Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Malia!

After 2 years of not getting to celebrate her birthday and especially Christmas, little Miss Malia made sure this year made up for it. She has been obsessed with her birthday for months now and Santa has been in the spotlight since Thanksgiving. So where to start. First we celebrated on Christmas Eve with the immediate family and then later with the extended family. The day went pretty smoothly considering there was no time for naps (except in the car on the way to church). Then, Christmas morning started with just me and Malia opening presents from Santa but she was quickly caught up with playing and couldn't even focus on opening the last presents (OK, they were only clothes anyway). Later Christmas Day we went to my parents and had a small cake for Malia's birthday. Finally, I chose to wait until Friday to celebrate Malia's 3rd birthday so she could nap and relax some on Christmas Day (great choice by the way). So Friday we had the close family celebrate with a Mickey and Minnie Mouse cake. Again, she loved playing with her gifts and grandpa had some to assemble right away. It was a crazy week but the best week of my adult life. Seeing everything through Malia's eyes and getting to spend some quality time with the whole family was worth every minute of the noisy activity. Here are some pictures of the events. Next up is to work on some more digital scrapbook pages.

With Auntie Susie and Cousin Jude


Opening on Christmas Eve


Playing with the Nerf gun (a trade with cousin Garrett for pots and pans...)


More opening on Christmas Eve


With all of the kids


After Santa arrived


Playing with the Dora vanity


1st birthday cake (in honor of her love of The Grinch movie)


With Rosie


Setting up for her party


Loving the singing


Cake is great!


And the frosting is the best...


With Great Grandma Bev


Family Picture

Only a couple days until Christmas!!!

I can't believe that I am only a couple days away from my first Christmas as a mom. Malia is so excited and I don't even think she totally gets what Christmas will be like. She is also extremely ready for her birthday. We will be bringing cupcakes to her daycare tomorrow and she loves when people sing happy birthday. Here are a couple photos from Saturday when we got all of the snow (but before the real cold moved in). She had fun shoveling and going on the sled with Grandpa and she made cookies with Grandma.

Happy Holidays to everyone!!! And let's pray for a new year that brings a better economy for all!

Having a blast this Christmas season

We went to my dad's work holiday party today with my parents and my brother and his family. We got to see the movie Bolt and they had Santa and Mrs. Claus. Malia ate a ton of popcorn and candy but she made it through her first full movie. I also got a really cute picture of her in a fabulous outfit before the event this morning. She also got a gift from her godmother last Christmas (before we even knew who she would be) and it is the cutest Christmas countdown idea. There is a miniature stocking for each day until Christmas. Malia loves to look in there each morning to see what the prize is. Her favorite is the candy.

It's SANTA!!!

OK, Malia had her first run in with Santa and she loved him. I guess all of the talking about how Santa brings presents and candy worked. Here I was worried she would be scared but she spotted him from the second floor of the mall and just had to see him right then. We worked our way downstairs and as I was putting the stroller off to the side she took off and ran right up to him. There was barely any hesitation before she sat on his lap. When he asked what she wanted to Christmas, she kept saying "Santa" like she couldn't believe that he was right there. Here is the photo. I had to get it to capture her first visit with Santa. Enjoy!