Holiday catch up

After an extended absence from blogging here is my effort to capture the last two months in 10 photos or less:
Thanksgiving was spent in Ellijay with the Matthews, Tierneys, and DeYoungs. Here is Banner with cousin Lina. Sadly, Banner wasn't feeling so hot during this trip, so she wasn't her usual cheerful self. It was a good Thanksgiving though - lots of cousins, aunt, uncles, and grandparents and food!
We prepared for Banner's first Christmas with a Christmas tree (our best so far, I think) as well as the arrival of lots of packages, much to Banner's delight.

Banner shows great regard for boxes of all shapes and sizes but she was especially proud of this big one. Very helpful for her pulling-up skills which she is now very adept at!

Christmas in Chicago! At the last minute Jared and I decided to drive to Chicago to be with Jared's sisters and our nieces and nephews. A great trip! Banner was amazing in the car and it was fun to be with family and have them meet Banner.
Here we are wearing our matching mother-daughter hats.

Amazingly successful family photo!

The kids and Buddy-the-dog.

Once back in Colorado we had yet another Christmas celebration to open all the gifts we hadn't brought on our roadtrip. Banner tripled her toy cache and was pretty hyped up.


Practicing her new drum.New Years weekend we got our first big snow and Banner was subjected to snowsuits. The snowsuit below allowed for a little more flexibility then some other options, and so was fairly well received. Fur collars being all the rage, she was also very fashionable.

A New Years hike and snuggle time with dad.

Sometimes dad's back gets to be a boring sight and so Banner adopts this pose. While I worry about whiplash, she seems to enjoy the perspective.

And there you have it! As for Banner's latest accomplishments: she seems content with a modified crawl - more of an army version. She is pretty proficient at it and so I think she will stick with it and not bother herself with the more traditional hands and knees version. Maybe she thinks she is more stealth this way.
She is pulling up on everything and is very proud of herself. We are also proud.
She will occasionally stand by herself for a few seconds but we are just at the very beginning of that.
She is an excellent waver and clapper and we are working on blowing kisses.
Finally, she is really getting good at verbalizing (some might say yelling) her opinions. She seems to be saying mama and I think she has a version of bye bye. Wishful thinking? Nah, we know she is brilliant.