The Park

Our neighborhood park is about 2 blocks from our house. Carly loves that they have 3 cool slides! On a rare, warm day in January, we enjoyed some fun at the park.

Big Bed

We moved Carly to a big bed right after Christmas. Carly will quickly correct you if you refer to it as a big girl bed. It's a big bed. We converted her crib to a full size bed, and she has done really well with it. She did get up too early several mornings in early January, but we finally convinced her that she shouldn't get out of her big bed until the sun was up. So far so good!

Carly has quite the collection of animals and baby dolls that clutter her bed every night.

Pretty Fingernails and Auntie MJ

Auntie MJ came to visit us on New Year's, and she was kind enough to give Carly her first big girl manicure. MJ had a large selection of polish for Carly to choose from. Carly was so proud of her pretty fingernails. Almost all of the polish has chipped off as of the first of February, or as Carly says, her fingers are broken.

Thanks for visiting us MJ, and thanks for Carly's awesome manicure. She's ready for you to come back!

Christmas Morning - Santa!

At 2 1/2 years old, Carly had a good understanding of Santa. On Christmas Eve, before she fell asleep, we talked about Santa bringing presents to good boys and girls on Christmas morning. On Christmas morning, I asked Carly what today was. "Santa!!" was her reply!

Santa brought Carly this fun Dora play house. Dora is big in our house these days!

Carly also enjoyed her stocking. Note the backpack by her side at all times. She even slept with backpack Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve in Marion

We spent Christmas in Marion with John's family. On Christmas Eve, the family exchanges presents then heads to the Scheel family Christmas Eve party.

Carly loves her Dora backpack!

Alyssa, Evan, Abbi, Julianna and Carly

Fun in Marion - Christmas 2009

The kids always have a blast at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Here are some pictures from before and after Christmas Day celebrations.

Happy Days Christmas Program

Pictures and video from Carly's Christmas program. She barely sang any of the songs, which was hilarious considering she had been singing all of them at home for weeks. She was way too distracted by having John and I in the audience.

(P.S. I'm 6 months late posting these because we've had issues with videos on our computer. Now that the problem is fixed, I can finally publish this post!)