Christmas

Here are some pics from Christmas.

Christmas Eve, JR in his new PJs. Notice the batman PJs with spider-man slippers.



Christmas morning. Jonthan loves to cook, so this is what he woke up to Christmas morning. He played with it for about 30 minutes, before we started opening up any other presents.



Opening presents.





Jonathan had a blast. He had a lot of fun opening up everything. He was very spoiled and had a blast playing with all he new toys all day.


Oh and I can't forget Pepper checking out his stocking.

Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

As the end of year approaches, our family finds itself busy as usual during this holiday season. I had hoped to get our holiday letters out sooner, but it was not to happen this year. We are so grateful for this holiday season, a time when we can celebrate the birth of our Savior and enjoy time away from work and school to be with family. Unfortunately this year, we will be having a southern Christmas with no snow and most our family far away, but we wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

Here are few things we have been up to this year.

Mike
Completed all his course work for his PhD
Passed his comprehensive exams
Started working on his dissertation
Continues to teach at Mississippi State under a teaching assistantship
Published an article in the Southern Historian
Continues to serve as the 1st counselor in the Young Men

Lynda
Graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor's of Science in Educational Psychology

Continues to work at The RRTC on Blindness and Low Vision Center at Mississippi State University and is up for a promotion.
Was released from her calling as the 1st counselor in the Relief Society
Was called to serve as the seminary teacher and is enjoying teaching the New Testament this year

Jonathan
Is 21 months old
Loves to run everywhere
Has started to really talk now, he can repeat almost anything and communicates really well through signing and speaking
Is excited to be a big brother in June (or so we hope)

Love,

Mike, Lynda, Jonathan & Junebug (on the way)

Santa

So Jonathan really doesn't understand Santa yet. We went to the mall one day and saw Santa from a distance and he could care less. He was more interested in the big plastic penguin they had there for decoration. However, last weekend we had are ward Christmas party and Santa visited. Here is how it played out for Jonathan.

Excited to be waiting in line to see Santa.


I love this picture. Notice how he is holding dad's hand. He won't let go. I am taking the picture and am telling him to look at mommy. He looks at me, as he is leaning as far away from Santa as possible. He even gives me a little uneasy smile, but he refuses to look at Santa the whole time he is sitting on his lap. At least he didn't scream.



Santa was great and even really tried to get Jonathan to loosen up. Jonathan was okay with the tickling and even smiled about it, but still refused to look at Santa and refused to let go of daddy's hand.



Enjoying the candy cane that Santa gave him. It was all worth it, of course.




Here are some random holiday pictures from this Christmas season.

Decorating the tree. Jonathan loves the light and the ornaments on the tree.





Playing in a Santa hat. We used a few of these for our Christmas card. I will scan our card and post it along with our Christmas letter when I get a chance.

Cousin time

It's been a while since I updated on here. That's because we have been busy with life of course. We had some family come and visit with us, which was wonderful. First Vicki and Joey came with their family. Besides the weather being crappy the whole time they were here, we had a wonderful time with them. Jonathan loved playing with his cousins.

Here are some pics.

Playing

What can keep all kids this entertained? Baby Einsteins, of course.

Jonathan loved having a baby around. He even shared his old johnny-jump-up.

The one day it was not raining and too cold to go to the park.

Then my parents came and they brought my niece with them. Again the weather was crappy the whole time they were here, but we enjoyed their visit as well. Jonathan again loved having a cousin to play with and this time it was a big cousin, that he could tackle, LOL.

More pics.