Goodbye 2010

I feel like, "Whew, I finally got all the Christmas pics posted." But I've been taking pics all week and want them to make it in the 2010 blog book so here is one more post.

Ben and I were teaching Mollie how to play ball. This is really a milestone because it was the first time she had sat up by herself without immediately falling forward or sideways.

Playing the Bee Tree game he got from Santa. There are sticks (leaves) stuck through the hive. There are bees on top of the sticks. You remove the sticks one at a time each player taking a turn. The object of the game is to remove the sticks without the bees falling. The person with the least bees wins. However, Ben really likes getting lots of bees so at the end of the game we both feel like winners.

Baking eggs. He tells me, "Don't touch the stove. It's very hot."

Ben "teaching" Mollie to eat sweet peas. He's saying, "Open wide, Mollie. Say Aaaaah." He really did a good job of feeding her.

Trying out his new easel and paints. According to Ben, in this picture there is sunshine and dark, grass, and flowers.

Watching himself jam on his electric guitar. For several days, he only played songs about apples: "Eat Some Apples" to the tune of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Apples are Delicious" to "Love Shack." This evening he branched out and played a couple of songs about peas and carrots. You can tell he watches a lot of Sesame Street when pop music inspires songs about fruits and vegetables.

I don't have any potty pictures, but we've had a major potty training week. Ben's been wearing pull-ups for months and staying dry most of the time. However, he would not poop in the toilet. I made up my mind several weeks ago that once the holidays were over we were going to try big boy underwear again. Monday and Tuesday were very wet, dirty days. We went through about five pairs of Sesame Street and Thomas underwear each day. Wednesday and Thursday were dirty but not wet. Today he stayed totally dry and clean. Whoohoo! I gave him five mini M&Ms as a reward for pooping in the toilet. Since he wanted more M&Ms, he announced that his tummy needed to poo poo. He sat there for a while with no success. I gave him one M&M for trying. He played me for the rest of the day to get M&Ms. But them he did poop once more among several false attempts so I just kept saying "Good try" and handing out M&Ms. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

364 Days Until Christmas

Janey playing with Mollie.

A pretty Mollie pic.

MV entertained Mollie while I got dressed for church.

What are they playing with the day after Christmas? The tissue paper from the gift bags!

We forgot to take our traditional family pictures in front of the tree. We took this one among the aftermath of Christmas after church. Mollie and Nana stayed home since it was freezing cold and snowing.

Happy Birthday Jesus

Ben and MV "making music" with their utensils before supper.

Blowing out the candle on the "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake.

Enjoying cake.

Really enjoying the cake.

Playing with Toys

Both Ben and MV got binoculars. Ben is looking through his backwards. Because Ben is stubborn, he has yet to turn them around and look through the correct end.

Mollie playing with Grandaddy. He would clap and Mollie would copy him.

Janey crawling through her tunnel.

Ben and MV playing with Janey's Fisher Price Little People house (Mollie got one from Will and Danielle).

Finally, Janey gets to play with her present.

Mollie playing with her ball from Nana and Grandaddy that rolls and sings when you touch it.

Grandaddy playing with his new toy, a Scrabble Flash game.

Racing the Mustang and the Camaro.

Elders Opening Gifts

Nana with all four grandchildren wearing the matching Santa outfits that she made them.

Gift opening was less organized than usual at the Elders this year. With four little ones, there was a lot more tearing in and a lot less waiting patiently while others opened their gifts. Ben tearing into his big gift with some help from MV. He got a table top easel, paints, paint cups, brushes, and 500 pieces of paper.

Mollie with a board book from Nana and Grandaddy.

Nana and Grandaddy opening their gifts.

The kids weren't the only ones to get toys. Jim and John loved their remote control race cars from their parents.

Christmas Breakfast

In recent years, our Christmas tradition has been to open gifts with Mama and Daddy and then eat breakfast together before we leave to go to John's family.

Mollie waiting on her breakfast.

Ben doing more playing than eating.

Stapleton Family Christmas

Christmas morning chaos at Mama and Daddy's house after Will, Danielle, and Rylee arrived.

Ben was a good big brother and helped Mollie open her presents. He's also played with this present, a Fisher Price Little People house from Emalee and Rylee, a bunch for her. The toilet makes flushing noises when you lower the lid. The whole Little People family has spent a lot of time on the potty.

Rylee and Danielle opening a present.

Ben with his electric guitar. Everyone thought I was crazy for letting him have this in the car during the three hour drive to the Elders. He loves it, though, and it kept him happy for a long time.

John with his GPS from my parents. I might be borrowing that gift a lot.

Mollie with her Dr. Seuss book and character. Ben got Cat's brother, the Cat in the Hat.

An overflowing stocking for Ben.

Will opening his air compressor from Mama and Daddy. There is not a picture of me opening gifts, but I'm very excited about the Shark Steam Mop they got me. I've already mopped my kitchen twice.

Zac showing Ben how to blow a duck call. Luckily Mama and Daddy's neighbors aren't the type that are easily disturbed because Zac really likes to blow his duck call.

Santa

We were at Mama and Daddy's house Christmas morning. Santa knew where Ben was, though.

Ben was a good boy this year and Santa left him the blue kitchen that he asked for.

He left a few other gifts, too, including . . .

a building set, and . . .

car stamps. Mollie isn't in any of the Santa pictures because she was sound asleep. I finally got her up when it was time to open presents with Will's family.

Fireworks

PawPaw builds a big fire and we pop firecrackers at MawMaw and PawPaw's house on Christmas eve. This year the fireworks were all for Ben. Emalee, Rylee, and Olivia had to leave early and Aubrey was sick and couldn't come outside. Ben had so much fun. He had bottle rockets, roman candles and sparklers. The bottle rockets were his favorite. I was helping him light them and then run so Cara was taking pics. The only pictures I have are with sparklers. Tom and Zac also set off some beautiful, big fireworks.