Oh yes. I found this picture and with our new scanner I will post it for all to see! This was Abraham’s first experience with Santa. It wasn’t great either. As you can see, Mommy had to sit NEXT to Santa with Abraham apprehensively sitting on my lap. He wanted NOTHING to do with the man in the red suit. But Santa was really nice and tolerated it well. Enjoy the picture!
Since our Christmas Eve celebration had been postponed, we celebrated with Aaron’s extended family on 1/2/10. Several members of the family were ill that day, so it was still a small gathering in Geneva.
It was hilarious to watch Abraham run around and explore this new house with SO many things he shouldn’t touch or be near. He enjoyed the clocks with pendulums, the many masks and other very pretty items. He eventually found out where they were keeping their dog and kept going back into that hallway to see the dog. He did really well considering no nap time except for the brief snooze he took in the car on the way there.
Aaron’s grandmother greatly enjoyed her picture of Abraham. And it turns out that Abraham knew that was him and kept going over to his own picture! It was absolutely adorable:)
And lastly, we were able to get a 4-generation picture from Aaron’s side of the family. I took several pictures and only ONE turned out! Ah, the trials of pictures with a toddler:) But this one really did turn out nice!
We didn’t do anything spectacular for New Year’s. We enjoyed just being together as a family with NO WHERE to go:) We decided that this year we were NOT going to wake up Abraham to ring in the New Year. We really like for him to sleep when he will, so as the old adage goes – let sleeping dogs lie!
We had “rented” via Amazon Video on Demand the “new” Star Trek movie (for free!) as was greatly enjoying that film when I realize we had 5 minutes until the ball drop. The movie was just about through the main ending and we flip the TV over to watch the ball drop just to realize we missed it by seconds! This is the first year in a very long time that I can remember NOT seeing the ball drop. I was pretty sad. Turns out our VCR clock isn’t very accurate. I should have looked at my cell phone for the time. Oh well. We still celebrated 2010 and finished our movie and I honestly couldn’t wait to go to sleep – I was beat.
Earlier in the day when Aaron had gotten Abraham up from his nap while I was out getting a few last minute groceries – Aaron got these great shots! I would not have believed this possible if I didn’t see the picture for myself! Abraham literally had a pacifier STUCK behind his ear! He had been sleeping like that!!! Goof ball!
We had another Christmas celebration with my Gpa Shinkle and his wife Mary on 12/27. It was nice just us and my Mom with them – very quiet and we actually got to visit with them!!! Abraham of course just loved being in a new place and was investigating EVERYTHING but he did pretty well:) It was wonderful to watch the snow come down through their big bay windows. It was so beautiful. Of course now the snow can go, but on that day it was really pretty. Here is Abraham in action opening more presents!
We woke Abraham up for Christmas morning because our day was going to be busy and I wanted to be sure he could get a nap in before we began the day of festivities out and about.
Here is his wake up video!
Then we started in with the presents! He had so much fun with unwrapping the presents and he REALLY got a kick out of his stocking!! It was too cute:)
He did manage to nap for about an hour before we left to celebrate Christmas at Great Grandma Brown’s house. Abraham was a pro at opening presents by this point.
Our final place to visit was Grammy and Grampy’s (as they have now named themselves). By the time we made it there Abraham was very tired. He was on sensory overload and just beside himself doing whatever he wanted. He was in EVERYTHING. Aaron and I were pretty worn out by the end of the evening too! Fortunately we were able to get Abraham back into the car and asleep before a meltdown occurred! He did get to enjoy another stocking and of course more presents!
Abraham has two favorite things at Grammy and Grampy’s – besides his grandparents! He loves their coo-coo clock and the piano. Enjoy this little boy’s extreme joy in both!
All in all Christmas Day went really well with a toddler and a pregnant mommy. We enjoyed visiting with family and celebrating our Savior’s birth. It was really wonderful to be able to be with everyone.
This year Christmas Eve was changed up for us. We had plans to visit Aaron’s extended family but the weather made that a bit difficult for several family members, so it was postponed. We had the entire day to ourselves! We have never spent Christmas Eve alone. This was very new and actually kind of exciting! We decided to celebrate Christmas Eve by going out to lunch. We ate at the local Applebee’s and Abraham did really well. The food was great and we enjoyed the change of pace. After lunch we all took a nap. We decided that we would attend our church’s Christmas Eve service which started at 5 pm. We got back in the car after a good nap and went to see the service. Unfortunately I did not get to enjoy much of the service because Abraham was wanting to play. He had to sit through our lunch and then napped. Now he was full of energy and ready to run it off. So I spent a good amount of time out in the lobby. Aaron did join us when he realized that this wasn’t going to work. We tried to hang out for the duration of the service but Abraham had gotten so tired he was actually crawling and not walking. He only does that when he is exhausted. We did end up making it to the end (I only know because lots of people were leaving the sanctuary) and we were able to wish some of our friends a Merry Christmas. That was nice! We loaded back up in the car and headed home. We decided to enjoy some Christmas lights throughout our neighborhood and that was so nice. There were some really nicely decorated homes that we got to see. Abraham even got to see some of them too! It was truly nice to just be with one another and celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I think we might try and request a different get-together-day from now on!
We celebrated Christmas with my mom on 12/20. We had a great time visiting with Grandma Jean. Thanks Mom for everything!
Abraham was really getting into opening the presents! He was having a VERY good time with that. He fell in love with the camcorder and big trucks/earth movers!
Check out the video of Abraham playing with his new toys!
We celebrated Christmas with my Dad and that side of the family on 12/19. We had a great time visiting with family:) Abraham received his “farm” which he loves and his ball popper which he is a bit afraid of and he also got some Elmo Sing-A-Long books which he loves to play the sounds! He will walk around with just the sound maker part and push all the buttons. This child has a musical ear:)
Well, we had our first Christmas get-together with our good friends the D’s for a wonderful dinner and AMAZING bread (brought by C – she makes ALL her bread). We then did presents for the kids and it was great! It was a great evening and NO meltdowns! I really had a great time with all of them and seeing M’s face with her new dresses made my day!
Abraham still doesn’t quite get the idea of opening presents. He would rather crawl or walk off and do something. But once the new toys were presented he was quite excited! Enjoy the pictures!!!
It was truly a wonderful night with our friends! Thank you family D!!!!
***Names in this post have been changed for the security and safety of the family…of course the pictures have not….hahahah!!!
After our celebration Abraham was SOOOO tired he wanted to just sit on the couch and actually laid on us! He was so sweet:)
And just a side note…Abraham broke another molar today!!! Yeah! He has both of the molars on his left side (top and bottom) of the first molars. I am very excited! Also, he has totally stopped napping on a regular basis. He will wake up around 8:30-9 am and want a nap within a couple hours and this can last anywhere from 45 minutes (like today) to 3 hours. Then he will go for a LONG stretch (like 7 hours) and not nap again. He just waits for bedtime! I really miss 2 naps a day especially since I was also napping in the afternoon. Oh well. I guess my baby is growing up. Well, since I didn’t get a nap today and I did workout and since I am not sleeping well at night anyway….I am just plain tired. So off to bed I go!
We had a wonderful celebration of Thanksgiving. We got to spend Thanksgiving with both families (Aaron’s and mine) on separate occasions! Yes! Twice the food!!! It was wonderful. This year was bittersweet for my family because Thanksgiving was moved to my mom’s house. This is a HUGE change. My grandmother has always hosted Thanksgiving dinner…for at least 31 years! She lost her husband (my Grandpa) 2.5 years ago and she is 70. Not that she can’t handle it but it is SO much work especially getting the chairs and tables set up and what not. Plus we have a large family. My mom is one of 5 kids. So we have a big turn out each year. This was actually a small gathering this year and we had 19 people! But it was great to be with everyone!
We truly have so much to be thankful for. Life, health, freedoms, the blessings go on. The Lord really is amazing even when times aren’t great…He is there and I am so thankful I can lean on Him anytime, anywhere and for any reason. May all of you who read this feel God’s love and presence and know the blessings He pours out to you! Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!
This is one of the only pictures we snapped from the day…geez!
