It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas...

Well, I guess as the old saying goes, better late than never, right?  Here's the long awaited and much anticipated Christmas time blog and pics.  And besides, we have another foot of snow on the ground, so technically it does still look like Christmas!! 

But first an update...

Today is a very special day in our lives!!  Our little Miss Ella is 2 today!!  We had a great day hanging out with her.  We went to the pool this morning, had "roni and cheese" for lunch, cupcakes and presents this afternoon.  Ella and I have always had a very close relationship and she continues to amaze me everyday!  She is one of the cutest, smartest most fun little girls I've ever met in my entire life.  Happy birthday, Ella!!!  I can't wait to see what this next year brings :) 

For those of you keeping track Dylan was supposed to have his surgery on Monday (Feb. 8th).  It has been postponed to Feb. 15 because the surgeon couldn't do it this Monday.  Of course, Dylan is perfectly healthy right now, so I'm really hoping he will avoid catching a cold this next week and we can get this surgery out of the way! 

We're also anxiously awaiting the arrival of new baby Morris.  Andrea isn't technically due until the end of February, but Ella was 5 weeks early, so we're all prepared for her arrival any day.  I can't wait to meet the new baby and Dylan is excited not to be the littlest one anymore! 

I have a TON of Buenos Aires and Ella's birthday pictures and stories to post and will try to get them up soon!!

Dylan is getting so big and fun.  He's not officially crawling but he can scoot on his butt, roll and pretty much get wherever he wants to go.  He loves pulling himself up and standing and I'm guessing will be walking within a few months. 

So without further ado, here's Christmas!!!

First up, here are some pics for the Christmas cards that we took a few weeks before Christmas.  Ella and Dylan are SO cute together. 

  

  

The week of Christmas, we went over to Eric and Polly's house (Kris' brother and sister-in-law) and hung out with the Thomas family.  Dylan LOVED getting to play with Owen and meeting Linda and Greg T. 

We celebrated my birthday the week before Christmas.  My dad, Nicki and I made a 4 layer cake which was quite delicious.  Everybody came over to my house and we played a little rock band and Wii fit.  Thanks to everybody for making my 30th special...it was a hard day for me, but nice to be surrounded by the friends and family I love.  A special thanks to JoAnne and Jeremy for driving all the way down from DSM.  It was great seeing all 2 1/2 off you!!!  (yes, for those of you curious, JoAnne is pregnant and Dylan can't wait to meet his newest playmate this summer!!)

 

Jamie gave me a chia pet for my b-day which was awesome!!  Here's Jo and I planting the seeds.

We had a great Christmas with lots of presents and fun.  Obviously, it was pretty hard because I missed Zach so much, but it was nice to be around family.  Christmas Eve we opened presents at my parents' house.  Dylan got lots of new toys, but was mostly interested in the boxes and tissue paper :)  (a special thanks to Kris and Matt for his adorable Christmas Eve sweater!) 

Opening presents with Mommy!

So cute with Papa!

I love Uncle Billy!!

Ella with Namma in her new Dora Christmas pajamas!

Ella showing her new doll off to Dylan!

Dylan says, I'm so cute!!

Big smiles with Aunt Nicki!!

Mommy and me!!

We had a TON of snow on Christmas Eve, enough to pretty much shut down the city.  Billy very sweetly drove Nicki, Dylan and I home so I didn't have to drive in it!  Luckily, Grandma Toni and Grandpa Karl weren't coming until Christmas morning, so their flight still made it!

Christmas morning, we opened presents with Toni and Karl.  Dylan got a bunch of other very cool presents and was very excited. 

Dylan says, I can get used to this opening presents every day stuff!!

Dylan loves his animal pop up toy from Uncle Dennis and Aunt Beth!  He's so good at closing all of the animals after we open them!

Opening the calendar we made with Grandpa Karl!

Later on Christmas Day, we went back to Craig Street to have a family dinner.  My dad made a great Turkey with all the trimmings and we had an excellent time!! 

Toni, Nicki and Karl got Ella a play kitchen for Christmas!  It's one of her favorite toys!!

The box the kitchen came in was also a big hit!!

I got Dylan some balls to play with and he absolutely loves them!!

Beth made this adorable bib with Dylan when she took care of him one day.  The antlers are his handprints!!

The next day, we enjoyed playing with the toys and even made it out in the snow some.  Dylan wasn't quite sure what to make of the snow and seemed a bit concerned on why we were outside when it was so cold!

Riding on his new lion!

Playing with Grandma!

Getting ready to go outside with Papa!

Dylan and a snowman just his size!!

A bittersweet part of Christmas time was having to say goodbye to Aunt Nicki who was leaving for her adventure in Buenos Aires.  We had a great time hanging out with her for a couple of weeks before she left!  We miss her a ton :)   

Dylan making a masterpiece for Nicki, Piper and Rich's apartment in Buenos Aires!

One of the most exciting presents I got was a jogging stroller.  Unfortunately, it has been way too cold and snowy to break it in yet, but Aunt Nicki and I are very excited for it!!

We had a little going away party at the Morris house before Aunt Nicki left.  Morris made his famous chili and we had a nice time :)

Ella and Nicki saying Yabba Dabba Dooo!!

Dylan and I went with Nicki to the airport.  Nicki and I stayed up late packing and making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for the trip.  The cookies turned out to be key...we went to the check in with all of Nicki's luggage.  She brought her fancy hiking back pack and asked for a bag to wrap it in for the flight.  While the agent was getting the bag, we put Nicki's big suitcase on the scale...it weighed over 60 pounds (which the limit is 50 and you have to pay a ton if you're over).  The agent came back and we quickly took the suitcase off the scale hoping she hadn't seen it.  We offered the agent a cookie (which she took) and she checked Nicki's bag without weighing it.  So, even though we were a bit tired, staying up late making the cookies was definitely worth it!!

Aunt Nicki and Dylan decided to dress alike for the goodbye!

We celebrated New Year's Eve over at the Morris household.  We had a nice time and most of us even made it up until midnight!!

We had a great time cheering the Hawks on to victory in the Orange Bowl!!  Dylan and Ella looked so cute all decked out in their Iowa gear :)

Grandpa's sidekick!

Sooooo cute!