Santa Came Early...

Santa hit up our house a day early...and so this morning it was a wrapping-paper-blizzard in our living room. Here are a few shots of Hannah and all her new stuff!

After all the gifts were opened and half the monkey-break was inhaled we played...and we played...and than Hannah napped. We woke her up early from her nap so that we could get to the children's service at church. We were running late and so these are the only two photos I was able to snap as we ran out the door...

After church, my parents joined us for our Christmas Eve feast. The menu is a tradition carried over from Justin's family....crab legs, fried shrimp, twice baked potatoes and corn. We are full.

....well to all a good night...we are tired. Happy Christmas Eve...and a Merry Christmas to you all!

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Hello Break, I Love you.

Winter break is finally here! Which means, sleeping in, naps, and hanging out with my little lady. Doesn't get much better than that! Oh...and catching up on photos, playing with new toys and sleeping in. The presents are wrapped, all the food has been purchased and now we just hang out and try to resist the excitement of letting Hannah open up some presents. (I've asked Justin a million times if we can let Hannah open up some early presents....good thing he is the strong one!) Since we run around like crazy on Christmas Day, we as a little family celebrate Christmas early. So tomorrow morning- Hannah will wake up to a tree full of presents and a stocking that is overflowing (I may have gone overboard this year...)

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However, let us rewind for some old photos...decorating cookies with the Kahlers was a treat this year. Hannah loved it. Surprisingly each year we all come together and decorate dozens upon dozens of cookies. After the first baker's dozen we all kinda get bored and that is when Brad starts inappropriately decorating body parts on the snowmen and santa and I start eating and stop decorating altogether. This year Hannah pulled the weight for us all....

(She goes for quantity vs. quality...the label on the shaker has it all wrong.)

(Meet Sam, the most dedicated cookie-decorator of us all. (after Hannah...) Poor guy is new to the family and was probably too scared to stop....)

(oh...and Sam is Tiff's boyfriend...he's lost in the big city- he's a country-boy from Ely.)

So there you have it....I think we are finally caught up! Enjoy these next few days of holiday spirit! If only there were some snow!

I am Almost There...

...My goal is to be caught up with photos/posts by Christmas Eve Day. Lord knows that when Christmas hits I will have about a zillion and three photos...so here is another little photo-dump. Another little holiday tradition. Justin and I decided that each year we will both take a day off of work and celebrate the season with Hannah. This year we found ourselves at the the Macy's 8th floor exhibit followed up by a little action at the Mall of America enjoying Underwater World. Hannah loved every bit of the day (especially running around in the endless skyways downtown). Okay, I take that back....she did not love every bit of the day...she hated sitting on Santa's lap (which we all witnessed) as well as eating at the Rainforest Cafe. (Those huge gorillas and thunderstorms are very scary to a small child.) ....we learned the hard way and ended up torturing poor Hannah for an entire hour as she clung to us burying her face in our neck. On the bright side- I have not had the chance to cuddle her like that in forever...so selfishly it was kind of nice. :)

On with the photos:

I know that we go to the Underwater World a lot. (Enough to know that it is not called "The Underwater World" anymore...but hey, "Camp Snoopy" will always be "Camp Snoopy" so back off.) But we get in free and Hannah is more and more interested every time that we go.

...just for giggles, I'll leave you with this:

Happy Short Week Everyone!

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Oh and SO EXCITED! Brad and Andrea found out the sex of their little one today...but they are not sharing until Christmas. I think I am most excited for that "gift!" On top of that, their little one's due date is May 18th!....That was Hannah's...until she decided to come two days late.