More of Christmas

Warning.... for those of you that did not want to see our basement till it was completed I couldn't resist throwing in a few pictures of our opening our stocking gifts downstairs. The carpet is in and some of the furniture is moved back. More painting and staining are taking place this week and we hoping to get the TV and sound system up this weekend, then I can start organizing my back rooms again.
In the above pictures Amelia shows her great delight at getting the last remaining mini princess dolls to add to her collection.

Samuel loves playing with the new basketball hoop we got him.

Ready to open stocking gifts

Gifts under the tree

Amelia got a dress up set and a castle (from Grandma Eck's money) to use with her little people and princess. She has spent hours this week playing with both. It is fun to see her imagination at work. I love that we can get our kids just a few things and have them find such delight from them.
We hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a great New year.

Our Christmas

After having 2 wonderful family Christmas celebrations, one would think you would just sit back and relax, but Oh no, not me. I wanted to have our family to have it's own little celebration and establish some traditions of our own. I decided to make a Turkey (I had not cooked one this year) and serve a full meal on Monday night before we opened presents. Here Amelia points to the Turkey and states "Chicken Nugga" (chicken Nuggets). Ah... kids diets. I also like the chance to use my holiday china.

Samuel and Amelia waiting for the Turkey to be carved. We had plenty of food for just us.
Lots of yummy leftovers.

Why is it that some kids toys are so hard to put together?

And sometimes the boxes are way more fun!

Winter Wonderland

What do you do when it is snowing, blizzard like conditions and no travel is advised?

Go Sledding!!

Thankfully a sledding hill is located a block away at my parents house so a group of us headed over on Christmas Eve to go sledding.

Vesta Family Christmas

We headed up to Fergus on December 23. I worked a day shift and David was home with the kids. We headed out quickly to beat the winter storm that would pound the whole state. Since Jim and Cari were going to Breckenridge on Christmas Day we did things a bit condensed. We opened our stocking gifts on Thurs (12/24) morning. Here is a pose of the kids in front of the fire in their PJ's. "Stocking gifts" are always fun little things mom and dad pick up. You never know what you will get!.

After a great dinner of Beef Tenderloin/Ham and many fixings we got to gift opening. Church in Fargo was cancelled due to weather so everything got moved up. Above Amelia enjoys opening a Princess Cash register from Cari, Jim and boys. On a side note this is one toy mom loves playing with. I always loved to pretend I had a store as a child and would make my own scanner, cash register.... checking people out, making change, etc. How I wished for something like this.

Samuel opening a little people set from Jim, Cari and the boys

On the Christmas after their 1st Birthday my mom makes each Grandchild a homemade "Church Book." It's a book with all sorts of activities to keep kids quiet during church. It's modeled after ones Jim and I had as children. Hours of time and thought go into each book and are very special to the parents and hopefully treasured memories for the child.

The big excitement of the night was the Wii that Jim and Cari's family got from my parents. Isaac was ecstatic. He also got really excited when he saw the Monster truck game that we gave him. Hopefully you will still come over to our house now Isaac, even though you now have your own Wii.

Baird Family Christmas

We celebrated with David's family the weekend before Christmas. It's always fun when everyone can get together. Samuel and Amelia enjoyed playing with the tractor set that Sam got from Kim and Kevin,

Amelia is excited about her princess figurine set from Disneyland (Grandma and Grandpa were there in November). She is especially into Mulan lately and that is hard to find in some figurine sets. She is especially into the small figurines and plays with them for hours.

Family Picture

Amelia loves all her aunts and especially liked playing Barbies with Aunt Stacy. Thanks Stacy for the hours you spent playing Barbies... it gave mommy a break!

Group picture in front of the tree.

Christmas Catch Up

I've got lots of pictures of our Christmas celebrations and not much time to post them. I'll try to do some over the next couple of days. We have had some great fun celebrating with family and now look forward to our family celebration tonight. Christmas is always such a magical time of year and one I look forward to every year. Enjoy!

Amelia has always been scared of Santa and not wanted to sit in his lap. Last week I was picking her up from daycare and she announced she wanted to go see santa and sit in his lap. I was shocked by this proclamation but she was adamant. We took the chance to head our that evening to see Santa. We decided to head to Eden Prairie mall as I had some shopping to do at stores there. We had to wait over an hour!! Amelia stood in line so patiently. I was worried we would get to the front and she would get scared.... but she didn't. She sat on Santa's lap and proudly proclaimed she wanted Barbies. My little girl is growing up and getting bolder.

Samuel however, is still scared of Santa.

Jesus is that light to that world

This last weekend was Amelia's Christmas program at church. She is still a little shy singing the songs but loves standing up there, getting to wear a fancy dress and this year memorized a part with her class. They were supposed to say Jesus is the light of the world. On Sunday morning when I asked Amelia to recite her line this is what she said.... "Jesus is that light to that world." So cute.
(sorry the photo is sideways... I forgot to flip it. Amelia posed in front of the tree before leaving for church)

Attempt at a group picture. Amelia's cheesy smile and Samuel's nook make a nice shot, don't you think? Sometimes you just have to go with it. They are sitting nicely together.

Singing Jesus loves me. Amelia decided it was time for a rest break.

Isaac's class in the background says their lines.

Each Tuesday morning for the last 5 years I have been part of a women's biblestudy at church. We have studied different things (mostly Beth Moore studies). I love the diversity of ages in this group. They are great mentors and friends. This year I'm one of the co-leaders. We had our annual Christmas Brunch this Tuesday. It was a lovely morning of food, fellowship, and a program. I'm so grateful for this group and glad to be a part of it.

In the midst of this season of programs, brunches, gift buying, baking, etc I pray that Jesus will be that light to your world!

Our Christmas Tree (story)

After several crazy years of trying to get live tress I finally decided to break down and buy an artificial tree last year. It was a hard decision to make having had live trees for 8-9 years (even when I was single). I didn't however relish the hassle of picking the tree out with 2 small children in tow, needles all over the house, trying to get it balanced in the stand. watering daily, cleanup, etc, etc, etc. This year we went to get the box neatly stored after purchasing it (and never opening it). This is what we found. I gasped not remembering how "flat" artificial trees can get. I'll have to "fluff" this thing forever I thought to get it to look right. My despair was quickly replaced though when I saw how easy this thing was going together. 3 parts easily into the stand. We could be done in 10 minutes I thought, not 1 hour like a live tree. Then we realized we should probably connect the prelit lights together. A bit confusing, at first and then it hit.... a strand was burned out. "No problem." said my resourceful husband. It's probably just a bulb. 1 hour later we still were without lights and I was mumbling under my breath how we would have had a real tree up by now. David finally found a wire snapped... probably not fixable. Now mind you with 800 lights you would probably not notice the 50 or so burned out... but I did and I was frustrated. After working on this for 1 1/2 hours we finally went to bed.
The next day I was in a better mood and again ready to handle the fake tree and fluffing required. Over the weekend the ornaments went on and the tree took shape. I came to realize the fluffing is not a bad feature as you can bend limbs as you want to support ornaments and the lights were not as noticeable once ornaments went on. So we have become an artificial family(at least for now). I must admit I like the look of the tree and not having to water everyday.

Fluffing anyone?

Samuel's first look at the tree

It's all on us now!

So, the drywall is up and the painting/staining has begun. I'm sorry I have no pictures of the drywall progress but I could hardly stand to be down there (or in my house for that matter!). It was so messy and a very busy week. Our contractor Kent finished on time like he wanted so we could have my free weekend to start painting. His wife is a nurse too so he understands the every other weekend working thing!. We spent friday cleaning up and dusting everything. David and I started priming Saturday and then realized it was drying well so we put on the first coat of brown Saturday night. We had decided to go with a chocolate brown and marine blue. I always get nervous to paint... will it go on well, how will it blend. I would look down at the paint tray and see this melted chocolate looking paint and think Yum! Then I would look and wonder if people would think it would look like some other brown substance... Yuck! Overall I do think I like it and today the cabinets got put in (sorry no pictures of those yet) and all of the sudden it is all coming together!! I again have realized it may not be everyone's taste but it is what we picked and we are the ones that will be living in it.

David doing trim work.

Showing unpainted areas.