First Christmas

We had a very busy Christmas!  We celebrated with a lot of family, sang  Jingle Bells approximately 8,000 times and enjoyed a quiet day at home on Christmas Day opening and playing with our presents from Santa. 

Celebrating with the O'Keefe Family

Too much Christmas!

 All ready for Christmas Eve at Grandpa Dave's and Grandma Colleen's.  We partied in our PJs!

Someone found the presents right away!

Someone also tried to eat wrapping paper!

 Playing with new toys.

Too much Christmas (again).

This guy didn't need a nap.  He celebrated all night long!

Christmas morning at home.

They spotted the presents under the tree right away!

Santa remembered Cooper, too!

Playing with new toys at the Behrens' Christmas. 

Hanging out with Uncle Timothy. 

A Christmas highlight for Owen - playing with a very sweet service dog in training.  

Christmas Spirit

I'm embarrassed to be putting up Christmas pictures at the end of January, but they're too cute to skip. Owen and Maren absolutely loved Christmas.  They were so excited by Christmas Trees, lights and other decorations, so we took a Pre-Christmas trip to the Mall of America to see all of the amazing decorations there.  

They were having such a nice time looking at that tree, and I had to go turn them around for a picture.

Posing near Santa.  This is close enough when you are in the stranger danger phase of life. 

 Instead, we checked out Santa from the floor above. Owen thought this was hilarious!

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This picture just sums up what these two are all about.  Owen is lounging with his feet propped up, and Maren has her ankles neatly crossed.  

Maren eventually fell asleep.

While his sister was sleeping, Owen hinted at what he wanted for Christmas.

And had a snack.  

All the Pictures I've Been Meaning to Post

I intended to post more frequently over the last month but had trouble finding the time.  So, here's one long post with a few highlights from the past month.  

We are eating more finger foods, which means Cooper is a lot more interested in everything we do. 

It also means we get food stuck in our hair. . . like noodles

and cheese.

.

We had some fun fashion moments - like this cute sweater

and these cool fire truck pajamas.

Maren made and answered phone calls (using what is actually a remote control).

Owen made a game out of trying to steal his sister's socks. . . 

It was not well-received!

We put on some cute outfits and celebrated Thanksgiving. 

And, finally, we stayed at our first hotel while visiting family and friends.  This pictures is a bit blurry because we could not stop bouncing on the bed!

Eleven Months Old!

Owen and Maren are 11 months old!  I can't believe how close we are to their first birthday!  Here are a few fun facts about the kiddos this month: 

• They can pull themselves up on anything and are standing independently for a few seconds at a time.
• They are "Sooooo Big!"  When they want to hear this, they throw their hands up over their heads. 
• Owen tries to call dogs by patting his knee like Grandpa Dave. Cooper refuses to respond to this because he is a stubborn Corgi.  
• Maren also tries to call Cooper by very quietly making the "P" sound when he walks by.  

 This month, I tried to keep Owen and Maren from eating their stickers by taping them to a door.  This plan did not work . . . 

They spotted the stickers right away and began trying to find a way to get them down. 

These are the only pictures we have of both babies facing the camera. (They are both teething and like to chew on their nuks.) 

After almost an entire minute of sitting in one place, they took off.  The stickers were down seconds later.