Sunshine

This has been Monroe's favorite song for a few weeks now.  Tonight was the first time we've heard her sing it herself.  I love that she says "when skies are grape."

She can now sing ten songs.  They are:  the alphabet, Jesus loves me, Jingle bells, I love you (Barney song), Rockabye baby, Bushel and a peck, Ring around the rosy, Spanish numbers (I made up a song for her to learn how to count to ten), Twinkle little star, and the clean up song.

Our girl definitely loves to sing!

Fun in the Snow

Uncharacteristic of Nebraska, the snow from December stuck around for a long time.  We had many opportunities to play in it.  

Monroe wanted it to snow.

I love her face!

Her first snow angel

 Walking in the snow is not easy,

but it's fun!

New Ride

In 2007, our friend Tim was offered a 2003 Ford Taurus by his parents for $500.  He didn't need the car because he decided to go to New Zealand for a year.  We jokingly asked if they wanted to sell us the car for $500.  To our surprise, they decided to bless us with the car.  Tim has been back in the United States for a number of years now, but it wasn't until he was visiting us this summer that we realized he was in need of a car.  We told him that if he wanted/needed the car, then it was all his.  He agreed to take it, but gave us until this January to save for and buy a new one.
We have been car shopping (mostly on Craigslist) for months.  We wanted a small SUV with less than 80,000 miles, All Wheel Drive, and $10,000 or less.  We knew our criteria left only a small window, but we were hopeful we could find something.
On Saturday, we went to Woodhouse in Blair to see what they had.  We were fortunate to find a vehicle that perfectly fit our wish list.  We bought a 2008 Saturn Vue.  They knocked $3,000 off the price to get it into our price range.  They needed to replace the windshield and detail the car, so they drove it out to us on Wednesday.
We are loving the Vue so far and feel very blessed to have found exactly what we were looking for.

Operation: No paci

Zach and I decided it was time to take away Monroe's pacifier.  Since she has been about 6 months old, she has only had it at bedtime and in church, but we were ready to get rid of it altogether.  To say we were ready is quite misleading because we were quite nervous about how it would go.  We set Christmas as our arbitrary date to transition her out of needing it.  Our first day after Christmas celebrations, we put her down for a nap without her paci.  We explained that her paci went bye-bye and she was going to sleep without it.  She screamed for a while, but she eventually fell asleep.  That night, she cried for 45 minutes before falling asleep.  For the next few days, every time she woke up, we celebrated her sleeping without her paci.  Before bed, we would remind her that big girls don't need pacis.  She would agree, "No paci."  We have needed to do a lot more back scratching and song singing to help lull her to sleep, but I guess that is to be expected.  It has been 5 days now, so we are saying that we are officially paci-free.  

December phone dump

One night, I started the bathtub and then went to get Monroe's towel and wash cloth.  A minute later, Zach found Monroe in the bath water with her clothes on.

We found a house where the Christmas lights move to the music.  Monroe LOVED it!

Zach stacked up books so that Monroe could sit at our table.

 Monroe found a BIG bear at the store the other day.  She wanted to hold it.

We attended the first birthday party of our good friends' daughter, Braelyn, on Dec. 15th.  Monroe talked about the cupcakes from the moment she saw them on the table.  

 Ever since the party, Monroe has walked around singing, "Happy Braelyn to you."  

Monroe's crazy bed head 

We had to go back to our favorite house to look at lights again.

 Monroe LOVES Christmas lights.  As we drive around town, she is constantly saying, "Ooh, yook!  Preey yights!" I kind of feel bad for her that this excitement is almost over.

Her new owl hat

 I wanted to get a picture of our Christmas card display all filled up.  I think it looks way better than just putting them all on the fridge.  I want to do this again next year.