8 months old

... and he sure does not hold still for long!

The Misguided Pilots of the St. Louis

One of our family's favorite Christmas gifts came from my cousin, a helicopter pilot.  It was technically a gift to our children, but we all know that it was really for Patrick.  It is our very first remote controlled helicopter.

Mariel named it "the St. Louis" and we have spent some time outside trying to learn to work our new toy.  This generally means that Patrick or I work the remote, Mariel and Noella scream in excitement, the other spouse yells encouragement and/or directions, the dogs cower, and Holden cries at the general commotion.

Patrick and I have been aided in our journey as "Copter drivers" (Noella's term) by our handy "Helicopter Using Instruction."

The poorly translated directions have been less than helpful, but very amusing.  The instructions also randomly  refer to the helicopter as a plane.  For example, we are told that: "Player should stand aside as the plane in the process of charging." and "Do not throw the battery pack into fire for avoid explode."
The flying directions are even more helpful.

Oh, well that explains it.
Patrick and I have had a lot of fun playing with this new toy (don't worry, the kids have too).  We have had to put our training on hold during the frigid and windy St Louis weather this week, as the directions clearly call for flying on "windless asunny day."  Once we get our windless asunny day, the St. Louis will fly again.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Noella!

 (Holden knows how to party in style)

 Merry Christmas!

Noella and The "Baby Computer"

 Mariel and "Suzie" the American Girl Doll

Holden's First Christmas

 He was a little bit less excited to be my New Year's Eve party date...



Almost home

I considered coming up with some sort of pithy "12 Days of Christmas" style post to describe our whirlwind trip, but to be honest I am too tired!
We are in a hotel in Ohio and hope to be home tomorrow. It was a lovely trip; too short and too busy, but wonderful, as most of my trips to the northeast tend to be. We are coming home with memories of celebrating with just about every family member that we have on the east coast (Patrick and I are probably also carrying a few extra pounds from all of the celebrating).
The girls have enough new toys, books, and clothes to last them quite a while, including Mariel's American Girl Doll and Noella's Leap Pad Laptop computer from Santa. Holden also got lots of clothes, toys, and books. Our baby boy got something that none of the rest of us can compete with: since we started our journey on the 20th he has also gotten his first two teeth.
Pictures to follow some day...

And Away We Go!


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Our journey begins... 10 days, many stops, way too many things to fit into the car, and a whole stack of Christmas music CDs to torture Patrick with.