Winter Wonderland

Lots of layers and lots of fun in our winter wonderland.  What a fun surprise to wake up to the day after Christmas.  And even better that it’ll all be melted by the end of the week!  :)

Christmas 2010!

We had an awesome Christmas this year and everyone was quite spoiled by Santa.  Nana and Papa came down the week before and Hayden had a blast hanging out with everyone.  They brought up the movie The Polar Express and to say the least, Hayden is definitely obsessed.  There was not a day during the break that he didn’t watch the “choo choo” movie at least two or more times throughout the day.  It was a great week and we did all of the traditional things that make Christmas special.  It was so neat to watch Hayden’s face on Christmas morning when he came downstairs and saw what Santa brought.  :)  We are very blessed.  We hope everyone had a great holiday and thank you for all of the great presents and cards!

 

A Special Visit and Playgroup

This morning, I had everyone over for playgroup and we had all of the original “gang” together again.  So special.  Stacy, Luke and Max are visiting from Washington D.C., this week, so we were so excited to see the three of them.  They all had a fun time playing together, and I think the highlight of Hayden’s day was Max – who’s now 5 months old.  He’s so sweet with him and so gentle.  He loved helping him put his pacifier in and watching him.  To say the least, it was so adorable to watch, and I think he’s going to be a great big brother.  It was such a fun time and it’s scary to think about how fast they have all grown.  It’s amazing to think that when we started the playgroup a year and a half ago there were four, and now in two short months, they’ll be eight. 

These shots make me so proud.  Hayden’s so sweet.

These crack me up.  Try getting this many kids to sit still for a pic.

Mickey D’s for lunch.  They’re all sitting still now:)

35 Weeks and 4 More to Go

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas is such a magical time of year and definitely a favorite holiday in our house.  We love everything about it – the music, food, family, friends, decorating, parties, gift giving – the list could go on and on.  This will be the first year that Jamie and I have actually had a Christmas in our own home, so we decided to go all out and start some new traditions.  Since we’ve been engaged, we’ve always traveled during the holidays, so Christmas morning will be extra special.  So, this year, we decided to get a real tree and put it in our family room.  Our families have very similar traditions when it comes to the holidays and our moms have always bought us collector ornaments each year.  This tree has all of those special ornaments we’ve collected and Hayden’s new ones as well.  I’m sure as the years progress, we’ll get more and more trees, ideas and decorations.  It’s just so fun to do each year and we both really enjoy it.  Hayden loves it, too.  Every morning we can’t have breakfast until I’ve lit the garland, the wreath and the two trees – which is proving much harder to do now that I’m 34 weeks pregnant.  All of our stockings are embroidered and ready to go – yes even the Baby’s.  I’ve “whited” it out so you can’t see his name;)  And guess who gets to help us take them down this year?  Yep, it’s you Mom and Dad, congrats:)  Anyway, here are some of our decorations so far this year. Hope you’re all enjoying the season so far.

Hello.....Childhood is Calling

This was Hayden's favorite. He loves playing with phones.

Outing to Marbles

Since it’s been so cold here lately, our playgroup thought that we’d take the kids to the Children’s Museum for the morning.  It was a nice little outing and a great way to keep the kids (and moms:) active.

Saturday with Santa Fundraiser

Every year our neighborhood organizes a charity  fundraiser called Saturday with Santa.  To attend, each family is supposed to bring an unwrapped present for a child.  It’s neat, because there are a lot of restaurants that donate food for everyone. There’s coffee, hot chocolate, games, face painting, cookie decorating, and the kids can even write letters to Santa. All of the toys and money collected go to the families in the National Guard.  We’ve been decorating our house for Christmas this week and talking a lot about Santa or as Hayden says, “Tanta”.  So, he was very excited when Santa came down the street in the humvee to greet everyone.  We weren’t quite sure how he would react when meeting the big guy again.  Last year, he was a little skeptical but didn’t cry.  This year though, he was so adorable and walked up to Santa like a brave boy with his Daddy and got on Santa’s lap.  He was a little shy, and had a cute smile on his face.  After hanging out with Santa, we had hot dogs, pizza and Jimmy Johns for lunch, and then Hayden got to play on the humvee and truck.  He really liked it and had a good time pretending to drive.  We’re really thankful for all of the volunteers that put this fundraiser together every year.  It’s so fun to be a part of such and awesome neighborhood.

Hayden met his buddy Naylor before seeing Santa.

Naylor was sampling some of the food and was finishing his pizza.

The first sighting of Santa coming down the street.

Hayden waving to Santa.

Pointing to Santa getting out of the big truck

Walking up with Daddy to see Santa

There’s his shy, little smile.

 

Poor guy, he was really sad to leave the trucks and Santa.