Christmas!!!!!

This is before:




















And now this is what happened:


(Please excuse the resolution but I wanted to fit a bunch of stuff for people to see.)

Please note that there's a section of the video dedicated to Josh, Heather and Jamie's gift. Michaela spontaneously said "thank you" without even knowing what was inside yet.

Some other highlights include:

- Michaela's astute understanding of where presents actually come from
- All of her "wows" and "ooohs" and "aaahs"
- Her saying "Merry Christmas guys!"
- The sheer excitement displayed at receiving a gift of scissors. I realize now that this would have been the ideal year to get her socks.

Bethel's Christmas Eve Service

Michaela participated in her first Christmas Church service.



Now keep in mind, she is the youngest person up there by two years...

Michaela Playing Computer Games

Last Christmas, Rick and Donna gave Michaela a bunch of computer games. Unfortunately they wouldn't work very well with WinXP but on the laptop they worked very well.

Here's a pic and a clip of Michaela playing the "I Spy Junior" game where she gets to put objects into the right categories.

Decorating the Tree

Michaela's first job was to hang the much anticipated candy canes on the tree....
As proud as she was of her placement skills, the rest of the tree was left pretty bare!

This is just a cool picture of Michaela playing in a grove of old (Spruce?) trees.

Family Fun

A Hunting We will Go

We went on Sunday to cut down our Christmas tree. We went with Rick, Donna, Matthew, Sean and Stephanie. While we were walking from the car to the place, we passed some people leaving with their tree all wrapped up in netting, carrying it on their shoulders. Michaela was very excited and cried out, "Look, Look! They caught one!"

Here we are finally choosing our tree to "Catch". It's the one on the left.

Michaela's Big Girl Room

Michaela just graduated from a toddler bed to a "big girl bed". She also moved into her toy room, wich now serves as her bedroom as well. She's adjusting to these changes (and others) very well, and we're very proud of her.

First Snowfall of the Year

Michaela had her first opportunity to play in the snow this winter. Fun was had by all.

We've also got a video of it here!

America's Funniest Home Videos

Here's a clip of Michaela watching a clip of "America's Funniest Home Videos" cats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMiaj3UcyI8&mode=related&search=

It's definitely worth the 1min, 35sec:

Movie Night

Friday is again movie night. Lately, Michaela has been attached to the "Wizard of Oz" or as she calls it: "The Lizard of Oz".

She has recently only accepted being referred to as "Darcey" (Dorothy), while Daddy is the "Lion", Carrie (Massey) is the "Tin-Man" and Mommy is the "Scare-Crow".

We keep asking her who Toto is, but she adamant that "Toto" is "Toto".