Wow am I over-due for an update!

I can't believe it's been so long since I have updated the blog!  In my defense, work has gotten CRAZY.  We went from 4 people in my department to 2 plus adding on some additional duties so needless to say, I've been a little busy.  That plus the holidays, and here were are - the beginning of February!

The biggest news we have so far is that Kaelan took his first steps last night!  I'll admit - I got teary eyed! :)  We were able to entice him with one of his favorite balls to walk to Nick.  We finally got it on video tonight - take a look!

Kaelan's vocabulary is picking up but so far it's mostly him just repeating words we say.  He can say dada and mama, ball, cracker (kra-kuh), agua (his sitter speaks Spanish so Kaelan is learning a few words too lol), puppy, bye-bye, and a few others I'm drawing a blank on sitting here at the computer desk.  Kaelan's sitter, Paula, told me he will also say gato and diaper, but I haven't heard those yet.  Pretty much his favorite word is still ball. :)  The words he knows the meaning of are, of course, mama and dada, ball, cracker, and agua.

Christmas was AWESOME - Kaelan got a ton of loot (of course) and just in general, it was great time spent with family.  Christmas Eve was spent going to church and having dinner at our house with Nick's mom and 3 of his sisters.  New Years Eve we went to Nick's mom's house where almost the entire family was able to gather together.  Again, we had a great time - so wonderful to spend time with family.  We spent Christmas morning at our house and then headed up to my parents.  This was Kaelan's first "real" Christmas where he did more than just sleep so we took a TON of pictures.  I've tried to whittle them down, so here we go:

Some of our decorations

We moved the tree into the dining room this year... I was nervous what Kaelan would try to do with it.  Either because he wasn't interested or it was mostly out of site, he never touched it.  He would point a lot and say "ball" - and he LOVED pointing at the lights - but he was VERY good.

The entry way

So serious on Christmas morning!

He livened up once he saw his new chair! He seriously loves this thing!

Playing with some of his new toys :)

His favorite gift - a huge tub of animal crackers. He sat next to it for almost an hour while we all opened our presents at my parent's house.

Me and Marcy playing Santa

Being silly

Playing with Kaiya, my brother's dog

Interrupting the guys' pool game

Gatewood Family Photo

Laughing at the puppies

Thank you, Kaelan :) Sharing his animal crackers

Mouth full of food :)

I'll try and be better about posting! I have more photos (of course, lol) to upload soon.  We hope everyone had a great Christmas!! :) oxox, Nick, Ashley, & Kaelan