Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had as great of a Christmas as I did. We were able to go to my parent's house in Minnesota and see all of my family! It had been a while since I had seen my nieces and nephews -oh yeah- and Jeff, Amy and Shelley :). And of course, they were all excited to see Jude (and me and Ryan). The kids are all getting so big. Jude LOVES walking around with his Tonka Truck or moving along any piece of furniture he can get ahold of. He would probably walk on his own if he could muster up the courage. Jude is also starting to become much more vocal. Which is good and bad.... He was trying to say "Stitch" the other day which was cute, but he also knows how to scream REALLY LOUD! That little stinker! I have a feeling the word "NO" will become quite popular in our house. He has always loved monkeys- and now is definitely becoming a Curious George of his own. The other three little stinkers we got to see during Christmas are amazing as well- Aislinn (who is only 9 months) is already standing by herself, Garrett made my day when he loved the giant chocolate Pee Wee the Penguin I gave him as an extra present on Malia's birthday party day, and Malia (who turned 3 Christmas day) lit up the room with her smile. She had a Mickey and Minnie Birthday Party the day after Christmas and loved the singing, cakes, and presents. Although she asked for a football at the last minute, the big hit was the real camera and real cell phone (old ones that aren't being used/hooked up). She cracked us up when she put the timer on her camera (not really) and would run to the other side of the room to take a pictue with her mom and say "Cheese!" after she saw Grandpa doing that to take the big family picture. She just didn't understand why her camera wouldn't flash.
Oh- one last good Jude story- I answered the phone the other night and said hello- I looked down at Jude and he put his hand up to his ear and said "Mmmmhhh?" (hello- with a pacifier in his mouth). Definitely the son of two actors...

Jude is 1, and Christmas is only two weeks away- time is flying!!!

Sorry I haven't written much lately. Been pretty busy at work, and with Jude all over the place, the computer doesn't get out much at home. Jude is really starting to look like a big boy now- he has 4 teeth, with pretty much ALL of the other teeth coming in at the same time (yeah!?!?), he is standing and walking with the furniture like crazy (if Stitch is on the couch- he will be next to her in no time- he LOVES grabbing on to her tail- makes him giggle (side note: Stitch gets him back by eating all of the Cheerios he drops on the floor)), and eating, eating, eating. If the kid likes the food at that particular moment, you can't give him enough. A whole grilled cheese (with corn and pineapple afterwords).... half of mommy's Maggiano's ravioli (Mommy doesn't like sharing that much)... He has moved up to the "Turtle" room at daycare. It was a tough transition for the first week, but yesterday he did really well the whole day. I think he is starting to really like the bigger kids, and getting to move around and play more. I am sure he will be walking and talking in no time. I have to admit, as well, that I gave him a little haircut last night. His bangs were in his eyes, his ears were covered, and he had quite a fine duck tail working in the back. I should've tried to get a picture of the half-way haircut - short in the front and party in the back kind of mullett - HILARIOUS!!!! But now, as Ryan says, he looks like a 13 year old boy. It is really cute.
I will try to post more pictures soon. We just did a mini portrait studio in the Hall house the other day and have some really good shots. The family in matching "Ho Ho Ho" t-shirts. (we wanted to do matching sweaters and make it look like a family from the 50s - mom serving dad and child cookies and milk, etc, but we didn't quite make it that far this year), and we even got Jude in his outfit cousin Malia brought back from China for him. Good thing we put it on now, because in another month or so his "budda" belly would have kept it from closing! :)
Quick note on me and Ryan- we shot a commercial for a local carpet company - Luna. I will try to post that on here as well. It is quite funny- if you understand that a Luna commerical is supposed to be really big and over the top, of course.
All I can say is, I am really thankful that I have Ryan and Jude in my life!