Christmas 2009--Part II

One of the great things about Matt and I being from the same hometown is that our families attend the same church. So we actually get to be with both families on Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning (can you tell?!)

A quick story to explain: As we were heading out of town, Matt stopped to grab a coffee and took Wyatt and Sadie inside the coffee shop with him to use the restrooms once last time. While Matt was waiting for his coffee, Sadie asked if she could get this rice krispy bar, to which Matt replied, "No." Apparently she just couldn't control herself and took a bite out of it--plastic wrapping and all. As a result, Matt had to buy the bar, however we did now let her have any of it. When they got back to the car, Matt was trying so hard to be stern with Sadie and not laugh, although I have to say that his success at doing so is debatable.

Both of our families had some illnesses and we were so thankful to get out of Madison with all of us healthy!! We seriously dodged a bullet with all the colds/coughs around us. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer!

Christmas 2009--Part I

We spent the first part of our time home in Madison at my parents house. It was so relaxing and fun to spend time with our entire family together for Christmas (for probably the last time for quite awhile as Lindsay and Rob will be living in New Zealand). Not much to say.....I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Mary Jo's college graduation---YEAH!!!--my parents are officially done paying tuition!!

Lindsay finally got to meet Blake and loved holding him as much as she could--but mostly liked holding him when he was sleeping!!

Christmas (Eve) morning....new slippers from Santa!!

(this was my mom's new purse, but Sadie quickly used it as her diaper bag--note the TWO babies in her arms!!)

Sadie couldn't get enough of eating the snow!

Christmas Eve Church service--just missing Rob!

Finding the Dress

The kids and I headed to Madison a week before Christmas to spend some time with my sister, who was in town for two weeks from New Zealand. Much of her time in Madison was spent making wedding plans for her June wedding. On Saturday, my mom, my 2 sisters, and Sadie and I (and Blake, poor guy!) went dress shopping. Well, actually it was more like 'picking the favorite' since Lindsay and my mom had already done the big shopping and we got to come along to see the 'final 2'. And what a fun day it was!!

No pics of the dress...of course! But after selecting "The One", we were served a champagne toast (and Sadie got a champagne glass with water).

Sadie loved every minute of it. She spent much time following Lindsay around and 'fluffing' her train, but in between dresses, Sadie did a little playing of her own!

Sadie is going to be the flower girl in Lindsay and Rob's wedding, so we took the opportunity to try on a few flower girl dresses. Sadie loved changing into each one and HAD to stand on the box that Lindsay and other brides get to stand on!

This one was a bit big, but as you can see from each picture, she loved 'carrying' her dress around just like Lindsay carried hers around the store.

Lindsay is going to be a beautiful bride and Sadie will be such a cute flower girl----can't wait!!

Wyatt's 1st Christmas Concert

I am a bit behind on my posts, so here is my attempt to catch up while all 3 kids are sleeping. Wyatt had his preschool Christmas concert a few weeks ago and it was so cute! My in-laws and sister in law were also in town and got to see Wyatt 'perform'. He was so excited about it and kept asking us if we would all be there to see him. But once he got up in front of everyone, his shyness shown in full effect. He was very excited once he spotted us but was also immediately aware that people were watching him.

This was, I think, his 'nervous reaction' to all the attention:

...he played with her dress during the entire first song! Thankfully she didn't seem to mind.

Once the first song was over, he really began to concentrate--sorry about the quality of the pics. Now that i have my new camera and telephoto lens, this won't happen anymore!

Always serious.

He did a great job and to my surprise, he knew all the words to the songs and sang them all as well! During one part of the service, the pastor of the church where he attends preschool was telling a story about asking the kids what they wanted for Christmas. After sharing some of the kids' answers, he said that Mrs. Meyer (Wyatt's teacher) asked him what he wanted for Christmas and before he could even answer, a precocious little boy in the class shouted out "HAIR"! (I should explain that the pastor is probably early to mid-thirties and has a very slight receding hairline--note 'slight'.) He then looked over at the class and said, "That little boy was Wyatt". Of course the entire congregation was laughing hysterically but Matt and I, along with my in-laws and sister in-law, couldn't believe it!! We were laughing, but also in shock that Wyatt would have the confidence to shout out an answer before anyone else, let alone such a surprising one! I explained to his teacher the next day that since both his grandpas have little hair, its become a common joke/discussion in our family. Not sure that will make the pastor feel any better, but it made for a hilarious story for us to remember!

Two weeks already??

it's hard to believe that Blake is already 2 weeks old today. Time seems to go even faster with each child. And it also helps that Blake is such a great baby---pretty much just eats and sleeps! And I've only been getting up twice a night for the last week, so I feel quite rested for having a newborn. We've had lots of visitors and unfortunately i don't have pictures of everyone who has been here because I've just been enjoying the company! But here are a few snapshots of the past two weeks--he is definitely one loved baby!

Day 1 at home

Day 3 at home---this is what he does most of the time!

A common look from Blake

Our first Minnesota-born baby

The 'signature' move of all our babies