Eight Months! (How did that happen?

Baby Carrie turned the ripe old age of eight months this weekend. To celebrate, here's a little retrospective:
Day One:

One month:

Two months:

Three months:

Four months:

Five months:

Six months:

Seven months:

And yesterday, at eight months:

One year is coming up (way too) fast!

"It's the Barky Dog Puppet Show"

I think Tommy's favorite thing about his baby sister is the built-in audience. Like the other night, when Tommy invented the Barky Dog Puppet Show (complete with theme song).

"It's Baby's First Christmas"

We spent Baby Carrie's first Christmas at home in Sacramento. Tommy and Carrie had so much fun!

Here's a few pictures of the kids opening presents:

Here's Tommy doing the all-important "is this for me?" check:

Baby Carrie got into the action helping Mama open her presents:

Later in the day there was a race through the house - Baby Carrie on her new Winnie the Pooh airplane, and Tommy on his new scooter:

S-N-O-W!!!!!

One of the things we love about living in Sacramento is being at the feet of the Sierra Nevadas. In Summer, it gives us endless camping opportunities. In the Winter, on the other hand, it gives us SNOW!!!!!
Tommy decided on Christmas Eve morning that Baby Carrie needed to take her first trip to the Snow. So we all got bundled up, loaded up our warm clothes and sleds, and headed out. Here are some pics of the fun:

And I couldn't resist posting this clip of Mama and Tommy sledding:

Thanksgiving in Los Angeles

Okay, I realize that I'm putting up my Thanksgiving post on New Year's Eve........

I finally got the T-Giving pictures and Christmas ones downloaded, so I'm going to do several posts today if I can.
For Thanksgiving we made our traditional trek to Los Angeles to hang out with Obaachan, Jma, Grandpa Ed, and Auntie Ashley. While we were there, we went hiking:

Took the kids to Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific:

And hung out with the Family:

On the wany back up, the whole family followed us halfway back up the state and we took a side trip out to Yosemite! Even though the weather didn't cooperate, we got some great pics of the kids and the mountains:

More to come........

Updates (Pre-Thanksgiving version)

Uncle Carl and Aunt Karen reminded us that we haven't updated the blog in a while. So here goes.......

Since we last wrote, Tommy and Carrie have been up to some very important work.

They picked out pumpkins from the pumpkin patch:

Used Papa as a jungle jim

And went hiking at Lake Clementine Dam.

There will be more pictures and updates once I get the Thanksgiving pictures downloaded.

Tommy Performs For an Audience

Tonight, Tommy was jumping around while Baby Carrie sat in her high chair. Apparently, Baby Carrie thought her big brother was hilarious! Papa ran for the camera, and we captured a few moments we just had to share:

Is there anything better than a laughing baby?