Eskimo in the Snow!

I'm ready, Mom, let's go! I can even walk in my boots!

Santa got Julia a sled for Christmas, Nana Gulley got her snow pants and boots, and Grandma Mehok got her the gloves. She thought they'd be big, which they were, but we would have been in trouble without them because none of her tiny ones are waterproof. So they had to go on the outside of the coat, oh well! Mommy thinks it's cute!

Waist deep snow!

I thought maybe she would walk where we'd packed it down with the sled, but I couldn't get her to try. Can't blame her, though. I got tired trudging through that deep stuff!

I love close-ups.

Daddy's eyelashes, lucky girl!

You couldn't be more beautiful, baby girl.

Book Worm

That's my book worm! She sure does love to read. I hope it sticks with her.

Old Navy has the cutest shirts...and on the cutest kid, well, that's one adorable photo!

She loves to wear my glasses, her own sunglasses, too. I 'm sure we'll have some cute pics in shades this summer!

Note that she is reading her Bible of course, good girl! She can even say "Bible". It's the only word she knows when she sings "Jesus Loves Me", so she just says "Bih-buh, Bih-buh" in a sweet sing-song voice. Too cute!

Daddy Love

When I walked into the room the other day, I found julia sitting in her chair like this, with her feet straight out. It was cute, but I thought it was weird because it couldn't be very comfortable. Then I noticed the big picture...

:) Just like Daddy! How funny is that?


Another Daddy story... I had just given Julia her bath the other night and then I mentioned it was almost bedtime. Instantly she said, "Dada, dada," shimmied away from me, went to him, climbed into his lap, snuggled in, and sat there, totally still and quiet, being absolutely as cute as possible. I think I got played.

"Master Mess Maker"

I call her the master mess maker. Don't ask me why.

(Click on the pic to enlarge it and see the cheesy grin on her face.)

Julia's new favorite way to look at the world...upside down!

Touch Down!

Christmas at Our House with the Mehok's

I realize now, how bad I did with pictures this year. I guess just because Julia was so much more active this Christmas, compared to last, I was always busy with her instead of taking pictures of her. Oh, well.

We had all the Mehok's at our house this year, like we did a few years back, and I like hosting, so it was fun.

Is she a Mehok, or what? And touching those ears means she's tired.

John's Nana, Julia's Great Grandma. Big hug!


Grandma and Grandpa got Julia a pink princess kitchen set! See all the lovely pieces in the box? Ask John where they are now. (Or where they remain, rather!)

Christmas at Great Grandma & Grandpa Gulley's

We spent most of Christmas Day at my Grandma and Grandpa Gulley's house with that side of the family. We play a white elephant kind of exchange game with our gifts (except that we buy nicer things), so that's always fun. Julia, of course, did not participate in the exchange but that doesn't mean she came away empty-handed!

My Aunt Kathy got her this zebra in tennis shoes that makes all kinds of sound effects when you bounce up and down it. It spins, too, and has toys to spin that make noise. She can climb on it by herself and has a ball.

My grandparents got her this super soft bear that is about as big as she is. She was giving him a hug and saying, "Awww" in that picture. Awww...

Christmas at Nana & Papa Gulley's

We had Christmas at my parents' house on Christmas Eve this year.

Julia's favorite thing in her stocking was the phone, of course. Mommy's favorite were the colored bath soaps you see there in her lap. They have ball rollers in them and you can color on yourself or the tub. I had them when I was little! Where does my Mom find these things?

Ooo! A Jeep book from Uncle Brian and Aunt Tiffany! It even makes noise. Plus, it's a board book, which is good because that's the only kind I'm allowed to have since the "incident" with the pop-up book that no longer pops.

"Uh, has anyone seen my presents? I could have sworn they were right here a second ago."

Tickles from Auntie K. Thanks for the dress, KK, you know how good I look in blue!

Love this picture! Even though we celebrated on Christmas Eve, I still went over to my parents' house on Christmas morning. Poor John was workin' for "the man". Anywho, breakfast on Christmas morning is such a tradition, I couldn't pass it up! And Julia fully enjoyed it...scrambled eggs are one of her favorites and I think that was the first time she's had orange juice, she loves to drink from a straw! I even left her in her Christmas jammies. :)

PreChristmas

Yes, I am actually so far behind on posting that these are from before Christmas, but such is life. Better late than never.

This is Julia "helping" me decorate the tree. What you can't tell from a still photo is that her idea of helping me decorate is removing the ornaments from the tree. And this helpfulness doesn't stop at the tree, Julia loves to help by removing anything from wherever it happens to be set up or put away and placing it on the floor. We're working on that.

These two photos were taken at the Welcome Center on Kennedy Ave. We went there with my immediate family and my brother's nephew to see their displays of A Christmas Story. They had a zillion trees set up, and even this big platform with a slide where you could see Santa, just like in the movie. Turns out though, when we got there, that Santa wasn't in that day.

Since Santa wasn't there and poor Tyler was totally looking forward to seeing him, we drove all the way out to Bass Pro Shop (Brian & Tiffany live out there), because they were supposed to have a nice display, too.

This was the only picture I ended up getting. Kristen took Jules up, and I stood back to take the photo, but when she went hysterical I traded Kristen the camera for the monkey baby that had such a grip on me, I swear I could have let go and she wouldn't have fallen to the ground. I was going to just stick her on his lap and take the picture anyway, crying or not, it would be a funny picture, but I literally couldn't get her off of me. Oh, well. There's always next year.

Just inside the door at Bass Pro they had a gigantic tree that was decorated with real animals. Small ones made sense, but I was impressed to see an entire bear standing inside of it on one side.

We got cozy by the fire before braving the cold again.

We went out to eat one Sunday before Christmas, my whole family, and took some group pictures for Christmas cards. (John was working the day we saw Santa) I couldn't believe how cute Julia smiled.

Kristen is always trying to teach Julia to text. If you get a message that says something like this...

fniuoea sfhdiufhgt nisueomxri feuiwbhifeui

you'll know who it's from!