A Christmas Story, Part 1

That smile pretty much sums up Tagg's first Christmas! All laughs and joy and even though you can't see it, his shirt says "Best Gift Ever." Ain't that the truth?! It's so amazing to see the holidays through a child's eyes, in spite of the fact that he's too young to get Santa and presents and thought that a silver bow was about the coolest present of the day.

Tagg really had a haul of gifts and we are so grateful for everyone's generosity. The gifts were awesome but knowing that they represent so much love for our little man is really heart warming. Tagg now has a loot of new clothes which he actually needs because he's growing like a weed! He got a very cool WVU outfit from his birth family, and a pair of cute little bath slippers and a Santa hat from Aunt Kris and Uncle Hank. He got a bunch of fun new books that we're starting to read and new toys to play with. Mommy and Daddy got a jogging stroller, bike trailer, a Flip video camera to record all the big moments to come, and a Wii so those gifts will all be fun for him too.

Tagg's birth family sent him a ton of sweet gifts, including a copy of The Night Before Christmas which is one of their family traditions that we'll share with Tagg and a Baby's First Christmas ornament which he promptly stuck in his mouth and started chewing on! We feel so blessed that their family has so much love for him and that we're able to have them as part of our lives. It's very special.

We got to go to Grama's church choir program and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with both families, eating way too much and playing games and oohing and aahing over the baby. Tagg really had fun with his grandparents, aunts and uncles, and all of his cousins. He's like a magnet for the kids! Ashley says "baby, baby, baby" over and over and tries to feed him her dolly's bottle. And Hunter and Bailey literally fought over who got to help change him and feed him and ride in the car with him. Pretty cute! Tagg impressed us with his first tooth (bottom left) and his first roll over from back to front. He's very advanced! So advanced apparently that his father decided they needed matching tattoos. Mom was not thrilled, but you have to admit - that's pretty dang cute! And with a little baby oil, all gone!

Kris, Hank, Amy, Bailey and Hunter arrived from California with about a foot of snow to greet them. The kids loved it and Scott built snow forts and spearheaded a snowball fight. We all went sledding, although Tagg had to watch from the sidelines. He probably would have been fine with all the padding in his snowsuit (poor little guy could hardly put his arms down, but at least he was warm!). Scott and Lisa took the fam snowboarding on Sunday and those adventurous, quick-study, first-timers bombed some pretty hard blue runs with us...with only minor injuries to show for it! Scott is a great teacher, for the kids and Amy! He has so much patience and a great sense of humor. If he ever decides to quit selling boats...nah!

Instead of exchanging gifts this year, we all decided to donate to our favorite charities and help those less fortunate this year. It was a really good decision, and helped us put the focus back on the important things...family and friends, sharing and joy.

Overall, it was the perfect first Christmas to spend with Tagg. Everything we always dreamed that it would be. We look forward to many more early Christmas mornings and snowy holidays! We'll have more pictures and video for part 2. Happy holidays everyone! We love you all!

Happy Holidays!

We kicked off the holiday season (which, judging by the appearance of Christmas music and wrapping paper the day after Halloween has been going on for some time now) with a slight variation on our normal Thanksgiving tradition. Scott's parents went to visit the Seattle family so we had turkey dinner the week before with them and then on Thursday with Lisa's family. It was great to not eat Thanksgiving dinner twice in one day - for the first time in almost 10 years! This year we were especially appreciative of all we have to be thankful for: Tagg, Tagg, Tagg!, our families, Tagg's birth family, our friends, our health, our good fortune in these difficult times. We are very, very blessed in every way.

We headed down to Lake Powell for our final trip of the year on Friday. The weather was beautiful!! Lisa had a nasty cold which Tagg managed to avoid - there's something else to be thankful for!

Tagg is growing like a weed! At his 4 month check up, he was 26.5 inches (96th percentile!) and almost 16 pounds (70th percentile) so tall and thin. He's incredibly healthy and active. One of our big goals in life is to get him to smile so we can see the cute dimple in his cheek! The Christmas tree with all of its lights are a new favorite of his. Tagg is rolling over and loves to stand up (with a little help from whoever is around!). He's started playing in his jumpers, which he loves. Even though he's pretty tall he does need a little help from the yellow pages so he can get a real good push off. He's even learning to drive the boat...he seems to have quite a natural knack for it! ;-)

Lisa and Tiffany and our friend Anneli just completed their first half-marathon (13.1 miles!) in Las Vegas on December 7th. It was a really fun race, if you can believe that!, complete with fireworks, jogging Elvises and a run-through wedding chapel. These are not our running outfits but we look a lot cuter in this picture than we did at the end of the race where we looked sweaty and kind of like we'd been run over by a tractor trailer!