Jakob Daniel and Everleigh Grace Hall

Jakob's other big gift for Christmas was a basketball hoop.  We all have a great time throwing the ball around and trying to make it from different points in the room. I'm not even going to wait for the net to start taking my practice shots Look at that determination! Hurry up, Daddy! Holden is playing defense I shoot, I score! Double shot

I don't normally post pictures that don't involve Jakob, but I can't help myself this time around.  Northern Vermont got a big ice storm the Sunday before Christmas, and although it made driving and walking dangerous for a few day, it was truly beautiful.  Everything looked like it was made of glass and sparkled in the sun.  I took a ton of pictures when we were outside on Christmas day, and these are a few of my favorites.  Don't worry, we'll be back to Jakob pictures with the next post.

When we left on Sunday to return to Vermont, we had to battle some seriously icy weather from Montpelier home.  Fortunately Jakob had a relaxing ride, thanks to being so tired from all the excitement.  When we got inside and unpacked, he enjoyed playing with some of his new toys. I'm having sweet dreams about all the fun I had in CT It's good to be home, especially since my new toys came back to Vermont with me

Grandma and Grandpa Janelle got Jakob a potty training potty for Christmas.  He's still a bit young for potty training, but he's certainly interested in starting the process.  He LOVES flushing the potty and watching the blue lights come on!  What he loved most of all was when Auntie Karen sat on the potty and pretended she had to poop.  He hasn't actually gone in the potty yet, but he thinks sitting on it is fantastic. This looks like the potty I see Mommy and Daddy use at home Check out that flushing action I've flushed about 87 times in a row This is how I practice wiping my bottom Pants are off, so we must be getting serious Not sure if I'm supposed to get my feet involved in this, but I'm going to do it anyway

After Jakob's nap on Saturday, we had Great Grandma, Great Uncle Brian, Great Uncle John, Aunt Kelly, and the Luttati family come over for pizza and playing.  Unfortunately I didn't get any picture of the four boys together, but it's nearly impossible to get four boys aged four and under together for a picture when they just want to run and play.  :-)  Jakob loved watching his older cousins, Mikey and Jack, and he was very curious about his baby cousin Anthony once he got into his car seat. This book is shaped like a bus and has wheels! Best. Book. Ever. The Luttatis got me a super fun truck set! Look at me giving kisses to my new glow pet from Aunt Kim and Uncle Brian!

He's been practicing for weeks, and now Jakob can finally jump and get both feet off the ground at the same time!

Karen came up with the great idea to get my parents a family photo session with my good friend Kim (she took Jakob's amazing 8 week photos) as a Christmas gift.  I'll have pictures of that later, but we took some great pictures of Jakob playing with Kim's almost 3 year old daughter, Summer after the photo shoot. Grandpa and I are ready to take some high quality photos Check out Summer's cool balloon I love hugs from my pretty lady friends! We're having such a great time playing with trucks together This is a better action shot

As a little Christmas gift to all our friends and family who follow the blog, here's an extra post with pictures of Jakob opening gifts from this morning.  Jakob slept until 8:15 this morning, giving Dan and I time to sleep in and have a relaxing cup of coffee.  Usually when he wakes up, he needs a good 15-20 minutes of quiet time on a lap before he's ready to get going.  Today, he took one look at the presents under the tree and squirmed out of my arms to start unwrapping a gift.  He happened to start on the Thomas the Train set we got him, which he loved.  In fact, we had to give him breakfast on the floor because he refused to stop playing.  After some Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa Hall, we headed outside to enjoy a beautiful, but cold, Christmas Day. SANTA CAME!!  And look!  Another cool picture feature magically appeared! I better climb up onto these boxes to get a better angle for unwrapping Is that a train?!?! It's Thomas...