I'm Baaaaack!

I can't believe it's already January 12th! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. I had an awesome visit with my brother and sister in law and we spent lots of quality time together. We also visited with my husband's side of the family over the holidays and I've taken some time to relax and enjoy my son and husband. It was definitely needed! In fact...the office was supposed to be back open last week and I kinda sorta had a hard time getting back to work after working so much in November and December. Soooo....I've got lots to catch up on...orders to place, emails to respond to etc. So please be patient with me :) I've also got lots of exciting things planned for 2009 and I'm so excited to share them with you. But not yet. I'm almost ready to launch my new blog - I think you are going to love it!! The pics will be bigger and there will be a lot more information on the blog so you don't have to go back to my website to get a question answered. Anyway....I have a super duper long post for you to share pics from our Christmas and the week after. If you have a few minutes...take a peek. I will be doing a lot of blogging over the next month to finally share with you the family sessions I did before Christmas. My goal is to stay current, and then as I have time, post the older sessions. So without further ado....my crazy family.... (Oh, I didn't really edit these, so don't judge my photog/post processing skills based on these pics..haha)

From the moment I made my last blog post that KMP would be closed (which was on the 23rd)...I headed right from my computer to the kitchen and started baking with Anthony. Yea...I'm not a baker...lol. We attempted ginger snaps...they turned out really snappy. We tried to make sugar cookies and when we went to roll out the dough..it was so crumbly that we gave up after 7 cookies..lol...and we also decorated some gingerbread cookies (they were pre-made and store bought!) I had big plans for baking more cookies and giving them as gifts to family, but it didn't work out so good and by then I was beat....so we decided to order pizza and watch Christmas movies as a family instead!! But I still got a couple of pics...

Anthony's little friend Hannah showed up at the door right when we were getting started with our "baking" so we invited her in to decorate some cookies....

On Christmas Eve, my brother, Dave and sister in law, Jenny flew in from Minneapolis. Their plane got in around noon....poor things had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep if that because of their early flight and staying up late to pack etc. We went and grabbed a bite to eat and then we went to the Children's Pageant and Mass at 3:30pm at St Mark Catholic Church. Unfortunately, we had to go 45 minutes early to get a seat (and parking spot!) but it was worth it...it was beautiful and the kids were so cute. It was so awesome to be there with my whole family and singing about the birth of our Savior! After church, Brian, Anthony and I headed to his family's Christmas Eve get together. We had dinner and gifts...all the kids are so cute and are getting so big....

After going to the Mathew's Christmas....we headed over to my parent's house (at a little after 9pm..lol). It's tradition to open one gift on Christmas Eve. We were going to forego it because Dave and Jenny were exhausted and half asleep on the couch..but they said to come over anyway...so we made it a short trip. Unfortunately, Anthony's gifts were all buried at the bottom of the gifts, except for a couple I had wrapped for him from us...unfortunately they were clothes....oops..not too fun for a 5yr old boy to open for his 1 gift right? Oh well....

Anthony gave us a gift that he had made at school. He had wrapped it himself too. It was so precious. He and Daddy opened it together.

Finally...we got home and we had to put out cookies for Santa...

We put him to bed, and Daddy and I had to stay up late and finish wrapping gifts. Anthony is usually very good about going to bed and going to sleep right away. Not that night. Every time we thought he was asleep he'd be like "Mommy...I need a drink." "Daddy, I gotta pee..."  I don't think he conked out until after 1am. Which meant, we didn't get much sleep that night. I suppose most parents don't get much sleep on Christmas Eve! I always vow to be finished earlier next year....so maybe this year I'll be better..haha.

Unfortunately on Christmas morning I was not feeling well....I threw up a few times (fun) and so I didn't take too many pics and I was just a wee bit grumpy (sorry to my family). I felt bad all day, but still had a great time. Anthony woke up around 9ish and ran out into the living room to check out his loot. He got a new scooter and helmet from Santa....

Then we headed to Brian's parent's house. They only live 2 houses away, so it's a short trip. Brian is an only child, so it's usually just us and his parents on Christmas morning and our neighbor Roger comes over as well. Roger is a little bit "special" and really doesn't have anyone else, so we always try to include him and get him gifts etc.

After spending the morning with Brian's family, we went to my parent's house. Anthony and Uncle Dave played with one of Anthony's new toys for a little while before my sister, Diana, brother in law, Ed and nephew, Edwin arrived.

Once they got there, we had some snacks (in lieu of lunch). We had some yummy dips and chips (sausage dip and artichoke dip), veggies, cheese and crackers, sweets, etc) Then we started working our way through this tree!

Santa stopped by Mom and Dad's house too...everyone (including me) was so surprised!

Edwin went in his high chair to have some snacks and that was the perfect spot for him to be while we started opening gifts. He's 21 months old so he likes to run around and get into EVERYTHING :)

Here's my brother Dave and his wife Jenny. She helps me as much as possible from MN with my business and she is a frequent commenter on the blog - thanks JennY :)

Edwin loves his big cousin, Anthony....so he loves to sit on his lap...even when Anthony isn't expecting it.

We drew names in our family this year, and I got my Mom's name. Of course...I had to get her pictures of her boys! My sister and I did a secret photo shoot with the boys the week earlier and I made her a 24x30 collage for the wall. The reason this was especially awesome is because my nephew (the runner) has been so difficult to get pics of over the last couple of months and this time..he and Anthony were sooo good! Mom loved it and was so surprised!

Anthony got a Leapster from us...so he finally settled down and played with that for a while. Then Edwin had to come check it out.

My hubby, getting his gift from my BIL...a thingy that goes over the door so he can do pull ups....he's been using it every day and is getting stronger quickly. Anthony loves hanging off of it too...little Monkey!

My beautiful, Mommy...

 

My Daddy...I think he's opening a print I gave him of the boys from the photo shoot....Edwin was kissing Anthony..too cute...

Finally...I surprised the heck out of my hubby with a new grill!! Ours was about 5 years old and he loves cooking on it, but it was worn out. I got a great deal on the new one and it has 4 burners and he can add a rotisserie if he wants...so he was so surprised and excited!

The rest of the pics are a bunch of silly pics of us spending time together over the week. We played lots of games and just went with the flow. After Christmas, there is a calendar and game store in the mall and at Mayfaire...their entire stock was 50 percent off!! So we went a little nuts and got lots of fun new games. We also borrowed some from my friend Katrina - thanks Katrina! We played Scene It and loved it!

My Mom gave Anthony a marshmallow shooter....lol...so he and my brother got quite a bit of use out of that!!

So that's it...if you hung in with me until the end...I'm highly impressed. Now leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite memory from this Christmas was! Have a great week!