January: A Month In Pictures

Introducing, Bucket Boy.

The preschool had a Pajama Party for the older kids.

Little brothers and sisters were also invited.

Here's Mikey's pal, Sienna, making sure that

Mikey knows who he is.

"I-KEE!"

Oh, they also had pizza at this party.

Katie decided that she liked pizza.

Now is the time at the pajama party when we DANCE!

Meet Queen of the Naga.

In order to maintain optimum health, she must partake

of the "steamies" twice daily.

Only Naga Highborn allowed, Baby Naga. Back to the ocean with you.

Sometimes Mikey likes to sit on the bottom step and kick his little feeties.

I will be sad when I can't call them feeties anymore.

"WHHHHEEEEEEE"

There was a preschool field trip to a gymnastics place.

We've got lots of Legos.

Katie has become quite the little builder.

A typical Saturday afternoon.

Check out Huzbend's left wrist.

Yes. That is a brace.

A bike wipeout caused a minor break a few weeks ago.

Docs say it should be healed in a month or so.

Probably longer if he continues to carry dragons around on his back.

Katie had her first ski lesson this past weekend.

While she hung out at the Kids Club, I rented myself some gear

and did a bit of skiing myself. Sorry, no pics. I was by meself.

She's up......

...and she's down.

The instructor said she did a pretty good job. By the end of the class

she was able to go down the hill without falling.

This is Katie right after her ski lessons.

After we returned her gear and had some snacks,

she told me that she had a good time skiing and wanted to know

when we were going to come back.

Chocolate milk makes it ALLLLLLLLL better.

We ended the month with a visitor from preschool.

A bear named Wembley. He goes home for a week with each Pre-K kid.

Then the kid writes a story about their adventures

with the bear.

We can't bear to see Wembley go!

"Anudder Cuzzin?!"

Meet Sophia!

Katie was very excited that she had yet "anudder" cousin.

She can't wait to meet her and give her "love".

Mikey loves to look at Sophia's pictures. He points at the screen and lets out

big laughs, "HAHAHAHAHA" (really, it sounds just like that).

And here's a pic of the proud Big Bro.

I don't know about you, but that looks like a nervous smile.

Rightly so, my man.

Just wait. In no time at all, she's going to be trying to eat all of your

Hot Wheels cars. And just wait and see what she's gonna do to your Thomas trains!

Love ya's!

Awesome

Yesterday, Katie told me that a "teenager came to play harp at preschool."

Katie was very excited about it and told me that harp music was very pretty. She said that it sounded like the teenager was playing "Christmas music" and that she also played a song called "Clocks".

I asked Katie if she would like to play a harp when she got older.

She said, "No, I'm gonna be a scientist."

Right on.

A Late Xmas Gift

I've got three new videos for you.

Yes, THREE.

Me been busy.

In this video you will learn the answer to a question that has plagued man (or maybe just preschoolers) since the dawn of time.......

In this video there is just plain silliness......

And, finally, in this video you will get a small taste of xmas morning......

The Big Super Giant Xmas/New Year's Post

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

First off, we just wanted to say THANK YOU for all the gifts and cards. They were very much enjoyed and appreciated!

Now, on to the show!

Katie was up at 8am to open presents.

Believe me when I say, that is REALLY early for her. She usually rolls outta bed somewhere between 9 and 11am everyday. She is NOT a morning person.

Unlike previous years, this year Katie opened her ALL her presents in

about 30 minutes or less. She then moved on to the "Katie & Mikey" presents,

and then finally stepped in to help Mikey who, according to her, was moving

WAAAAAYYYYY to slow.

"WOW! Look! A dragon!"

"THHHHHHBBBBBBPPPPPPP!"

Mikey's sound for truck.

Car has a different sound.

Kinda like "Vroom".

"There's guys in there and princesses and horses, Mom."

We got Mikey a "Zoom Around Garage" and a bunch of Lego

CARS figures (McQueen, Mater, etc.).

He (and Katie) loved it.

I didn't know this, but it is also good for climbing.

Meet Baby Deathwing - the red dragon - and her

blue baby dragon in training.

RAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

I guess even Deathwing gets tired.

Here she is taking a quick break from destroying all of Aseroth to play

with her new castle set.

Everyone got the post-lunch nappies.

Mikey started to bonk out on the couch.

And even Little Miss Energy was toasted by mid-afternoon

and decided to head up to her room for a nap.

Wakey, wakey!

After everyone was rested and had their post-nap snack, it was play time!

"You mean, be careful 'cause I could fall off this and hit my head?"

"No way, dude. Never happen.

You gotta trust The Mike."

Huzbend had the week between Xmas and New Year's off

and so it was play central around here.

Here's a baby pteradon (yes, her characters are always babies)

emerging from an egg.

"Does that tickle, DaDa?"

Here's Mikey and I engaged in a deep conversation.

It seems that he has really made huge leaps

in communication in the past few weeks.

He's got lots of words and even answers yes

or no questions with head shakes.

During the middle of last week, it snowed. We got about two inches of the white stuff.

Because of the temps the snow didn't go away. In fact, it's still outside.

Here's Katie getting snow crazy.

Here's Mikey following suit.

And this is what happens after about thirty minutes

of snow playtime.

Katie likes to settle herself down to a huge

mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Since the snow is still around, Katie and I went out to sled today. When we came in, she told me that she doesn't like the chocolate so much. She just wanted the marshmallows.

So, I put ten of them on a plate and nuked them for 5 seconds.

She liked them.

Sometimes, I wonder about that girl.

And, what happens to poor little Mikey you ask?

Well, he crashes.

Hard.

That brings me to New Year's Eve.

Here's Mikey getting ready to party.

Katie was very excited about the prospect of a party.

Parties equal "special treats".

So, not one to disappoint, I made some caramel dip and chopped

up some fruit to go with it.

Parties also equal balloons.

Later that evening, it was time for Mikey to go ta bed.

"Aw, stinkers!"

Katie decided to stay up until midnight with us.

Besides watching a bit of America's Funniest Home Videos Grand Prize Show, she kept herself busy doing various "art projects".

Here is a "diver costume" that she put together.

And here she is working hard on another project -

Santa and Snowman plates.

She got pretty tired at around 11:30, but we put on Dick Clark's Rockin'

New Years Eve and that kept her entertained until the big moment.

She watched the ball come down for the first time as she laid in my lap.

She told me that she didn't want to go to sleep until all the people in

New York City on TV went to sleep.

I told her they were ALREADY asleep because their clocks are ahead of ours.

"Oh. Okay." she answered without much protest and I carried her up to bed.

She was pretty much down for the count before I left the room.

What a nice week it's been.

I'm not really looking forward to getting back

into the swing of things. It's a bit too crazy during the week here with

all the preschool happenings and such. It always seems like there isn't enough time in the day.

Oh well, eh? C'est la vie.

Nice ta meet ya, 2011. Now, let's get down to business.