End of the year Wrap-up

Alright, so I know I haven't posted in a while, and I apologize. Everything always seems to get turned on its head around the holidays, and we seem to just now be getting back into the normal rhythm.
In November my family came out for Thanksgiving. David flew here from Korea, Richard from Utah, and Mom and Clyde from California. We had a great Thanksgiving meal in our little home. We were surprised that our first Thanksgiving turkey went so well. We took David to see the Kirtland temple, because he arrived a full day before everybody else, and the others had already seen it. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we all went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, which was very impressive. Jacob did amazingly well!
This year for Christmas we decided Jacob was big enough to put the regular big tree up. The Sunday before Christmas, Leigh Ann snapped a picture of Jacob and I, already for church.
One of Jacob's new Christmas gifts was a new Crayola Color Wonder coloring book, with the "Cars" theme. Everybody who know Jacob that, at least at the time, he had two obsessions - Cars and Blue's Clues.
And to follow up, for Christmas, we found Jacob an inflatable Blue's Clues Thinking Chair. He had a lot of fun with it down in Chattanooga with Leigh Ann's parents (where we spent Christmas). Unfortunately, the chair could not withstand the requirements put upon it, and seems to have sprung a leak. I am trying to identify the leak and seal it up, because he loved the chair, as you can see in this picture and in the video below. All in all, it was a very busy holiday season, but we had a lot of fun visiting with family, and while we were down in Chattanooga, we took the opportunity to meet up with some of our Birmingham friends - Andy and Rheanna Stevens and Holly Woods - down in Gadsden at the Cracker Barrel. Jacob continues to amaze us with how well he handles the long drive to and from Tennessee.




With the new year comes new challenges. The latest, and biggest, is our quest to potty train Jacob. So far it is going slowly, as he is not that keen on the idea of having to go to the toilet to do his business, rather than just using a simple diaper. At the very least, he seems to be learning bladder control, as he will hold it in as long as he has underwear on, and then let it go the second we put him in his trainer pull-ups for nap time and at night for bed.
We hope you all have a great new year, and we'll continue to post the news and progress of our young family.

Love,
Mike, Leigh Ann, and Jacob