A New Year

Well, apparently the real estate market continues to get worse and worse and Mark's hours with the home inspection company went from part-time to none at all, so he is currently pursuing management again at Chipotle (ever since he started back there, they've been pursuing him, so we're glad he has that option!).

All of us except Mark have had colds the past few weeks, but that seems to be standard with toddlers and babies this time of year. I don't have many pictures as I normally would since we've all had snotty noses and it's not a good look on us!

In the past 2 weeks, Ava has started saying, "Love you, Mommy (or Daddy or Carter or Bear)" complete with hug with no sort of prompting on our parts. So precious. We are working on the intensity of hugging when it comes to Carter... she is quite unaware of her own strength. Not that he seems to mind at all - he loves any and all attention he receives from his big sister.

I can tell Ava is anxious for Carter to be able to play with her. She brings him toys (and often shoos him away from things she doesn't want him to touch). He does tend to get into everything already. Even though he's far from crawling, he is a master roller. I can see him spot something across the room and off he goes rolling toward it. Frankly, I'm a little nervous about how much he'll get into when he CAN crawl!

Several times when I've gotten Carter after he's been sleeping, I notice a hand-print on his face. Since he's too young for a pillow, I guess his hand works just fine.
I swear, that is NOT my handprint

Christmas and such

We had a wonderful Christmas, but it's hard to believe we're on to a new year already and it's time to take down the tree (Ava will be very sad) and put away the decorations. Amy's parents came out Christmas Eve and stayed until last Sunday. Ava is now a pro at unwrapping gifts and has had lots of fun playing with her new toys. Carter slept through the present opening, which simply meant Ava got to have a second round of unwrapping since Carter has a way to go on hand-eye coordination. Mom and Dad also spent some days at Amy's brother's house while they were in Ohio. We were able to see a good friend get married on Friday night while Ava and Carter got to have Nana all to themselves for the evening.

Sunday was baby dedication at church after which we were able to spend the day with our good friends (one couple lives in Texas so visits with them are greatly anticipated). There are 6 kids among the 4 couples (and one due in February), so we don't get to actually catch up much, but it's still so good to be together.


Since then Carter has started cereal and Ava has gotten to play in the snow! It's been a busy week!