Keeping up with the Joneses: Nailed it!

Chloe opens her flute fingering stamp while Addy, Logan, and Finn look on.

Logan likes his gift from the Bortises. The "clown" fish tail is an appropriate choice.

Addy was happy that Santa found her all the way in Indiana.

We went to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis the day after Christmas with the Bortis family and the Carrier family (Jessica Jenkins' brood). The kids enjoyed looking through the exhibits, but their favorite thing was going down a large slide from the 2nd floor to the main floor.

Aunt Becky was kind enough to dye Chloe's golden locks pink while she was here. Now her hair matches all her clothes.

Dane often sports this quizzical look, especially when anyone outside of his immediate family tries to enter his world by speaking to him or even just making eye contact with him. The day we all went to the Children's Museum I had a fright when, as all the kids were playing, I realized that I was missing one. We all frantically searched for Dane in the play yard, but came up empty. I quickly found a museum employee and explained my toddler was missing, and a security specialist was directly dispatched to help me. I always marveled that parents seem know what their kids are wearing when they go missing, and I used to think, "I'd have no idea!" But maybe adrenaline sharpens one's brain function, because I knew exactly how to describe his outfit to her. She discovered that Dane was waiting downstairs at the concierge desk, having been found by some concerned museum patrons and deposited there. After the security guard explained this, she added, "I'll walk down there with you." But I wasn't about to wait for that slow poke. I sprinted down the ramp, which must have looked comical because it was a curlycue ramp that spiraled round and round several floors before it ended at the concierge desk. I felt like I'd run a very dizzying 4- minute-mile. When I saw Dane, he had that look on his face like in this picture because total strangers had entered his bubble. Instead of running to me, he stood catatonic with his opened-mouthed mad/puzzled/judging look. I took him gratefully in my arms, and it was a while before he'd let me put him down again. That was fine by me, because I wanted to hold him forever.

Finn gets cuter every day!

Jocelynne models her dress from Grandma.

Dane loves dressing up as "Captain Underpants." Now that it's winter, he's modified the costume to include gloves.

One of Dane's candid shots of the girls.

Dane got this dinosaur blanket from Aunt Becky and Uncle Gerald. He wears it a lot, especially to bed. He spooked Jocelynne the other night when he sat up in his sleep and the strange shape of his blanketed head was caught in the nightlight's glow.