Christmas is Here!

Christmas morning was so much fun this year--we loved seeing Sadie's excitement! We heard here get out of bed a little after 8:00 and we went in to say good morning--she was a little grumpy! We asked her if Santa came and she said "No!" We asked if she wanted to open presents--"No!" She quickly got on board, however when she saw all of the presents!

Christmas morning--we all sat in our room together and read Sadie's new Christmas book and sang happy birthday to Jesus before going downstairs...

Sadie's present from Santa--her favorite part was the phone!

Kinnick's present from Santa!

Sadie loved getting presents from under the tree and passing them out--she knew immediately that the ones wrapped in princess paper were hers.

Sadie chased Wrigley around the living room for about 3 minutes trying to give him his present!

Sadie's presents from Mom & Dad...

This was one of Sadie's favorite gifts (picked out by her Daddy)--a pink princess riding toy. For now it is living inside, but it may be going out this summer (it makes LOTS of noise!

Sadie loved pulling things out of her stocking--she was very excited to get new hair bows and her very own bubble gum chapstick!

Kinnick was also thrilled with his stocking stuffers :)

Sadie's ornament for this year was a Hawkeye ornament because her dad has taught her to love anything having to do with IA!

After having breakfast we headed to Grandma's house... Sadie fell asleep very quickly after her exciting morning!

Christmas Eve

Sadie and Kinnick each got to open one present--Christmas p.j.'s and a book. Sadie's book was the story of Jesus and it plays "O Little Town of Bethlehem" with lights. We read it on Christmas morning before going downstairs to open to presents (a tradition I had growing up...)

Our friends Liz & Ryan came over for a while and Sadie enjoyed exchanging presents with her buddies Carson & Megan. We ate lots of junk food and let the kids be crazy for awhile!

Getting Ready for Christmas

The week before Christmas was SO busy! (I didn't have time to blog...) Marc made several last minute shopping trips, we did LOTS of baking, and it seemed like we would never finish wrapping Christmas presents! We kept all of the presents in the guest bedroom until Christmas Eve--a few came out for that night and the rest came out after Sadie went to bed.

The Sunday before Christmas our church was almost cancelled due to weather. There were not a lot of people there, but Sadie loved wearing her fancy dress!

Sadie loved helping bake cookies this year. We would usually bake in the morning before lunch and nap time. Any time I would ask her if she wanted to help make cookies she would run to the kitchen saying "Sadie help make cookies!" and get her step ladder. Her favorite ingredient is eggs (she's crushed a couple in her hand!) As soon as we would start the mixer she would always say "Sadie taste". Her favorite part was always having a taste at the end...

Sadie's babysitter had a Christmas party for her kids on the last day of school. (School was cancelled, but she still had the party, so we ventured out into the snow...)

Sadie's friends at her sitter's.

Sadie and Kinnick with Ms. Jennifer--in case you can't tell, Sadie is saying "No"--she didn't want her picture taken.

Santa Claus

The weekend before Christmas we took the kids to see Santa... We had been talking about it and Sadie was very excited. When we were waiting in line, she saw him and yelled "Santa!" When it was her turn, she was a bit more hesitant. She wasn't scared, but a bit reserved (unusual for her!) She wouldn't talk to him, but was very interested in his red & green rice crispy treats! We tried to get her to say "Merry Christmas"--she had been practicing. She waited until we were down the stairs and a good ways a way before yelling back to him! (This Santa was very patient and wanted to make sure we were pleased with our pictures!)

Some pictures of the kids in their matching Christmas shirts...

2008 Christmas Pictures

After failed attempts at scheduling a family photo shoot, here was my "photo shoot" with the kids! The one of Sadie sticking her belly out is so typical of her!

Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

At some point in our lives, we would like to go to a tree farm and pick out our Christmas tree... as for now, with Sadie not knowing any different, we drive a couple blocks down the street to a nursery that stocks a very large selection of Christmas trees (much faster and easier!) We went a week and a half ago to pick out our tree (it was probably less than half an hour from the time we left our house to the time we got back!)

The day after we got our tree Marc had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled. He wasn't feeling the best on Monday & Tuesday. Wednesday we went to see Fireproof and Friday night we had a small group Christmas party. In the midst of our business we didn't get our tree decorated... Sadie and I managed to put some lights on the tree on last Thursday and we finally put up ornaments yesterday while Marc was at work. Sadie loved helping decorate the tree (more than I thought she would! She pulled every ornament out of the box and brought it over to me. She was fascinated with the process. She was also very excited to show Marc when he got home. We saved some of Marc's ornaments for him to put up. (Sadie's favorite was a train ornament that she carried around all day!)
Sadie & Daddy with "the one!"

Kinnick snuggled in the sling (thanks Jennifer!)

Sadie was pretty impressed that the tree rode on top of our car!

She was also pretty interested in the snow!

This is one of her ornaments... (FYI--she picked this outfit out herself--a purple barbie "princess" nightgown with her pink puffy vest!)

Taking a break with Kinnick. Sadie would periodically take ornaments and lay them by Kinnick--she must have thought he was being left out.

No tree topper this year--our tree was too tall! Marc had to cut the very top off. (Our house has 12-foot ceilings, but right in front of the window where we put the tree, it's only 10 feet.)

Sibling Love

Sadie constantly wants to hold her brother. She's doing really good with him--only the occasional attempt to whack him while I'm holding him... We are all getting into a routine (although we won't be able to sleep in any more when I go back to work!) I've had both kids by myself for several days now and we're doing well... We've even taken a few trips out of the house--I'm slowly figuring it out!

Here are some recent pictures of our two beautiful children:

"Bedtime Prayers"

"Morning Snuggles" The first thing Sadie asks for when she wakes up in the morning is her brother!

I ordered this dress for Sadie and it came in the mail yesterday. She carried it around all day yesterday and insisted on wearing it today! When I was taking the above pictures of the kids, Sadie pressed Kinnick's face against her chest and said "Eat Kinnick!" (We were wondering how long that would take... I'm just glad she didn't feel the need to lift her dress up!)