Christmas 2007

Marie and her Chicago Cousins

Haute Couture Marie looking oh-so-fashionable

with Uncle Jeff

"What's that?"

"Does every girl get one of these?"

Eating lunch with Grandma Tina at Uncle Scott's

"I love my new bike!"
"What is Pooh doing in MY seat? He should be in the trunk. I will move him there...twenty or thirty times."
Santa's Little Helper at Uncle Scott's

Marie had a busy busy Christmas. We started with a little morning Christmas at our house Saturday morning where she got her bike and the Little People Castle. She also got a light up Pooh pen that she is in awe of. Then we packed up the car for the first road trip...down to Brighton and Nana Whall's. We had a quick Xmas Saturday night and then played games. Saturday night we played "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Some of us were and some were not. Sunday we played "Hand and Foot" which is a fun card game involving 3 decks of cards. Some of us get a little too into it and other's (along with their sarcastic brother) like to make jokes and drag the game out. Fun was had by all! Marie had a blast playing with Uncle Rob. It is great to see the progression of that relationship. Last Christmas she barely tolerated him. Now she screams in glee when she sees him and has lots of little games they play together.

Monday we packed up and headed to Lombard, Illinois. Jim and Marie crashed in the car (see previous post). We had a lovely Christmas Eve and Day with my side of the family. Marie just loved being with her cousins and watching everything they did. She wasn't too into presents but loved the attention. A cute moment was after dinner on Xmas day...we were waiting for the kids to open another round of gifts and the two littlest ones were getting restless. Jim and I decided to take them outside to get them some fresh air and tire them out. We didn't have any toys or anything to play with so we took two gift bags - one for each - and collected leaves. Each leaf was a h-u-g-e event and met with squeals from the little ones. This one was red, this was a big leaf, this one had needles...each one was exciting and HAD to be put in the bag. When we finally got cold enough to go in we were presented with a slight problem. We were not going to let Marie take this bag of wet leaves into our host's house and she wasn't about to part with them. Her little two year old hands death-gripped the bag of leaves and the yelling made us wonder what she was fighting for? Jim finally had her put the bag in our car so we could get her back into the house.

The ride home was blissfully uneventful (see previous post). Marie made it almost all the way home before we had to bust out a DVD. She is a trooper.

A Quick Peek as I Must Unpack...

December 24th - on the way from Nana Whall's (Detroit suburb) to Uncle Scott's (Chicago suburb). It's hard to hold the camera steady AND drive.

December 26th - on the way home from Uncle Scott's

With our new best friend. She took the hat off her own head and put it on BB. In case you noticed her outfit (and how could you not?)...long story.

Christmas Party

Marie attended a Little Girl's Christmas Party last night. Four little ones were present; their Mom's all work together, that is how they know each other. Marie was the youngest by far but she still had a good time watching the other "big" girls. One of the other girls kept feeding Marie pretzels; they got along well! All the girls exchanged gifts. it was interesting to see how Marie instantly knew how to tear open the gifts. Marie got the other girls a huge princess coloring book. They each gave her some wonderful gifts as well; she got some puppets that she is wild about! But she was so excited about all the energy in the room! She was so into watching people and just soaked up all the enthusiasm. We left a little earlier than the other families but took a few minutes to walk up and down the city block to look at the Christmas lights. She was enthralled with all the lights and outdoor decorations. The entire drive home she kept pointing out all the lights to me with her shout-outs. She had a great night! Eagerly anticipating a wonderful Christmas with her extended family!

This Weekend

This little one LOVES to play outside in the snow. When I told her we were going to go outside, she ran into the laundry room, came back with her boots and threw them on the floor at my feet then ran off to the closet to get her coat. She could not could not could not wait for me to get dressed. She dragged my black/blue coat over to me and was just bouncing around while I got ready. We went for a walk, played a little with the shovel and pails but mostly she wanted me to pull her in the sled up and down the driveway. It is easy to get her to go inside too...just say the words "hot chocolate."

Marie always loves Saturday mornings because there is no rush, no fuss. Both parents are there and are relaxed. We eat breakfast together and more often than not, Jim makes her pancakes. You can see how thrilled she was this Saturday morning.

Pigs Must Be Flying...

and H*$% has frozen over...I made a cake. It is supposed to look like a "snow drift."

Birthday Aftermath

Balloons are just good clean fun...especially after you have ripped off your socks and hair bows.

Soon to be Best Friends???

Their momma's have plans for these two. They already share clothes and toys, birthday months, family holidays...little do they know that they are going to be playing together for a long long time. For now, they are just sharing a cheerio or two...

Birthday Party

On Monday, Marie turns 2! So this Saturday, we celebrated with family at our home. Marie was blessed with a grandma, aunts and uncles and some cousins. When she woke up from her nap on Saturday, we had the kitchen decorated with balloons and lots of Big Bird. She was thrilled with the balloons!!! We had an ice cream cake from Moomers that had a Big Bird likeness on it and the cousins all enjoyed playing with Uncle Rob and his crazy balloons. Rob showed Marie how to make balloons stick to her head using static energy. Marie and Annie were very interested in one another and shared some cheerios and puffs. Marie received lots of clothes and tons of things to color with. A magnet doodle, aqua doodle, color wonders marker set and coloring books. She was thrilled with her Chinese Kung fu doll from Nana Whall. It can be posed in 14 different Kung Fu poses...cool! Jim is playing with it as we speak. It was a lovely day and we are blessed to have this sweet little girl!

A Few More...

Lukey needed to get a picture on here too! Marie sharing some Cheerios with her big cuz (the hair...don't ask).

Thanksgiving Day

Jim and the ladies in the basement watching the Macy's Parade.

Marie and Shelby in the tub (Luke joined in).

Marie playing in the 3" of snow we got last night.

Snow and sun!

Shelby and Sydney sledding down the sidehill.

I would have to say that this is one of Marie's best day's ever. She woke up to find her cousins were here. The day began with playing puzzles with cousin Luke right outside her bedroom door. That progressed to breakfast with her cousins and playing downstairs while watching the parade. She shrieked at the top of her lungs when the Sesame Street float went by with Big Bird. It truly was quite exciting. After nap and the Lions' loss, the daddies took the girls out to play IN THE SNOW (Luke was napping). None of us were prepared for snow; Sydney had on my snow pants rolled up and Shelby had Uncle Jim's fleece over her clothes. But the big girls went sledding and exploring through the woods. Marie screamed when snow touched her feet and then decided that it was fun to play in...if you rip your gloves off first. When I brought her in, I discovered Jim had used atheletic tape to fasten her gloves to her sleeves so she couldn't rip them off. You can see here that this was before Daddy had that brainstorm. Marie finished off her stellar day with hot chocolate, potatoes, steak, red and yellow pepper and a popsicle. Oh...and a bath with her cousins in the big tub. Needless to say, she was very very unhappy when she had to get out of the tub and go to bed.

Hot Chocolate

"Hi. My name is Marie and I am a hot choc-oholic."

Climbing and Bathing

We love to climb. It is particularly fun to climb on the ledge of the fireplace and jump off...you can see the edges are padded...hmm, wonder why? We climb on chairs, stairs, in and out of the tub and we have contemplated the crib but nothing too much there, yet. We have 4 little chairs like this one scattered throughout the house and she knows where they are and loves to climb them.

Tonight, Jim helped out again at youth group. There is a huge side-benefit to this for me...tonight he came home with half of the leftovers of the pasta bar. I put two containers of spaghetti sauce in the freezer and have dinner for tomorrow! I have some sort of cold that has settled into my chest but is making my eye discharge icky stuff. Needless to say, I didn't go to church. So, as he was at youth group, I was in charge of Marie. After dinner, I looked at her and thought, I am too tired to play for another hour. So I asked her, "Marie, do you want to take a bath in the big tub with Mommy?" She looked at me, dropped her stuff and ran over to the stairs. We got her stuff ready for bed, I through on my suit and into the tub we went. She had a blast and after a half-hour I had to force her to get out. She likes to lie on top of me, put her head on the tub pillow and kick her legs making a huge splash. Marie went right to sleep after that. Good Night!

Ready for Church

Marie is doing much better at mass. She will draw for part of it and munch on cheerios for part. The rest of the time is spent standing on me and looking at the people behind us. I feel a little bad about this because I know it is a distraction to others. Things have been so busy that our church schedule is a little chaotic. Sometimes I go in the morning alone at 11 and Jim goes alone at 5pm (or vice versa); sometimes we all go at 9am. She is not too into the music which is surprising to us. We now live quite a bit closer to a different parish and we have gone there a few times and enjoyed it. But, then Jim got a request from the youth minister at our old parish asking him to help out at youth group on Sunday nights. So now we are back to St. Francis for a bit. For a while Marie was attempting to crawl under the pews and other such antics but now she is doing pretty good at sitting in our laps. And she loves Holy Water. She points to her forehead to make sure I do not forget to make the Sign of the Cross on her with Holy Water.

It's a matter of time...

Thumbs has found the fish. This was Sunday night.

Michigan Fan

Marie and Jim watching the U of M - msu game this weekend. Marie had a nice bowl of apples, crackers and veggies; what she is eating is Jim's chicken wing. We had a great group of friends over to watch the game. Alas, for them, they are all Spartan fans. As Michigan came back during the 4th quarter, I had all the kids in the basement and I took great care to explain how the team in green was cheating. Finally, one girl looked at me and said, "But I LIKE the green team!" "OH NO!" I said. "They keep cheating!" Marie loved having the company and it is good to see her so much more comfortable around people. She kept handing her Big Bird DVD to the adults in attempts to get someone to play it for her.

A few fashion shots. Marie has 5 pink coats of various patterns and styles. That's a bit much, don't you think? She also has about 7 pink sweaters. I think she has 4 pairs of pink pants. The funny thing is, I don't really like pink.