We went to take a tour of the Jelly Belly factory, which was a long car drive from our house.  It was still decorated for Christmas.  Can you believe how big that tree is?

Inside, there’s a giant flying Jelly Belly guy. And lots of candy.

We met Shannon and her family there for the tour.

They make pictures out of all the different colored Jelly Bellies.  This one is the Statue of Liberty.

Daddy said we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the machines and people during the tour.  But it was really fun to see.  There were millions of Jelly Bellies, and they were all different colors.  There were lots of conveyor belts and robots moving boxes of candy around.  At one point, there was a robot that waved to us!

Finally!  It was Christmas morning, and we got to open presents!  Santa brought me kitchen tools to play with.

And M&D got me lots of stuff, like an ice cream maker ball and this big stack of Curious George books!  Let’s read!

M&D also got me a bunch more track for my Thomas trains.  Now they can drive all over and go different ways at the intersections!

I guess those cookies and milk and the thank-you note paid off!

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m very excited for Santa to come.  M&D thought we should put out some milk and cookies for Santa and write him a thank you note.

I thought that would be really nice!  So Mommy helped me write a note, and I signed it and put a nice drawing on it for Santa.  I can’t wail ’till tomorrow!

I got a pencil and a sharpener at my school concert the other day.  I learned how to sharpen a pencil right away!

And then Uncle Steve and Aunt Barb gave me a whole BUNCH of dinosaur pencils – and they all have my name on them!  Wow.  I they all needed to be sharpened right away.  I had just the tool for the job…

Yesterday we went ice skating!

We started out just going for a ride around the ice.  It was fun!

Then it was time to put the chair away and really try this out.  The ice was very slippery, but Daddy was a big help.

A little later, there was a lesson on the basics.  The ice was still very slippery.   And cold.  But I was nice and warm with my truck sweatshirt from Ma, and my ice cream hat that Mommy made.

Once we were all done, we went to the Warm Puppy Café for a hot chocolate.  My friend Sydney was there with us.

We had a great time!

Now that I’m 4 1/2, outgrowing my old bed, and expecting a new baby brother, M&D decided that it was time for me to get a new big bed.

And along with my new bed I have cool new truck sheets and a construction machines comforter!  Hopefully they won’t be so noisy as to keep me awake at night!

Here I am trying it out for the first time.

Grandpa and Nana came up for a Christmas visit.  We had a good time visiting – I got to open my Christmas present early!  Check it out:

A new Bruder dump truck!  It has doors that really open!!  This is going to go great with my trash truck and tow truck.  Thanks, Grandpa and Nana.

We also got to make gingerbread cookies for dessert one night. This is one of my favorite things to do with Nana.

Come back any time, Grandpa and Nana!

This post is a bit late, but better late than never right?

While we were visiting Ma and Pa’s, I got to visit with my favorite cousin Avery.

We arranged some pretty rocks on the bench out back.  And we got to eat lunch together.

The best part was when Uncle John set us up to make gingerbread houses.  We had gingerbread, frosting, M&M’s, marshmallows, gumdrops,… the works!

And the really best part?  We got to eat them! Mmmmmm!

Sometimes, I just like to take that jumbled pile of Legos and make them nice an neat.

There!

Sometimes there’s just not enough room in my bed.  When will M&D get me a new one that I’ll fit in?