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Naomi did this for 45 minutes this morning. I got it out because she loves letters and puzzles more than anything right now. And it let me get some work done. She is my mechanically-minded little girl! Where could she possibly have gotten that from??? (Me and Grandpa Keith is the answer.)

Father Abraham

Here's a little video of Naomi doing the motions to "Father Abraham" with her daddy.

Testing the Sprinklers

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with our families in Roseville. We are truly blessed to have both sides of the family in one place so that we can celebrate with everyone every year.

It was Naomi's second Christmas but this time she was actually able to really enjoy some of the Christmas activities. She had lots of fun going Christmas Caroling with our Faith Bible Church family and looking at Christmas lights with the Hallsten's in Roseville. On Christmas morning she opened presents and had fun playing with her new toys. Here is a small sampling from Christmas.

Here's Naomi all bundled up for Christmas Caroling.

Here are a few videos from Christmas morning at the Hallsten home.

Later on Christmas day we went to Matthew's brothers house for food and gift opening for his side of the family. We hope all of you had a blessed time this year celebrating the birth of Jesus with your loved ones.

Go! Go! Go!

Naomi's official first word is Go. She started saying it in late December. At about that same time she also started understanding and responding to much more of what we were saying. Here are a couple of videos that Emily took of Naomi saying her first phrase (go, go, go!).

Since these videos were taken Naomi's communication has continued to explode. She has a number of words now (although her use of them is still somewhat inconsistent). She says "ball", "girl", "daddy", "go get it" and (joy of joys) "T.V.". She also imitates many other words and sounds that we make. She can clearly understand much of what we say and will sometimes respond to simple requests like "let's go upstairs" and "shut the door". Her signing has also improved significantly and she babbles almost constantly. We're going to have real chatterbox on our hands soon.

Future Seamstress?

The other morning Naomi got hold of Emily's Quilter's Measuring Tape and decided it made a great accessory. She played it with it for over an hour and walked all over the house wearing it. Here's a quick video.

Christmas Tree Hunt

On Saturday November 28th some friends of ours from church (Rick and Bobbie Green and Troy and Kimber Caldwell and their son Curtis) took us along for their annual Christmas Tree hunt. They drove us up with them into the Mendocino Forest where for a 10 dollar fee you can cut your own Christmas tree.

Here is a short video of us tromping around in the snow.

We had a lot of fun visiting with our friends on the way experiencing the snow and looking for the perfect tree. We found a beauty. A 9 foot silver tip fir, the biggest by far we've ever had. Naomi had fun too (mostly). Here are a few pictures from our hunt followed by a couple showing what the tree looks like set up in our house.

A family picture by the side of the road before starting the search.

Here we are with our tree, newly discovered, shortly before we cut it.

Matthew and Naomi pose in front of the tree set up in our living room right after we got it home.

Here's the final product. A beautiful tree fully decorated and lit. We've really been enjoying it.