holiday season recap

We are only halfway through December but we've been busy! A couple of weekends ago we got our Christmas tree. Katie was sick that day and so was I, and as you can see she was pretty grouchy. (I was too, so thankfully I am not in the picture).


Last weekend Katie, Meg and I made Christmas cookies. They had so much fun! They were totally silent and engrossed in this for a long time.




It's been a long time since I've cut out cookies with cutters so I forgot the important step of making sure the dough is cold so it will keep its shape! These looked bad -verging on gross- but thankfully these weren't really meant for giving away.


Yesterday Meg and Katie's preschool had their Christmas program. I spent most of my time getting it on video so I just have a few lousy pictures. I thought it was funny how everyone in this picture is doing a different hand motion. The girls were precious and we loved watching them.


Yesterday Mark's office had a children's Christmas party and Santa came to visit! Meg told Santa she wanted princess shoes, a princess dress and a princess crown.


Katie told Santa she wanted a lollipop.

first steps

Claire took her first steps last night! Mark and I were tag-teaming the girls' bath/bedtime and I was helping Meg in the bath when I heard Mark in the next room sounding excited and saying, "One step! Two steps!" - and finally it dawned on me what was happening and I ran in to see her take her third step.


She walked back and forth between us 3 or 4 times, taking about 5 tiny, tentative steps each time.


We were all so excited for Claire and I think she was pretty proud of herself!

happy halloween!

visitors

We got to spend the past few days with Mark's mom Nancy and our 8-year-old niece Leah. We were especially excited that Leah was coming since we have very few chances to hang out with her by herself. This is what I learned about Leah this weekend: she loves purple, soccer, Michael Jackson (especially "I Want You Back" and can sing it spot-on), Uno, Gymboree, pretty much any food out there (I was seriously impressed with this), and kills any opponent in balloon volleyball. She is fearless, sweet, funny, and mature. I love that my girls have her as a cousin to look up to. (Christie, can we keep her next time?)

fall festivals

We got to got to two fall festivals this past week and they were both really fun!
The first was on Saturday and it was just a few minutes from our house. Meg surprised us by not only willingly bouncing in the bounce houses but also actually having a lot of fun. There was even an obstacle course bounce house with much bigger kids in it and she loved it (she would never have done this in the past so we loved watching her being "brave").


Katie was a little skittish about the bounce house but had no problem with the pony ride.


Last night was our church's fall festival, and the girls were very excited to get to dress up! (side note: this is the bumblebee costume's FOURTH straight year being worn by a Webb girl - phew! Is that a record?? If Claire will fit into it again next year, I'll be so happy).

Meg and Katie watching the pony ride (I think these were the same ponies from Saturday!):

Katie was so funny and excited to be wearing her costume. She was running up to anyone she knew and yelling, "I'm a butterfly (buddo-fwi)"!! And then she would do a little dance with her tongue sticking out.

tuesday/thursday mornings

I love my Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Claire. The big girls are in preschool then and Claire and the house just seems really peaceful and quiet.


Claire is a good mixture of energetic and relaxed - she is a little of both. I am so grateful for the times we get to hang out, just the two of us!

claire's first year

These pictures not only remind me of how much she's grown in one year, but it also reflects the adventures in breastfeeding we went through this year...the jaundice at one month (she is so yellow!), the happy and healthy 2 and 3 months (breastfeeding was pretty good for a little while), the skinny and sickly 4 and 5 months (I wasn't making enough milk and at 5 months she weighed less than her weight at 2 months), and the gradual addition of formula and real food at 6 months (then looking more well-fed and happier with each passing month).

It never fails to amaze me how fast a baby can grow and develop in just one year!