Christmas with KiKat and G

Our good friends Kathleen and Graig came over this afternoon to celebrate Christmas with us and to have dinner. Charlotte was napping when they arrived, but when she woke up she was excited to show off her new toys (after her usual 20 minute post-nap "reboot" period...it takes her a while to really wake-up and be ready to join in the fun).

Opening her present from Kathleen and Graig (whom she now calls KiKat and G) :) It was the Fisher Price Little People Airplane. So cute!!

Reading a book with Aunt Kat

The band's all here!



So happy playing her drum


Having fun with KiKat


We had a yummy dinner of pizza from Pomodoro's. I also ordered Charlotte some fettucini alfredo, which after she eventually started eating it, ended up on her head. Her face and head were glistening from the butter and I had to wipe her down again. Thus, the crazy hairdo 2 nights in a row! Also, she seems to be coming at me threatening to color on my face :)

Having a discussion with KiKat and G

Awwwww....we love our KiKat and G!!!

Christmas Afternoon

Towards the end of Sesame Street, we received a call from my Mom that they were back home from spending Christmas morning with Madeline and Gabriel and they were ready for Charlotte to come over! We packed up the diaper bag and headed over for our next phase of Christmas. Our plan was to feed Charlotte lunch and have her nap at my parent's house so we'd get to spend more time over there.

This says it all...(plus, add "and Grandaddy") :)

Charlotte's shock, awe and happiness about ALL of her presents. I think she made this face every time she opened something, even when she couldn't see what it was yet.

Digging deep into her stocking.

My parents bought Charlotte the set of musical instruments that matched the drum we bought her. She had fun making music with everyone. (Notice Steve in the background working hard to put together one of the many toys Charlotte received)





Rocking the elf hat

Fixing a smoothie in her new blender

I think Charlotte had had enough excitement for one day, as she wandered into the dining room and laid down on the floor saying "night night"

But, she's never too tired for dessert! "Green, red, cookie!" she exclaimed as I put her cookie on her tray. Here she is inspecting the food...

Enjoying her cookie....with an interesting hairdo thanks to me having to clean ketchup out of her hair from dinner :)


After dessert it was time to call it a night. We wanted to get Charlotte in bed at her normal time because she had been up so late on Christmas Eve. We had a great afternoon at Nana and Grandaddy's house and enjoyed spending more time with Aunt Jacki too! Charlotte says thanks for all the awesome presents!!

Christmas Morning

After getting home from Christmas Eve dinner, Steve and I set up the scene for Christmas morning. We "Santa-fied" the family room and put the finishing touches on Charlotte's stocking. Since we got home so late from dinner, we didn't put any cookies out for Santa because I really didn't want Charlotte to eat a cookie at 9pm, which is what would have HAD to happen if we put a plate of cookies out on the table! We'll be better with all those traditions next year (I hope).

I woke up "early" on Christmas morning so I could get showered and dressed before Charlotte woke up. I wanted to look decent for any pictures being taken! That didn't really work out either, but oh well, at least I was clean! Steve followed suit, and Charlotte woke up about 8. We came downstairs and around the corner to show her what Santa had brought. She didn't squeal with excitement or anything (not sure why I was expecting that...maybe next year!), but she was happy to see all of her new things. She walked right over to her kitchen and started playing with the magnetic letters on the fridge. These seemed to be the biggest hit for a while, until she started opening some other gifts. We decided to do breakfast before diving into the unwrapping. Charlotte enjoyed a bit of cinnamon roll and her traditional breakfast fruit - banana! But she really wanted to get down and play. She kept saying "all done, play, kitchen." Santa did well this year!



Charlotte is so loved and received awesome gifts from our friends. Brent, Megan and Violet sent this super cool turtle night light that projects stars onto the ceiling. Charlotte really liked it!

Ted, Anne and Lola sent a ride-on Elmo airplane. Charlotte's favorite feature of this toy is the storage seat. She spent much of the morning putting Cookie Monster and all of her magnetic letters inside.

Chris, Alison and Ethan gave her a set of magnetic dress-up dolls. I can't wait to play with these with Charlotte. Didn't get a picture of Charlotte with this toy yet, she was moving too fast from thing to thing at that point. "Open, open, open" she would say, and then quickly move on.

She also received some great Eric Carle flashcards all the way from NYC from Morgan and Ashley and some cute clothes from our family in North Carolina. After all the opening, it was just time to play!

"I want to cook this!"


Opening presents is SUPER fun!


After all the excitement of opening presents, Charlotte needed a little time to wind down before the next phase of opening at Nana and Grandaddy's house. So, she watched a little Sesame Street with Daddy.


We had a great morning experiencing all the excitement of Christmas with Charlotte. I'm sure with each passing year it will be even more magical for her!

Christmas Eve

Because our family is pretty big, and everyone has extended families and in-laws to visit during the Christmas season, we usually have a multi-phase Christmas. This year's celebration began on Christmas Eve at my brother Bill's house. We headed over in the late afternoon to hang out with them, had a yummy dinner (my crazy brother stood out in the cold in his signature shorts and grilled up burgers and hot dogs!) and the kids opened their presents. We didn't end up getting Charlotte in bed until 9pm after all was said and done, but she did really well and was in good spirits the whole evening! We had a great time hanging out with everyone and it was a great start to the holiday weekend!


Charlotte giving her Cousin Madeline a hug

Charlotte playing with Maverick the Pug

Charlotte playing with the nicest cat ever, Buddy! As Steve stated many times, he'd trade 1000 Peyton's for 1 Buddy

Getting lots of attention is fun!

One of many attempts to get a picture of all the grandkids...this was towards the end of the photo session :)

Sesame Street Live!

The Friday before the Blizzard of 2009 we were scheduled to go to the Sesame Street Live show at The Patriot Center. Luckily the snow held off until the night and we were able to go. We've been going with my niece Madeline for several years now and were excited to continue the tradition with Charlotte! My Mom even got pre-sale tickets because she is such a loyal customer :) We had great seats right up front!

Before the show began we had to get snacks! Madeline climbed up the steep stairs of the Patriot Center with me while Mom and Charlotte stayed down on the floor. Madeline wanted popcorn and I spotted some soft pretzel bites that looked yummy. I forked over the money and we headed back down the steps (after looking at the souvenir stand that is). When we returned to the seats, Charlotte had a lovely light-up spinning Elmo toy in her hand. I guess she had gotten upset that I left, so Nana decided she needed a little distraction! It was almost showtime so we settled into our seats and got to snacking. We had a little visit from our friend Brayden and his Mom, Julie who were also at the show. Charlotte was excited to see him and when he walked back to his seat she got upset and said "my Brayden, my Brayden."

Finally the show started! I was a little worried how Charlotte would react, but she did really well and seemed to enjoy it. I was impressed by her sitting still, on my lap, for the first 45 minutes of the show. We got up during intermission to purchase a $10 Elmo balloon and then were ready for the rest of the show...about another 45 minutes! She sat nicely for the rest of the show and got more into it, dancing in her seat and clapping. She got a handshake from Rosita and Oscar's girlfriend (not sure of her name). She jumped a little when they came by, but didn't cry. She did, however, cry at the end when they shot off streamers and confetti. It was kinda loud and pretty close to our seats, so she was understandably startled by it.

After the show we grabbed lunch at Wendy's (Madeline's choice) and then headed home for Charlotte's nap. Overall it was a fun morning. And Charlotte really enjoyed spending time with her Nana and cousin Madeline!

More Snow!

I didn't think we'd have another snow related post so soon, but as it turns out Mother Nature had different ideas...BIG ideas! The snow began Friday night and continued throughout the night and day on Saturday. It was actively snowing all day long, sometimes coming down 2 to 3 inches an hour. We ended up with probably about 20" when it was all said and done. But in places it looked like way more because the wind had created some major snow drifts.







We didn't take Charlotte out to play on Saturday because it was really coming down, plus we figured the snow would stick around for a while and we'd have plenty of opportunities to take her outside! Also, i'm really not sure how far we would have gotten because she probably would have been swallowed up by the snow!! After the road had been plowed and Steve had worked hard to shovel the driveway, we got suited up and took her out after nap on Sunday afternoon. Once again she seemed to really enjoy it. She just wanted to walk around and was SO upset when we came back inside.

Charlotte coloring with her Daddy before we headed out to play

Yeah for snow!


Hmmm...very interesting

Posing with Daddy

Another cute footprint :)

Making her best impression of her friend Grayson's "But why?"

I think I might be stuck!

Queen of the snow mountain!