Happy New Year!

Boy how times change. The first and last New Year's we spent with the Jostes', we went for sushi at Blue Fin and followed it up by ringing in the New Year at The Flying Saucer downtown. This year we went to the Jostes house, ordered out some food, Travis sat at the table working, and the rest of us watched the kiddos play. We were home by 8 to put Jack in bed and we spent the rest of the night watching the countdown to the crazy man jumping the building in Vegas on his dirt bike, which followed the other crazy guy doing a flip in his truck. I was asleep shortly after midnight, just before the text messages came in from my friends and family that still ring in the New Year in style. Just wait until they have kids.

There were some pretty precious moments between Jack and Kate that I wanted to share. They don't really play together, but more or less play around each other. Still, they're getting better at whatever they're doing and at one point Kate said to Liz "Look, Mommy, I'm sharing with Baby Jack. You better get a picture of this!". Here they are eating a snack in each others' presence. I would say "together", but that would be exaggerating. We had just gotten there and they weren't really sure they were happy together just yet.

As you can see, they warmed up rather quickly. I wish I had a picture of Jack hugging the dog, Jack. As soon as we got there, dog Jack was sitting on the couch and my Jack walked over, threw his arms around him, laid his head on him and said "Ohhhhh". He really is a sweet boy. I think sometimes he senses when he is stressing me out because it's almost as if on cue that he will walk over behind me, throw his arms around me, lay his head on me, and say "Ohhhh.". Those are the moments I will miss the most when he's a teenager and hates me for the time being.

Before we left, the kids circled up for story time. It started off with Kate reading to herself then Jack pulled up a chair to listen. He quickly decided he needed his own book and then somehow Travis ended up sitting in between them reading to them both.