Happy New Year!

Well, we've had a wonderful holiday and now it's back to normal. It's been really great being at home with the kids so much. We've gotten to see lots of his Joe's new tricks. He's getting really speedy with the crawling and today he started pulling up on the furniture. He was so proud of himself! We've now realized that we need to finally mount the tv's on the wall. He's fascinated with the electronics.

We had a couple of visitors here to help us ring in the new year. My niece Lauren and nephew Easton were visiting for a couple of days from California. We had a lot of fun visiting and they are so sweet with Joe and they really look up to the girls. I love seeing them all together.

Easton and Lauren were really surprised at how much Joe "talks" and plays now. The last time they saw him was in October when my brother was home on leave for two weeks. The San Diego branch of the Lanclos family have a New Year tradition to make and eat brownies at midnight. With Caroline being in California, Joey in Iraq and the kids here, everyone had to take pictures and show that they were following tradition. So here's a picture of the Texas brownie festivities.


We all went to the park every day and Joe got some swinging in. He got to show Dad how much he LOVES to swing.



So this reminded us to try him in his swing at home again. He fell fast asleep and Paul called me in to find him slumped over just swinging away. I've been told I'm a bad Mom for taking video instead of immediately sitting him up, but it was too cute not to capture!

Easton and Lauren also introduced Joe to ice cream for the first time. He said "It's no peas, but it'll do." Just kidding....he lapped that stuff up like no one's business. He is his Grandma's Grandson.


We loved having the kids here and can't wait to see them again! Here are some cute pictures of everyone.