I added lots of video clips especially for grandparent viewing. Clayton misses his grandparents. He can't wait for Brock grandparents to come for Christmas! He loves talking to Wilkey grandparents on the phone. We really need to set up skype.
This is the insert I added to the Wilkey December newsletter.

Don't grow too fast!

Clayton is such a story teller these days. He has always had such a good imagination but lately his stories have gotten better. I find myself some times at the edge of my seat. His eyes are huge when he gets to the climax. He spends a lot of time walking around the house with random objects or toys talking out loud about the action and commentary (but not in a weird way so far :) He would do well in the Story Telling Festival. Despite the ease of keeping him entertained he has come to me a couple of times already with the "I'm bored" phrase but he says, "Mommy I am boring." Humm...interesting problem. A couple of weeks ago I found him on the stairs with his head down. I asked him if he was okay and he said, "I am just praying for the people that don't have food." Anytime Collin does anything like a 'big boy' Clayton calls for me to watch him and he cheers him on. When I get overwhelmed with the boys I say sometimes, "You guys are going to give me a heart attack." I have been working with Clay to instead of pushing or yelling at Collin to come and get me to help when Collin is in the way. The other day he came to me frustrated with Collin, "Mom I am having a heart attack." We got the decorations out for the Christmas tree but then got distracted with other things so Clay decided he would decorate the tree without us. He put up about 15 ornaments by himself, well spaced too. Three words to describe Clay: funny, sweet, and feisty.

Collin is becoming our little-big-boy. He turned 1 on Thanksgiving! We have been surprised at what a little boy can learn in such a short amount of time. Showing him the sign for "more" just a few times he was able to copy followed by the cute head tilt and big smile. After night time family prayer we say, "Sure love Ya!" (Sound familiar?) Collin now makes fluctuated noises right after that mimicing our fluctuations in the phrase. The three of us were putting money in Clayton's piggy bank and Collin concentrated so hard to get those coins into the narrow slot. He picked it up and stayed with the job the whole way through. I kept wondering when he would get tired of it. A month ago he started taking steps without any coaxing but he still mostly gets around with his amazing crawl. I find him often inside a box or up onto a chair rocking it (giving me a heart attack). He loves his mom but he also loves to play and be in the company of other kids. His ear infections have been cured.

Eating snow

After an easy snow shoveling morning Clay still wanted to play. When I went out to check on him he was bent over eating snow. His lips and nose were pink. He is a little camera shy but still cute. Last year I was shoveling a ton of snow at this time! We just got a light snow fall but it was exciting! As long as the sun still makes its way through the clouds I don't mind a snowy winter as much!

giggle boy

love this boy

At least once a day the boys want to get on the bed to tackle and be tickled. We usually do so after bath time, which is usually an everyday occurrence. They love baths! Collin screams and tries to get in if anyone else is taking a shower. He gets bad that he wasn't invited.

leaves

Our first pile of leaves! It brought back last year memories of being 9 months pregnant and raking and raking!