Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone! I’m going to start by apologizing in advance for the numerous pictures and videos in this blog but there were too many to pick from and come on – it was Christmas :) We started our Christmas celebrations by going to Church on Christmas Eve and out to a nice dinner at Gratzi. Kaitlyn was relatively good at dinner but let’s just say that we had to drink our bottle of wine a bit faster than at dinners “pre-Kaitlyn.”

Check out my great shoes....

Thought we would get in her "15 month" pics while she was all "dolled up." Can't believe how big she's getting - to think she barely covered the chair just a year ago and now she's about to leap out of there.











Hope Santa didn't mind a few nibbles out of his cookies.....






Does this look like a girl ready for bed - no way - Santa's on his way... yiipppeee!!

Christmas Morning.... can't wait to see what Santa brought me!!



Uncle Bert, Aunt Jen and Samantha, thank you so much for my kitty!! I LOVE her!!

Aunt Anne, Uncle Todd, Ellie, Brandon, and Kelly, thank you for my bows and bow holder!! We will definitely put them to good use...... I think Kaitlyn is under there somewhere...



Check out my new "Clipo" table from Bebe and Pops....




How do you like this stlyin' tutu from Mimi..... can't wait to DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!!!





Check out my snazzy tea cart from Aunt Lindsey and soon to be "Uncle" Alan.... can't wait to have all of my pals over for tea!!!



Here are a couple of videos of Kaitlyn opening gifts from our families... we sure missed being with you all TONS and TONS!! I know there are a lot - feel free to watch what you wish....















After hours of opening gifts and a big breakfast we went outside to see the sunshine which we hadn't seen in awhile. We decided to have some fun with all of the snow we've had this week and broke out the sled.... don't worry the hill looks bigger than it actually was and Kaitlyn was well padded :)












Couple of other pics from our adventures this past week…. On Tuesday we meet up with one of my high school friends, Amy (Mediamolle) Hardwick. They were in town visiting her in-laws who live in Lansing, MI, so Kaitlyn and I meet them halfway for an afternoon of fun at the Castaway Café in Howell. We played with her twin girls (Mary and Catherine) who are about a month younger than Kaitlyn, and her husband, Dan. It was great to catch up and see the girls play.



The day after Christmas Kaitlyn and I took Brad to the children’s museum. Kaitlyn was excited to show Dadda the huge water table and we even got to make our own ice cream for the Museum’s “artic blast” event. Check out my adorable new outfit that Dadda got me for Christmas and my new bow from the Beller clan :)






Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! We're headed to Nashville on Tuesday to celebrate New Year's with our dear friends Matt, Molly, Jack and Sam - yiippee. Promise to have lots more pics to share when we get back.






Happy New Year!!

SNOW.... SNOW.... SNOW

SNOW... SNOW... SNOW....That's about the best summary I can give of our weekend!! Not to mention the BITTER cold weather - it's -2 degrees outside with a wind chill of -24 as I type this. The snow started on Thursday night and dumped about 6-8 inches on us.... needless to say we spent all day Friday inside watching from the window. Luckily are WONDERFUL neighbor, Doug, has saved us at least three times already this weekend with his snowblower. And even better is that when he was outside fixing up our driveway, her daughter, Katelynn (yes, another one), got to come over for a playdate. Kaitlyn and Katelynn had a great time playing in their PJs and spent most of the time waving to Doug from the window, reading books, and giving each other hugs - it was so cute! Here are a few pics of the pajama party.....

Everyone was admiring the snow....

On Saturday we ventured out to the mall for some last minute shopping and playing at the play area in the mall and then Saturday night we decided to drive down to Toledo for the "Lights before Christmas" display at the Toledo Zoo. Yes, it was outdoors but don't worry it wasn't quite as cold last night and we all bundled up with LOTS of layers. It was fun to see the lights and get in the holiday spirit. Not to mention we made it an excuse to find a decent Mexican restaurant and get our "fix." Kaitlyn tried to show off her adorable dress from her daycare ladies' mom but the jacket kind of ruined the "look".....

This was about as close as we came to seeing animals at the zoo this time of year.....

That sure was fun.....

Today as I mentioned was ridiculously cold so we all decided to stay indoors and knock out another "home improvement" project. Speaking of... I had a friend ask in a Christmas card where we were moving and I realized that there are a few people reading this that I haven't caught up with in awhile... so for those of you who this is old news, feel free to ignore. For all of the others... we're headed to Columbus, OH in July for Brad to do a one year fellowship program at Ohio State (yes, we are going from the Big House to the land of the Buckeyes!). Not sure just yet where our next stop will be after that but for now we're headed a bit further south :) We're hoping to sell the house here, but as you all know it's not pretty, so keep your fingers crossed for us! As for me, it's been a long time coming, but I'm wrapping up work as of the end of the year (woo hoo - one more day tomorrow)!! My company has been going through a financial restatement and transition of our corporate office to Dallas for a couple of years now. It's a bittersweet end; however, I'll still be doing some contract work for my company for a few more months. Don't think I'll find anything in Columbus just b/c it's only a year and not to mention the lovely job market out there is SO appealing.... so hoping for lots of quality time to hang out with Kaitlyn! Okay, so that's the one minute recap.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and is getting to spend time with family and friends during the holidays! I know we MISS your family and friends dearly!!!

"Like Father Like Daughter"

We've spent the last week getting ready for Christmas with lots of shopping, wrapping, and packaging. Winter is in full effect up here and we've had to come up with some pretty creative indoor activities. One of our new favorites is indoor soccer.... Kaitlyn's already working on being as good as her Daddy :)

This one's for you Papa :)




Hope everyone is having a good holiday season and getting all of your shopping done!! Happy Holidays and safe travels to everyone!!

Rooster Mania...

So I'm sure if any of you watch the evening national news you've seen the Ambien CR commercial with the rooster in it and thought "another annoying drug commercial", well not our Kaitlyn, we get the BIGGEST kick out of the rooster every time it comes on. I must warn you this video contains very high pitched squealing :)



Hope everyone had a good weekend. Friday morning Kaitlyn and I tried out Kindermusik with Betsy and Avery to see if we liked it for a winter activity. It was a great time but I think the girls were more into chasing each other than the signing...we might try out the older class this week.

We had Brad's reasearch lab party on Saturday night so we had a sitter for Kaitlyn. She was a perfect angel and pointed to her bed for the sitter about thirty minutes after we left and proceeded to go right to bed :) We had a great time and enjoyed the evening off! Didn't do much else this weekend except a little updating of the guest bathroom - trying to knock off the home improvement projects a little at a time to get the house in shape to go on the market in the Spring.

Still in denial about Christmas shopping but hoping to hit the mall this week sometime and get inspired. Hope everyone has a great week and are enjoying the holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been awhile since the last blog but we didn't have too much to report until the past week.... and oh what a fun week we had! Apologize now for all of the pics but we had Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Lindsey come up to visit for Thanksgiving and boy did Kaitlyn have a blast!

We took Grandma and Grandpa to the Ann Arbor Children's Museum to show them one of our favorite play spots....

To fight a bit of "cabin fever" we bundled up tight and took Aunt Lindsey to the park for some fun on the swings....

Trying out our Christmas gear for Grandpa...

Teaching Aunt Lindsey how to work the lawnmower....

To continue the tradition we fried turkeys for Thanksgiving with Grandpa's expertise. It was great dinner with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Lindsey, Lindsey's friends from Lansing (Molly and Sam), our pals from Ann Arbor (Betsy, Dave and Avery) and one of Brad's friends from the ENT program (Kelly). So fun to have everyone over and remind us of how thankful we are all for all of our family and friends both near and far!



Kaitlyn and Avery had a BLAST chasing after each other and running up and down the hallway and "chatting" with each other. It was SO cute and the first time they really "played" together... we're excited for more playdates still to come!!!

On Saturday we darned the mall and got to visit Santa. I hadn't planned on seeing Santa myself but Kaitlyn wasn't too keen on sitting on his lap by herself :)

Kaitlyn's new favorite place in the mall - the carousel!

On Saturday afternoon we went out to the tree farm to pick our this year's Chirstmas tree and even got to see a bit of snow on the ground and a beautiful sunset.

After saying goodbye to everyone on Sunday afternoon we spent the rest of the snowy day getting ready for Christmas with the help of Santa's little elf....

Decided to do a little photo shot and give everyone a seak peak of our Christmas dress :)

Chasing Dadda is SO much fun!!

Looks like the whole family will be enjoying the tree this year!! Happy Holidays to ALL!