It's Christmas Time Again!

I can not believe the holidays are here.  We put up our little tree and decorated the house a few days ago.  There is something so relaxing and exciting about having a Christmas tree lit up all day!  This year we had to put our Christmas tree up on the kitchen bar.  Tacky, I know, but Cooper would be all over it.  It's just his size too, so that thing would never last on the ground.  We will bring it down on Christmas Eve for Santa though. 

Remember this? Well, this year, Carolyn (my dad's girlfriend) bought a gingerbread house kit for the kids! Last year I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through all the trouble, making it from scratch again, so it was nice knowing we could just put this one together so quickly. Making it from scratch took days because of certain steps you have to follow, but I was still surprised how long this one took, being from a kit. I think it took about 3 1/2 hours! That was with interruptions because of the baby, but still. I was toast when it was done!

And on a side note: I keep forgetting to post this but as of last week (2 weeks ago???) Cooper started taking steps! The most he has done is 4 steps. He is getting more and more brave and will often take 2 steps on his own without us encouraging him to. So he just might be walking in a month for his 1st birthday! I really need to get all of his little tricks on video. He says, "mama" and "all done." He can wave goodbye and say all done in sign language as well as say it, "aw-duh aw duh." It's the cutest! He dances to music now too!! He gives high fives!!!  He has been shaking his head, "no," for a while now...he learned that when he tried (still tries too) to take out the grass out of the plant. He loves to shake his head no, it's so cute! And his laugh! I don't know why I'm such a slacker and haven't recorded his giggle! He has always had the cutest giggle, but now he also has a courtesy laugh! Ya know, a laugh just to be nice, kind of a chuckle- it's awesome! His laugh sounds so grown up, like an adult, like he knows exactly what is so funny! We can't get enough of it! He also tries to point to things and talk, just blabbering, but I love it! My little guy is a month shy of being a one year old! It's just crazy! I am cherishing ever moment with him!

-Also-

If you are in need of ideas of how to bring Christ into Christmas and/or ways to celebrate Christmas all month long, please check out this blog!  Kendra is my old neighbor and she is such an amazing mom.  She homeschools her kids and goes the extra mile in all things.  I just got filled with ideas after reading her blog post that she just put up about "25 days of Christmas." So check it out..she also does giveaways all of the time!