Our Pianist

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New Years Eve

We had a house full of Texans on new years eve! In addition to the Kimbro family, Ben, Rebecca and Miranda joined us for the festivities. It was great to be together on NYE again after so many years! It seems that I only took photos of the kids...

Kimbro Visit

We were so happy that the Kimbro's included Atlanta on their 2011 holiday tour of the southeast. We are, as ever, grateful that the kids play so well together. It was great being together, and John seemed happy to meet Rob and the kids (especially Eleanor).

Christmas

John had a pretty fussy day, but Carter had a great Christmas. Except that he was really disappointed that it didn't snow like it did last year. Whenever Carter opened any present (really, pretty much anything), he exclaimed "It's my favorite thing! It's just what I wanted!" I feel very grateful for the combination of his sweet disposition and his age.

Santa loot!

Santa came through with the light sabers (one for each of us that are old enough to wield one)

Hilarious gift from Patrick and Kirstin

Fighting over Donna's dip

The kids table
(at the other Fowlkes' temporary apartment where we had delicious dinner!)

Christmas Eve

Carter watches his personal video from Santa (4+ times in a row) 

At lunch after watching The Muppets

Anna in her Christmas Pageant costume (shortly before deciding she didn't want to be in the pageant)

Carter in his Christmas Pageant costume (shortly before deciding he didn't want to be in the pageant).
He did, however, carry the nativity Jesus into the church during the processional. A job he did well, but after which he declared "I hate that job!". He doesn't care to have people looking at him. 

In their Christmas PJs!

With his letter for Santa, accompanied by peppermint bark!

Church Wear

A study in comparison...

Dad gets Carter ready for church

Mom gets Carter ready for church

John's Christmas "Show"

Like they do at Thanksgiving, John's school rolls the babies through the audience at the Christmas performance. This time, Thomas did attend because there was a parents mixer afterwards. Apparently, there were only two parents (me and one dad) that did not attend this momentous event for our babies. I am glad to have the pictures, and I'm thankful for Thomas for going.

Most of the babies rode in the crib in bumbo seats

But John got to be carried by Ms Gloria

Ms Gloria makes sure we're taking good care of John

Tree Decorating

 We're enjoying this year when we can put ornaments wherever we want on the tree. Next year, and possibly the year after, we'll be back to only plastic, non-breakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree!

Marshmallow Roast

Last week, our town had it's annual bonfire and marshmallow roast. Given that it nearly hit 70 degrees that day, it was a roast in more ways than one.

The bonfire was approximately 12ft by 6ft, which would have felt great on a freezing night.

It was hard to get close enough to the fire to roast marshmallows. The kids were all trying to  get low so that the cinder blocks would provide some protection from the heat. 

Santa visited the bonfire! Carter asked for a Star Wars toy, and Santa suggested perhaps he would bring him a light saber...

John - 4 months

John is four months old! He weighs in at 15 pounds and he's 26.5 inches long. Essentially, there is the same amount of 4 month old John that there was of 4 month old Carter (50th percentile for weight), but John is spread over 1.5 fewer inches. Poor kid, he's only in the 97th percentile for length. Guess we're not feeding him enough.

I hesitate to write this, but... He's a great baby. He's very happy and easy going. And (whispers) he's started sleeping through the night. Like, from 11pm-6am. It's amazing.

He's very busy with grabbing things and putting them in his mouth. He loves his feet, and he's started sucking his thumb (which has a lot to do with the sleeping at night).