Cruising

Christmas Vacation was great! My favorite part was getting to spend more time with Ben, even though he worked alot of the time too. Ten of my twelve siblings were home for Christmas now that Emily's family and Jeremy's family moved back to California. We missed Sarah's family and my brother Ben's family. Every day seemed like a party at my parents' house with all those Binghams and Hickmans and Clarks to play with. Joseph loved seeing his cousins on both sides. He was really excited to give Uncle Lincoln the cars we got him for Christmas. They were collectables and really meant to be looked at, so I am afraid they got broken before the holidays ended.

We spent New Year's Eve at my Aunt Janice's in Oakdale. All my family were jealuos because they wanted us to stay in Tracy with them, but I really wanted to see my cousin Jeanette who was visiting from Utah with her husband Bryan and cute baby Maihi. It was fun to see them again! We stayed up and played "To Tell the Truth" (I think that was the name) with the Williams and one of Sean or Chris' friends. It was pretty hilarious with a lot of talk about the Lizard King and Bryan's "sweet bottom" (his words, not mine). We didn't get to play games as much as I wanted to this vacation. It is really hard to play games when you have young kids to keep an eye on. Every one got a ton of games for Christmas too, but we had to go home to put our kids to bed and then we couldn't just leave them there and come back to play. Anyway, enough complaining.

I was amazed at the progress Brigham made in his gross motor skills over the time we were there. He went from barely pulling himself around to really crawling. almost as soon as we got home he started to pull himself up on things. Now he crawls super fast. There is no getting away from him because he will come find you. That means a lot less crying for you to come get him. He also pulls himself up on everything. We can't just put things on our nightstand or an end table because he will come and pull them onto the floor. As far as not letting him choke on things, I've tried really hard, but he takes things you wouldn't think were choking hazards, like the Phone book and tears them up and tries to eat them. He also has discovered how to open cupboards and the Kitchen drawers. With two boys running (or Crawling) around getting into what ever they want and leaving it all over keeping things picked up is a never-ending chore.

I really love my family. They keep me busy, but they are also so sweet. They make me laugh every day. I am in awe of how quickly they learn and grow. I also can't help but feel important when they always want me and tell me and show me they love me.