Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

First off, some videos from our fancy new tiny Flip video recorder! It is soooo easy to use too, ensuring lots of video of Jillian and her brother to come in the future! This was a very unexpected, extravagant and very appreciated gift from Cam!

As you can see, our little truck loving girl has seemingly blossomed into a total princess overnight! She loves to watch Little Mermaid, dress up in her new dresses & jewelry, fly around in her Tinkerbell outfit, and this morning she has on her high heels and necklace first thing! We are a little bit frightened by the intensity of this new "interest" but it was bound to happen and she still reads an awful lot of books and plays a lot of trains in her dress!

Grandma flew in on Wednesday and we spent lots of time relaxing, with highs in the teens and 20's, although Grandma braved the weather for some walks and when the sun was out it wasn't too bad. We had some homemade chili and cornbread Christmas Eve and let Jillian open a couple of presents, with the motherload being opened Christmas morning and lots more food Christmas day. Jillian carefully rips pieces of wrapping paper off of her gifts and wants to play with each one, so gift opening actually took quite a while. She got lots of dress up supplies, fun kitchen accessories to help her with her cooking in the kitchen she got from Grandma, a camera she loves and can drop on the floor, unlike ours, a (very creepy - thanks Bill & Robin!) FurReal kitty that has been meowing in it's box since in came a couple of weeks ago (think grandma's cat gift in Christmas vacation) and some great books & puzzles. It was so fun this year to watch how much Jillian loved all her gifts.

She loved all of Christmas actually, and turns the Christmas tree lights on and off every day. Last week we took her to a new church we have meaning to try anyway for the children's program, which was fun. And we have driven and walked through the lights at the park 5 minutes south of us (the one I always call the "duck park" in the summer - they have an awesome free display of lights, with all kinds of animals, dinosaurs, and even some sea creatures with a mermaid that made Jillian quickly pipe up "Ariel!"

A couple of funny Jillyisms since the last post:

Reading "Green Eggs & Ham" to herself (she tells us to "Go away!" if she catches us watching her): "Would you, could you, in a car? No way Jose! Could you in the dark? Not gonna happen!!!"

I say, "You just love marshmallows!" She says "I love angels better." Then, petting my hair, "You are probably an angel."

Dad will be taking a couple more days off next week, so it should go fast and hopefully we'll have more pics & video to post next weekend!

Miss Crazy from our very-limited-supply Christmas cards!

With her giant puppy
Christmas morning
With Grandma
Being a photographer with her new camera
Happy girl!
Striking a pose in her princess get-up!Feeding her new baby doll!

Mom opening a baby brother gift

Wiped out!
31 weeks and counting...it's a wild child!
And Robin - I know how difficult it must have been to send this beautiful ornament and I truly appreciate it. And I'll be sure this coveted ornament makes a holiday trip to Boise next year! ;)