Happy Holidays!

The month of December has been full as we seem to have holiday celebrations and activities each week! We are very blessed to have an abundance of friends and family to share the season with! I've posted some photos of recent events such as going to see Santa at Macy's (Sofie was so afraid of Santa that we had to do a family photo in order to keep her somewhat happy.). We had a Klaseus family holiday party last weekend and posed for a picture with the whole family, including Grandma Marian who is 89 years young! This week Charlie and Sofie helped me bake some more Christmas cookies. They love shaking on the sprinkles and eating the cookies once they're cool. I'm not surprised! Warm wishes to everyone this season and have a happy new year!

Holiday Photos

An update on the tree

So, the tree is up and it looks great. Only non-breakable ornaments are on the bottom half, securely attached, of course. Charlie and Sofie were taught right away to touch the tree gently, but that they may touch it. It is not off limits. We tried showing them how to touch the lights, branches, and ornaments with just one finger and they actually did it! It was so funny. Now, a few days later, they have found their favorite ornaments and they like to hang out by them, touching, tugging, and shaking. It's kind of frightening, but we're realizing that they are usually doing it to get attention. Thank goodness for ornaments with bells, etc. They alert us when someone is messing with the tree! It seems when we ignore the tree, it's not so interesting. We will not be placing presents under the tree until we are ready to have them opened, thrown, stepped on, etc. It's been less than a week and so far, so good. Now, let's see how the next month goes! Happy Holidays everyone!

Recent Photos

Here are some pictures from Halloween, and of Charlie and Sofie around the house. Charlie loves to try on Mom's scarves and Sofie loves playing with pretend fruit. She carries around the apples and can place them on the kitchen table by herself.

Late Fall, 2008

It's been very busy around our house, so it's no surprise our blog has not been updated lately! It's pretty chilly outside now so we're trying desperately to keep busy indoors or find other destinations to keep us entertained.
Charlie and Sofie are both expert walkers now and are reaching more and more all around the house. Nothing is safe! The babies also have lots of teeth so meal times are very adventurous. Charlie is determined to feed himself lately, which is so messy (difficult for mom to handle), but adorable! We love our ECFE class and will be signing up for a spring class as well.

The holidays are around the corner and it's time to start thinking of gifts for our little cuties. We're going to get them a kitchen set and can't wait to see them explore and pretend on their own. We are so excited to share the season with them as now they are starting to understand and delight in the festivities!

We broke down and purchased an artificial Christmas tree for safety reasons this year. I'm not proud as I love nothing more than the look and smell of a real tree in the house. Oh well, there will be many opportunities to get a real tree again. For now, safety and simplicity are most important. Holiday wishes to all and stay warm everyone!

More fall photos

Here are some more pictures we took this weekend. Both Charlie and Sofie like to taste the wood chips at the park. Yum! It has been the most beautiful fall in MN so far. We are also in love with our neighborhood where we have big, beautiful, old trees (which means lots of leaves to rake) and charming streets and parks to stroll through.

Also included is a picture of Charlie and Sofie with their friend Claire, my friend Lindsay's little one.

Thanks, again, for checking out our blog!

Fall

Ahhh, we love this weather! Sunny, cool days are our favorites! Charlie and Sofie love the big, red maple leaves in the yard. They hold on to them like they are precious treasures . . . so cute!

Sofie is catching up with her brother in the walking department. I like to call her Walker, Texas Ranger as she stumbles around the house. Again, cute.

Here are some videos of our two toddlers.

Keeping busy at the Dumonts'

Charlie and Sofie started ECFE this month. We've only had one class so far, but it is so fun to play with other babies our age and visit with other moms as well! Here's a photo of our first day before we got in the car.

We also had our 15 month check up last week. Charlie and Sofie are doing great! They are both around the 50th percentile for height and weight and the doctor noted how well behaved and happy they both are! We agree, of course! Charlie is walking all over the house, and yard, and park, etc. Sofie walks when she wants to, and is so proud of herself, but still prefers crawling as her method of transportation.

After our long awaited concrete work was finished this summer, we wanted to get started on some landscaping around our new patio and back step. A few evenings after dinner, a hot Saturday afternoon, and 16 bags of wood chips later, we finished! Yay! Nothing beats the satisfaction of a little hard work around the house!

Here are a couple of photos of our new patio and steps,
plus a couple of cute kids!

Here we go!

This is our first post on our new blog! We've been displaying pictures, videos, and other updates on our About My Baby page, but now that Charlie and Sofie are getting older, and really aren't babies anymore, we thought we'd continue here on blogger. Enjoy, everyone!