved the presents he got!  We spent Christmas Eve with my family, watching football, eating, and hanging out.  Korbin got to hang out with his cousins that he doesnt see much, so that was fun for him.  On Christmas morning we woke Korbin up at 8am and we headed to the living room.  He didn't understand what was going on, but he did understand that he was really enjoying what was under the colorful paper!  My parents got Korbin a good sized kitchen and once he saw that he wasnt really interested in anything else.  I ended up opening the rest of his presents for him because he would stop playing with the kitchen.  Once that wore off a bit he was able to check out his other toys and loved them as well.  At 9am we went to Steven's parents house to hang out with his family.  Church kind of threw a wrench into everything this year so as his parents were at church we just hung out.  After we opened presents at his parents we headed over to my parents for brunch and presents.  The rest of the day we just hung out and relaxed.  We watched some basketball and football.  Then the day after Christmas Steven's family all had it off so we were able to spend the day over there again and played games the whole day.  His family always gets new games for Christmas so its always fun to get a day together to learn how to play them.
 Anyway, we had a nice Christmas and Korbin enjoyed every minute. He was such a good little boy and loved being around his cousins.  We hope everyone had as good of a holiday as we did!

 Korb and one of his favorite people.. Grandpa Shaw

 Korb in a Santa Hat

 Korb and his cousin Griffin (5 months apart)

 Griffin and Korbin

 Korb checking out his kitchen!

 "Uhh.. whats this mom?"

 "Cool!!"

Our morning Christmas picture (Korbin was eating M&M's)

 Korb with some more cousins.

Having fun with Aunt Megan's earmuffs.

17 month old Korbin

Well I am a little bit of a slacker this month, but I'm sure everyone understands with the holidays here and all! So my cute little boy is growing up and no longer wants to be my little baby! He is now running instead of walking and saying words instead of jibberish. He got two more teeth this past month so we are now up to 8 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom). He has the cutest little smile! His bed time sleeping is finally back to normal! Those two last teeth must have really bothered him because it was a long month or two for all of us. But now he is back to his normal good sleeping self. He absolutely loves his Grandpa Shaw and spends every Tuesday afternoon with him. I think Grandpa is probably his favorite person in the world. He talks a lot, but that hasn't ever changed. He now says any word that he wants but it seems to be only when he wants. We try to show him off sometimes and he all of a sudden becomes mute! He still has stranger danger. He learned how to tickle this past month and he makes the cutest "tickle" noise as he tickles people. He has 2 favorite books and we only read those two at night.. "busy baby" and "pickaboo insects." He loves to put his mittens on his hands and walk around, as well as putting shoes on his hands. He loves when mom or dad swing him upside down and always laughs, but covers his eyes in the process. He knows how to work remotes, any buttons, ipods, phones, and now the ipad. He loves to get on the computer and have one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard.

He is still as funny as ever and it always leaves us expecting a fun, interesting future. He doesn't quite understand what "baby" in mom's belly really means, and we have NO idea how he will be when this little one comes. He is a good little boy, but also the most sneakiest kid I have ever seen. We love him more then anything and we are so grateful to have him in our family. Here are some pictures of

the past month for him!

 Korb's pretend smile

 Brushing his teeth before church.

 Eating breakfast like a big boy with Daddy

 Helping Daddy put up the Christmas ornaments

Korb and Mom

 Watching the huge wind storm from the front window.

 Eating a full size cookie.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year was a lot like the other years during Thanksgiving. We have the opportunity to spend time with both Steven's family and my family on Thanksgiving and we get to eat two delicious meals. And lucky for me, this year I was able to eat more then my eyes could imagine (thanks to the pregnancy), so I actually never really got "stuffed." We spent the morning with Steven's family, it was kind of bare this year because Dan and Casandra (Steven's sister) are in Portland going to school and Steven's brother Ryan and Rachel spent this year with her family. So it ended up being his parents, and his sister Leslee and husband Devin. It was a nice cozy lunch and we had a lot of time to just relax and enjoy the day. We always get a new game over there so we got to play that and some other games while Korbin and Makayla slept. Before we left to go to my parents house Steven's dad needed help getting the tree up from the downstairs. Now..this tree is HUGE and he refuses to take it apart so to put it up and down we actually have to use the deck and rope and a few people to pull it up to the upstairs. Yes, I know, sounds funny..and it always is! So here are some pictures of the event..

 Korbin eating turkey!

 Mom, Korbin, Cousin Makayla, and Aunt Leslee

 Its blurry, but I still love it!

 Step 1- Tie the tree to the rope and throw the rope to the deck.

 Step 2- Start pulling the HUGE tree up

 Step 3- Have the top of the tree fall off and onto the cement because of the lack of tieing.

 Step 4- Pull up half the tree while someone else is holding the top part of the tree because it is still connected by lights.

 Step 5- Get 3 people to bring in the tree

Step 6- Realize that the very top of the tree is still missing and go search for it.  Then top the tree off when its found.

Korbin and Makayla watching the adults look silly as they try to get the tree up. I think this picture is super cute!

After the tree event we spent around 3pm until 9pm at my family's house for another celebration.  We had more people there, my brothers, sister, grandparents, and aunt.  It was delicious (as always) and then we spent the rest of the day watching football and eating more and more!  And of course we ended the night back at Steven's family for more games and pie.  I think we left there around 1am or so and we had fun learning some new games and just hanging out.
 Our Thanksgiving was really nice and I am always thankful for the wonderful families we have!