We <3 Snow!

We love snow at our house and though it's not enough to sled in Daddy and Maddy found enough to make a little snowman.

Christmas Day 2009

Maddy must have been on the very nice list this year. Santa brought her a new art table at our house and the gifts kept piling up at each stop we made. It was nice to spend the day with both of our families and Mad was a trooper for not getting much sleep the night before and no nap. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with the Sax family. The cousins all played and the adults enjoyed good food and great company. The place went wild when Santa and Mrs. Claus came for a visit. Maddy was really excited this year...last year was a different story. I wonder if Santa is amazed every year by our increasing number...I remember a time when there was only a few kids on his lap. Maddy was very happy to find out that cousin Ella made a birthday cake for Jesus and that we got to sing Happy Birthday to him! We are so thankful that the whole family can gather together to celebrate. We are bummed that we missed the laser show and disco!































Waiting for her turn to sit with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

ZOO Lights

We bundled up tonight and headed to the Zoo to see Wild Lights. We went last year and had a great time and this year they had some new and pretty cool lights. We rode the carousel (Mad's favorite part of the ZOO and the mall) and went into Penguin cove. I think that was the first time it was actually warmer in Penguin cove than outside. Laura, Audrey and Drew met us and the girls had fun running to see the lights and checking out the penguins.

Baker Girl

I was feeling in the Christmas spirit after having Breakfast with Santa so I decided to bake some cookies with my assistants help. We bought all of her cooking tools while we were at Eckert's and Mad loved them. She did a great job helping even if she did eat the cookie dough and put lots of flour on the floor. She might be the cutest helper I ever did see!

My Cutie

Madylin wanted to wear her headband and a pony tail today and I couldn't get over how grown up she looked...and cute! I took a couple of shots and since she was in a picture mood I took a couple more. Here are a few of my favorites.

Breakfast With Santa

SUCCESS! After almost poking Santa with scissors at an earlier event I was pretty sure we were not going to have any part of Santa this year. Lucky for us at Eckert's they also have Mrs. Claus who helped pave the way for Santa. She was hesitant at first but once he came over and started talking to her sh was hooked. We had no problem getting her to sit by him but getting her to look at us was another story. So now we have a girl who LOVES Santa and asked if we can go see him again.

Nola Girl

As many of you already heard Nola had to have a biopsy on her nose and on her side to check out some mysterious bumps. Luckily they turned out to be non harmful and just something that a few dogs get. They said she will probably get more but that unless they are close to her eyes or on her lips to let them go. Nola looked pretty silly with her stitches in and still looks pretty funny with her scarred nose. We are not sure if her hair will ever fill it in but we sure are glad that our baby is OK! The other pic is some camera hog that lives with us =)

Audrey and Drew Come to Dinner

Laura came over tonight to deliver our Christmas cards which are the cutest ever! May I take a moment and highly recommend her to anyone wanting the most adorable pictures of your children! Visit her website at http://five-petals.com/...anyways we asked if they wanted to stay for dinner so the kids could play. Maddy loves playing with Audrey and Drew was such a cutie chasing the girls as fast as he could. Thanks again Laura for the great pictures and thanks Audrey and Drew for making Maddy's day.

Christmas Tree

We had a great and cold time cutting down our Christmas Tree this year. We searched and searched for the perfect one while Madylin enjoyed running up and down the rows of trees. She was curious where the apples and pumpkins were...think we go to Eckert's much? We were pretty chilly when we got back in so we sat by the fire and had Hot Cider and Hot Chocolate.

Thanksgiving Part 2

We are lucky and get to have Thanksgiving twice every year. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we head to Brian's dad and step mom's house for Thanksgiving part 2. Maddy had a blast playing with her Aunt Tori and getting M&M's from Grandpa Roger. We missed Great Grandpa this year but had him with us in our hearts.

Thanksgiving

We are thankful this year for many things. We are thankful for every day that we get to watch our little girl grow. We are thankful for great friends and for a loving family. We are thankful to both have a job when so many are not so lucky. We are thankful for our health and a home that we build memories in every day! We missed Grandma Helen this year but know she is watching from above.

Silly Girl

Maddy was acting silly tonight so I snapped some quick shots.

Wishing you a purr...fectly scary Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

Today I had parent teacher conferences and didn't have to be at work until 1pm. I decided we better carve our pumpkin before Halloween was over! We got out all the newspaper and tools and got to work. Maddy was really excited to carve the pumpkin...even though I don't think she knew what carve meant since she was hitting the side of the pumpkin with a spoon saying "carve, carve".

Once I cut the lid I had her pull it off. As you can see she didn't know how she felt about the contents of a pumpkin. I encouraged her to help me dig out the inside. She stuck her hand in and quickly pulled it out and said "It is to wet mommy". So she held a wooden spoon and watched as I dug all the insides out. She wanted to get them with the spoon but had a hard time.

We talked about what shapes she wanted for the face. She liked pulling the eyes out and then putting them back in like puzzle pieces. I had to convince her that a Jack-O-Lantern would not work with the pieces in. Our Jack-O-Lantern is a girl by the way and you will be quickly corrected if you refer to her as he!


After we were done carving we started on our Pirate pumpkin. She really liked this one and enjoyed picking which piece we would add next. I think he turned out pretty cute and Mad likes to get up at the table and talk to him and of course he says "argh".