O Christmas Tree

Ethan's 1st birthday:

let the three amigos eat cake!

this Mexican food is great!

happy eater

exploring

excited

Jake with the birthday boy!

but I don't wanna go this way, mom!

playing on the sand

Jake and I with Jenny and Ethan

I love how the boys are eyeing each other here - too cute!

a decent family photo!

As you can see, Jake is very interested in our Christmas decorations! Especially the trees. Our artificial tree has been up for a week, but we just put up our real tree yesterday. Jake loves to look at the lights on the trees, and every time he sees them he points and says something in Jake language. He also gets very excited when we point out Christmas lights in our neighborhood. I can't wait to see how he acts when there are presents under the tree!

We attended Ethan's 1st birthday party on Saturday, and Jake had SO MUCH FUN exploring the park (the party location)! He loved crawling near the shore, on the grass, on the cement, and the playground equipment, and even surprised us by WALKING from one park bench to another - twice! Although it was only about 2 and a half steps, it was definitely a big deal to us! He has started to take a step or two at home as well. Yay, progress! Hopefully, he will continue to practice his steps as the month goes on and be running by Christmas?!? :)

It was great to see Jenny and help Ethan celebrate his birthday! I can't believe she has a 1-year-old now too! Next up on the 1st birthday list will be Kyra Tipper (Jackie & Geoff's little girl) who turns 1 on February 11th! We had dinner with the Tippers on Saturday night, and I can't believe what a big girl Kyra is now...she is crawling and standing and so smiley and it was so adorable to see her interact with Jake!

Our trees are up, the lights are on, but I still can't believe that Christmas is rapidly approaching! How is it only 18 days away? So much to do, so little time...