Merry Christmas!

This year, we kept Christmas small and stress-free. It was the first year Alia really "got" Christmas so we decided to get a small tree and have her pick out the decorations and put names on the ornaments for Kian, Alia, Mommy, Daddy, and Wicket. She helped put the ornaments up herself and we did simple things throughout the holidays like decorate a gingerbread house and sugar cookies.

She's still scared of Santa though and when you ask her if she wants to take a photo with Santa, the answer is still a resounding "NO!" So we didn't even bother to take the requisite mall santa photo. I kind of understand though, why would anyone want to sit on some old strange man's lap? Not me, either.

The kids got nice toys from other family members and some of friends so we only got them small things. Kian has so many of Alia's toys from when she was young and since he really doesn't appreciate or need new toys, we just got him a couple of things like talking balls and thing that roll.

This year, I knew exactly what to get Alia though. She's really into puzzles, so she got some new ones. I also asked her what she wanted and her answer was always a "unicorn." Not sure where that came from, but I got her a small stuffed unicorn in a a purse. Kind of funny.

As with every year, I made the kids a photo book of all the the things we did in 2011. It's my third book for Alia and Kian's first guest appearance. It's going to be great to look back year after year when all the books pile up and they get older and older.

This year was the first year I made an "art book" for Alia. Since she started school and hence started collecting so many pieces of art, I collected them throughout the year and took photos of each major piece and created a book for her. This way I can also de-clutter and get rid of all the art for one year and start fresh each new year. I will definitely keep the nicer pieces of art as she gets older, and a part of me thought it was cruel throwing most of them away, but then again, to think of 18 years worth of art..well, we don't really have the space for it. In a book form, she will be able to remember her art and keep it with her forever.

Alia really loves the books and proudly shows them off to people who come over, so it's nice to see her take pride in her accomplishments.

In one of the photos below, Kian is giggling and I have to say he is the most lovable baby so far. He just smiles and smiles at anyone who will give him a grin and is the easiest baby ever. I just feel so lucky he is in our lives.

Can't believe he's 9 months, crawling, eating solids and has two teeth and knows how to say "mama" now. He's definitely more vocal than Alia was at his age. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that she is around him and so he has more vocal stimulation.

The picture below of Kian is right before he got his first haircut from Tim - we noticed how long it was getting after we took these photos. He looks so clean cut with his new do. I'll have to take a photo and show it off. Tim decided to collect Kian's hair and bag it in a ziploc to keep for who knows what. I was the one who wanted to chuck it, I mean why keep it? But Tim's kind of sentimental like that, he still keeps Wicket's hair each time he trims it because he wants to make a pillow out of it when Wicket passes one day. I guess that's why they call dogs a man's best friend.

Hope everyone had a good holiday season!