Christmas with Gramps and Nana

We spent Saturday evening at my parents celebrating Christmas. We had a lot of fun.

Opening her stocking. M&M's...Lauren's favorite

Addison slept through the whole thing. She missed out on all the fun. Next year she won't miss a thing. She will be up and toddling around...

Santa brought Lauren more dress up clothes which she loves. She also got a Dr's kit. She has been checking us to see if we are sick since she got it...She has even been checking Zoe!

Christmas was blast this year. It was so fun to watch Lauren open the presents on her own. She did not even care what was in them. She just wanted to open and open presents. Then she took the time to go back and see what she got. Next year Addison will have fun playing with all the paper and bows rather then sleeping through it all.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve and today. I will post more later when I have time. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas. We sure are! Everyone is napping right now getting ready for more fun this afternoon and evening!

Christmas with the Hardings

We spent the weekend in Omaha with Mark's family celebrating Christmas. Lauren had so much fun playing with her cousins and trying to dodge Uncle Jeff. Lauren claims not to like Uncle Jeff...but last night she said "I don't like Uncle Jeff...I like Uncle Jeff just a little bit" and then put her fingers together to show just a little bit...it was really cute. Addison had a pretty rough trip which made it rough for me and Mark. She did not want to nurse on Saturday and hardly ate at all. She did not want to take naps...she just cried and cried...so we headed out early Sunday morning to get her home. She is back to her old self now...eating and sleeping fine! Lauren loves her Emma. They played together all weekend.

All the girls watching The Little Mermaid. Kate is in the red dress and Lauren and Kate are good friends too. We are convinced that those two are going to cause some trouble as they get older.

Hanging out while we open presents...a rare moment of being content on Saturday...

Lauren got dress up clothes and Tinkerbell from her Grandma. They were perfect gifts. She loves both. She also got a pony from Aunt Betsy and Uncle Pat which she has played with non stop over the last few days.

Do I really need to say anything?

except that she will probably hate this picture when she gets older...

Christmas Parties

Today we went to the Children's Mercy Holiday Party at the Hyatt. This is the first year we have gone and it was a lot of fun. There were many arts and crafts for the kids, a magic show, snacks, Santa, and books from Borders. Lauren did not want to sit on Santa's lap however she did wave to him a lot and was really excited to see him walking by her when he went to take a break!

Lauren got a snow man painted on her cheek. She sat there very patiently while they painted it on. I was very proud of her.

There is a huge selection of books from Borders that the kids can pick from. We got three great books for Lauren and Addison. Of course, Lauren picked out the Disney Princess book. It is really cute. It is a book and it also included several figurines of the princesses for Lauren to play with.

Friday was the Christmas Party at Lauren's school. All the parents were invited to attend and it was a lot of fun watching all the kids play. There was lots of food and they exchanged gifts with one of their friends in the class.

Landen, Lauren and Killian. They have been together since the infant room and they are her best friends at school. They are so cute!

Lauren's gift from Elaina. A dress up outfit. Lauren loved it!

Lauren and Elaina. I think they really are friends, even though Lauren says "Elaina hit me at school today" almost every day. Who knows if it is true or not. I do know Elaina is in time out a lot, but I doubt that she hits Lauren every day...

All dressed up. When she got up this morning she put in back on over her PJ's. It was a great gift from Elaina.

Cause Why?

The question of Why has begun in our house. The way that Lauren asks is "Cause Why?" It is actually kind of fun to see how far you can get off the initial question and actually teach her a little something. She saw the neighbor going out for a jog and asked "Cause Why?" After several "Cause Why?" questions I turned it into a lesson on exercise and how that is healthy and good for your heart, etc...and then Lauren thought about it for a few minutes and said "I exercise with Coach Patty." (That is the person who comes to daycare on Wednesday mornings for exercise class.) I said that is right Lauren, she was pretty proud of herself.

I say it is cute now...we will see in a few weeks or months from now when she is still asking "Cause Why?"

Christmas Pictures

We got the girls pictures taken today so I thought I would share some of my favorites. They both did so great! I was not holding out much hope for getting one of them together, but they both did so well and we got one Mark and I both really liked. Addison did really well, hardly cried. Lauren cooperated the whole time. We used good old fashioned bribery to get Lauren to cooperate!

It is so exhausting getting pictures taken. Of course the place is running late, so we waited 45 minutes before we even got started. Then took pictures for 40 minutes, then had to pick them out. We were there for 2 hours! So needless to say it will probably be late spring or early summer before I return. Lauren is only a few months away from turning 3 so these can be her 3 year pictures! We will wait and get more when Addison can sit up on her own and give us a big smile!

The first snowfall, Gingerbread house, and Decorating the tree

We had a very busy weekend around the house getting it all decorated for the Christmas season. It was so fun to see the snow falling on Saturday when we were decorating the tree. Of course we did not have any snow boots for the season yet, so I rushed out and got some for Lauren because I knew she would love to be out in the snow, and she did. I actually needed several things from Target, but I dreaded going out shopping. I highly suggest shopping the Saturday after Black Friday...there were not crowds anywhere..no lines...I went to Target, Old Navy, and Borders and was gone less then a 1 1/2 hours. I was shocked!

The snow was great for making snow balls. We even made a small snow man, but then Lauren decided to destroy it before I could get a picture.

We also decorated a gingerbread house this weekend. Which I learned can be a little challenging with a toddler. Lauren seems to have so much energy these days that we are running out of things to keep her busy while at home, so I thought the gingerbread house would be a fun activity. We did have a lot of fun decorating it, even though it is very hard to get it to look all nice and pretty like the box. It was a great thing for Lauren and I to do to have some "mommy and Lauren time."

Watching the snow fall for the first time this season.

Most of the ornaments are in the same spot, right in front where Lauren put them!

Playing in the storage box kept Lauren entertained for at least an hour while I put up all the decorations in the house. I have so many Christmas decorations that I put some aside for her to play with while I decorated. No, the top of the box is not locked on, Lauren can easily get out of the box and breath and play!

You can see there are no pictures of Addison from the weekend. That is because she slept through everything! She woke up to eat a few times and then just want back to snoozing...