Merry Christmas!

For Christmas Eve Brian, Philip, and I headed over to my sister Jen's house to visit with her, her husband Dave, and their twin boys Wyatt and Connor. Jen made a kicker pork roast, complete with twice-baked potatoes. The potatoes were more than worthy to be in a blog post. Yum!

Connor and Wyatt are pretty hard to take pictures of, as they never sit still, but here I got both of them in the frame.  

Mostly Philip watched the festivities. Next year he'll probably be able to keep up with his cousins.

I love this little holiday outfit! Brian thinks it's mean to put Philip is such outfits. I say, what if he's my only son and this is my one chance to have him wear adorable outfits like this?? Besides, he doesn't seem to mind.

Jen is always up for clipping Philip's nails- which is awesome because I hate doing it. Philip was pretty good....

until the end. Philip got sick of the "clipping nails" game. In his defense, it was past his bedtime. Despite these tears, we had a wonderful time. Thanks Jen and Dave!

We had a quiet Christmas at home unwrapping gifts with Philip. Here's a special gift from Great Grandma & Grandpa Platt. Mostly Philip liked eating the wrapping paper, but he actually did tear off most of the paper on this one.

Brian showed Philip the ins and outs of unwrapping gifts. A important skill for any kid.

Playing with some blocks from Grandma & Grandpa Platt.

The gift Philip liked the most was this ball that rolls around, talks, and plays music. He has a great time following it around the floor. Of course, this was just an extra gift I got at the last minute...

Philip got his father a new video game that doesn't have a lot of violence, so they can play it together. All of Brian's other games he can only play while Philip is taking a nap for down for the night. Here's Philip helping Brian figure it out. Think they look related?

Like father, like son (minus the stripped pajamas).

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! (Sleepy baby, can you tell?)



A Christmas Sweater

I have to post some photos of Philip in this little sweater, knitted by one of my PEO sisters back in Iowa. It's an interesting pattern because it zips down the back- easy to get on a squirmy kiddo.

I received it as a gift shortly after Philip was born, and it finally fits. Was 20-below this morning- perfect weather for wearing such a beautiful sweater made with lots of love!

The story of Philip's first Oreo cookie

I think that I'm going to let the photos do all the talking in this post.

 

The End.

7 month photos

Philip turned 7-months old two weeks ago, but I haven't taken any decent photos until today. I think the teeth that he's getting are making him more sleepy than usual, so he's a little tired in this pics, but still a cutie.

"Hey there, what's up?"

                                   
 "Mom fed me spaghetti for dinner (for the first time), so I'm a happy camper. It was tasty!"

"Don't underestimate me! I'm not sweet and cuddly all the time! Roar!"

This last photo makes me smile because the only sound that he makes that isn't babbling is a "growl" sound that we make when playing with one of his stuffed bears. Whenever he sees the bear he snarls. :)

Tooth

Okay, I took this photo during Philip's dinner, so there's some carrots on his face, and he kinda has a runny nose, but check out the tooth! I also noticed in this picture that you can see his other front tooth growing in too!

My favorite Christmas tree ornaments

We put up our Christmas tree last week, having a wonderful time going through ornaments and telling stories associated with them. I wanted to do a post about some of my favorite ornaments. Brian has some "business to take care of" in his current video game (Red Dead Revolver), so he didn't have time to help with his post. Otherwise no doubt there would be other ornaments on the list. So these are just my favorites.

This is my puffin ornament. Seth and Michelle got him for me on a trip they took to Seward. He reminds me of the time when I first moved to Alaska in 2003 and Mom, Dad, Nate, Tammy, Jen, Seth, Michelle, and I were all in the area. It was a special time with lots of family activities (including Family Funday Sundays)! Crazy puffin- he got all tangled up in Christmas lights.

This is our black lab ornament that Grandma Platt gave to Brian and me the first Christmas after we were married. It reminds me how exciting it was when Mattie finally arrived in Fairbanks from South Dakota (after many flight delays) and how important Mattie and Dawson are to us. They've kept me company through a lot of lonely nights when Brian was at work. They're such good dogs. We were very excited when we opened this ornament- it looks a lot like Mattie!

This is one of our newer ornaments. My friend Jennifer in Iowa gave this ornament to little Philip before we left to come back home to Alaska. Noah's Arc is Jennifer's favorite bible story, so she thought Philip needed this ornmanet. It reminds me of the wonderful friends we made during our Iowa adventure, especially those at the First United Methodist Church. Philip had many friends in the nursery and they were sad to see him go. We were sad to leave too. I wish we could have taken the nursery with us! This is one of Philip's first ornaments! I know he's little yet, but the Noah's Arc song is his favorite. We sing it everyday!

This is a white Lenox dove that Mom and Dad Platt gave to us while we were in Iowa. When we putting up our tree there for our first Christmas we didn't have enough ornaments to decorate the whole tree, so I asked for ornaments as a Christmas gift. This is just a beautiful ornament that reminds me of a time when we didn't have enough memories to fill a tree. I also think it is a lovely symbol of the purity of Christ and the sacrific God made for us sending his Son to save humanity.

This is our holiday pickle. Brian and I picked out this ornament the first fall after we were married on the coast in Oregon (when we were spending Thanksgiving with Brian's family). It reminds me of the hearing about the German tradition of the Christmas tree pickle for the first time from my siter-in-law Laura, the wonderful times we had on the coast with Brian's family, and the cute Christmas tree shop we visited each time we've traveled to Oregon for Thanksgiving.

This is a little, locally made cabin ornament that I bought after Brian and I got married. It reminds me of the little cabin that was our first home together in North Pole. This ornaments actually looks a lot like our cabin.

This is a Christmas ornament that my dear friend Naomi made me the first year that Brian and I were dating- in 2004! I guess she thought the relationship would last- eventhough we had only been together 6 months. Now we've been married almost 6 years! This ornament reminds me how excited I was when I started dating Brian- smitten in fact! (Okay, I'm still smitten...but who wouldn't be, Brian's a gem!)

We wish all our followers a wonderful holiday season filled with wonderful memories new and old!

A chilly day for a walk

The temperature has been above 0 the last few days, so we've been taking Philip and the dogs for walks around the neighborhood. Everyone is enjoying being out of the house- even for 30 or 40 minutes (or until Philip gets chilly). Philip is very comfortable in his down snowsuit and knit hat- everything but his nose is toasty warm! And he thinks he's pretty cool because he matches his dad.

We're looking forward to the solstice in a few weeks when we'll be gaining sunlight again. Currently our house doesn't get any direct sunlight and we've had to resort to happy bulbs in the lamps.

It has been wonderful having Brian home more- it's like we're a complete family again!

First tooth!

This is a picture of a little boy who got his first tooth! Brian noticed it yesterday while feeding him supper. He's been teething on Alaskan carrots the last few days- maybe that's what finally did the trick!

Philip crawling

Just call him zoom.