Christmas Morning

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas! Here are a couple of pictures from Christmas morning at the Budge house. It was a lot of fun and very low key.

From top left corner clockwise:

1. Ethan with his new big fuzzy blanket.

2. Clara with somethings from her stocking, including some Christmas birds made from this pattern.

3. Jakob with his new set of football helmets. He's collecting them and I think this is the 3rd year Santa has brought him some.

4. A cute picture of Clara in her Christmas pjs-this year vintage looking white ones.

5. Being reminded that usually the boxes and paper are a bigger hit than the actual present.

Middle: 3 Happy kids that are very excited for Christmas morning.

Here's a picture of Sophia, because I forgot to put one in the collage above. She just opened a present from Grandma.And here is what we wake up to in the mornings now:

She is growing up much too fast!

Oh Come Let Us Adore Him

I love finding pictures like this on the camera. Ethan really likes taking random pictures. He goes around and sets up his play mobile, blocks, Lego's, whatever and does a little photo shoot with them. I especially like the ones at Christmas time, because they usually involve our two nativities, that were bought especially for kids (Play mobile and Lil' People), rearranged to show how he thinks it should be.

The family picture I didn't send out, but thought you might like to see. Since I have veto power, I chose the picture of just the kids to send out with the Christmas cards.

This is what Clara has been up to. For some reason she really likes to climb things. I thought at first she just didn't want to go around things, but she purposely goes over or in this case through things and she'll do it over and over. She also really likes the Christmas tree, for obvious reasons.

Where in the World...

...Will be moving to next Summer? I'm sure you are all asking that and the answer is, We don't know. Yes, Phil did get in to the EIS training program (click the link if you really want to know what that is), but they run their program similar to the residency match and we won't find out until April where he will be "stationed" for two years. Kind of crazy. And just because he will be working for the CDC, does not mean we will end up in Atlanta. There are state appointments as well, to fill the State Public Health Officer position. Every two years there are a different set of states available. This year there are some, but not many of the states that we would choose to live in. Kind of fun when you can pick your state, if that's what he decides to do. Won't tell you what they are because the list contains some states that would provoke some strong feelings one way or the other with members of our families and friends. There is also a CDC research center in Fort Colins, CO that looks interesting. So now we just have to wait and see. Phil goes to a training/conference in April where they will announce the destination. Oh, and he also passed his boards so he just has to fill out a massive amount of paper work and he is technically a real doctor. Yeah!

Other things going on...

Clara can sit up on her own, which she usually doesn't do because she is in constant search of the next adventure that mobility brings. Jakob took the great shot of her under her exisaucer (ignore the snotty nose and weepy eyes--she's been sick--again). Her new favorite destination when put on the floor is of course the Christmas tree. All ornaments are out of reach now. At least she isn't up on her feet--yet. She's getting close to pulling herself up, YIKES! I'm hoping (and encouraging) her to hold off on that until after Christmas. No pulled over Christmas tress this year, please.