More Winter and Pre Christmas Stuff

I know it's Christmas day, but we've been pretty busy around here!

All of the Christmas Day stuff will be posted in a few days. So here are the details of the Holiday Season prior to the Christmas Day festivities!!!

Did we see Santa?? YES WE DID!! Twice actually. We saw Santa at Macy's when Aunt Laurie was here. Lucas did fabulously :-)

He had to test out that beard to make SURE it was real. Good thing Santa has a pain tolerance for beard pulling.







Ted also decided that Christmas Eve was the PERFECT day to take Lucas out for a playful "romp" (and by that we mean sit there in the snow and scowl at the camera) in the back yard. It wasn't as cold that day, we are aren't terrible parents.







We decided to honor Aunti Laurie's request and open her presents before Christmas... because "that's way more fun". :-) Lucas thoroughly enjoyed her gift bag.





After all of that activity, we packed up and went over to Aunt Nikki's house for Christmas Eve with the Great Grandparents on Ted's side.















After all of the Christmas partying, it was time for Lucas to come home for some quality quiet time with Mommy. We had a big day ahead of us!!!

Lucas is 8 months old!

And I am 324 months old today... but who is counting!!!

I had a fabulous 27th Birthday that included sleeping in, good coffee, a hair cut, a dog grooming appointment, and walking around the Mall of America with my family. Good day!!



We also had some technical difficulties after we learned that Lucas now eats paper if it's in his reach....



We also had a fabulous time with Breann (my little sis) who came to visit this last week while on college break. She was a big help running around town on a week with some seriously cruddy Minnesota weather.



Christmas is upon us now and we will have many more photos before it's done!

Jaden's First Birthday

I'm getting all caught up on my blog before the big Christmas post!!

We also had a fabulous time last weekend celebrating Jaden's first birthday. This is Ted's little brother Brad's little boy if you're not down with our family map :-)

One of my favorite family pictures:



Brad, Mallory, and Jaden before cake

And a little more pre-cake snacking time...






Of course Jaden's cousins Emmy and Lucas had to do a little new toy "testing". Just being good cousins :-)





and we opened presents... super fun!! :-)





We closed out the day with some super Birthday Cake just before all of the babies had lack of nap meltdowns :-) Good times were had by all!

Aunt Laurie finally meets Lucas

Auntie Laurie (my step Dad Randy's middle daughter) had to wait the longest to finally meet Lucas. Laurie tends to be... oh... in Iraq... whenever big things happen in our lives!! It wasn't EXACTLY her idea, that's just how the timing works out. We got married in 2003 when she was in Iraq... she came home for a few years.. and then went back just in time for us to get a baby!! Hee Hee.

She waited SO patiently over there in Iraq and finally got to come home and meet the little boy everybody has been talking about for the last few months.

She had planned a very big road trip all over the US.. and even totaled her car during that road trip. We were so excited that she was still able to make a 16 hour drive in a rental car all the way to St Paul. She got to us at 3:45am in one piece on 12/9/08.

Here are a few highlights from our trips downtown for Christmas fun :-)



Laurie and Lucas in the "Day in the Life of an Elf" in the downtown Macy's. He was way too interested to nap that afternoon....



And Lucas got to meet Mrs. Claus herself!







We also spent some time getting pictures with Santa, but that is a different update that will wait until Christmas time!!

We also enjoyed some time at Brit's downtown for dinner that night. It wasn't too busy when we were in there, so Lucas was able to dose a bit.



"Really guys... it's no big deal that you are totally eating yummy food in front of me..."

It was nice to enjoy a little extra time with my sister for the holidays :-) We were able to travel down to Grandma Holl's the next weekend for the Holl family Christmas. We hope we can see her again very soon! Perhaps next time in her native land of warmth... Arizona... which sounds AWESOME today as it is -30 wind chill.