Christmas in Glen Ellen, CA

Here are some new pictures..... Will got to sit in the pilot's seat on our flight to Sacramento from Atlanta. He has his new fighter pilot's jacket on (from Grandpa, of course!). The pilots were very nice to Will and he thought he was very special!
Here is our family picture from Glen Ellen, CA. Joe, Julie, Will, Dad, Mom, Bradley, Kristy, and Paul.

Here are some pictures of my Christmas in Glen Ellen, CA. I had a lot of fun with my cousins. We did a lot of fun things together. Decorating gingerbread cookies with Jenna and Nicole.
Getting ready to toss the pumpkins down the hill. My cousins Jenna and Nicole are in the picture with me.
Riding up through the roof of Uncle David's new barn. Jenna, Daddy, Allison, Uncle David, and Tyler went with me.
Looking at the tractor with Grandma.
Nicole, Michelle, Allison, Will, Jenna, Tyler, and my Great Grandpa.
Eating breakfast with Great Grandpa, Jenna, and Tyler.
Thanking Great Grandma for my Leap Frog Fridge Phonics set.
Michelle and I both got goggles..... hers are for skiing and mine are for doing work with daddy.

Opening my present with Uncle David.

Lauren's Birthday

Lauren Anne Stone will be born on February 6, 2007, at 7:30 in the morning. We are very excited that she is going to have this birthday. Joe and I went on our first date on February 6, 1998. My Grandma Niedermuller was born on February 6, 1916. She celebrates her 91st birthday this year. A little less than 6 weeks to go until our daughter arrives!

We had a great Christmas in California visiting with the Osmundson family. We celebrated my Grandpa and Grandma Osmundson's 60th wedding anniversary and my Grandpa's 85th birthday. We had the best time just watching Will play with all of his cousins! He had a great time! I'll post pictures once I get organized enough to find the camera!

Snowmen

Will made his first snowman today. It wasn't made from real snow, but he did a great job. We went to the library for a special program called, "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow." Ms. Kelly read books about snowmen and then the kids got to make snowmen out of play-doh. She was going to have them make it out of ivory snow, but she was afraid some of the kids might eat it. I sat across the table from Will and I didn't help him too much. I rolled the balls to make the snowmen and he put everything on his snowmen just the way he wanted it. I was curious to see what his snowmen looked like, and I was pleasantly surprised. Their eyes were in the correct spot (and each snowman had two eyes) and he made noses and buttons. He even gave each snowman arms and a hat (except for the "baby Lauren" snowman). We had a great time today at the library. Thanks Ms. Kelly!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Tonight we celebrated Jesus's birthday. We are going to be out of town on Christmas, so we wanted to open our family presents before we left. There is no reason to trek them across country and back! Some other moms have shared with me that they bake a cake for Jesus and have a party to celebrate his birth. Will and I made the cake today and we had our celebration after church tonight. We were going to have our celebration tomorrow night, but I really wanted to eat the cake tonight. Will was so excited to celebrate Jesus's birthday tonight. He got to blow out the candles and eat the ice cream cake. After we ate our cake, we opened our family presents. We each had one present to open. We're trying not to have Will focused on getting a lot of gifts, plus we really don't need too many more toys! Will opened his gift first. Joe and I got him 6 new books to read. Reading is his favorite thing to do, so he was very excited. He's really into the Little Critter books, so we bought him a couple of those along with some Thomas books. I opened my gift from Joe and Will. I asked for a new robe to wear when I have to nurse Lauren in the middle of the night. Joe found the softest robe and it is so warm and comfy. Joe opened his gift from Mommy and Will. We bought him a pair of headphones to use when he plays bass. He was very happy with his new toy. Grandpa and Grandma had sent their gift up to Will already and he got to open that tonight, too. (They don't want to bring that across country, either!) They got him a play grill with play food. He loves the kitchens at church, but I was hesitant to buy a boy a pink kitchen. Mom found this grill and thought that it was a "manly" kitchen for Will to play with.

Christmas Baking

Last week my friend Nathan came over to make Christmas cookies with me. I love to bake and we had a great time! I helped Mom and Janie make the cookie dough and then we had to wait a while for it to sit in the fridge. When it was ready, Nathan and I got out the cookie cutters and we made a lot of cookies to put in the oven. We made Gingerbread Men, Gingerbread Houses, Snowmen, Christmas Trees, and Stars. We put them in the oven and they baked. Mrs. Janie made some frosting and we got to make it different colors. I wanted to make red frosting and Nathan wanted to make yellow. Mom and Janie made green frosting, too. We then got to frost our cookies and put sprinkles and M&M's on them. It was more fun to eat everything, though! When the cookies were finished, we each got to eat one! They were so good!

Southern Lights

Last weekend we went out to the Kentucky Horse Park to view their Southern Lights. We first went out to dinner with Nonnie and then drove out to the Horse Park. We drove through a 3 mile tour of Christmas Lights and then enjoyed the inside activities. Will really loved all of the trains. They have a large room full of model trains. It was really neat to see all the trains as they went around the tracks. Of course, Will's favorite train was the Thomas train that pulled Annie and Clarabel. Next, we went outside to the petting zoo. It was neat for Will to see donkeys and camels - since we've been learning a lot about The Christmas Story. I think his favorite animal was the Emu. Well, at least that was the most interesting animal!

No pictures - just an update

Well, I have no pictures to post because Joe built us a new computer and the drive for the memory card doesn't work. I'm sure it will be fixed soon. Since our last post, we have enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Anggelis family. Will loves to go over to Papa John and Diddy's house and the food was wonderful. Nonnie brought some puzzles and books for Will and he really enjoyed spending time with those.

Not much has gone on around here recently. We've just been getting ready for Christmas and hanging out at home. Most of our shopping is finished and I think Joe, Will, and I will be exchanging gifts this weekend or next. We're heading out to California for a big Christmas celebration at my Uncle David and Aunt Jeanette's home. We're also celebrating my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. It's going to be such a special time. Will hasn't met some of his California family and most of them haven't seen him since he was 9 months old. Obviously, he has changed a lot.

Lauren is doing great. I am 30 1/2 weeks pregnant and getting ready for my c-section the first week of February. I believe I get my delivery date tomorrow at my doctor's appointment. We have one more ultrasound, though I'm not sure when that will be. I guess sometime within the next 2 months! I'm going to the doctor every 2 weeks now - which means we're at the end! She is a strong little girl that loves to kick and move around. Will loved to move, too, so I guess they're a lot alike! Will had the hiccups a lot, though, and Lauren hasn't had those yet.

Will is excited about having a baby around the house. He helps me change baby doll's diaper and he loves to carry her around. Potty training is still going great! He had a set back a week or so ago and he had many accidents. It was a control issue - he wants to do it all by himself. Now he goes all by himself (with some assistance).

I guess that's about it for our household. Nothing new. Check back later for pictures.