Christmas Eve 2011

Slowly but surely I'll get caught up! Fortunately, blogging is one thing that's easy to do while holding a baby that won't nap in his crib :)

Christmas was crazy... as usual. Someday we'll figure out something that is a little less hectic, but for now, we fit in four family gatherings plus church in two days. Christmas eve we started at my mom's and opened presents. Afterwards, we headed home for nap time and to get dressed for church. We went to the Christmas Eve service at 3:30 then headed to my grandparents afterwards - unfortunately we missed dinner because it took 30 minutes to get out of the Grace parking lot (where I think everyone in Hamilton County decided to go for church!)

Here are just a few highlights from our first Christmas Eve as a family of four.

I love our faces - it kind of describes how the holidays felt!

Passing out presents at Mimi's...


Mimi helped open presents...


While I held Hank and Ben videotaped!


Jordyn was at the most fun age to watch opening presents... everything was soooo awesome!




Santa butt...


Finally awake! Getting held by my oldest cousin...


Ok - time for outfit changes! Each kid had 3 outfits to get through in 2 days!


I couldn't get over how cute Lucy's outfit was, so I was snapping pictures while she was playing... not thinking about what she was doing. Can you imagine where that can ended up?


Hank Christmas Outfit #2


All the cousins at my grandparents..


Getting ready to open more presents at Nanni and Poppi's house...


Mimi helped again...


Present opening was crazy as usual, but I made sure to sneak off and grab a family picture...


And Lucy got some snuggle time with Mimi in...


Finally we headed home and did our own family Christmas. Starting next year I think we'll do the traditional present opening at our house on Christmas morning, but since we were heading to Ben's parents first thing in the morning we decided it would be easiest to open presents at night. Loving on my two babies...

Cousins

As I mentioned previously, Ben's sister and our niece and nephew were in town for two weeks around Thanksgiving. We don't get to see them much because they live in Texas, so we tried to soak up all the Addy Jo/Hastle time we could! We spent a lot of time playing over at the Wehners, and Kate and I even ventured out with all the kids one day to lunch and Snapperz. Here are the girls playing...






They got along really well, for them both being in the midst of toddler-hood, and seemed to be ok with sharing toys and grandparents (most of the time!) Here's a video I took of the girls dancing - this is actually from the night I went into labor. Shortly after shooting this, Lucy ended up throwing up all over the place! Surprising since she seems so happy!

Thanksgiving 2011

I have a bit of catching up to do on my blog... one post at a time! The weeks leading up to Hank's arrival were busy! Ben's sister was in town with our niece and nephew for two weeks and all of Ben's family was in town for Thanksgiving. We got to spend a lot of time catching up with family and letting the cousins play. Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving with the Wehners. We also celebrated with my mom's family during the second half of the day and my dad on Friday but I forgot to take any pictures!


Watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade...


Being goofy...


Trying to get a shot of the girls, but we were unsuccessful!


Again, trying to get a shot with Grandpa, but no such luck...


Family picture!


And just our immediate family...

Water Park

Our house is under construction right now, we've been trying to get the whole downstairs painted before Lucy's first birthday party... so I've been spending almost every waking hour caulking, spackling, sanding, painting, etc. That leaves little time to post, but I wanted to get a few pictures up from when we went to the indoor water park with my sister and Jadyn and Jordyn (I forgot my regular camera, so help my iphone VERY carefully as I snapped a few shots.)

Lucy had a blast and it was so fun to watch her really explore. She loved all the people and all the water toys they had for kids to play with. And she wanted nothing to do with her mom! I kept trying to hold her hand as she walked around and she kept brushing me off... my little baby is growing up!

I put a tshirt over her onesie because she seemed to be really cold when we first got there... I think it helped her warm up a little, at least her teeth stopped chattering.

Watching the big bucket of water dump over...

Cousins!

Christmas Day

Now for even more Christmas! Ben and I opened presents just the two of us on Christmas Eve... I want the tradition to be for us to open presents as a family on Christmas morning, but Ben was really eager to open presents (am I married to a 5 year old?) and we had to go straight to the Wehner's Christmas morning, so I figured it was ok to open presents a little early until Lucy is more aware of what's going on.

Ruthie got to open a present too!


Christmas morning we woke up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for MORE presents... as if this girls needs anything at all! I take a breakfast casserole over every year and Grandma Wehner made some pancakes.

We re-did the Wehner family high chair for Mom Wehner's present - crazy to think that Lucy is sitting in the same chair that her daddy sat in 25+ years ago!

Lucy and Addy Jo played for a bit while we got the presents organized. I just loved watching the girls play together - they would climb all over each other, "chase" each other through the kitchen, and "share" toys.


This is the closest I could get to the two of them looking... there were much more interesting things going on that morning!


Lucy loved the boxes and wrapping paper - I didn't think she'd really know what to do, but she actually helped unwrap the presents a bit, and even got excited about a couple toys.






One of her favorite presents was a baby doll... I think she liked that there was someone else out in the world who was just as bald as she is :)


After presents, Lucy took a nap and some of us went for a Christmas morning walk. Lucy napped so well, we actually ended up having to leave as soon as she woke up to make it to Papa Duke and Grandma Roxanne's house for even more presents (can you see why I was so exhausted!)


Waiting patiently with Daddy while others open presents...


My very own race car! Watch out Danica Patrick...


More cousins to play with - Lucy loves playing with other kids... it's funny, if we're in a room with adults and children, she automatically goes to play with the other kids... like she knows they'll be more fun to play with


After Papa Duke's we headed back to the Wehner's for dessert and to visit with Ben's grandparents... then finally home, exhausted, and thankful for so much family and so much love!

Merry Christmas, Again!
(from the pirate santa?)

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!


Christmas was busy as usual this year - we spent Christmas eve with my mom and her family, then Christmas day visiting with Ben's family and my dad. All in all Lucy did great, maybe even better than me! By the end of the two days I was exhausted and didn't want to even think about strapping Lucy in the car seat one more time or setting up the pack n play again... but alas, we recovered! Some highlights from Christmas Eve...

Lucy woke up and we headed to Mimi's to open presents in our Christmas PJ's. Lucy got a new sled (and lots of toys) from Mimi! Which we unfortunately didn't get to use before all the snow melted... so hoping we get more snow soon.


Mimi putting a little christmas decoration on Lucy's (still bald) head...


Someone didn't get the memo that you were supposed to wear CHRISTMAS pj's :)


After opening presents we took Jadyn and Jordyn to my grandparents for the annual grandkids lunch, but we headed home with Lucy instead of going to lunch because it just seemed like too much to fit in with a baby. We also wanted to make it to church so we headed home for a nap and got ready for the 1pm church service. After church we headed to Nanni's and Poppi's for dinner and more presents!

Lucy - all dressed up in her Christmas dress from Mimi!




Quick change into PJ's (can you tell we had lots of Christmas outfits to get through in two days) and time to open presents! Lucy got books and a blanket from her cousins... and money for college from Nanni and Poppi... glad we can start saving early!