Travel Here, Travel There, Travel Everywhere...

Our holidays were extremely hectic this year due to all the activity and states that we managed to cram into a 10 day period.  After meeting Tyler at his parents house we hurried home to make a Christmas party on my mom's side.  My aunt has numerous Christmas trees throughout her home, all of which spin, but one in particular caught W's eye.  It was a Winnie the Pooh tree, that had a train underneath.  

After Papa brought him back from viewing all the holiday decor all W could talk about was the tree that went, "round round round in circles!"  He was so excited that you could barely understand him as he repeated this phrase over and over while motioning with his arms.  The duration of the party was spent taking shifts sitting with W as he gazed in awe at perhaps the most magical Christmas decor he has come across.

I must say the train was quite impressive.  

It was made entirely out of legos, complements of my cousin Rocco.

The next day we packed up the car and headed back to Wisconsin to visit some of Tyler's family in Milwaukee.  It was a rather low key day which was nice since this was the beginning of the plague that was about to descend upon us.  Little Man received an abundance of presents, as did the rest of us.  I am thrilled to say I am the owner of a brand new king size down comforter and it is glorious.  W got a nice assortment of books, trains, and clothes, along with a globe that is really rather neat.

Even though W was not feeling very well he still managed to make everyone smile and his energy outlasted all the men. 

Who can blame them? A full belly and a lazy boy will always yield these results.

Unfortunately for Tyler's aunts new furniture, W was in pretty rough shape by the end of the night.  He was coughing so hard that he made himself throw up.  Tyler's mom was kind enough to go out and get a whole feel better kit, and Tyler's aunt washed all of our clothes.  W rallied though and told me that he wanted to party on Christmas eve, so we donned our festive outfits and the following night headed over to visit with my dad's family.  He was in much better spirits and health, than my mom or myself, but the Spiderman tricycle may have something to do with that.

Merry Christmas to All!

I apologize for the delay in my posting, but between travel, the holidays, and the plague that our household caught, I just was not able to keep up with my updating!  Thank you everyone for being so patient with my sporadic posting. 

Here is a little window into our Christmas.  Santa's elf stayed up until 3 am putting together that awesome train table.  W is really a big fan of taking apart 2 particular buildings and hiding the trains in the depot because apparently that is where they, "go potty."

Merry Christmas to all!

You call that a blizzard?!

A week ago, W and I headed up to Wisconsin to meet Tyler at his parent's house to celebrate Christmas.  While it was a short visit, it was not lacking of quality time.  We had a Christmas feast, went to see over a million holidays lights in downtown Lacrosse, exchanged gifts and shoveled the snow from the "blizzard."  Perhaps, I lived in Minnesota to long, where blizzard was code for it is acceptable to be more than a half hour late to work, but it really did not feel like blizzard was an appropriate term for the cute sprinkling of snow.  The following is our photo highlight reel:

Peeking on Santa

Booping Grandma's nose

"I will get just close enough to reach the candy cane."

I will give you a high five and that is all.

Above and Below: Do it Myself, "I fix it."

Maybe following in Uncle Joe Joe's footsteps

Hijacking Mommy's gift

Take that blizzard

A Rachel and Cece Visit

A Rachel and Cece visit is really the best kind.  So I am so glad that I was done with school and a majority of my holiday preparations by the time they arrived!  What can be better than a little time with your bestie around the holidays?... Time with your bestie and our babies that is what!  Unfortunatley, our time ended to soon and they are heading home. 

Gasp! It cannot be time to leave yet!

While our friends were here we managed to exchange gifts, make cookies, have a slumber party and all around enjoy time together.  W and C grow to be more adorable with each passing visit, and this time was no exception.  The moment C walked through the door she was excited to see her pal.  After every nap, there would be a sleepy, "Where's C/W?"

We colored often and our official cookie testers had more than one Christmas cookie!

In between crayons and chocolate, C enjoyed trying to tickle W's tootsies and W enjoyed crawling on the table.

W really enjoyed being the older kid at a play date for once and took a lot of time showing C the ropes.  If she stood on a chair he informed her to sit, if she needed a toy that was out of reach he would grab it, and he would turn on the ornaments so they could dance to the music. 

We miss you already and you probably have yet to cross the boarder!  Thank you so much for visiting and we cannot wait to see you again soon!  Although parting is such sweet sorrow, it is nice to know we will be seeing them in about a week when W and I head up to the frozen tundra aka Minnesota!

And C rejoices! (So do we!)

A parent and tot holiday party!

There have been many aspects of class that W and L have enjoyed.  The crafting, the snacking, the kitchen and trucks, the Halloween and Thanksgiving parties were big hits as well.  So when it came time for the end of class, big to do, holiday fest I thought for sure we would go out with a bang.  There were cookies, cupcakes, juice boxes and presents. Santa even made a guest appearance. 

All the parents were hoping Santa would be a big hit; alas he was not.  It was even uncertain whether any of the kids would sit with Santa long enough for a picture.  L really had to put some thought into this decision and when all was said and done, I am not positive he felt he made the right choice. 



Unlike last year, W did not immediately burst into tears, but he was by no stretch of the imagination pleased with being forced to sit on Santa's lap to receive his present and candy cane.

We managed to get a majority of the kids from class to stand close enough to Santa in an attempt at a group photo.  The result was no Mona Lisa, but no one is in hysterics. 

Santa's visit did seem to spoil the remainder of class, but at least the candy canes were a success.  Farewell parent and tot class, we will definitely miss the juice boxes... uh, I mean, the socialization and benefits that come from an intro to preschool.