no good title comes to mind...

Here's a couple pics from our mini family photo shoot before Marlon's department christmas party the other night. Here's our little crawler who's getting around pretty well these days! He has started pulling up to a standing position on Alex's Dora house--he's pretty daring! His mood has definitely improved as he can now happily sit in the living room playing while I'm making dinner or doing something else. He is loving crawling around and exploring things. He enjoys pushing Alex's puzzle boxes around the floor, and he likes going for the christmas tree and the few presents underneath!

Me and the kids

I had to take this photo of what I believe is the first time the kids played TOGETHER. They played with the cars and the garage, and Alex was nice enough to share some cars with her little brother. Cute! (Renee--notice Nolan's old Diego PJs on Alex?!)

On a totally unrelated note, can someone tell me how to improve on my incredibly boring header on my blog? I tried to follow instructions I found somewhere but couldn't get it to work. I see many of you have better headers with bigger font, pictures, decoration, etc. Please help me spruce mine up!

Has a future star been born?

Tuesday night was a big night for Alex (and for us!)--it was her first official, organized soccer lesson!! It came up kind of last minute, but the women's soccer team here does a youth clinic that lasts for 3 weeks. They start with kids age 3 through teenagers, so I thought this would be the perfect time to get Alex introduced to soccer as a player, not just a spectator! She is comfortable with the women's players because she knows a number of them so we thought it would be as good a time as any to start! Due to the short notice, Marlon had to stop at Dick's to buy her first pair of cleats and shin guards--I'm sure that was a great moment for him. (this is also why she isn't matching quite so well--we realized that there aren't too many shorts available this time of year, and there aren't many soccer socks available for kids her size! We may need to dig through Nolan's hand me downs for Kellan to see if there are any athletic shorts in there, since we realize these are the only ones Alex has!). Either way she looked cute and we still had to snap a few photos (Marlon was trying to get her to do the official soccer picture pose).

Alex waiting for her name to be called for her "team"!

Practicing her dribbling skills

She seemed to have a good time so we'll be going back next week. The women's head coach has 2 little girls, and her daughter Gracie who is 2 1/2 was in Alex's group, so she had a little friend on her team. We also found out that her BFF at school, Sophia, will also be attending the clinic, so she'll probably be there next week--that should be fun to watch! Alex even commented on the way home that she was actually tired from playing soccer. Maybe we've finally found something that can tire out our little energizer bunny!

long overdue kiddie pics

I've been meaning to post some pictures of the kids over the past month--enjoy!

Alex goofing around with daddy--**I have a picture of Marlon doing a similar thing from college--I have to dig it out and scan it in to post. Like father, like daughter!

Alex helping to trim the tree!

The finished product, cut down by daddy! (I am hoping to get some pics from our tree cutting trip but they are still on my mom's camera)

Kellan playing in the clothes basket (can you see his 2 teeth?)

Like mother, like daughter (like Granddad!), the girl loves cookie dough--Alex licking the bowl after making chocolate chip cookies with mommy and Ehren

Kellan in his hooded towel made by Grammy