Christmas!

santa stopped by our house a little early this year since we would be driving home from iowa on christmas morning. lilian was able to see all of her surprises the morning of the 23rd. santa spoiled her with a new nursery for her babies, wood puzzles, play cutting food, and an oversized mickey (this was the grand finale!)

her stocking had a few dvds...elmo learns to go potty and the leap frog letter factory

we played with the twins, aunt andrea, aunt leanne, and uncle mark on the 23rd. lauren and andrew wanted to start a new tradition of having a slumber party at grandma and grandpas! we watched the polar express (well the first half hour at least!) and played! lilian loves her cousins so much.

the next night was christmas eve. we enjoyed a wonderful meal compliments of grandma rhoda and then opened gifts. the kids were beyond excited! lauren and andrew helped lilian open up hers. she was a little timied at first! she received a new baby that cries, a wooden clock puzzle, a little people house, pjs, legos, a dress up magnetized doll, and a potty chair for her baby (can you tell what we are working on at our house!?) after presents and yummy dessert we were off to visit brian's grandmother at the care center (along with his aunts and uncles) and then we went to church. last year lilian only made it through about a half hour. this year she made it about an hour! ha! we had a wonderful christmas eve in iowa! we love you all!

the next morning we woke up and headed back to kansas city. thankfully lilian was still tired from the night before and took an early nap and was well rested in time to head to my parents' house for our christmas festivities. we decided to do non-traditional food this year and had a mexican feast! it was delicious. after lunch we let curtis and lilian open all of their gifts and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting. lilian received lots more wonderful gifts...puzzles, a baby alive doll (this was hit with her and curtis), a new stroller for her dolls, a bow holder, sorting toys, a wooden cone puzzle, a leapfrog laptop, and her biggest gift was a new kitchen and apron to go with it from grammy and pops! it was an amazing christmas! we are so thankful for all the people in our lives who show us so much love!

memories of lilian this christmas i want to remember...
how much she loves playing and laughing with her 3 cousins
she became obssessed with mickey mouse (there was a big blow up mickey santa by our babysitter's house and every day on the way to and from her house we had to stop and say hi to mickey...afterwards she would repeat about 50 times "more mickey")
she loves buddy (our elf on the shelf) and always wanted to watch him on tv (we recorded an elf on the shelf special)
how much she loved seeing santas...she would get so excited every time she spotted anything with santa on it, and again would repeat, "more santa"
was a little scared to open her gifts at first, would say "mommy do it" or "daddy do it" but got the hang of it after watching her cousins!
the first gift she opened at grandma rhoda's was a pair of pjs...she wrapped them around her neck like a scarf and laid her head down as if to say, "i'm good, that's all i needed this christmas!" too cute
at church on christmas eve when she heard a baby, she would shout "baby crying" :)
LOVED playing "ashes" as she called it (ring around the rosie) liked to include her stuffed animals and dolls as well

ring around the rosie (this never gets old to her!)

Dinner for the Simpsons

tuesday night the college crew got together to visit jill, mike and baby micah and enjoy dinner together. we do this each time a new baby joins the group, i love it! we dinned on salad, pizza and dessert. we keep adding more babies to the group...sara announced that her and keith are expecting at the get together! we are so thrilled for them. she is due the day after my birthday (july 14th). it was so fun having grant and lilian together. of course, lilian adored baby micah and wanted to sit by her and give her hugs and kisses. i cannot wait for more nights like this with our good friends and their new additions!

Christmas Traditions

this week and weekend were full of christmas traditions...both old and new. having lilian to share christmas with makes everything so much sweeter! we are loving adding to our christmas traditions each year. monday night we went to curtis's preschool, timothy lutheran, and watched his christmas program. it was absolutely adorable watching him and all the little ones sing and say their lines! curtis went up to the microphone and said the first part of his line, then stopped, looked at his teacher and said something along the lines of "i don't know how to do it." she helped him finish (after the entire audience cracked up laughing!) the rest of the performance he stole the show with his exaggerated actions to all the christmas songs. we loved it! great job, curtie!

on saturday brian and i decided to start a new tradition of going down to crown center with lilian each year. as she gets older she will be able to do more and more (i can't wait to ice skate with her!) this year she loved walking through the toy store, playing in the crayola factory, and playing outside by the fountains.

checking out the awesome gingerbread houses (we are going to make our own this year, too!) she loved the train that went around it and the flying santa that flew above the houses in a motorized airplane.

we watched them make fudge at the fudge factory and had perfect timing to enjoy free samples...yummy! lilian kept saying "more" long after!

it was another gorgeous day so were thankful to be able to enjoy all the outdoor toys!

she loved the fountains! she kept saying "touch it"

one of her favorites was the bulldozer of course, it reminded her of grandma and grandpa!

that night we went out with my family to our annual christmas dinner. my dad likes us all to go out to a nice restaurant together the week leading up to christmas. we used to always visit the plaza but now that two toddlers have joined the group that makes things a bit trickier! we decided to go to grog and galley and enjoy their delicious seafood. i have to admit i was nervous that lilian would be able to sit that long in such a nice restaurant but she did well. it always helps having curtis along to help entertain her! afterwards we went back to bryan and alison's and watched one of our favorites, christmas vacation, while lilian and curtis played. it was a great family night!

the lutes

the hartstacks

grammy and pops

sunday we had our baking day with the ladies in the family (minus nannie, hopefully next year we can all be there!) we made lots of yummy goodies...puppy chow, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter balls, chocolate covered pretzels...the list goes on and on! i look forward to this day down the road when the kids get bigger and can help us make everything! this year they just played and were great taste testers!

trying on mama's apron

how cute are these christmas tree cookies alison made?

she went and got brobie and sat him next to the trees to give him a taste...i think she associated him with the trees because he was the same color!

tasting the sugar cookies!

Wilson's Christmas Party

saturday was a packed day for us! saturday morning we met my immediate family at picture people to take our annual family christmas picture. last year my mom requested this as her christmas gift for every year to come. this year, however, we convinced my parents to be in the picture as well! as you can imagine, trying to get both lilian and curtis to smile was quite the task, but we caputred a few good ones and got my mom her gift! here is one i took before the session...dressed in their christmas outfits my mom got them!

lilian was lucky enough to stay the night at aunt alison and uncle bryan's that night with cousin curtis while brian and i went up north to attend the annual wilson christmas party (my good friends from college, wes and emily throw an elaborate christmas party every year!) before the party we stopped by jill and mike's to visit sweet baby micah. she is still so tiny and i adored loving on her before we all headed to the party. jill was excited for her first night out and i was so happy to have her join us!

nat came in from st. louis too! nat, jill, baby micah and me!

the wilson's party did not disappoint! their theme this year was "elf," one of our favorite movies so brian and i were loving all the added details. we played elf trivia with questions from the movie, emily had "buddy spaghetti" on the food table, and the party favor was syrup! it was adorable. it was so nice to visit with everyone and have an adult night out with great friends. thanks, wilsons! til next year...

em, sara, jill and me

wes hadn't planned on dressing up in his usual santa attire, but after some coaxing...santa made an apperance!

Turkey Day!

for thanksgiving every year we head up to iowa to celebrate with brian's family. we headed up on wednesday morning and stayed until friday. wednesday we had rescheduled our family pictures with becky since it started raining on us the last time with the entire family. becky was sweet enough to take a few more of our family of 3 and we are so happy with the way they turned out. thanks again, beck! my main goal was getting at least a couple of good ones for our christmas card! here are some of our favorites...

thursday night leanne had the immediate family over for a delicious dinner. lilian loved playing with the twins...she loved riding the horse, playing with the kitchen/grill, and hide and go seek. she is always in heaven when we are in iowa visiting! surely not from all the attention she gets!

this face...pure joy!

grandpa with all the kids!

aunt andrea and lilian!

some fierce faces from uncle brian and andrew!

grandma was nice enough to babysit lilian afterwards, and grandpa babysat the twins, so the older kids could go out and have some fun! we met up with some of brian's high school friends at virginia's, always a good time! on actual thanksgiving we went over to kirk and jera's house for a wonderful meal with his extended family (lots of family!) lilian loved playing with the twins and in brian's cousin, heather's, pretty girly room!

thanksgiving day, so much to be thankful for!

that night we stayed in and got comfy at brian's parents house. one of our traditions when we are home is to go deer spotting. (something i was introduced to the first time i made a trip home with brian when we started dating!) now we have lilian to enjoy this tradition with, she loves looking for the deer and pointing at them. grandma came with us too (lilian was not having it any other way, she is quite attached!)

lets get a closer look...

"driving" with daddy, so fun!



we spotted tons!

 after deer spotting we came home and played, read books, and we watched our favorite christmas movie, elf, too! it was a great thanksgiving! we are thankful for our amazing families, our good health, wonderful friends, and the blessings God has brought to our lives...the most important of course being our little love bug.