Temps here are in the 70's today, but it has been a little chilly over the last week. Em didn't mind the cooler weather, since it gave her a reason to wear her super-cute winter hat when she was heading out on the town.

As I've mentioned before, Kenton sleeps with a lot of junk in his bed. A couple of nights ago, he wanted to take a pile of train cars with him, too. So I said yes and off he went. I had to laugh a few hours later when I opened the door to check on him and saw this. The first thing I thought was, "...while visions of train cars danced in his head..."

Kenton took his bucket along the other day when he was out for a walk. He was quite choosy about what treasures he chose to pick up and put in his bucket. Only the finest rocks, sticks, leaves, and pinecones would do. And then, just a half-block from home, he unceremoniously dumped it all on the sidewalk without a word, and carried the empty bucket home. We don't try to understand toddler logic.

All bundled up to take a walk. Could she be any cuter?

Bathing beauty!

We're back! Did you miss us? (I know you did, Mom!) There's no good reason why we haven't posted for the last couple of weeks, just got lazy I guess. A few days ago Kenton, Edward and Emery went to the park and Kenton decided to climb this brick pillar. They've been to this park several times and Kenton has never felt the need to climb on it, but after watching his friend Parker climb up, he wanted to give it a shot. Unfortunately he seems to have inherited his parents' complete lack of athletic ability. He struggled a bit but did finally managed to get to the top and was quite proud of himself.

After watching during Emery's last doctor's visit a couple weeks ago, Kenton started picking up this plastic piece (it's supposed to hold the sunshade on the stroller but doesn't work so it's usually just lying in the floor somewhere) and using it to "take Emmy's temperature". He holds it like a stethoscope, but calls it taking a temperature. He also checks his own temp, as well as Lucy's when she'll sit still for it. So when he checks someone's temp he holds the plastic piece against them, acts like he's listening for a moment and then makes some announcement like, " It's two o'clock!" or "It's 94 degrees!", which is also what he yells every time we turn on the weather channel.

Kenton has a pile of stuffed animals who stay in his bed, a couple more he drags around during the day and then takes to bed with him, and then he usually wants to take some other toys or things to bed with him. For a while it was the trains, but lately it's been books. He likes the Thomas catalog that came with his train table, and last night he wanted to take this giant board book about using the potty. So we let him take all this stuff into his bed and when Edward went in to check on him, this is how he found him sleeping. If you look closely at his pillow, you can see the edge of the tin lantern he's been taking to bed with him, too. We don't know why, but if all the stuff helps him sleep better, we're all for it.

Em got some snazzy new pink sneakers today. When we put them on her, Kenton looked her over and said, "Now Emmy can walk!"

Miss Emery tried eating some baby food tonight for the first time. She sampled bananas, and it's hard to say if she liked it or not. She spit most of the food out and grabbed the spoon and stuffed it in her mouth, but she tries to grab everything that comes near her and stuff in her mouth these days. Kenton thought the whole experience was very funny, though. He laughed the whole time we were feeding her.

Temps here are back up in the 70s, so Edward has taken the kids out to a park the last couple of days. One of the parks in town recently added a paved walking track that has a couple of bridges that cross over a little lake. Kenton loves bridges, so this is pretty exciting stuff for him. Today he stopped and stuck his hand in an ant hill, but fortunately dad got to him and brushed the ants off before any harm was done.

I was looking back through our Christmas pictures this evening, and there were so many cute ones. Kenton was just overwhelmed by all his presents. He was incredibly excited when he saw the train set and table, and we had to persuade him to leave it and open the other presents. Then as he opened each new thing he would run it over to the train table and show it to the trains. In this picture he's showing them his bucket of sidewalk chalk.

Emery catching some zzzz's after our shopping expedition this afternoon. Thanks to Aunt Sandy for the cute outfit!

Baby, it's cold outside! But it's supposed to be getting much warmer over the weekend, with temps back up in the 60s. Luckily, Kenton got a couple of new sweatshirts and a new coat for Christmas, so he was well-prepared for the cold snap.

It's cold here in south Georgia today! Our low tonight is going to get down to 18 degrees, which is practically unheard of around here. It was a good night to stay in, eat some yummy soup, and take some pictures of our super-cute kiddos.

Emery has such wild hair. It's thin and short on the sides, but longer on top and it usually wants to stand straight up. Unless we really work at getting it to lay down, she looks like she has a mohawk. I think it's pretty cute--most people couldn't pull the mohawk off as well as she does.

Happy New Year!

Emery adores Kenton. She turns toward his voice whenever he talks, smiles and laughs when he pays attention to her, and just generally gets more excited about being around him than she does about me or her daddy. Tonight we put her in the bumbo seat and Kenton sat down beside her and held her hand and talked with her for a while, then "read" her a book. He had been running wild all day long, so it was very sweet to see him be (at least somewhat) still and interact with her.

It was such a busy, wonderful Christmas. Except for the stomach virus. That wasn't so wonderful, but I'm just trying to forget about it. These are a few of my favorite pictures from the last week. At Granny Cardin's house, Kenton decided that he wanted the giant stuffed Santa to sleep in the bed with him, along with the half-dozen train cars and assorted stuffed animals he normally sleeps with. He also took a small lighted Christmas tree to bed with him every night we were there, but I moved it to the bedside table before taking this picture.

When we opened gifts with the Chambers side of the family, Emery had been very fussy and grumpy all day thanks to the cold she has been battling for almost two weeks now. We took her sleeper off to change her into some cute Christmas clothes and her mood immediately improved. Since we're easy-going parents, we decided there was nothing wrong with leaving her in her diaper if that made her feel better, so that's why she's sporting a diaper and a Santa hat.

I love the picture of Emery and Edward laying in the floor reading. She had really been paying attention, alternately staring at his face and the picture in the book but she turned her head to look at me when I started snapping pictures. Isn't she adorable?

Our Christmas was so fun-filled and action-packed, we had to wear safety goggles. Hope yours was just as great.