A Few More Days With Grandma and Grandpa

The men enjoying some football and beer...enjoyed this many days during their visit...and now we get to do it again tonight because the Huskers play! :) Woo hoo. ;)






Trying to get a cute picture of Grandma and Lorelei in their pink...so got another tickling one instead because Lorelei would not cooperate. :)

All decked out in pink...I mean who doesn't drive a slide at night with in pink from head to toe in a sparkly tutu?









Playing in the tunnel with Grandpa.










Our trip to the longest bridge in the WORLD!! This is just up to another part of Virginia so is a pretty neat thing to see so close to us. I was relieved that it was not higher up in the air. :) As you can see in the middle picture, it looks like there is a big hole in the bridge...that is one of the spots where the bridge turns into a tunnel that goes UNDER the water. There are two tunnels on this bridge...not sure how many miles it was but its long!



Enjoying some time with Legos.

Grandma and Grandpa left this morning...we are so glad they came for a visit! Lorelei is wondering why only one person watches her every move and plays now. :) Thanks for everything!

Enjoying Some Beautiful December Weather

We have had some gorgeous weather this weekend. Saturday Brad and his dad were able to go golfing while the girls stayed around the apartment, but took a few walks and enjoyed the new slide.

A little singing with Grandma...as you can see she ends up clapping for her great performance more than singing towards the end.

Looking goofy with Mr. Potato head glasses and a visor. :)











Sunday morning we enjoyed a trip to the beach! The weather was wonderful and we enjoyed playing at the playground, building sand towers (knocking them down is Lorelei's favorite) hunting for shells, and talking a walk on the fishing pier.



Then a family lunch at Red Robin to top off the afternoon.

Just Resting Her Eyes...While Eating?! :)

Flashlight Fun

Having a little fun...Lorelei had the flashlight and was having a great time moving it around watching it on the ceiling etc, then would get it on the wall and try to catch it which reminded me of a cat chasing its tail. :) When I went to get the video camera she wanted me to do it...it may seem cruel but remember she is laughing. :) I think one similar to this made it on funniest videos except they had a dog too... :)

Our Christmas...The Extended Version :)

Christmas Eve Day


What a busy day we had! We enjoyed having lots of fun on Christmas Eve. It was Lorelei's first full day with her grandparents, and she loves every minute of having four adults attention and energy! We decided to let Lorelei open some of her presents after nap that day.

Lets just go from top left down for the pictures...the first one is Lorelei decked out in her Christmas outfit from Nana, checking out the gingerbread angels on the sweater. Then we have her enjoying her movie from Grandma and Grandpa, Santa Buddies! She loves it of course, and was able to sit and watch most of it. A perfect movie for her! Then we have playing with Grandma (tickle games are a fav of course) and then putting her new ornament on the tree from Nana and Pappa. She loved being able to put it on the tree herself. Then we have Lorelei enjoying her Alphabet Train from Aunt Sarah, Hannah and Karter - big hit! Getting the presents out from under the tree...before we were supposed to open them, guess she knew it must be the day! Then sitting on her shopping cart. That's right, she does not want to push it to grocery shop, she just wants to ride it like she does a normal shopping cart! We'll practice more shopping later I guess. :) Then having fun with Grandma and sitting with her pile of presents she got to open that afternoon...probably about 1/3 of her presents! She enjoyed unwrapping but got easily frustrated if the paper didn't tear quickly for her. She also enjoyed playing with each toy and didn't quite realize that she should keep opening. We went at a pretty slow pace but got that bunch opened before it was time to get ready for church. :)

Christmas Eve


We had Jeanette's wonderful chicken noodle soup for supper while watching Santa Buddies. :) So glad she was able to cook it for us! Then Melissa, Chase and Kira came over to play a bit before joining us for the Christmas Eve service that evening. Unfortunately they didn't get to play very long with all the new toys, but I guess at least now they will be excited to come visit next time. :) Then we all headed out to the candlelight service. Lorelei actually made it through without having to leave and naturally the Bonfiglio kids did wonderfully! :) And as mentioned before, got to enjoy "Silent Night" by candle light. Then put Lorelei to bed when we got home (after another quick photo shoot) and then grown ups opened gifts and then made sure to get to bed before Santa came!


Wow what a difference a year makes...last Christmas Eve...



Christmas Day


Lorelei was excited to see her present from Santa first thing when she woke up! She seems to enjoy the slide so far. She also LOVED all of her other presents. I am very thankful Christmas is right before the cold hits in January and February so now we have so many awesome things to play with while we are stuck inside. :)


Then we have the beauty all dressed up for church. This was not a good morning church wise...possibly to do with the smarty's and cookie she had before 10 AM but oh well! She looked very beautiful and even wore her new necklaces from Santa to church. :)

After a great lunch and nap we had a fun afternoon of just playing around. In the picture she is enjoying her new chair, holding Elmo and watching her new Sesame Street DVD. :)



As you can see in the video, Grandpa is lots of fun!



We had a wonderful Christmas and hope all of you did too!

#25 - Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! I have to say I'm rather relieved to be doing the final blog entry for this crazy idea of 25 days of Christmas...this will be another quick one and then will do more about the last couple of days when I have a bit more time. We had a great day starting with opening presents (Lorelei finally got the hang of needing to keep opening) and then going to church this morning. Then one of our favorite meals of brisket and cheesy potatoes to stuff us full. :) Then we had a nice laid back afternoon of doing pretty much nothing! :)

Here is a quick picture taken first thing this morning of Lorelei enjoying her present from Santa! :)

# 24 - Christmas Eve

We have had a wonderful Christmas Eve! This is one of the best Christmas activities we can enjoy...time with family and of course celebrating the birth of Jesus! The candlelight service is by far my favorite service of the entire year. Singing "Silent Night" by candlelight is just so beautiful! We did many other fun things today, but since I would rather go enjoy my evening I will write more about it later. Just wanted to give you a sneak peek into one of my new favorite pictures. :) Happy Christmas Eve!

Newspaper

Sorry we are totally going out of order today...but anyway...this morning Lorelei kept herself amused for probably a good 10 minutes with newspaper we had for the fireplace. She would lay on it, stand on it...for some reason it was very entertaining. Think she is working on potty training her puppy? :)

Baby Krenz Is Here! :)

We got to meet Miss Isabel today! We had a quick visit with Mirinda and family this morning and Lorelei did great with her. Congratulations to Jon and Mirinda!

# 23 - Family Visiting

We are excited to spend Christmas with Brad's parents this year! They drove all the way from Nebraska and this is really their first Christmas away from home...ever! They arrived today with enough time to unload the car before Lorelei woke up from her nap. She warmed up to them pretty quickly and also lovied some chocolate from Grandma's stash...one minute she was just playing with the wrappers, and the next minute her face looked like this!




Taking a walk with Grandpa! Thankfully he loves to get outside and walk, just like she does. :)











Here I was trying to get a picture of her sitting and reading with Grandma and of course we got...cheeeeeese. :) Still cute.

Cookie Monster

Yep she loves cookies! She is always reaching for them first thing in the morning so I have to try and hold her off till after lunch...good thing she isn't a little taller. :)

# 22 - Coffee Cakes

Yet another family tradition...although I think its just my mom that started this one, but it must continue...plus I just like them!



For the past few years I have made these coffee cakes for friends and also Brad's coworkers and the apt office. They are quite the process to make, not to mention having to make 8 of them because they come in batches of 4! Lets just say I am really going to appreciate a big kitchen when I finally have one! Thought you might like to see what we set up to have room for everything...have to make as much extra counter space as possible. This is pretty much the only time we use the ironing board during the year. :) It was definitely an extra challenge with Lorelei being able to reach on every table, but we managed okay.

Cheesin It Up

Lorelei has become quite the cheese lately. Anytime you take out the camera, sometimes when you instruct her to say "cheese" and many times without even asking! The picture below with the pastry mat was supposed to be a picture to show her whining while I was baking, but when I tried to take the picture she instantly started saying CHEESE. :) Hope this continues!

#21 - Botanical Garden Christmas Lights

Sunday evening we headed out for our last big Christmas activity. :) Other than the actual eve and day of course! Last year we drove through the light display at the oceanfront, but heard the garden lights were better. Last year we thought Lorelei would contentedly sleep in her car seat and we could sip hot chocolate and enjoy the lights...that was not the case and I ended up crawling in the back several times to try and get her settled down...needless to say we were really looking forward to her actually being able to enjoy seeing the displays, and us too of course!



After entering the gardens we put Lorelei up front with us to see the lights. This, naturally, was a HUGE hit. :) She did enjoy the lights, but also kept herself amused wanting to push and turn knobs on the radio etc. She continually reached for Brad wanting to drive...so as you can see, she got to! I also just happened to take the picture as Brad said "no hands!" :) Amazingly we did not run into any trees or bushes with our crazy driver. After she was done driving, she enjoyed waving to the various creatures like the spider and snowman, and also said "ooooohhh" to several displays. Guess it was a hit. :)

#20 - Christmas Party With Friends

We had a wonderful Christmas party with friends last night! So great to be able to get together (husbands too) and visit...and of course the kids love playing together. The Checks were generous enough to offer their house to destroy for the evening. :) We enjoyed lots of food, and the kids exchanged presents - which Lorelei loves!

As you can see we tried for a little photo shoot and had the usual results. The one of Lily cracks me up like she is going "Ugh what are all these kids doing and why won't they just get in the picture so we can be done?" :) The one of Brad is him being very entertaining while Miss Lily puts all of her new play rings on each of his fingers. :) I'm sure playing dress up was one of his highlights of the evening. :) We are so glad to have such special families to spend time with!

Weekend Before Christmas Craziness

No matter how much more prepared I have attempted to be this year, the weekend before Christmas has still been crazy!

Friday night I got a jump start on the baking by cutting out cookies and making one of the batches of dough. Then we also finished up the last of the wrapping. Brad actually wrapped his first gift in who knows how long...figured he could handle putting it in a huge Christmasy trash bag! :)

We had a few random things happen during the day Saturday during the baking marathon. First of all we were excited to get a package in the mail from my sister! While unloading the presents I handed Brad his, who then predicted it was his favorite jerky you can only get down by my parents, so he wanted to open it right away. He said "If I call your sister and ask and she says its okay can we open her presents?" :) So I agreed and as you can see he got his beef jerky! Thanks Heather! Lorelei and I both love our gifts as well but have not gotten any pictures yet. :)



Then we have Lorelei riding her zebra like she is riding a bucking bronco...I couldn't believe she was doing this but thought it was hilarious and worth a video...

then I realized the reason for the hand in the air... she is holding her last bite of a cookie! :)

Eventually Brad was feeding her lunch and all of a sudden pointed to her for me to look...this is the first time this has ever happened! She is sound asleep in her high chair! Crazy enough we took her and laid her down for a nap and she only slept an hour! We are hoping she will make up for it today. :)



We later enjoyed a Christmas party at the Checks...but that will be on another post coming up soon...hopefully in between coffee cakes and while Lorelei is still sleeping!

#19 - Christmas Cookies

Today was the baking extravaganza at our house! Brad was basically in charge of Lorelei while I was baking...no easy task trying to keep her away from the excitement, but he did a great job. She did well for the most part, but made a few trips to the kitchen to see what was going on. She loved watching the mixer and was trying to be a little helper...








but her favorite part would definitely be EATING the cookies! :) She is the official cookie taster! So far the gingersnaps seem to be her favorite.

We also made peanut blossoms, cinnamon cookies, and sugar cookies... sooo many cookies!






Here is Brad helping with frosting the cookies during Lorelei's nap. He averages about 1 to my 10 but is still a huge help!

#18 - Winter Wonderland at Hunt Club Farm

For our MOMS group family even this month we went to Winter Wonderland at Hunt Club Farm. Although two more families planned to come, it was basically just the usual Checks, Bonfiglio's and Stahls! There was one more family that came late but they tended to do their own thing so off we were. :) First you walk through a shed filled with everything from elves working in shops to various animals from polar bears and penguins to horses and believe it or not a random praying mantis that I just have to mention because I found it so odd! The kids were actually facinated by all of these scenes...definitely Lorelei's favorite part of the night. It was like an up-close zoo but most of the animals were actually moving (electronically of course) instead of sleeping. :)

The first picture is Kira and Lorelei standing fascinated by one of the workshops...there were actually little squirrels running around under the workshop and I think that caught there attention more than anything.





Mike practicing having two girls! :) Lorelei LOVES Mike. :) Then we have the daughter switch between Sara and I, which we do often, although both girls get a bit unhappy when their mom is the one occupied.

There was a big light display for everyone to walk through and enjoy which also included a maze that the girls went through. I have to tell Melissa's hilarious story because she does not have her own blog to write it in! So I must first mention that Kira is talking like crazy these days but we just love hearing her tiny little voice say all these new words...well we were looking at the ducks in a pen when all of a sudden Melissa feels a little thud on her shoulder...then Kira says "poop" and sure enough, a bird from high above our heads had pooped on Melissa! It was hilarious...while disgusting at the same time. :) Don't worry we got it wiped off very quickly and also moved out from under those trees!

We quickly went across the farm to complete our night and see the live nativity...



And this is why we normally don't let Brad take the pictures...poor donkey...guess its trying to live up to its part of the song What Child Is This - "...where ox and ass are feeding?" Sorry I just couldn't help myself. :) Hope you found it amusing as well.



We enjoyed seeing the animals but quickly made it home as it was way past bedtime. Was a great night and yet another fun Christmas activity.