16 Months

These pictures are not in order but I do not have the time or patience to fix them today.
So here's the out of order nov/dec lineup...

Playing with Uncle Kevin on Thanksgiving

  Helping Grandma Lee decorate her tree

 Being a GOOF while I try to get some good Christmas pictures

 Pretty excited about the Christmas tree

 This one is more her size.  The socks are a little big though:)

 More silly faces while I'm trying to get a good Christmas card photo

 Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum

 Watching football with dad

 Helping put one of her Christmas presents together

Her brand new kitchen!

 Coloring on her art table

 Fun with Grandpa

 Christmas day with GG

 MORE presents!

 Play dough with Aunt Helen

Boo!

 Sierra's first batch of sugar cookies

 Singing with Grandpa at a church dinner

 Checking out the booster seat with cousin Beatrice

 Reading in her Christmas best

 A pink four wheeler?  Apparently every girls gotta have one.
That's what daddy says anyway.

 No silly face this time

 A family Thanksgiving picture

What a fun Christmas season we had!  I may have went a tad bit overboard with presents this year.  I started in October and used up some points/surveymoney/account credits etc.  By December I had quiet a stack of gifts.  The thing is, Sierra is starting to play with fun stuff!  Coloring books, stickers, chalk boards, and play dough are all things I still secretly enjoy.  So as I would find 75 percent off bargains, I couldn't help but buy them to play with, I mean for Sierra to play with:) 

That being said, we want to raise a child that is thankful and considerate and does not feel entitled.  We want her to love to share and give and strive to make the world a better place.  It's hard in this age that we live in.  People tend to be selfish and very inconsiderate of others.  But it all starts with us parents.  If you see a rude parent in a grocery store, their child is not far behind them with the same exact lack of common courtesy.  Come on!  It is NOT hard to say excuse me, or thank you.  Those are the small things that we are starting with already.  The pleases, and thank yous.  But there is so much more.  So Jesse and I are trying to better ourselves too.  Maybe not getting so mad when someone cuts us off in the car, making sure be friendly to the checkers in the store, and not making a rude comment about someone that is dressed differently.  Those are all things that Sierra will learn to do, if she sees us doing or not doing them. 

One of our New Years Resolutions is go give more in 2011.  It's so easy to say, well we barely squeak by on our bills, so it would be irresponsible to give our money to others.  Or I don't have the time to volunteer.  Those things may be true but there are ALWAYS ways to give.  We've decided that starting in January, I will begin collecting items to donate to a family next Christmas.  I am a master shopper people:)  I get stuff free for us ALL the time.  So why not use that talent of mine to help others too.  So when I come across a great sale, or am able to score things for free, I'll be saving them up for a family that needs them more than ours.  I hope I don't appear to be on a soap box here.  But if having a child doesn't make you want to change for the better, actually hope to change the WORLD for the better, then nothing will. 

On to the reason for our inward thinking:  our dear Sierra.  She's becoming more and more of a little person every day.  The helpless baby that she once was has disappeared.  She still needs us of coarse, but she is learning how to be independent which breaks my heart and brings me joy at the same time.  She can count to 10, knows lots of colors and shapes, sings most of the ABC's, and learns many new words every day.  This stage of development is truly amazing (I know I say that every month).  She just needs to hear or see something once, and she's learned it.  It's incredible!  Her learning something will never get old to me.  Each new thing makes me just as excited and proud as the last.    She's starting to put small sentences together and is learning to pluralize words.  Before you are a parent you think you are going to have to teach every single thing a child knows to them.  You don't realize that just holding a conversation is a lesson in itself.  And your child will learn so many things just from watching you do your day to day tasks.  I don't really "teach"  Sierra on a day to day basis.  I talk to her, and listen.  I read to her, and listen to hear exciting stories.  We play chase and explore the world.  And at the end of the day it is astounding all of the things she has learned.  I think I'm at a stage in life in which I'm learning every day too.  Learning about myself and the world as well.  To me it's greater wisdom than I ever learned in the classroom.  But we'll save that topic for another day.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year.