Merry Christmas!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David

a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

- Luke 2:11

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

Blessings to you and yours and Happy New Year too!

BTW - We are standing in front of the property where our new house will be built :)

We Three Kings of Orient Are (Not)

To get in the Christmas spirit, we went to a Live Nativity at a local church.
Don't we look like the three wise men who traveled from afar to see the baby Jesus.

Josh Update - 15 months

Here is a belated 15 month update on Josh.

On Dec. 4th, these were Josh's stats:

Height: 33 inches
Weight: 28 lbs. 1 oz.

Josh has made some big changes over the past month.
He still sucks his thumb when he sleeps and he still likes to hold on to a blanket. Check out these baby man-hands...

When he's on the potty, he uses his leg as a book prop just like his big sister used to do.

Some new things about Josh: he likes baby dolls, much to Daddy's chagrine. The baby with the brown outfit above is just for Josh. Forget about Josie sharing her dolly.

Josh has gotten two new teeth on the bottom, reaching a grande total of 6 so far.

He is also showing more and more temper tantrums and frustrations.

But the biggest news is that Josh started walking a week ago. As you can see, he's very excited about this new ability. He doesn't do it all the time, only when the mood strikes him. The funny thing is, he won't start out holding on to something and take off from there. He has to be nowhere near anything, get in a crouch position, squat-thrust straight up to a standing position, and then start to walk.

Our little guy is turning out to be quite the character.

Our New Home

Welcome to our home. For those of you who are unaware, we are living at Grammy and G-Pa's house temporarily (1+ years) while we save up and build our new house. They were so kind to create a guest suite for us to use during this transition period. This suite is on the second floor located above the garage, master bedroom and kitchen.

This is the dining area. The kids love having their own table to sit at. Breakfast and lunch is eaten here most days. We can look out these windows and see the land where our new house will some day be built.
Here is the kitchenette. (No, I did not take the time to clean up before I took the picture.)Weekday breakfast and lunch meals are prepared here. Dinner and most weekend meals are prepared downstairs in the main kitchen and eaten with Grammy and G-Pa in the dining room downstairs.

This is our office/storage closet. (Yes, our desk is a blanket chest with a closet shoe organizer on top. You know you want one just like it.)

Here is the kid's room. This room was designed to be the living room, so there is no door and its completely open to the dining area. This, plus the fact that this is the first time the kids have shared a room, means getting the kids to sleep can be very difficult at times. Josh regularly uses nap time to perfect his comedy routine. And the kids have lots of fun egging each other on to see who can make the loudest and most annoying sounds (Josie always wins). And Josie being the compassionate older sister will cry when Josh starts crying. In general, the sleeping arrangements are lots of fun for the kids, not so much fun for Mommy. Here is the parent's bedroom/living room combo. It's kinda like staying at a hotel.

And here of course, is the most important room...

We also use Grammy and G-Pa's laundry room, workout area, and garage space.

Smile!

Here is Josie's first Smiley face on her Travel Doodle.

SOLD!

Good News everybody. After a few delays, we finally had settlement on our house today.

And there was much rejoicing!

Here are a couple pics from moving. There's not a lot. Everyone (except Josie) was extremely sick, so little effort was expended on documenting this momentous occassion. We're all just glad we survived the whole ordeal.

We hope to post some pics of our new digs soon. There's no cable where we're living now, so it takes an eternity to post pics. But we will do our best to keep you all informed about what Team Ambuel is up to.

Snow Day!

We had our first snow day of the season a couple weeks ago. We got about 5 inches total. It was loads of fun.
Since Josh isn't so hot in the walking department yet, he spent most of the time in the push car.

I had a great time in the snow.

Josh liked it a lot too!

I went on a G-Pa-powered sled ride. No real hills please.

Josh went sledding for the first time. He had a little trouble sitting upright.

And ended up like this most of the time.

I tried helping Josh sit up (for about 5 seconds).

This way worked the best.

After sledding was over, G-Pa helped me make a snowman.

Dear God, Please send more snow!