Best of 2008

January, and once again in the crib.

February, pretty baby sleeping.

March, marching in Daddy's boots.

April, stretched out sleeping in our bed.

May, playing with baby Sadie

June, sharing yogurt with Mongo.

July, first ride on a motorcycle

August, playing in a box on a rainy day.

September, running to the corn field with big brother, William.

October, Lindsey Mouse for Halloween.

November, trying to get a picture for cards...

December, Christmas morning with a giant Hello Kitty

I know it's a little cheesey, but I thought I would do something different and add my favorite pictures of Lindsey, one per month--starting back in January, from this past year. Enjoy!

Some highlights from the year in video...

(I'll add some more videos later...they take a long time to load!)

Play Time with Sadie

Lindsey has been having a great time playing with Sadie while I am babysitting her. They have had a lot of fun playing with all of the new toys that Lindsey got for Christmas. Particularly, the Mickey Mouse tray with play-doh, and the Dora Playhut. We also took Lindsey to Chuck E. Cheese's last night so Lindsey could get out and play for a bit--that and we haven't been there since her birthday in August. She always say "Ch-Cheese" as we drive by it and tell her that we'll go there soon. A hodge-podge of pictures from this past week.

Fun with the New Toys!

Lindsey and William have been having a greattttt time playing with all of their new toys. Here are a few pictures and video of Lindsey playing with some of the new things that she got. In the last photo, see if you can find the "things" that Lindsey hid in the tree! She had fun decorating it. Also, did you notice that William is playing with Lindsey's castle? :)

Lindsey's 3rd Christmas

Lindsey had a great third Christmas yesterday. Despite neither kid sleeping well on Christmas Eve (and that means mommy and daddy too!) they both woke up in great moods and were ready to tear into all of the goodies that Santa had left for them. It seems that Lindsey has three favorite gifts from yesterday: the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the Dora Playhut with tunnel, and her Disney Princess shoes! She also loves a little toy from her Clubhouse called "Toodles." She actually misplaced Toodles at Grandma Bower's house last night and that sent the entire family on a hunt for this teeny, tiny toy! Lindsey was walking all over the house calling out "Oh Tooodles!?!" We finally found the little toy tucked away in Grandma's Christmas tree after about a half hour of everyone searching....Sigh.

We also had a great time at Nana & Grandpa's house yesterday morning. Lindsey received the Dora Playhut there and loved climbing through the attached tunnel! Afterwards, we had a very nice brunch in the house that included, what else, a food fight! I think Uncle Jason is mostly to blame, but we all partook in the they very messy event:) All in all, a great day, and last night we even got some sleep.....Ahhhh. The holidays sure can take it out of you!!

Christmas Party at the Bower's House

Lindsey and Masen (1 year old)

Sadie (1 year old) after playing the ornament game.

Sadie getting blindfolded during the game...

Lindsey eyeing up cookie cake. Yum!

Lindsey and Bryn (3 years old) playing with toys (and ornaments!).

Last night was the Bower family Christmas get-together at Uncle Eugene's house. It was fun night with lots of games, food, and laughter. The little kids got to play a game called "Pin an Ornament on the Christmas Tree." The bigger kids and adults played a game called "Apples to Apples" and either received a present, if you were younger, or the adults received 'spirits.' Everyone had such a good time playing the games and it even got a little loud at times! Lindsey had a great time playing with all of the Bower babies that are now at least one year old and up. There was Masen, Mark, and Sadie--all 1 year old. Then there was Lindsey, who is 2, and also there was Bryn, who is 3 years old. So Lindsey had lots of Bowers to play with last night. They had fun chasing each other around and playing with some of the toys (and ornaments) that were there. Lindsey also reallllly enjoyed the cookie cake that I got from Mrs. Fields...yummmy! Both William and Lindsey are very excited for Christmas morning, the day after tomorrow and for spending more time with our family.

Hanging out with Sadie!

We have been babysitting Sadie during the day for the last week now while her mommy is at work. Sadie, if any of you remember, is Lindsey's second cousin. They have been having a lot of fun playing together, and playing with toys together. Lindsey has been great about sharing her toys with Sadie! I am very proud of her. And, since Sadie has been with us, Lindsey has been talking and babbling more:) She is even doing more two-word phrases now, too, almost as if to defend her property ("Lindsey's coat!!, for example). It has been a nice experience for the two of them. In the video, they were having fun chasing each other around the kitchen table and also playing peek-a-boo with each other. Such fun!

William's "December Program"

William had his "December Program" last night at his school. His class sang a few songs, and then they were done. It was a very short concert, which was fine with me, because Lindsey was clearly bored 5 minutes into it (notice the picture of her laying backwards on the chair). Here are a couple short video clips so all of you out-of-towners can hear him sing. (BTW, he was wearing a read striped sweater, down in the center of the crowd.)

Lindsey Can Read??!?!!??

Holy Cow! Lindsey can read (kinda, we'll call it word recognition)! This started last night while I was in the kitchen cleaning and she was sitting at the table by herself. I had a small grocery list sitting on there. As I was cleaning, Lindsey was talking to herself and I didn't think much of it until I heard her say "ketchup" several times over and over again. No way! I said, "Jason! Lindsey just read the word ketchup on our list!" I brought the list in by Jason, and she did it again. Next, I took another piece of paper and wrote down a few more words that she started belting out. She must have an amazing brain to remember those, or figure them out however she did. Either way, it is soooo neat to see her read the words that I have written down! Keep in mind that she is only 27 months old right now...Soooo cool!!

Christmas Pictures of William & Lindsey

Here are a couple shots that I am going to use on this year's Christmas card. Once again, Lindsey wasn't all too interested in cooperating for a pose, so I had to improvise and make some funny noises to get her to smile..Though her smiles turned out a little bit bigger than what I was hoping for, they both look happy and had a good time together.

*Christmas Card Preview*

While shopping at Burlington Coat Factory, I picked up a very pretty Christmas dress for Lindsey, and as it turns out, her baby doll, too. So when I got her home, I put her dress on and all of her accessories and tried to take some pictures of her for this year's Christmas card. Fortunately, she cooperated pretty well for me (much better than last year!!) but because she was soo excited about her baby doll having a matching dress, she spent most of her time looking at her dolly rather than me. Either way, I got a few good shots in, and hopefully tomorrow I can get a good one of the two kids together.