Opening Presents on Christmas Eve

We had a special Christmas Eve this year, where we celebrated over at Mikey's parents house.  It was a full house, with John and Amber, my parents, my brother and 5 dogs!  We had a great meal and opened a lot of presents.  It was a wonderful evening.

Here's Tom on his favorite perch

With Grandma Postlewait - note the elbow patches on his fancy Christmas sweater

With Mom

And one with Uncle John

Beautiful tree with lots of presents

Two sweet girls by the tree

The best picture of the two of them I could get

Tommy was ready to roll

Let me at 'em

He got a great talking dog that he liked

Grandma and Grandpa trying to figure out what was in the secret box....

An iPad!

Wowee - 7 Princess Dolls?!

And a Princess Dress of course!

More time on the stairs.  He sat there during most of the time while we opened presents.

Cuddling with Papa

Showing Amber how to put her dolls to sleep

Wrestling with Sadie

I love this shot - he is leaning on his knee, checking out his little books

Good one of me and Uncle John, don't believe your eyes, it took 15 takes to get it.

Sweet boy.

A Ton of Christmas Fun

We had a pretty incredible Christmas (and took a lot of pictures along the way).  This is the first in a series of posts to show all of our fun.  This was the first year for Ellie to really "get" Christmas, which made it extra special for all of us.  She helped move the candy cane every morning on the Advent calendar, searched for "Chippy" our Elf on the Shelf, made a lot of Christmas crafts and treats.  She had some wishes for Santa Claus - 1) a vacuum 2) a Jeep 3) a dollhouse and 4) a broom for me and her father.  She got more and more excited as the days approached, and we had some great activities along the way.

The first was a trip to the Nutcracker ballet at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts.  Ellie, Grandma Postlewait, Ruthie and I all went on a beautiful day.  My thought was that she would make it through 15 minutes of the performance, but she really was in awe of the dancing and ended up making it through the whole thing (although she was getting very antsy at the end).  She loved the story, and had quite a fun day getting dressed up and spending time with "ladies".  She asked me the next day when she could go back and see it again!

Gazing out the window, note the puffy skirt of her dress

Posing with Mom before we went in

We got to take pictures with the dancers

With Grandma and Ruthie before the show began.  We had great seats!

Spreading the Christmas Cheer

We have been busy prepping for Christmas at our house.  Check out some of the fun activities!!

Stringing up the lights outside

Lending Dad a hand

Tommy checking out the Crayola store at Crown Center

Papa took us for a carriage ride on the Plaza

Posing with Tom

Our horse's name was Dan, and he was sweet.

It was a great ride!

Making a gingerbread house...in her Easter dress, naturally.

A cute guy in his Christmas pjs with his two buddies.

Ellie's Class Party - iced sugar cookies and general chaos.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year, hosting our parents and grandparents for the festivities.  It was a beautiful day, 65 degrees and sunny.  We had tons of food and were very happy to have the chance to celebrate together.  We discovered Tom isn't a fan of sweet potatoes - he took one bite, spit them out and then blew a big rasberry.  Ellie kept everyone entertained and insisted on having several people read her princess stories, while Tommy doled out high fives.

It was a great start to the holiday season!

Waving hi, in my big boy shirt

There's dad in the window!

Family photo, Tom semi-cooperated

With the Postlewaits

Kline family picture

Helping Mikey celebrate his birthday, which was the next day.

Princess stories

Hi Five with Papa

And with Large...

Meeting Santa

We took the kids up to our city's Annual Tree Lighting recently.  Santa comes to the tree lighting, and the kids got to see him.  Ellie did pretty well, telling Santa she wanted a vacuum cleaner, but only if I went with her.  Tommy, not so well, who wasn't a fan of the big guy in red. 

One vacuum please

Mom smiling, Ellie trying, Tom in agony.  Also, Ellie now firmly believes that Santa has a daughter, thanks to whoever this girl is in the picture.

Tommy Burgess Turns 1

Well, the day finally arrived.  Our sweet boy Tommy turned 1 on November 18th.  Words can't describe what a joy Tommy is to our family.  He is the sweetest child around (confirmed by almost everyone around us).  He is always ready with a smile or a laugh for us.  He is walking now, almost everywhere, very determined to be in the middle of the action.  Tom loves to climb on anything, and we frequently find him in places he shouldn't be.  He is talking - "Hi" "Bye Bye" "Ma, Ma" "Da, Da".  He shakes his head "No, Thank You", loves to wave hi and goodbye, and whenever he is looking for Ellie, he puts his hands up to question "Where is she?".  Ellie is for sure his favorite person by far.  She gets huge belly laughs out of him for about everything she does. 

Tommy is such a great child, and we are so lucky to have him in our family.

He celebrated his birthday in style, complete with a day at home with mom, a family party and a party with friends (that come complete with a kitchen fire from making pizzas.  We will never have our act together).  All in all, he had a great birthday.

Birthday boy with a birthday balloon

Playing with his new toy

Posing with Dad

Check out Ellie - yes, she attended the party in her princess dress.

And insisted on opening and using Tom's presents first.

He gets his chance.

Ellie in action.

 

 

Tommy figuring out another way to be able to play with his new toys.

Digging in to his cake.

Hanging with Mom before my party with friends.

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candle, again with help from Ellie

Family pic