Christmas Weekend Rewind

Ok, after this post, Christmas is all caught up! I just have a few posts to get up that I missed out on like Noah's First Birthday and Travelling Home with a Toddler from this summers trip out west!

So I left off our Christmas post with Christmas Day. My Mom had stayed over, so we had a nice quiet morning playing with Noah. We did jump on a few Boxing Day deals like a new external hard drive for M's xbox, a new garbage can for the kitchen, a birthday present for Noah and a few other small things that I either ordered online or had someone else pick up for us, because I hate shopping in crowds!

I took these photos Christmas Eve day and I just absolutely love his expressions and HAD to share:

My MOH from our wedding came over for a visit in the morning which was perfect as usual! Didn't take her long to get in Noah's tunnel and then my Mom too. Noah thought it was quite funny!

And it isn't a visit with Aunt C without a picture!!

I had a nap in the afternoon with Noah, woke up before him so I could do my part of the lemon meringue pie that M started for me and once Noah woke up we headed to my sisters house to celebrate Christmas!

We face-timed with my Dad while the kids opened the presents he had dropped off before he left for Florida. I will say it was weird without him around for the holidays, but I know how much fun he is having Florida and can appreciate that! Thank heavens for Face Time and our weekly phone chats!

Noah really had the hang of opening presents by this point and was happy so find some go-go smart wheels sets which are his current favorite!

Sometimes you have to get right up on the presents to open them!

By the time we finished opening presents the kids were getting a little hangry, hence the non-smiley photo. This was the best we could get and they are all snacking!

We came home just in time to get Noah to bed and just in time for this mama to try her new foot spa!! I will tell you it did not disappoint! I went to bed just before 11:00 PM and ended up with a horrible tooth ache. I ended up staying awake until 3 in pain, then waking up at 4:30 to see if a shower/bath would help relieve it, which it did while I was in the shower. I managed to get some rest from 5-9. I woke up just in time to get ready as my Mom and I were supposed to be meeting my sister to do a little shopping. I will say I was not great company in pain and exhausted.

We may have spent way too long in one store as my mom possibly tried on the whole store... I did get some baskets for Noah's room, but other than that nothing too exciting. We had another family Christmas that afternoon and I was supposed to make taco dip. So I bought the stuff I needed and somehow my sister ended up with my bag. Luckily M's Mom had taco seasoning, so I sent M over to get some while Noah napped. I quickly made the dip, tried to nap again, but my mouth was just throbbing. Everyone who looked at it said it looked like I had cracked or broke off a piece of my wisdom tooth. My Mom showered and got herself ready in the meantime. 

When Noah got up, I quickly got ready, ended up getting sick in the sink from either the pain or gag reflex and then we were off to the family Christmas.

By this time Noah was just Christmas'd out and was happy to head home for a bath and bed:

My Mom left Monday morning after Noah got up and we had a nice, much needed quiet low key day!

By Tuesday the tree was down, as I just wanted the space back and Noah actually started to bother with the tree, which was annoying!

And there you have it - an excellent Christmas 2015 (minus the tooth problem) 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2015

Christmas this year was 4 days straight of activity!


Christmas Eve day was low key, we baked muffins and cookies, ordered pizza for dinner and attempted to get ready for mass. M ended up getting a fire call for a car accident - not the kind of call anyone wants on a good day, but especially around the holidays. Turns out it was a drunk driver they assume, hit a tree and left the scene by the time they got there, but of course they have to search the area for him to be safe, so he was gone a lot longer than I anticipated.


I got Noah bathed and dressed and was just finishing getting myself ready and M got home just in time to change and off we went into town to church. We ended up being a few minutes late, but weren't too worried.


The service was great, Noah did pretty well, he had a few moments, but the service ran longer than we expected and he was up well past his bedtime, so we just shrugged it off!! We came straight home after church, took our annual Christmas Eve photo and got the little guy off to bed!

This was the best smile we could get, as poor little guy was exhausted!!

While M was putting Noah down, I decided to set the timer on the camera and snap a few photos of my bump with the tree lit behind me! Crazy how blessed I feel with this little one kicking away

Christmas morning started around 8 AM for us and Noah got up just after M's parents arrived around 8:30 AM.

Santa brought Noah the Ikea tent and tunnel and needless to say it was a BIG hit! He was soo excited when he came in the room to see it. He couldn't wait to get in it and was jumping and squealing with excitement and dove right in!

Up next was Gracie's stocking! Noah loved helping her out!

Then is was time for his stocking! He did soo well with opening up each gift and really checking out what he got!

Up next were gifts!

He helped open up the gifts he gave Dad and Grandpa, including this homemade art work he had too much fun making!

A new train that he got for Daddy

Noah picked out Grandpas gift all by himself and apparently it was a good one! Grandpa loves it!

Love these reactions!

Big smiles all around!

I made both Mike's parents and my mom this Grandparents canvas!! I am soo happy with how they turned out - I can hardly believe I made them haha.

We got Noah a teepee - for his room is what we were originally thinking, but it turns out his room is a little too small for this right now. It may be able to go in when we don't need his rocker in there, and to be honest its probably better to not add a sleep distraction when he is doing soo well with going to bed in his new room!

Clearly he loves it and his Grandpa! haha!

Last but not least, Grandma and Grandpa got Noah a new wagon! So Grandpa took Noah and Gracie for a spin around the block to try it out!

For Christmas I got a Fitbit Charge HR, a cricut machine and nursing cover, along with some Christmas decor, casserole dishes, cookie rack, a Pandora photo charm and a few other small things.

M got a smoker, xbox games, cards against humanity, some books, kitchen gadgets and some other small things.

The baby cleaned up well too, which you will see in tomorrows bump date post!

My mom came over in the afternoon and we relaxed for a bit, finished preparing a turkey and goose dinner with all the fixings and we all sat down to a wonderful meal! Mike's parents left just before bath time for Noah and my mom stayed over night! It was a perfect day spent at home and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

I loved seeing Noah's reactions this Christmas! He loved opening presents, playing for a bit, helping everyone else open some gifts and just his overall joy with this season was just amazing to watch! We really are blessed with a wonderful little boy and family!

Since this post is filled with a million photos, I will recap the rest of our weekend later this week! You might just get a full week of blog posts this week!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, because we sure did!!

{ Weekend Rewind }

My intentions to blog on Friday are lagging right now with the holidays, and now because of said holidays, I'm falling behind in the posts I need to get up this week!! So hopefully I will manage a post every day this week and I might even have to combine two posts into one!!

Moving on to our weekend. Friday morning Noah went to the farm so that I could get an hour and but in to clean the house. I managed to get all the laundry put away and clean up the bedroom! I really slacked on picture taking this weekend!! Oops!!

Friday night Noah was super snugly and only wanted his mama, which I was happy to oblige and I put him to bed. Crazy to think when these special moments happen, I soak them in and find myself almost teary because all that goes through my mind is how fast he is growing up and he won't want to do this forever. He ended up staying up later due to a longer nap in the day, but he just wouldn't settle easily. Luckily we have it to the point where we don't have to keep going up, we can call up the stairs and tell him to back in bed and go to sleep and he gets back in bed and tries to sleep! He eventually gave up!

Saturday morning we all slept I until just after 8, I didn't sleep well and ended up with a headache again at 3 AM, so M let me sleep in until 9! We woke up to a skiff of snow on the ground and it continued to come down. Noah was just mesmerized with it, it was such a distraction for him.

We decided we would brave the dollar store and Walmart and get everything we need for the week and Christmas dinners, etc. We are officially done shopping. We got home around noon, had lunch, played for a little bit and then put Noah down for his nap, while M and I cleaned most of the main floor. When Noah woke up, we did a few crafts including this one:

M and Noah cleaned up the basement while I showered and got ready for the business Christmas party over at the pub here in the village!

Noah was a champ during dinner, we were so impressed with him. Of course he had to sit with Grandpa but overall he behaved great for being at a restaurant for so long! We went straight into bedtime routine (tubby time, milk, book and bed) and then M and I worked on wrapping a batch of presents!

Sunday morning we were all up just after 8 and got straight to work with finishing up cleaning the house (floors, kitchen), made taco dip, baked somemore cookies, and when Noah went down for his nap M went to get beer and extra chairs.

Family started showing up after 2 and of course Noah only napped for 45 minutes. The kids opened presents, which Noah got a new digger, a new truck and 2 books! Then we played a gift game with adults, which is always fun! M ended up with a cookie tin and I got a bag full of 3M products including a whole whack of washi tape!!

We had 16 people all seated around our dining room table, it was very tight, but we managed. We made the ham and had everyone else bring a part of the rest of the meal, so we ended up with scalloped potatoes, mixed veggies, buns and for dessert we had apple crisp and a pumpkin cake, as well as a whole assortment of homemade cookies!!

The only picture I managed to take was of Noah and Hannah!! 

I promise to take more pictures of Christmas haha! 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!! I can hardly believe Christmas is at the end of THIS week!! Where did this year go??? 

Oh and that bit of snow you saw above has melted and we are now getting dumped on with rain today!! 

Weekend Rewind

Our weekend was crazy busy with a lot of Christmas activities. 

Friday night was pretty basic. We played, ate pizza and went to bed! 

Saturday morning was when all the fun began. We had breakfast with Santa. M was off early to respond to a medical call and then to help setup for the breakfast as it was at the fire hall. Crazy to look at Noah's pic from last year and compare it to this year:

We didn't get any smiles on Santas lap this year, but we didn't get any tears either, so I am calling it a win!!

Isn't the difference crazy?? He is not a baby at all anymore!! We enjoyed pancakes and sausage for breakfast, cooked by the infamous Daddy:

Grandma and Grandpa came too, along with my sister and the kids. It was a nice morning. Noah really enjoyed himself and of course before we left we had to check out the fire trucks! M was home by noon, so we had lunch and played for a bit after lunch. We put Noah down for a nap and M took Gracie into Pet Valu to bath her. We love bathing her there, as it is only $10 to use their facility and that includes their shampoo, scrubber, raised tub, towels and high powered blow dryer. It is awesome and Gracie enjoyed picking a snack on her way out of course! M had to make a quick stop and then get a car wash. However, he still managed to be gone for 2.5 hours! While he was gone, I emailed some photos, made a double freezer batch of cookie dough, and worked on laundry. 

Noah had a monster 3 hr nap! Before we knew it, M was heading out to the parade, as he was in it with the fire department. I fed Noah dinner and then it was pretty much time to go! Grandma and Grandpa came over to watch the parade with us, so we headed out!

Noah absolutely loved the parade and actually we did too, it was really well done!! Noah would respond with "wow" often and the look on his face was priceless:

I absolutely love watching him experience new things and the joy of season!! 

Before bed, Grandma and Grandpa popped back in after they went for dinner (we ordered take out). Noah was tired, but he was also just too excited I think after the parade. He put up quite the struggle and ended up putting himself to sleep for the first time in his new room and bed, but at 10 PM! 

Sunday morning M got up with Noah and I slept in until 9 AM! It was fantastic after my week last week! Noah and M were downstairs cleaning, putting away Christmas bins, and organizing the office. They actually got a lot accomplished! I managed to shower and get laundry going and next thing we knew it was lunch time and time to get ready to got the farm for a family Chrstmas! 

We had a few gifts to wrap and Noah thought picking the paper was the best job ever!! Such a fun age!! 

Then he thought he would help Daddy with the wrapping:

We headed to the farm around 1:30, Grandma put Noah down for a nap and we enjoyed some apps and then a delicious Cesar salad and lasagna! We were stuffed! Noah napped for about an hour and a half and the weather was only getting foggier, so we did presents right away. Noah wasn't too sure at first, as he was just waking up still, but he got the hang of it! Oh and I forgot to mention it was an ugly Christmas Sweater party! 

Noah made out well, he got a new tractor, a giant floor puzzle, a little critters collection book, another tractor, fireman dress up costume, with rain boots, a new stuffed elephant with a baby elephant and a sound puzzle! He was a happy boy!! 

Here is our ugly sweater photo:

Mike was my my elf on a shelf, and my sweater filled in Santas belly! Noah's had a bear on it! 

We had an awesome before bed snuggle on the couch having his milk and attempted to call it a night. He was exhausted once again, but put up a stink going to bed again and ended up putting himself to sleep.

We are hoping the sleep fairy visits this week to help make up for the missed sleep last week and here is to hoping for a easier going week for the little guy! He did have a great weekend, as did we and our days are only getting busier! But I am happy to say we are all done Christmas shopping, aside from stocking stuffers and dinner related items! 

Our Monday is off to a great start with a sleep in until 8:15 and the sun is shining!! I don't think we saw the sun last week more than once and that was Friday! 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

{ Weekend Rewind }

This past weekend was super busy, just as I expect every weekend coming up through December to be!! But it was fun none the less!

Friday night I went over to J's to get our Christmas boards done. I have yet to post about our Halloween boards, but now that our Christmas ones are done too (on the same board just back and front), I should probably get that post ready!! Here is a sneak peek of my board. I will hopefully get the planter ready outside and snap a pic soon as well!!

 

Saturday morning Noah stuck to the trend of waking up around 6:30 AM... not my thing... and luckily Daddy was home to deal this weekend! Although I ended up being awake the whole time, I rested in bed as long as I could until M had to go to work for a few hours to survey! So in the mean time Noah and  I got some laundry done, Noah had a quick morning nap and I showered during that time. We had to run onto town to drop off my Christmas Swap gift to my sister, so my partner (Anna) could pick it up from her place (yay for close swap partners to save on shipping)

 

When M got home just after lunch, he put Noah down for a nap and I got my Christmas baking done for the village moms cookie swap. 7.25 dozen cookies made, I only needed 5.5 for the swap, so I did make some extra, but I think I will make maybe 2 more batches of freezer dough! I ended up over buying on my supplies, not realizing that 3 batches made that many!

 

Noah had a monster nap, which honestly, he really needs! This poor kid is behind on sleep and I am not sure if its the new bedroom transition or teething causing the problem, but he is just not sleeping the same! So when he woke up from nap time we let him try his very first homemade cookie! He wasn't too sure, but was super excited and ended up devouring it! Look at his little smile:

 

Saturday night M and I had the fireman's Christmas party, so M's parents came over to babysit and took Noah out for dinner while we got ready! 

 Noah enjoyed his night with Grandma and Grandpa and even went to bed like a champ!! We enjoyed our little night out and were constantly joking about the last time I was pregnant and going to this party, we didn't make it because I fractured my ankle and ended up in the ER. Yes, I am being overly cautious now with this pregnancy and praying my bones hold up this time!

Sunday morning Noah was up at 6:40 again. I managed a real sleep in until 9 AM and felt great! Today was the day we Christmasified the house! So we brought up the tree and bins and this little guy was already getting excited!

 

We had to change the room around, so that took some time, but we managed to get the tree up before nap time and we even enjoyed a little buffet lunch, which Noah surprised us with doing so well with!

We decorated the house with the decor while Noah was napping, put up the train track system on the tree and I got the garland on the tree.

 

Noah had to measure the tree apparently!

 

I will say seeing Gracie laying by the tree made me miss Lily like crazy. I ended up in tears before I knew it remembering just how much Lily enjoyed Christmas - it was her favorite holiday!! 

 

Noah only napped for an hour and then we decided we would head into town, we had some shingles to return and a few gifts to pick up! We are soo close to being done Christmas shopping, with just a few people left on our list to buy for!

We decided to pick up pizza for dinner and invited M's parents over to help decorate the tree! Noah wasn't too interested in putting ornaments on, and really just wanted the train to keep going around! Train obsessed!!

The finished product:

 

Today I am happy to report Noah slept in until 7:45, which is soo much better for this mama!! We are just about to head off to play group and hopefully have a nice low-key day!!