Fun Christmas Activities

We spent the week before Christmas doing fun holiday activities. One morning Leo and I made cookies. I put out the big mat and Leo helped me mix the dough. When the cookies came out of the oven, I put him in his highchair and gave him the sprinkles! He LOVED decorating the cookies and when he found out that the sprinkles tasted sweet, he started licking the cookies and the extra sprinkles on his tray. Surprisingly the cookies turned out great!

My neighbor Alli hosted a little Christmas party for the neighbor kids. We did an ornament exchange, sang some songs, ate some cookies and listened to books. It was a very fun way for the kids to spend time together! Thanks Alli!

Macy's 8th Floor

Kevin, Leo and I went to Macy's 8th Floor Display the week before Christmas. It was amazing! The theme this year was Santa's Workshop. The displays were darling and so well done. We walked through a few times and then we saw a puppet show. Leo loved the show and sat still for 3o minutes while he clapped and watched the puppets sing and dance. After that we went to visit Santa. Leo was TERRIFIED! He clung to me and screamed the whole time we were by Santa. When we left the room he kept saying "Bye Bye Ho Ho, Bye Bye Ho Ho!" Poor guy! When we were done traumatizing him, we went to the Sky Lounge for lunch on the 12th floor. The views of the city were amazing and the lunch was delicious. It was a fun filled day for our family!

All Aboard!!!

Leo and I rode the train around Southdale the other day. We waved at all the customers and when it came to a stop he signed more, more! If you haven't been to Southdale lately, you should check it out! Fun and simple holiday cheer!

SNOW!!!!

We had a blizzard today! The snow started last night and it is still coming down 24 hours later. There is so much snow on the ground that we couldn't open our front door or even leave the house today. It is also very windy which means the snow is blowing and it looks like a total white-out! The temps are dropping and the high tomorrow is ZERO! Yikes!

For those of you who don't know, we like to go places and do things as a family on the weekends. By about 10 am we are ready to leave the house and go on an adventure. Well today, our adventure was staying inside because of the snow. We finger painted, played hide and seek with our PJ's and later with a dishtowel, played in the basement, ate a lot of snacks, made corn bread, took long naps, and invited our neighbor friends Bennett and Clare over to play! The kids came over after dinner in their jammies and we had snacks, hot chocolate (with Baileys for the mamas) and apple cider. It was fun to have a pajama party with them in the middle of a blizzard! We love having friends live so close that they can come over even in a blizzard! We rescheduled or family Christmas Card pictures for tomorrow morning and a birthday party for the afternoon so hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow! If not, we will have another snowy inside adventure!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!! We spent the weekend doing fun holiday activities. Leo and I went downtown Chaska on Saturday and saw Santa and went on a horse drawn carriage ride through town. Leo loved the carriage ride but was not a fan of Santa, I had to hold him in the picture and he was still screaming! It was COLD out but we were bundled up and Leo was nice and toasty in his snowsuit. The horses were decorated in holiday colors and jingle bells. We drank hot cider and sang carols. We had a great time! On Sunday Kevin got the Christmas decorations out of storage (his least favorite thing to do) and we decorated the house and set up the tree. We danced to Christmas music and hung the ornaments on the tree. Leo didn't really understand how to hook them on so he just pressed them against the branches hoping they would stick. Eventually he just started putting them under the tree. I love decorating for Christmas and enjoying our festive house throughout the month. Now on to the Christmas cards, baking and shopping...

Cousins!

Leo and Ellie are really starting to interact with one another. It is so fun to watch them play together! Here are a few pics from Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Allen's house.

Thanksgiving

We have had quite the week! We took Leo into the doctor on Wednesday because he was up all night coughing the night before and we wanted to get him checked out before the holiday. The doctor said that his throat was really red and spotted and thought it might be strep but the test was negative. He said that he probably has a virus and we just need to wait it out. Great. So, we have spent the past several days taking shifts rocking a sick kid throughout the night and trying to catch up on some sleep during the day. Leo usually sleeps really well at night so I have forgotten what it is like to be up all night. We are all a little tired at our house. Even though Leo was feeling under the weather, we still continued with our Thanksgiving plans. On Thanksgiving morning, I made a yummy brunch with egg bake, carmel rolls and pancakes for Leo. After brunch we started a new tradition. We counted the days from Thanksgiving to Christmas and made a paper chain. On each link, we wrote down something that we are thankful for. Each night when we take off a link, we are reminded of all of the blessings in our lives. Leo was very interested in the project at first but got a little distracted half way through. After his nap, we went to my parents house and ate a very delicious dinner with my parents, siblings, and Grandma. We stayed as long as Leo would allow and then went home and all crashed. Kevin was out the door at 4:30 am on Friday morning to head to Best Buy to get a "door buster" TV for our new house. He came home at 6:30am with a new TV and some interesting stories. On Saturday afternoon, we went to the Allens house and had a wonderful dinner with Bill, Kathy, Jenny, Toby and Ellie. Leo and Ellie were so cute playing together! They are finally starting to notice one another and it is so fun to watch them interact. Overall we had a great Thanksgiving celebrating with family and friends.

Feeling Thankful...

Day to day life can get pretty busy around here and sometimes I forget to stop and think about all of the blessings in my life. Today I will take the time to remember all of those blessings and think about all I have to be thankful for...

Leo, the love of my life, the joy of my day, the sweetest boy in the world.

Kevin, the first love of my life. His dedication and love for our family is unending, he is such a wonderful man.

My family, I am so blessed to have (almost all) of them live so close by. They are an amazing support system and so much fun to be with!!!

My in-laws, they all live in town and they are always willing to lend a helping hand. We are so thankful that our niece Ellie arrived this year!

Our friends who come together to celebrate the big and small accomplishments in our lives.

Our new home. We can't wait to move into a home we have designed to fit the needs of our family and live in a neighborhood full of young kids!

Kevin's job. I am so thankful that he loves his job and jumps out of bed every morning to go to work. I am also thankful that his position has given me the opportunity to stay home and take care of Leo.

All of the healthy babies that were born this year to our friends and family and a few who will be arriving soon!

And now a list of the little things I am thankful for that make life even more enjoyable...

1. Girl's night out
2. Going to My Gym and Baby class with Leo
3. Left over Halloween candy
4. Date night
5. Modern Family
6. Fleece Sox
7. MOPS
8. Saturday mornings (my day to sleep in....)
9. Snuggling with Leo after bath time
10. Quiet evenings with Kev

And so it begins...

They finally started digging our lot on Wednesday! It is amazing how much they can do in a day!!! There are huge mounds of dirt everywhere and lots of trucks and excavators. Luckily Leo is quite entertained by the equipment because I have a feeling we will be there a lot to check on things. We are in the thick of the decision making process and have spent a lot of time picking out carpet, granite, appliances, light fixtures and the list goes on. I have a VERY hard time making decisions and continually change my mind. Our builder would like us to have everything picked out by Christmas, so I need to get busy!!!