The Fast Family: December 2013

~~BEWARE!~~

Enjoy!

This is a photo packed post!

Now that Maycie is crawling, she is spending lots of time observing me in the kitchen.

Her favorite look out spot tends to be this bench built by Great-Grandpa Harvey.

She can also be found pushing it around the kitchen as her scooter, that is, until she crashes into somewhere and then gets angry because she can't go anymore.

Natalie and Aleah have been trying to entice Maycie into crawling up the stairs.

Within a week after their enticement, she made it up the stairs for her first time.

She now makes the hop upstairs like a pro and is able to join their fun up

in the living room and at the bookshelf.

Our little princess.

Daddy is home from his SeedMaster trip to California, bearing big hugs

along with some gifts from his trip.

Penguins from the zoo and princesses from the Disney store.

This wonderful hubby and daddy turned 29 on Dec. 10th.

Nothing like sleeping in and then waking up to your favorite breakfast of omelets and french toast.

Maycie got herself stuck on top of the woodbox.

I was in the laundry room switching loads and hear her crying.

I came to check on her and this is what I found...my baby crying because she was stuck on the woodbox and unsure of how to get herself down!

Not only is she working on her mobility, but she is also discovering her musical talents!

Tony recently changed his corporation name to Fast AG from Fast FAB since his welding and hopper bottom business has been passed on to a friend of ours.

Here are our eldest two sporting their new gear for daddy.

Since we would be gone for 3 weeks over Christmas down in NE, I decided to put up the tree but not get out the decorations for it. Instead I told the girls it was their job to get crafty and decorate their own decorations for the tree. Here they are posing with some of their creations.

Our Natalie was an angel in the church Christmas program.

Here she is with the shepherd, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and some other kids from the choir.

Fresh snow makes for fresh memories.

This was Maycie's first time in her snowsuit.

The girls made sure she got to taste some snow for the first time!

Thankfully it was a bit of a wet snow, so we could build a snowman.

We don't get much for wet, sticky snow around here.

He's little, but full of love!

For Great Grandma Colleen's Christmas gift, we put together a Precious Memories box that all of her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids wrote memories for. This was one of Natalie's cards that she added to the box. I had to take a picture because this was one of her most detailed drawings.

It is a picture of our camper in Hill City, SD when Gma Colleen joined us for a few days of camping in the Black Hills.

Aleah -- "I'm fwee years old."

Mommy -- "Well, not quite yet honey, but keep practicing that hand sign for 3."

We celebrated Aleah's birthday and Christmas with Papa and Nana before we took off for NE for 3 weeks and them for AZ for the rest of the winter.

The girls had to hide their eyes until Papa and Nana revealed their Christmas present for them.

And BOY OH BOY was it a surprise!!!

Hours of fun await these girls over the next chunk of years.

Knowing that makes those hours of assembly into the wee night worth it, right Papa??? :)

This is how we hauled it home from Papa and Nana's. Can you tell it was a bit windy our there???

Good thing we live less than 100 yards from them!

We let the girls open one present from us the night before we left for NE.

Santa also let us know that he'd made special arrangements to visit that night as well, so the girls put together a plate of cookies and carrots for he and his reindeer and left their annual note.

The next morning before we took off on the road, the girls were surprised to find a set of bunk beds for their baby dolls.

Trying to pose in front of the tree with their stockings.

Merry 1st Christmas to our baby Maycie!

The first night we were in NE we celebrated Natalie's birthday with the Hohlens.

Can you tell she instantly fell in love with her new Hello Kitty?

And for her birthday cake, a Krispy Kreme donut cake!

Delicious!

Remember that Precious Memories box I talked about earlier that Natalie made the camper picture for? Well, this was the day we invited Great-Grandma Colleen over to surprise her with the gift.

She was filled with joy and emotion...signs of the perfect gift for her!

I love these moments. Everyone just hanging out, doing what we do.

My heart smiled when I saw these three chatting about the plans for the bunk house in dad and mom's new shop. I take that back...it was manly talk, not chatting!