Lenora's 2 month visit

Lenora is 2 months old, and that meant a trip to the doctor and four shots :(
She's roughly 30 percentile for height and weight, she's got a little noggin like Dad and Brother (who can both share the same hats), and the doctor was really impressed with her physical prowess. He said her head and neck control is like a four-month old's. We were pretty proud, but not too surprised since just this morning Mom laid her on her back while she went to get something from the bathroom and came back to find her on her side!

She's also way ahead on flipping off the camera. Go Lenora!

Snow Day!

You wouldn't think a family on maternity/paternity leave would even notice a snow day, and we would normally agree with you. But this time Aunt Laura was snowed in with us since it got too bad to drive back to Omaha after she finished working at the Sheldon that day. So we got an awesome extra day with Aunt Laura to make cookies and play in the snow!

Here it is in the morning coming down.
Two of the prettiest girls I know.

The first plate of holiday cookies for the season.

While the last of the cookies were baking, everyone except Mommy and Lenora went out to play. Here's Daddy shoveling a snow fort.

And Laura made a snow angel!

Ernie then exploited his Dad's trick to get warm: undress and sit in front of a heater with a blanket.

Decking the Mohr/Halls

After the Spilker tree hunt, we came home and Dad set the tree up in its stand while Ernie amused himself alternately by pretending Dad was a car to be ridden and by playing with the tree net (which I'm sure was plenty safe). The next morning we watched White Christmas and decorated the tree. Ernie took to Bing Crosby so much that you can see in the following video he'd adopted that personality for the day and walked around the house in Dad's boots shouting "Boing!" quoting one of Bing's lines from the movie--Danny Kay: "How much is 'Wow'?" Bing: "Oh, somewhere between Ouch and Boing."

Tree Hunt

After the Star City Parade, the gang met up with Kelly and Joel to go Christmas tree hunting at Spilker's farm, which you can see here still growing in the ground before we mercilessly hacked it down for our own holiday merriment. Everyone had a great time and found a great tree. Also pictured are Ernie and Johanna practicing shopping for their own first Christmas tree.

Spilker's also offers free cocoa while you wait for your tree to be wrapped and awesome giant wooden vehicles for the tots to climb on--which provoked Ernie to whine, "Nooooo, Jonathannnn, don't get my traaaaactor" (see final pic.). Luckily Jonathan was either out of earshot or had the good presence of mind to ignore such whining.

Holiday Parade!

This year we met with the gang and their kiddos to watch the Star City Holiday Parade. It wasn't near as frigid as last year, and Ernie was really able to enjoy it. His favorite part was the drummers in the bands (pretty surprising for a kid that still can't be in the same room when the garbage disposal is running, or the food processor is out, or anything that makes lound noises might erupt). Lenora enjoyed sleeping in her sling during the event.

Are you guys related?

Who's the brother and who's the sister?

I'll give you half of it: the blonde is Jeremy's sister Cathie, but which mini-Hall is she holding?

Thanksgiving

The g-rents Mohr hosted this year, and it was wonderful because Ernie and Lenora got to see all of their favorite Omahans. Ernie and Grandpa Darrell set up the Christmas train, and this year we busted out the caboose and tried the steam pipe! Lenora wore her November onesie made by Grandma Chris at the shower hosted by Mommy's girlfriends, and also got her first look at the Ah-Mayz-Ing mobile Aunt Laura made for her bedroom! She loved it and smiled and cooed. We foolishly tried to take holiday pictures with both sets of g-rents, but Ernie and Lenora were less than cooperative. Thanks for the wonderful holiday, everyone!

Kung-fu babies

So we had to size the girls up since their birthdays are so close. What we got was a Kill Bill throwdown.

Although it looked like Maisie tool the brunt of Lenora's abuse, she appears victorious in the end.

Lenora's first playdate!

With cousin Maisie! Sure, only Maisie was barely awake for any of it, but we can tell they are going to be great friends. After all, they are the two cutest girls born in 2009, so they are natural for each other.
Ernie and Kitt helped out with gift opening before running off to play with the dudes.

Then all the ladies played baby-swap.

Jeremy saw this picture of Toby with Lenora and had to remark that he never got his turn with Maisie. So we have to see her again soon!

Can you see that adorable haira?!

Two girl cousins only five days apart. Both moms feel really lucky.

Gentleman in Training

Ever since Ernie found Johanna's toy teapot during a playdate at the Walshes, I've been thinking about needing to prepare him for tea parties with his sister. So here are a couple shots of him after I showed him how to tie a real bow tie--just like a real gentleman:

Craft Time at the Hall House

Maybe it's a bit dark, but hey, we're still crafty. A couple of our recent projects include Play-Do zombie hands ("Does it look like a 'Disembodied Hand of Doom,' Ern?" "Yes it does.") and pumpkin painting with ONLY black paint for creepy result:

Celebrity Look Alikes

Maybe it's the round cheeks . . . Maybe Curly looks like a child . . . Maybe it's the hairline . . . You're call, but I think there's something there.

Halloween

This has been destined to be Ernie's favorite holiday since before he was born, based on Dad's purchasing habits alone. And lucky for us Grandma Bonnie is always willing to create the costume of his dreams. For months, when asked Ernie would say he wanted to be a "scary jack-o-lantern. Now, kids have their imaginations, and a lot of Ernie's understanding of what a scary jack-o-lantern is and does came from a Halloween sound-effects CD that we listened to in the car CONSTANTLY! He decided the growling was the pumpkin from the cover, who was creeping around and looking for cherries (? yeah, I dunno why) and he wanted to "climb inside that pumpkin, and go up the steps, and say 'Hell-o!'" So luckily, Grandma Bonnie created an outfit that did exactly that for him.
One of our neighbors offered a trick along with a treat - she was a juggler!



And we stopped by Rob and Becky's before the party started. Ernie tried to walk right in most of the houses he trick-or-treated at, but this one we actually let him go inside.

Before we set out, Ernie had Grandma Bonnie read one of his favorite library books: It's Halloween by Jack Prelutsky. He was very sweet and actually let her read some of the words.