Entourage!

Now that Christmas has come and gone, Alice's group of "friends" has grown quite a bit! It is surprising she can find a way to squeeze into her bed since she wants to make room for everyone. It is fun to watch her come to love certain stuffed animals, though.

Here are some more photos of Alice and her growing entourage!

Christmas in North Dakota!

We just returned from celebrating Christmas in North Dakota, and Alice's first trip to Grandma and Papa Peterson's house.  In spite of the fact that we had some challenging travel on the way out to Bismarck, and the fact that we managed to bring enough germs with us to last everybody throughout the new year, good times were had by all, and especially by Alice and her cousin, Miranda.  Alice and Miranda keep in touch well over Skype throughout the year, but don't get to see each other too often.  Here are some photos of the trip, especially highlighting the fun between the girls!

Minutes after arrival, the girls were especially excited to play Ring around the Rosie:

Here they are playing with iPads - their abilities to navigate technology marveled everyone!

A favorite activity of the week was playing on the computer with Papa:

And, of course, what would a trip to North Dakota be without sledding?! Between germs, we managed to get the girls out twice on the sleds, which they loved:

As Alice started to feel better, her smile returned!:

The girls enjoyed a couple of baths together during the week:

Alice and Grandma made pumpkin muffins together, which were reminiscent of their trips to Dunkin Donuts when Grandma visited Alice in Boston back in the fall:

We took a family photo together:

The girls loved goofing around together:

More sledding:

Hide and seek!:

Here is a link to the best photos from the week - enjoy!  Merry Christmas, Everyone!

iPad Kids

Maybe not a surprise to most new parents out there... but 2 year-olds are more tech savvy than most grandparents!

Sledding in Dakota!

Over Christmas, Alice was able to try sledding for the first time... and she loved it!

Here are Alice and Miranda getting ready to go outside

Here are the first few passes...

And she just keeps going!

Dancing in Dakota

We had a lot of fun back in Dakota over Christmas. Alice and Miranda especially liked dancing with Uncle Scott / Daddy!

The girls also took in a few rounds of their favorite dance - Ashes!

Pig Tails!

Alice has really grown into a true toddler over the past couple of months.  Along with toddlerhood has come her long anticipated longer hair.  Here is Auntie Chris giving Alice some pigtails during a recent Sunday visit to our house:

She is such a big girl and we can't wait to see what 2011 will bring her way.

Here is a link to some additional "pig tail" photos.  Enjoy!

Going to See Santa!

This past weekend, we took a trip to Edaville Railroad.  For those of you who did not grow up around here, Edaville is a fun little amusement park where you can go on rides, take a train ride and the best part - visit Santa Claus!

Mommy, Daddy, Grammie and Grampie Baptiste, and Great-Gram Alcott took the trip down together.  We all had lots of fun.  Grampie may have been just as excited as Alice to show her all the sights!

Now, while Alice loves Santa, in theory... he is a bit overwhelming in person.  Sadly, a few tears were shed on Santa's knee!

But she had a great time otherwise!  It was cold, but we took advantage of all that Edaville had to offer - checked out all the sights!

We also took a ride on the train to see all the thousands of Christmas lights around the area. Alice and Mommy even rode on a real amusement park ride!


Here is a link to all the festivities from the night. Now that we have seen Santa, it must mean Christmas is just around the corner!

19 Months Old!

Can you believe Alice is already 19 months old?  She's almost finished with her teens.  The next time we can say that, things will be very different!

This month, in preparation for Christmas, Alice has really been enjoying opening the doors of our Advent Calendar.  She knows that she must wait until Mommy and Daddy are both home and it is dark outside before we open the one door of the day.

She loves that when she opens the door, she finds enough "Manos" (Marshmallows) for Alice, Mommy and Daddy, which she is happy to both share and enjoy!

Alice has been a great help with keeping our younger cat, Millie, from chewing on the branches of the Christmas tree (which Millie cannot seem to get enough of for some reason!).  Here is Alice, telling Millie "No chewing, Millie!"

Here are some additional photos of Alice turning 19 months.

Alice's First Christmas Cookies!

We recently spent a lazy weekend afternoon at home decorating Christmas cookies with Alice.  It was her first time and she really enjoyed herself!

Here she is, getting the cookie cutters ready:

Next, with Mommy and Daddy's help, she rolled out the dough:

After that, she had fun cutting out the shapes:

Once all the cookies were cut out, she kept watch at the oven to see what would happen as they cooked:

Next, she enjoyed decorating her creation:

Then - the best part... enjoying the rewards of the day!:

For a more detailed account of the afternoon, check out our photos here. Enjoy!

Decorating for Christmas!

Black Friday (or the day after Thanksgiving) has become a holiday in its own right around here in the Peterson household. This year, we woke Alice (a rare experience - usually it works the other way around!) very early in the morning and we went shopping until about 10:00am. Then, we came home and decorated the house for Christmas!

Here are some photos of the decorating festivities:

Do you think this tiny stocking from last year will fit?  Maybe not...

Good thing Alice has a full sized stocking!

Alice was very curious and helpful when it was time to set up the Christmas tree.

She enjoyed showing Rosie all of her hard work!

Now that the decorations are up, it's time to get excited for Christmas!  Here are some additional photos from the day.  Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had lots of fun visiting with family down in Middleboro.  We took the chance to dress up and try to get some nice family photos.

Alice has really started to have lots of fun at Grammie and Grampie's house - and has even had a few sleepovers there recently.  Here she is on the rocking horse with Grammie and Grampie's doll, Bobby!

And here she is, enjoying her Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are the rest of the photos from Thanksgiving day. Enjoy!