Summary of December =)

Wow! December and January have been a whirlwind! Between Nate turning one, his birthday party, making and buying gifts for Christmas, my family being here for several weeks (not all of them at the same time for that entire length of time=), and all the end-of-year office work that I am finally getting wrapped up, blogging has just not happened. 


When I went to look over my pictures I realized that there were many events that were not captured on film. So sad! However, here are a few from the month of December...

 Playing guitar with Papa!

 I love Nate's face in this one=)

 We had the chickenpox!! Thankfully it really was not too miserable. 

 Nate's birthday cupcake!

 He was not quite sure what to make of the flame. 

 Mom had to help blow it out!

 After some initial hesitation, he dug right in!

 And then offered to share some! I wish I had some pictures from his birthday party, which was later in the week. 

 I spent a lot of time knitting in the weeks before Christmas. In all, I've made six pairs of slippers so far. The picture above shows what they look like before they are felted. They are knitted with wool and then washed, causing the wool to shrink to the appropriate size. This pattern was easy and fun! If you have a ravelry.com account (it's free!), the pattern is called "Duffers, 19-row felted slippers". 

 And this is what they looked like after they were felted...

 Lol, notice all the wrapping paper in the background. I literally finished these at the last minute, late on Christmas Eve. =)

 This was our first Christmas morning with the Hawkins! What a glorious pile of presents! One of my many favorite parts of being in a big family!

 Nate probably received the most presents of anyone...

Nate discovered his big present from us while it was still wrapped and under the tree. He kept hitting the buttons that make noises through the wrapping paper. Finally Brett helped him unwrap it!

 And he loves his car! Even though it was missing a part and we could not put the wheels on for a while.

 The Tuesday after Christmas, my whole family, except little Ben who stayed home to run the business, came down for a week long visit! Sadly, I did not get many pictures of our time together but we had a wonderful time of fellowship. 

 Uncle John sitting with Nate and his cousin Ella while they watch a "Classical Baby" DVD before naptime. 

 Ella and Nate did well together. Ella was much more interested in Nate than he was in her. But at least he shared his toys=)

 My sister Samantha and her husband Nick brought their dog Tucker. Tucker never wanted to play as much or as long as Lexi did, but they got along pretty well despite that.