A new year already

I keep meaning to update this poor blog but never seem to find time.
Things in our little household have been good but busy it seems.
North talks more and more and more. He loves to play and run and jump (a skill he's working on). He has discovered movies and is a big fan--particularly of "Cars" and "Nemo"at the moment.
He gives kisses and hugs now regularly when asked, sometimes even when not, which is amazing.
He's a great little snuggler. He and I have been home sick for 2 days and all the cuddling time has been fantastic.

We had a great Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

This is sure to be a ridiculously long post as there are about a million photos on our camera so, without further ado here are some of my favorites from the past couple of months:

First up--Thanksgiving(s)

Hamming it up for grandma and grandpa:

North loved playing with Grandma's Santa hats.

And having a great time being silly with Uncle Adam at Nana & Grandad's:

So many electric toys! North discovered he's still too small to reach the pedals on them but had a great time looking around them.

Sweet Baby Claydon is getting so big!

Saying hi to Aunt Angie!

Connor is growing up so fast! Here he is hanging out with Great-Aunt Lorie.

North got to visit with Great-Aunt Rhonda & Great-Uncle Bruce too.

Also, of semi-recent ocurrence is the sale of our house in Terre Haute! On the night before closing, we had our last visit to the place with Grandma & Grandpa who snapped a couple of pictures for us.

Bye house!

And of course, we have some messy eating pictures. Because as I've said before, we simply can't help ourselves from taking them. Someday I'm sure North will be thoroughly embarassed by the preponderance of these in existance.

Black Beans!

And speaking of future embarassment...

And, the joke that NEVER gets old in the Milner house is North's "toy" from Jeremy--the fake poop. Here he is sharing it with Sam, Levi, and Linc:

In other news, Alan has been brewing his own beer for about a year now and is starting to get pretty good (and also quite adventurous) at it. Fairly recently he and Levi made their first batch using all grain methods. This involves the use of open flames and a large cauldron--rather exciting.

This brings us to Christmas(es)! North got lots of toys and books and clothes and a potty and even a year pass to the children's museum and zoo for Christmas and we were able to get together with family, which is always nice.

Crazy, present opening flurry with Grandma & Grandpa on Christmas Day!

Showing off for Grandpa!

Sleepy boy on Christmas night--we got home late Christmas Eve and it took us a few days to get back on a normal sleep schedule!

The next morning was Christmas round 2 at Nana & Grandad's. Another crazy, present opening flurry!

Claydon is a party animal!

And North had fun trying to keep up with Connor & Madi!

After the new year, North's old friend Gabe was in town from Lisbon, Portugal (along with his parents Elizabeth and Rob). It was amazing to see how much bigger Gabe was since last they played. I think North enjoyed his time with his old friend. Here are some photos from that visit (for some reason every photo we took that day was blurry--turns out we're pretty poor photographers):

Playing at Wonderlab!

Also after the New Year, we got to go to a dinner party at Sam & Levi's to eat some of Levi's DELICIOUS paella. Yum. North enjoyed it too since he got to spend time with his BFF Lincoln.