Christmas Eve was a little different this year. With my mom in the hospital with a horrible case of the flu (we did manage to visit her but kept our distance) and my dad with a cold, we went to the Young's house for a few hours in the afternoon. It was nice - they set up a treasure hunt for Evan to find his toys, and we also let him open a few presents from us. Then it was back to our house to get cookies ready for Santa and prepare for the next day!

Do you like Gracie's new facial expression? She is so serious these days.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scary dude.

Things Evan said recently:

As I was heading into the bathroom, Evan comes running in front of me, drops his pants and proceeds to use the toilet. I say, “Hey, I was going to use the bathroom. He looks at me and says, “We can share?” Don’t worry, we did not.

The night of Christmas Eve, after we had opened a few presents, Evan came into my bedroom to thank me one more time for the presents. I said you’re welcome, but remember, Christmas isn’t only about presents. He said, “Right, it’s also about candy canes and love.”

Aunt Mary got Evan an Angry Birds bath soap gift, and apparently there was some confusion when it was described to Evan. He thought that if he used the soap, little Angry Birds would appear on his body. So that night, when he took his bath, he scrubbed and scrubbed and said, “It’s not working! It’s not working. There are no Angry Birds anywhere. This is boring.”

Family cookie decorating at the community center, although all Grace really did was eat the frosting and sprinkles. She is ready for Christmas and the possible sugar overload.

 

 

 

Baking and decorating Christmas cookies with Grandma!

Evan and I have been playing ALOT of Slap Jack lately, which is great because it's an easy and fun card game. He could play it for hours, but his Mama can't. Anyway, this was his reaction after we had the first "double jack"...

I just realized I forgot to post pictures from Thanksgiving...whoops. To sum things up, it was a great day. This was the year where most everyone attended, so it was a large group. We started the day as we do every year, at the bowling alley. There most of us met baby TJ for the first time...including Grace. She LOVED him. She held him for such a long time, just looking at him, kissing him, laughing when he would sneeze or open his eyes. It was adorable. Then we had a surprise wedding shower for Brady & Katie, followed by a football game and then dinner. A crazy game of 4, 5, 6, ended the evening and it was back to Sun Prairie where the kids passed out immediately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evan has a great time at the community events geared for his age range, so we continue to do them. This weeks theme was "Gingerbread Pirates", and it was a lot of fun. Games, arts & crafts, treasure hunt, and decorating a gingerbread cookie. We all had a good time.

 

 

 

Last weekend we drove to La Crosse for Andrew & Emmett's birthday party. They both have December birthdays so Kelly had a combo party at a bowling alley, with cake and pizza served after. It was nice, and as you can see from the pictures, Grace was digging the cupcakes. Then we went to Grandma Margie's house to exchange Christmas gifts and help her with a few house projects. On the way home we stopped at the outlet shops in the Dells where Grace worked on her shopping skills:

 

 

Uncle Brady & Aunt Katie gave Gracie this Goofy stuffed animal for Christmas, and she loves it. It seriously goes where she goes. Evan didn't really have anything that he was really attached to as a toddler, but Grace is different. She loves her two blankets, and now Goofy. It's cute, but at times difficult when we can't leave the house without them!

More adventures at the children's museum...

 

 

 

 

 

 

One fun Saturday...we recently purchased a membership to the Children's Museum, and the kids LOVE it. So we've been going quite often. We met Grandma, Aunt Mary & Aunt Kit there and then went to the Overture Center to listen to some Christmas Music. Then it was home for nap - see the picture of Gracie snuggling with her Goofy that Uncle Brady & Aunt Katie bought her. Later that night we went to the PAC, where for the first time Evan got to experience the "Flick & Float". Basically watching a movie while swimming. It was quite fun and he's already asking when the next one is.

 

How we found Evan sleeping one morning...