Merry Christmas!

This year we celebrated Christmas by traveling to Georgia to visit my family.  We had a great time, and we're so thankful that David was able to meet his aunts, uncles, and cousins.  David LOVED all of the constant attention.  I don't think he was on his own the whole weekend.  Someone was always holding him.  We're also thankful we got to share the Filaski Family Christmas traditions with David.  He really enjoyed opening presents and playing with his new toys.  (Thank you to everyone for the generous gifts!)  He also liked chewing on the wrapping paper.  However, he cried after opening one present that had clothes in it!  (It was adorable.)

David and Dad, waiting to board with our plane in the background

David sleeping on the plane

David on the plane

David and his cousins: Bradley, Brandon, and Bethany

David and Aunt Carrie

David and Uncle Donnie and Bethany

David and Aunt Brandi

David sleeping in front of the fire on Christmas Eve

David opening one of his presents

David getting goosed

David demonstrating the goose

Grammy spoiling David with Ghirardelli chocolate

"Mmmm ... chocolate.  Now how do I eat this?"

The crew going for a walk - with Bethany and Brandon holding David's hands

David and Dad

David as a penguin

David's new favorite way to get a bath

Fun with Gingerbread (2011)

As some of you may know, we have a tradition of building a large-scale gingerbread house each Christmas with the clan back in Georgia.  Here are the results of this year's build-out:

Bradley's self-constructed house:

Bethany's self-decorated house:

The large group house, built by Brandon, Donnie, and Chris with decorating by Brandi:

Now for those who aren't familiar with this tradition, there is always an obvious question of what to do with the various houses once you've finished building them.  They don't last that long due to the Georgia humidity, and with four boys around the first year (I include the adult "boys" in that count), we quickly came up with the proper answer:

BLOW IT UP!!!

We'll post additional photos soon.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! Since our last post a lot has changed.  David had his 4 month check-up (Yes!  He's 4 months already!), and he's doing great!  He weighs in at nearly 16 pounds and is 26.5 inches.  He's already fitting into 6 month clothes.  

Recently, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas!  I insisted on taking David to see Santa (see photo below.)  However, after looking at the picture, I realized that Santa looks a little "special."  Don't worry ... we didn't leave David alone.

Since our last post, David's hand-eye coordination has improved tremendously.  In the photo below, he's actually holding part of the toy stationary with one hand and rotating the shaking part with the other.  It's amazing to watch.  David's also gotten really good at rolling over from his tummy to his back... so good that he can do it in his sleep, quite literally.  He'll "go turtle" while sleeping, so we have to keep running into his room to flip him back over to his tummy.  He's working on rolling in the other direction, but he still needs a little assistance.  Hopefully one day soon he'll be able to roll in both directions.

We're also proud to announce that David can finally wear the three think geek onesies that Chris picked out.

Of course, the one that started it all:

And David's Star Trek science officer onesie:

And last but not least, a biology themed one ... if you can't read it is says "brought to you by G, C, A, and T, and the number 23"  (It's a DNA joke)

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