Helping Daddy

The other day, Dave was working in the garage building Julia's kitchen (Christmas present!) When Julia woke up from her nap, she wanted to "help Daddy." We didn't really think she would stay out there for very long because it was very cold. But then Dave came up with this brilliant idea for using an old box, a bunch of nails and a hammer. It was a hit and kept her busy for a long time.

Safety first

Hard at work

I like how she bends her knees to hammer

Dax's Christmas present is sitting behind Julia

Home Again

We've been gogogoGoGoGoGOGOGOGO! since Julia's birthday. We drove down to my parents' house in Mississippi on her birthday and stayed until the day after Christmas when we drove to McMinnville. If I can, I'll upload the 45 seconds of audio recording I took during that trip of Dax SCREAMING for the last hour of the drive. That'll be for all of you that keep asking us "Does he EVER make any noise?" The answer would be yes. But I don't have time to figure that out right now because the Bouldins have hit Knoxville and are going to come to our house today! All of Dave's siblings and siblings-in-law, our niece and Dave's parents are here in town for a couple of days. We're going to have some fun!! So, before that madness, I need to clean off my memory card on my camera so here you go ...

Christmas

Last night, we started discussing our plans for this week and realized that between work and social events and visitors and visits, we won't have a free evening just for family until New Year's Eve. So, we thought we'd let the kids open their main Christmas gift from us. And by open, I mean the box. We didn't even wrap them. Because we're Scrooge. However both gifts seem to be a big hit.

Well, Julia's is a big hit .. Dax isn't too sure about his yet. He's a little short for it.

We bought Julia a mini version of the bounce house type inflatables. Except there's no roof. So it's just like a tall-sided, enormous inflatable swimming pool. But with a door. (Yeah, I know, of all the big, ugly, plastic toys this is one of the biggest, plasticiest and ugliest, but an Heirloom Quality Wooden Jump Ring just doesn't sound as fun.) For those who don't know Our Julia, she LOVES to jump. Right now, it's her favorite thing in the whole world to do. (See if you can guess what she's saying around the one-minute mark.)






Dax got a Bounce and Spin Zebra. He's a little less enthused, but we're optimistic that he'll enjoy it once he gets a bit older. If the fit Julia threw when we had her get off so we could film Dax on it is any indication, he's going to love it!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I thought I'd save some time and send just one letter for our whole family.

Julia would like a stocking full of apples. She'll really enjoy taking each one out, holding it up and declaring it an "ah-pull." Then she can take a single bite out of each one before tossing it aside. Because to her, the first bite is the best and the only one worth taking.

Dax would probably like a stocking full of pacifiers since I keep losing his. Or whatever his sister has. He's not picky yet.

I'd like a masseuse in my stocking. Or a gift card for a massage or two. And someone to clean everything up and cook dinner while I get my massage. If that's not possible, I'll take a stocking full of peanut M&Ms.

Dave wants a To Do List in his stocking (and this is the important part) with Everything Already Checked Off. So he can sit and enjoy his football games without that nagging sensation (me) that he should be Getting Something Done. Or he'll take a Harbor Freight gift card.

Thanks so much,
Love,
Joanna

A Whole Week?

It's been a week since you last heard from Julia and you're wondering what she could have been up to? Well, let's see ...

She opened Christmas presents with the Bouldins.

Had her First Birthday Party!

Opened more birthday presents at Aunt Bev and Uncle Richard's house

Had Christmas in Nashville

Had Christmas in McMinnville

Opened birthday presents in Manchester

And Christmas presents in Manchester

And one last Christmas in McMinnville

WHEW! If you're keeping track, that's FIVE Christmas and THREE Birthday celebrations! She's pretty wiped out! She was a real trooper during all the traveling. Even with missed naps and crazy meal schedules she remained her cool, collected Julia-self. We were proud of her. Now, if only her Mom could be that laid back! :)

And A Merry Christmas To You

I love that Julia is young enough that I can go to Target, see something that I want for her room and decide to make it her birthday or Christmas present. No input from her whatsoever.
I love the green gingham fabric. Target has a blue denim stripe that I like as well. I told Dave we could get the green one for her room and the blue one for the living room. :) One could be a Christmas present and one could be her birthday present.

Pint-sized chairs are so cute.

This and that

Not much has really been going on lately. Well, doctor's visits and such (next one is Thursday morning), but the information we're getting now seems a bit personal to be posting on the Internet for everyone to see. If you're curious, give me a call or send an e-mail and I'll tell you. If I know who you are.

We did go to Dave's team Christmas party on Friday night. The associate on his team has done this each year that Dave's been a part of the company. We had a really good time. Last year, the team members drew names and had to make an ornament for the person whose name was drawn. Then, the ornaments were exchanged at the party. They did the same thing this year as well. Laura drew Dave's name and made him an ornament that was actually three ornaments in one! Score!
She took a set of baby bottles and filled each one with something to represent the three members of our family.And the three closeups (click on each one for a bigger view):

Dave's bottle is filled with nuts and bolts therefore making it way too heavy to actually hang on a tree :) Jo's is filled with tiny books. The Peanut's is filled with cute ribbon and confetti. We'll have to find some toy nuts and bolts made from plastic to put in Dave's bottle so we can actually hang these from our tree ... someday when we have a tree.

Of course, we haven't completely wasted our time these past few weeks. We've been working on nursery stuff, thinking about packing bags for the hospital and discussing names for The Peanut. None of that stuff makes for very thrilling pictures, though. So, since Echo is always dressed and ready to be photographed (and can't refuse even if she's not), here are some cute pictures of her:

This is her favorite spot during the day.
You can see that she sits for so long keeping an eye on her front yard that she squashes the pillow flat.
Our big challenge right now is trying to teach her that she doesn't have to bark at EVERYTHING that moves.

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She has trouble deciding where to go to sleep when she's tired.
Dave's side of the bed ...

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or curled up on Jo's side.

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And here is a typical Saturday morning scene at our house.

It made me giggle

At church the other day, I told Dave that if we went to a church that did the Birth of Jesus play, I'd make a perfect "Before" Mary.

Open Drains, Open Bar ...

We are proud to announce that as of around 4:00 pm yesterday, we have TWO functional bathtubs, TWO functional bathroom sinks and TWO functional toilets. Yes, we finally had the plumber out to the house to dislodge the gunk that had accumulated in our drains. Gross.
He's also going to give us an estimate on replacing the pipes underneath the house which should really help our water pressure issues. Dave has to call him to explain what we want done because I had no clue. I basically just requested an estimate for complete replacement of all the pipes and then nearly fainted when he said it would be around $3700!!! Eek!
We also went to a Christmas Open House given by a company here in town. We always RSVP a big YES for free food. It was a pretty impressive bash. They had vendor booths set up showing off various building products, but I just ignored them. I concentrated on the buffet: pasta bar, cheese and fruit tray, stuffed mushrooms (two kinds!), spring rolls, spinach dip, chicken kabobs, and a carving station with roast beef! Plus about a dozen different desserts were up for grabs. AND a very well-stocked open bar. There was around two hundred people there which meant no one noticed how often you went back for more food! :) My type of party.

Christmas

We spent a very merry Christmas in McMinnville. We took Echo, which sometimes seemed more trouble than it was worth, but she just looked so darn cute in her car harness that she made up for it.


The Bouldins gave her a fire hose dog toy that she loved. She walked around with it in her mouth, chased it and has now chewed it to bits. Those sharp puppy teeth can destroy things quickly.

It was a great weekend with family. We saw Bouldins and Newbys galore. Jenna seemed content with her place as the baby of the family.
At the Bouldin family reunion, we saw a fabulous slideshow of the history of the Bouldins, but the best gift of all was from Dave's mom.

She painted over a dozen paintings and framed them, and we picked our favorite. We chose one we thought would look great in our yellow living room.

It was a great weekend and we were sorry to leave. Not too sorry, though, since we get to see everyone again for New Year's!

Echo can't write or talk, but she likes her gifts

A huge box was delivered to Dave at work on Friday. Inside was the mother lode of gifts from parents and grandparents. Even Echo got Christmas presents! I can never wait until Christmas to open presents that are just sitting there waiting to be unwrapped, so we opened them today. Although we were excited about all our gifts, neither of us felt like being in photos. Since Echo can't say no, we took pictures of her instead.

She wasn't too sure about the new food bowl Mom and Dad sent. (If they hadn't put her name on the package, I might have stolen it and used it as my cereal bowl!) Once we put food in it, she thought it was pretty cool. :)


Grandma and Grandpa Steele sent toys. I have no idea who thought up Beef Stew Flavored Tennis Balls, but Echo says, "Thanks!" Or she would if she could talk. She liked the rope chew toy as well and loves to grab it by the end and whip it around. One of these days, she'll have ahold of one knotted end and the other will smack her upside the head and knock her silly. I hope we get that on film :)

Who would want this on their tree?

One of Dave's team members at work invited everyone to a Christmas party at her house. Several weeks before the party, the team members drew names and had to make an ornament for the person drawn.

Here is the ornament Dave received:
Apparently he is known around the office for shooting rubber bands at people. (Even his team leader, when he saw the ornament, said "Rubber bands ... that must be for Dave.") It's good to know your husband's strengths.

The rubber band ball has a black boa and sparklies glued on because the team member who drew Dave's name had also made ornaments for a contest earlier in the month. Several of her ornaments were red balls decorated with black sequins, black ribbon and fuzzy, black boa hats. Dave saw them and commented that they looked like "French Whore Ornaments" (I saw them at the party ... he came up with an accurate description [edited: I have never known a French Whore nor have I seen what they use to decorate their Christmas trees.]). So, we are now the proud owners of a French Whore Rubber Band Ball Ornament.

Really puts you in the Christmas spirit!