THE SAUER FAMILY: December 2008

AJ is VERY excited about all the things that come with Christmas (except for Santa as you'll see below). He followed Brian around the tree the whole time he was putting on the lights.

AJ watched and learned how to put the ornaments on, and then gave it his best shot by throwing them into the tree. Maybe next year!

Always a helper! I love Nuge's face in the background.

Medflight (Grandma Rose's employer) always hosts a big, family Christmas party. This was the first year we attended (AJ was in the hospital last year), and I'm sure it won't be the last. AJ had a blast! Here he is going down the big slide by himself.

Who says Santa needs a sleigh? The helicopter actaully circled around a couple of times as Santa waved out the window before dropping him off. AJ was giving him the hairy eyeball from the start as he walked by us.

Oh yes, the screaming child. AJ didn't want to be within a 10-foot radius of the man. But hey, he still got his gift.

Back to having fun in the bounce house.

More fun with the balloon dog.

So this year, we did quite a bit of Christmas shopping online and had quite the parade of packages on our porch for a couple of weeks. AJ found all the boxes, peanuts and paper quite entertaining.

Like I said, AJ is very into all things Christmas. The nativity gets rearranged several times a day.

AJ made this tree in Sunday school. At home, he then picked off all of the foam stickers and stuck them to the floor. Here he is peeling the stickers back off the floor and putting them back onto the tree.

Today I braved the mess and made cut-out cookies with AJ. He was very good about pressing down on the cookie cutters. While the first batch was cooking, AJ then pretended to make his own by rolling the rolling pin on the cutting board and then pressing the cookies cutters on it. He had so much fun! Needless to say, we had flour everywhere!

AJ resting his head on his hand like mommy does when she's tired.

New trick - making fishy lips.

So the laundry basket has always been fun to play in, but I've never seen AJ quite like this before in it. Do you suppose this was how it was in the womb?

AJ says, "Mom it's my turn to take the pictures now!" I actually think I heard him say "my turn" today.

AJ's pure excitement!

We truly have so much to be thankful for this year (I'm just too tired to go into detail). Thanks Aunt Beth for having us - We had a GREAT time. LOVE TO ALL!

The fesitivites began with a cooking lesson for how to make Grandma Ruby's stuffing.

The main event - Thanksgiving Dinner!

So after dinner and dessert, and after the games had begun, AJ decided to help himself to a little more pumpkin pie (he's a fool for it). Too bad we don't have a picture of him caught in the act, but this is what was left.

Even Aunt Beth had something for AJ to push around - who cares if it's pink?!