Merry Christmas everyone!

We V's had a fantastic Christmas week and hope that all of you did too! On Christmas Eve, we went to our Granny's house for some fun with P's family. There were lots of relatives, including many kids for Little N to play with. I think a fun time was had by all!Then, at night, Little N's Mooma and Boompa flew in for the holidays. We were sooo excited to see them and extra excited that they would be staying with us! Little N was fast asleep when they got here, so he got an extra special surprise on Christmas morning. Santa not only brought him some super sweet presents, but he left Mooma and Boompa too! He must have given them a ride in his sleigh from Paris! (They took a little trip before coming to visit.)

On Christmas morning, we opened presents from Santa before heading out for the day's festivities. Little N got a super sweet recliner from Santa, which is perfect for watching Elmo movies! He even has a cup holder! Santa thought that maybe this would be a good gift since Little N REALLY likes recliners. When people come to our house to visit, they are always a little surprised when their feet fly in the air after sitting on the couch. Everyone has to have their feet up when Little N is around!

On Christmas Day, we started out with a yummy brunch at P's relatives house. This is a yearly tradition which starts with tons of good food and usually ends with some card playing or dominoes.

We skipped out on the games this year to head to S's uncle's house in Hastings to celebrate with the V's. Little N had a great day and behaved very well for only getting a 30 minute nap!

This is the super adorable Cousin J, opening some Christmas presents.

Here is Little N's Mooma. This handsome little guy on the left is the cute little M, who happens to be S' godson. He was looking especially dapper in a little suit and tie this year.

You would think that after all this fun, we would be done, but nope! On Friday, morning S had to go to work, so P, Little N, and Mooma and Boompa went on a shopping adventure at the Mall of America. Mooma wanted to see her sister and we found out that her niece MO is going to have a baby! She is due about 6 weeks after P(there must be something in the water!) They already had plans for a day of maternity clothes shopping, which P was more than happy to participate in! S was very nice and had given P a gift certificate to get some clothes for Christmas, so she was ready to go! We all headed to the mall and met a bunch of Mooma's family for a fun morning of shopping. Auntie A had to work, so Uncle M and Cousin J came to hang out with us too! That evening, we had a V family Christmas with just Mooma, Boompa, and S' sibling's families. Nathan was very excited that he got to play with Cousin J again!

The little ones both got Elmo's this year that talk and dance, so they had a great time playing with them and dancing along!

On Saturday, we just had a lazy day with Mooma and Boompa. They had to catch a flight home that evening and I think we were all partied out! Little N did manage to squeeze in a little milestone this weekend between all the fun. Boompa and Daddy put Little N's last Christmas present together on Saturday morning, which was a big boy bed from Mommy and Daddy. P was so excited to give it to him, but then once the crib was all taken down and Little N was happily jumping on his new bed, she realized that her baby boy is growing up and was kind of sad. How does the time pass so fast??

After Mooma and Boompa left, Little N went to visit with his Grancy for the night. P has some really good friends that don't get into town too often, so we try to get together at least once around Christmas every year. We had a fun night out at The Happy Gnome in St. Paul(some of you may remember this as the starting point of S' pedal pub adventure). S and P went to pick up Little N on Sunday morning and brought him home for a relaxing day at home before we all begin our week. As you can see, both S and Little N were quite wiped out from our days of fun! We hope you all had a fantastic holiday season! We sure do feel lucky to have such wonderful friends and family! What a great week!

Love,

P, S, and Little N

Mommy's little helper

P decided that this weekend, due to the extreme cold and snow, would be a weekend of inside fun. While Little N played with his toys, P decided to get some cleaning done. Mooma and Boompa are coming to stay next week and we needed to get a little more organized before they got here. As P swiffered the floors, Little N got upset because that looked more fun than playing with his toys, so P happily handed over the swiffer and off he went! I am very excited that swiffering is a fun game in our house! Lucky me!

This is just one of the many pictures I was instructed to take this morning! I guess we have a little model on our hands! Happy weekend everyone!

Santa, Santa, and more Santa

Last weekend was a Santa filled weekend for Little N. On Saturday he and Mommy went to breakfast with Santa with Grancy for her work. He got to sit on his lap and got a few little gifts.When we got home, it was such a nice day that P decided some playing in the snow was in order. Good thing since it has been too cold ever since! At first he was not so sure what to do. Last year, Little N didn't walk so good yet, so we didn't really play outside much. It took some encouragement from Mommy, but soon he was crawling all over the yard and making snowballs. We even made a snowman!
This was our attempt at a snow angel. It involved Mommy moving his arms and legs for him.


Then, on Sunday was P's company Christmas Party at the Embassy Suites. It was super fun! They had chocolate fountains, a hot cocoa bar, frost your own cookies, a craft room, and of course Santa! What a weekend!

Happy Birthday Little Miss M!

Last weekend, we went to Little Miss M's super fun 5th birthday party. It was at Edinborough Park, which is indoors and has all kinds of fun tunnels and slides for the kids to play on. Little N was just a bit too short for some of it, but luckily(or not so luckily) it is made big enough for Moms and Dads too, so P and S got to take turns climbing and sliding too.

Here is the birthday girl in her super cool Minnie Mouse outfit!

This place was mass chaos! Kids crawling over each other and running everywhere! I was worried Little N would get pushed around in the other kid's excitement, but as you can see, he held his own just fine.

I thought he would really like the bouncy area in the little kid section, but I think either he was getting bounced too much or tired out by this point because after a few bouncing attempts that ended with him on his knees, he decided to just lay down and let other kids bounce him!

After some crazy climbing around, we all got together for some John Deere birthday cake...mmm! Little N's favorite part of any birthday is singing Happy Birthday and clapping as the candles are blown out.

These are Nathan's other buddies, TM and DM. I think DM really wanted to stick his fingers in that cake!

Girl's Night Out

P and two of her close friend's, TR2 and BF, had their annual night out this week. Every year we go to the Holidazzle parade, the Macy's holiday display, and go out to dinner. This year was very cold, so we opted for watching the parade from the skyway. Then we went and saw the Macy's display, which was "A Day in the Life of an Elf." For the first year in P's life of going to this display, there was no line! We walked right in and got to take our time walking through. What a treat! And then, speaking of treats we decided to try a new restaurant this year and went to The Melting Pot for dinner. Talk about a fun time!Thanks girls! Can't wait until next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry everyone, I'm a little behind. For Thanksgiving this year, we did something with P's family that we hadn't done in a long time. We all spend Thanksgiving together....and I mean all! Grancy had the great idea of having Thanksgiving at her office(she works at a senior center downtown St. Paul). It was such a big area that she invited all the aunts, uncles, cousins, great-aunts, you name it! We had almost 40 people and it was really fun! There was tons of good food and fun. We played our traditional bunco, where you roll the dice and if you get a double you get a prize.Then, the kids played our other traditional Thanksgiving game of "Cut the turkey's head off!" Not nearly as gruesome as it sounds. We have a cardboard turkey and whoever sticks their name closest to the neck, wins a prize. This is after being spun around in circles with a paper bag over your head. Little N did have his name closest this year, but since we didn't spin him or make him wear the bag, he graciously forfeited to the next closest kid.We had such a great day! Hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was equally as great!

Deer Hunting Season

Every year during deer hunting season, P has started the tradition of going to stay with her Aunt D. We usually just hang out, relax, and enjoy the company. The one thing we always do is get our Christmas cutout cookies made and frosted. These cookies have been a yearly tradition with D and P for as long as P can remember. Some years others will join in the fun, some years not, but we always get those cookies made!

We had a visitor on Saturday. Little N's Grancy came to help make some other cookies and have dinner with us. As you can see above, Little N even shared a cookie with her. He sure had a fun filled time playing with cousins M and T this weekend. There was lots of hide-and-seek going on and running around in general! Thanks to the boys for babysitting Little N this year so P could go to water aerobics with D! What a treat! We love staying at Aunt D's house. It's always so fun and relaxing and full of good food too! Thanks to the H family for letting us come and stay! Hopefully we are still allowed next year with 2 little ones running around! Oh yeah...and for the hunters out there S did manage to get himself a 6 point buck. He seemed pretty pleased with that! Another successful season done!

Mooma came to visit!

We have had a fun filled week. Little N's Mooma had to come up from St. Louis to work for the week, so we got to have her stay with us for 6 whole days! Little N REALLY liked that....so did P and S! We started out our week with a night at the rides at Mall of America. P's work had an employee appreciation event where we got free rides for the day! Little N took right after his Mommy in this area. He could have gone all night long. He even had his little arms up on the kiddie rollercoaster. It was pretty darn cute. We invited Little N's cousin J and her family along, and of course Mooma! The kids loved the rides, the poor dad's did not so much. Neither Daddy is a fan of rides, but both Mommy's are pregnant so their ability to ride with the kids was pretty limited. Those Dad's sure did great though! They were real troupers so that Little N and J could have tons of fun. And they sure did...there were a few tears when we called it a night.

We started out with the Carousel.....

Drove some Semi trucks.....

Flew the Blue's Clues ride. Cousin J needed a pink one....looking good Uncle M!

And finished off with a hot air balloon ride. What a blast!

The kids had so much fun and I think the adults did too!

Little N was very sad to see his Mooma go this morning. He kept trying to bring her suitcase back into her room. Bye Mooma! Thanks for coming! We love you!