Christmas went quickly- it's almost 2010!

We had a wonderful holiday as all of our family was visiting with us at one point or another this Christmas. We hosted a big Christmas Eve dinner with Gram and BB, Aunt Char and Uncle Charles, Nana and Pop Pop and Uncle Ryan. Christmas day we opened presents at home in the morning with Uncle Ryan, Nana and Pop Pop and then hosted Christmas Day dinner after Uncle Chris and Aunt Megan arrived- no pictures of that one as the beef tenderloin was way too yummy (and we didn't eat until 9pm!).
Kaitlyn getting into the "spirit" of things:
Hooray- an almost good picture of the four of us:
Christmas Eve group picture:

Kaitlyn's first Christmas:


Three generations of Paul Wayne Redferns:


The kids actually did a good job opening their presents... although Kaitlyn didn't have a lot of interest in anything unless it came with tissue paper:


Uncle Ryan "decorating" Kate:


Paul getting ready to have fun with Uncle Chris in his tent:


Hanging out the day after Christmas:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

We began celebrating Christmas this weekend with some visits from Gram and BB (as well as lots of snow- pictures to come soon!) and the kids had a ball.
Paul testing out some new Santa PJ's:
Paul testing out a new outfit for Kaitlyn to see if it will fit her:
Kaitlyn trying to help open Paul's present:
Paul and Kaitlyn have their own kitchen- so far Paul has made me an apple pie, delegated Kaitlyn to washing dishes since she can easily reach the sink and has served me a glass of milk which he warmed up in his microwave. mmm mmm.

Wrapping paper is the best gift

If anyone is thinking about actually purchasing a gift for Kaitlyn this year, it's not needed. After two exposures to presents, all she needs is wrapping paper and some tissue paper to keep herself happy!
Her first "trial run" on Friday night:
Ah ha- this stuff is great!
Testing out an even bigger piece on Sunday night:Where'd she go?
If bored, she'll just try to wedge herself into a toy container.
And if you don't have wrapping paper, just get out the camera and see how quickly she crawls over...
Note my left sleeve which is being grabbed by a little hand trying to get at the camera:
And if she's really bored, she'll try to get the wine out of the fridge (somehow her brother, who now can get the milk off the same shelf, isn't interested in playing around in the fridge...)

I only want to use the big ones...

Paul and i just finished making some "Christmas trees" which we decorated with pom-poms (he will probably call them our "pom pom's"). Interestingly enough, he only wanted to use the largest size ones for the 'lights' on his trees. He also made some big piles of glue- primarily in the middle of the trees.
At some point he thought he needed to call BB for advice on making his trees.
You can see that my trees were made with the little lights... and his had the big ones.

Christmas Tree Hunt 2009

On Sunday morning we all headed out to get our Christmas Tree. The beauty of living in the middle of nowhere is that you can cut your own Christmas Tree about a mile and a half from your house- which is what we did!
Headed out to pick our tree:
Let's go that way: Here it is!
Paul was very interested in watching how daddy cut down the tree:
Kate and I overseeing the tree effort:
Kate seeing the tree in the house for the first time and wondering what it's for:
Our little helper getting the ornaments ready:
Paul helping daddy to hang up some ornaments "way up high" (his job was to hold onto Daddy):
And, although blurry, a cute picture:

Standing..1...2....3

On Monday night Kaitlyn (after stealing one of daddy's slippers...why she chose that I have no idea!) ended up standing up on her own for a few seconds....
And she's off....
"cool, a slipper"

"whoa- mom, look at me- no hands!"

Jingle Bells 2009

The Holidays Are Here....

How can you tell? Other than the Griswold-esque amount of lights I have outside our house (just wait until next year when the 20 small white pines on the top of the hill are big enough for lights!).
Paul III and Paul watched our Christmas 'movie' from last year three times in a row (at least!) Sunday night on daddy's "puter":
Our Christmas stockings got hung up last night (Kaitlyn's will be here soon!):

"Playing" Together

Paul and Kaitlyn have been having a lot of fun 'playing' together recently. Here they are up to a few recent antics.
Playing together in the 'ball pit' (mommy didn't let Paul get out the big ball pit to play with Kate, so we used her one-ring pool instead- the entire downstairs room was covered with the balls within a few minutes!):

Kaitlyn trying to hunt down Paul for a few tickles (translation: she climbs all over him):
Getting some blocks ready to build something:
Kaitlyn has also done a good job of stealing Paul's gloves off his hands in the car when he reaches over to say on the way to work/daycare. And when she drops her cube toy between their seats, Paul gets it for her... which they did about 5 times one morning!