new york holidays

new york puts on a good show during the holidays. lots to do and lots of pretty lights. 

some highlights include seeing the displays in the fancy store windows on 5th avenue,

the rockefeller tree,

two times on santa's lap,

 train show at grand central station,

 and a date night to carnegie hall to see the messiah.

1st birthday celebration

for his 1st birthday william got to eat chocolate cake naked. lucky boy. i thought for sure he'd love it. to start he stepped in the cake, which upset him quite a bit. 

so mom and dad had to start eating the cake to show william how delicious it was. he tentatively took some bites. then mom decided to put his birthday hat on which again upset him.

 finally we just left him alone and he got in the spirit of his birthday and cake.

in the end i think he really really liked it.

after getting cleaned up and being on a sugar high he opened a few presents. he loves hangers, thank you grandma forrest!

because it was a late night we opened more presents the next day. his other favorite toy are boxes - grandma shafer sent the perfect gift! he has the best grandmas.

happy birthday to baby william! we hope we didn't traumatize you!

12 months

happy birthday to william!! my baby made it to 1 year.

my favorite accomplishment of this past month is william calling me mama when i ask him who i am. melts my heart every time.

in addition to mama, bye-bye, and hello he also knows the animal sounds to a cow, snake, duck, and his favorite lion. he learned to clap and 'reach for the sky'.

he's mastered the army crawl and loves chasing his balls and cars around the apartment. he can also pull up on things and loves to walk whenever possible. he's holding steady at five teeth.

he enjoys reading and his favorite are lift-the-flap books. he likes putting things in and out of buckets and boxes. he's also fascinated with putting caps on and off and can stack a good block tower.

and his most favorite thing is his zebra.

william we love you more and more every day. we can't wait to see what the next year brings!

a california thanksgiving

we had a great thanksgiving at grandma and grandpa shafers home. all the cousins were there which meant lots of learning to play together.

william loved the thanksgiving meal (as did uncle christian, now elder shafer). he didn't love sitting still for pictures.

we honored our christmas traditions and went bowling and walked around the lafayette reservoir. 

 william experienced his first bike ride

and first haircut.

ben and i got away and went to the stanford v. notre dame football game. ben's first stanford game.

 other highlights included daily swings in the backyard

 and seeing the ducks!

thanks family for a great vacation. elder christian we will miss you while you are in brazil.