Week Fifty-One: Christmas All Week Long

Oh, hi Christmas. You kind of snuck up on me!

This week we tested out a very travel heavy attempt to spend Christmas with both families.

Can I get a big, fat, OOFDA?!

It was pretty glorious to have Mike and I both on vacation at the same time, even if all our time was spent on the go.

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree

Here's what our crazy week looked like:

Monday: Finish packing, load the car, get on the road to Duluth by nap time. Arrive in Duluth and hang out at Grandma's house.

Tuesday: Happy birthday to Mike! Out to lunch, Lake Superior exploration, and ice cream while O was with my Grandma. Get home, bundled up, and out the door to go see Bentleyville.  Experience Bentleyville and then head out to dinner with my mom, Jason, and Sydney.

Wednesday: Visit and gift exchange with my dad and grandma at dad's house. Visit and gift exchange with my mom and Jason at mom's house. Back to my grandma's house for dinner and the big Christmas Eve celebration. Pack up and get on the road for home before 9pm.

Thursday: Wake up in our own bed! Christmas morning gifts and more packing. On the road to Mankato by nap time. Christmas meal and gift exchange with Mike's family.

Friday: Sweet jeebus how is it already Friday?! More family time and some shopping.

Saturday: Lunch with Mike's bffs from childhood followed by our own happy hour at home while O napped. Then games with the bffs, takeout for dinner with Mike's parents, and a movie.

Sunday: Pack up and head home.

Ok. I am exhausted all over again just writing that out. If you are actually still reading, you get 5 points. Ha.

As a reward, here are a bunch of pictures of all the festivities!

Sledding with Auntie Sydney.

Riding the snow caterpillar 

Silly kid at Grandma Lynnette and Grandpa Jason's house. 

Checking out the trampoline. 

Drum set!

Present opening at Grandpa Pat and Leanne's house. 

Family photo with Santa at Grandma Sandy and Papa's house. 

Papa showing off his drawing skills after Sydney's paper plate on your head drawing contest. 

Grandma won first place!

Comparing art work. :)

Owen and Addie playing phones. 

Controlling the train with Papa. 

Looking for Okee Dokee Brothers on Grandma Lynnette's phone. 

Playing with the twins and their new trucks. 

Excited to dig into his stocking!

Pizza making Christmas morning with mama. 

Reading the book Santa brought him. 

O got to help daddy with a big boy Lego set. 

Trying out his elephant whistle. 

Billy wanted to help. 

O has definitely gotten over his fear of Billy. 

Playing with the hand crafted fishing game from Grandma Carol and Grandpa Mike.

Choo choo!

Playing with Grandma Carol. 

Flying planes with Grandpa Mike.

Playground with Grandma Carol, Auntie Cathy, "Boocock" the dog, and mama and daddy. :)

These are just some of the photos I had on our nice camera. I have so many more on my phone, Mike's phone, and still some that I didn't grab from the nice camera. I'm hopeful that they'll make it into a Facebook photo album sooner or later, because there are some cute ones! :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Week Forty-Nine: Christmas Card

Who decided that we have to send Christmas cards? I'm over it. I try to do so many fun things throughout the year that by the time Christmas rolls around, my focus has shifted from paying to send out a card no one keeps, to fun family activities that consume my time.

Horrible? Scrooge?

Yeah, probably. But guess what? I am ok with that! haha

The way I see it, the only people who aren't on Facebook that I'd like to send a Christmas Card to are the same people I'll be seeing on Christmas. I'll be able to print off a photo for them if they'd like, and see them in person, too!

Even with all of these Bah Humbuggy thoughts on Christmas cards running through my head, I decided that I would indeed make one. However, I'll just share it here on the blog and on social media and call it a day!

Honestly, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders once I decided to do it this way! How sad is that? Apparently stuffing, addressing, and stamping envelopes was simply too much for me at this very moment in time. Again....I'm ok with that. ;)

Some of you probably saw O's first encounter with Santa on Instagram. It was hilariously heartbreaking. He was SO sad. I didn't purchase that photo at the time, although I still might since they're available online, too. We went back for another try on a weeknight. It was so much more calm in the mall and there was no one in line behind us, so O got to slowly approach Santa with Mike and I before he sat alone.

After the redo with Santa, behold: Christmas Card 2014

Week Forty-Eight: Countdown to Christmas

A year ago, I was apparently very ambitious.

Last night as we unpacked the Christmas stuff and set up the tree, I found all sorts of cute stuff that I bought on clearance last year, tucked away, and completely forgot about. Among those things was a bag from Michael's. I grabbed it, wondering what the heck it was. 

Stockings. Twenty-five tiny little stockings. And some ambition. I think there was some ambition shoved in there too. 

It all came back to me. I remember seeing a blog post about an adorable little advent calendar that was stockings instead of a box with little doors or whatever it usually is. I decided I *needed* that stocking garland and set out to purchase it. Of course it was from Pottery Barn or somewhere like that. Of course it was on sale for $70+. Of course. That's when I decided that I would simply buy my own tiny stockings and make my own Christmas countdown! And here we are. 

It is December first. Time to start counting down to Christmas. I don't think last year me factored in the time it would take to make the garland with the stockings. Or think of cute things to tuck inside the socks. Here is a tentative list (both material things and ideas I could write on a slip of paper) of what I'll stick inside:

• Build a snowman
• Stickers
• Bake cookies
• Read a Christmas book 
• Color a picture to send to grandparents
• "Cap-ick" {chapstick}
• Visit Bentleyville
• Make glitter play doh
• Wrap presents
• Visit Santa 
• Festive window clings

In all honesty, I think we might just tuck ideas into the weekend socks this year and the days Mike and I will be home on vacation. Next year O will have a better understanding of looking in the stocking each day, so we can fill them all then. This year it just seems like more work than fun to try to fill every one and remember to check it every day. Bah Humbug?

No, but really. I love the holiday season and I love cheesy stuff like this. I'm excited that the stockings are at least hung! They look so festive! I just need to hang something above them so they aren't so lonely, and create and attach the numbers to the socks. My plan is to cut scalloped edge circles out of flannel or felt and write numbers on the circles with fabric markers, then glue the circles onto the stockings. 

Do you do a Christmas countdown with your toddler or big kid? What kinds of things do you do? 

-H

Week Forty-Seven: Thanksgiving 2014

There's nothing like the holidays to force you into taking a trip on the nostalgia express. {In a good way, of course.}

This Thanksgiving I started thinking about how far O has come in just one year and how much fun he is. 

How last year he took a nap during our thanksgiving party, and this year he was up until after 9.

How last year he was just starting to truly eat food and this year he was so distracted and excited he hardly ate anything.

How last year he was not running around chasing "doggies!!!" and this year...he was.

How last year we took nearly 100 photos and this year I took 2. Three if you count the selfie I took before we left the house. ;)

We had a lovely Thanksgiving and an excellent long weekend complete with shopping, the Children's Museum, and relaxing. Hope you all did too!

Week Forty-Three: Pumpkin Painting!

Overambitious gal that I am, the original title for this blog post was going to be Pumpkin Carving! 

HA. HA. HA. 

Not so much. As soon as I watched O throw one of the mini pumpkins across the living room I decided that painting a pumpkin would be plenty fun. Carving can be an adventure for Halloween 2015. 

It was a beautiful evening, so before painting we decided to take a few fall photos. O wasn't especially cooperative, but we got a couple good ones. {Just ignore the giant goose egg on his head from earlier in the day. And the fact that his hair needs to be cut, lol.}

<3

"Ohh! Heh-bee!"

Must...throw...all the gourds.

Trying to take the camera from me.

I wanted him to jump in a pile of leaves, and he wanted to play with the paint jars that I should have kept hidden until it was time to paint. In a stroke of genius Mike tossed the paint jars into the pile of leaves so O would jump in and look for them. While it was a great idea.... the result was sad and pathetic cries. 

We snapped a couple more photos and then began some outdoor pumpkin painting. An adventure, as we imagined it would be. O entertained the idea of painting the pumpkin, but he was more interested in mixing the colors on his plate.  

The end result was a paint covered plate, paint covered table cloth, and mostly orange pumpkin. Still super cute though. :D

Signing "please" because the paint wasn't magically on his plate ready to go. 

So serious.

Week Forty-One: Zoo Boo

Zoo Boo at Como Zoo was absolutely nothing like I expected it to be, but was a lot of fun!

O had a great time for the most part. He didn't like the man keeping him down, aka having to go with the flow of people and not against it, but that was really the only thing that made him sad. He loved running around, enjoyed carrying his little trick or treat bag half the time, and was very excited to get treats from costumed strangers. He even signed thank you a few times!

Pretty sure his favorite treat was a box of flashcards. No doubt he is my kid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He loves big mascot creatures! Such a cutie little guy.

 

-H

Week Sixteen: O's First Easter

Weeks ago I set up O's one year photos with the wonderfully talented Jessica. She is a busy gal, and we are a busy family, so coordinating schedules was a bit of a trick. When we finally set it up I managed to schedule it on one of the days I would be out doing state testing for work. Whoops! Thankfully, she was able to reschedule for the following week, which will actually be on O's birthday. So his birthday pictures will actually happen on his birthday- how fun!

However, because of my scheduling snafu, I kind of ruined any Easter plans we could have made. Mike was able to trade a girl at work his Wednesday shift {day of original photo session} for her Saturday shift. Once it was set in stone we realized that it was the Saturday before Easter. Then shortly after that I realized my major goof on the date in general. So it ended up that Mike had to work on Saturday, ruling out any travel plans to spend Easter with family.

O's first Easter ended up being my most favorite holiday with him so far! He was such a happy guy 95% of the day and we had a great time as a family of three.

In the morning O had a blast with his Easter basket.

Yay Owen! So naughty.

Had to get his foot in the jar after daddy suggested he put it on like a sock.

Meow. This is mine now. Meow.

 

We went to brunch at Jake's City Grill and it was fabulous. We ate way too much, but it was all so tasty. I sense the start of a tradition with going out to brunch for Easter. How awesome to eat massive amounts of food with zero clean up?!

After brunch we stopped at home for a quick wardrobe change for Mike and I. We were much too warm for the wonderful summery weather we were having! After some slightly more appropriate clothing choices we headed out to Stillwater for some play time at Teddy Bear Park. It was so fun! O had a blast on the slides and trying to climb up everything in sight.

Spending time at the park made me so excited for the nice weather to come. Nice weather better stick around! I cannot handle a chilly summer after the hell that was this winter. The only negatives about the park were the fact that they had a sand area, which I didn't want to deal with, but that O was interested in jumping into. It was easy enough to distract him, but it also meant that there was sand tracked onto the playground equipment. Not a big deal, just something I wish didn't exist. :)

Best part of the park? Digging in the cracks on the ground.

The park tired us all out, but O was certain he didn't need a nap. After a failed nap attempt we played in the backyard. Mike and I put together all his birthday presents and O helped. A lot. Like, a lot more "help" than you want. It was funny and terrifying to see what a climber he is. At least he is pretty skilled and doesn't usually fall off of things!

We wrapped up our outside time with an egg hunt and called it a day. It was such a lovely Easter!

-H