Happy New Year!

We've got lots to cover in this post, so off we go!

Claire's 6 month photos:http://juliecurryphotography.pass.us/claire-nichols
Password: SISTER

We spent Thanksgiving here in Indiana with my parents' families.  Colin got to play with some of my cousins' kids, and it was pretty low-key.

Mid-December, Colin had his daycare Christmas program, where he played Joseph.  It was supposed to be a surprise, but he had told us about it long ago.  Keeping secrets is just not for him.

 

Dressed as Joseph

 

With his Mary (Sophia).  What a face.

 

Colin and his BFF Vanessa: They're the only 2 who have been together since the baby room at daycare, and they're about 1 month apart in age. They got each other for Secret Santa. This is just before she tried to shove her juicebox in his mouth.

We spent Christmas Eve day at the Children's Museum, which in hindsight wasn't our greatest idea.  It was only open for 4 hours, and it was free admission, so it was crazy!  But Colin had a lot of fun as always, and we got out of the house for a while.  

 

I went to the opening of this exhibit when I was a kid, so it was fun to take Colin there for the first time (he's still probably a little young for most of it).

 

 

We went to church that evening in their adorable Christmas outfits, and we got to really do up Santa that evening for the first time.  We put out cookies and opened Christmas pajamas, and Colin was excited that the moon was out and bright so that Santa would be able to find our house.

 

 

Colin loved opening presents at Christmas this year, and we spent the afternoon/evening with my family doing Christmas again.

After putting together his Hummer

Cheesing in his new hat

Batman and Batman. Meta.

Tearing into gifts

Hawkman watches on...Superman has suffered defeat.

Shortly before Christmas, Claire turned 8 months old.  We're hurtling fast toward 1, and it's right near the end of the semester, so it will get here fast.  She had one tooth come in finally.  She's also started sleeping through the night (though our Christmas travel put a bump in that road).  She's not interested in crawling, as she still hates tummy time, but she does a weird little scoot when she's sitting that allows her to move within a small radius.  She loves to stand, and she's finally standing at the couch without support.  Not pulling herself up, but she is happy to be standing.  She loves to eat!  She'll eat pretty much anything we put in front of her at this point.

She's a pretty happy kid these days.

Finally getting some smiling monthly shots.

On New Year's Eve day, we left for Colorado to see most of Peter's family.  Colin was great on the plane, and Claire did as well as we could have hoped for.  I was very grateful for no layovers and good flight times.  Colin had a blast with his cousin Addie.  Peter and I got to meet our newest nephew Caleb (and see him get baptized).  We tried to make the most of our trip, spending as much time with Grandmom and Granddad as we could, as well as enjoying some of what Denver/Boulder had to offer.

We went to the Denver Children's Museum, as well as went on a train ride with Santa up in the mountains.  This was Colin's version of heaven.  He just stared out the window the whole time and was devastated when the ride was over.  We're now really looking forward to watching all of these little cousins interact when we go to the beach this summer.

 

 

Peter and I celebrated his 32nd birthday by going to Cincinnati to watch the Steelers/Bengals playoff game.  It POURED the whole time we were there, but by some measure of fate, I had selected tickets for us that happened to be under the ONLY awning in the whole place.  There were probably 500 seats under the awning (about 6 rows along one end zone), and we were blissfully dry until we had to walk back to the car.  It was an ugly game.  One of the Bengals fans in front of us was purposely stepping repeatedly on a Steelers fan's Terrible Towel and shoving it in a spilled beer.  She then pretended to punch the Bengals fan.  So these people were on our left and in front of us and continued to yell at each other the rest of the game, getting up in each others' faces, etc.  When a Bengals player got hurt, they yelled at us for cheering (which we weren't).  When a Steelers player got hurt, they cheered.  When a Steelers fan didn't take their hat off immediately for the National Anthem, they called him names to his face but ignored the Bengals fans doing the same.  It was ugly.  We ran out of there after a crazy comeback win.

 

Looking forward to the start of a new semester next week to make the next few months fly by!