2 boys, one shirt

Josh, age 13 months
Ben, age 14 months

Wearing the shirt from Auntie Alison

Shopping at its best

Dan and I got a number of smiles as we pushed the boys around the grocery store yesterday. Josh was busy being Mr. Busy 1 year old... while Ben... he decided he'd had enough.... we kept shopping... he had groceries all around him by the time we were done!

Josh walking

Josh, One Year

Josh recently celebrated his first birthday in style, with a picnic at the park next to our house. He continues to amaze us, how on earth did he turn one?

Josh at a glance, age 1

• weighs 23lbs 4 ozs
• finally has decided that sleeping through the night is a doable feat, THANK YOU!
• walking
• loves reading books, especially Mighty Machines and Dig, Dig, Digging
• Enjoys playing with anything with wheels
• signs for all done, fan, lights, food, drink and dog
• loves signing and clapping
• idiolizes his brother
• lights up every time Dan walks into the room

'Tis the season

I've been trying to sum up my thoughts on Christmas and I think the best way to explain how things went this year would be "seasonally challenged." I guess last year I was too caught up w/ the tail end of my pregnancy to notice Christmas (okay I was just extremely impatient and wanted to get on with life and not be pregnant any more). But this year when we pulled out our fake Warehouse Christmas tree and our sad decorations both Dan and I went, "Humm... it just doesn't do it for me." But I'm happy to report that with the addition of a few new Christmas decorations (a Kiwi and a Pukeko) and the all important Denver Broncos santa hat on top of the tree we started to feel better.

We started a new tradition of having one very large (and very cheesey) stocking for the whole family. Dan painted our names on it w/ puff paint and we both thought it was so over the top that it was perfect.

The boys definitely got into the swing of things with all the fun new toys. Dan decided that this was the year of the dinosaurs.

We thoroughly enjoyed our bbq at Bonnie and Scott's house. They invited us last year and we had such a good time that we thought we'd make it another new tradition. Somehow the dreary overcast day didn't rain on our relaxed hangout. There's something to be said for walking to a friend's house for Christmas dinner and just chilling.

I'm not sure I'll ever get use to Christmas in the summer, but at the end of the day it's nice to have a relaxed day with the immediate family. We're trying to adopt some Kiwi traditions, but we're definitely northern hemisphere folks at heart.

Ben's books

In an attempt to organize the post Christmas chaos I tried to thin out some of the books in our living room. When I took the stack of books into Ben's room I realized that I've got a bit of project in there too... but how can I remove books from his room? Here is a list of the books I found sitting on his bedside table this afternoon.

Under the Hill, Martin Bayntor
Dinosaurs! Strange and Wonderful, Laurence Pringle
Trains, Bryon Barton
Bulgy, Rev. W. Awdry
A Kiwi Night Before Christmas, Yvonne Morrison & Deborah Hinde
Slinky Malinki's Christmas Carcker, Lynley Dodd
Thomas' Really Useful Word Book
The Dinosaur Alphabet Book, Herry Palletta & Ralph Masello
Ben the Postbear, Carol O'Holenghi
100 Things You Should Know About Insects & Spiders, Steve Parker
Creepy Crawlies, Kathie Atkinson
Please Try to Remember the First of Octember, Theo LeSeig
A Light In the Attic, Shel Silverstein
Doodledum Dancing, Meredit Costain

Bremner Bay, Wanaka