A Merry Christmas Indeed!

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone! I have to say that Christmas with a daughter (or son for that matter) is a totally new experience. Now I would like to update my answer to question 18 on my last post...I now know the joy of watching my daughter open a present and the little look that she would get on her face! There's nothing like it. I can't wait until her birthday next month and I can give her more presents!

Anyway...on with the festivities. On Sat night, we got together with all of my mom's family. My gracious Grandpa thought that for his gift to us, he would take us all to Crystal Cathedral which is a really cool presentation of the Nativity that a church up in LA does. It's a great show with Flying angels and everything!

Ella trying to get in on a little Monopoly action with my cousins

Our little family in front of the Stucki's tree...you know, since we didn't have one this year!

Grandpa with all the grandkids/great-grandkids

My mean sister put this little Rudolph thing on her son, Carson.

In front of the Crystal Cathedral

Linds and Mike with Grandpa

Now to the best part of the day...watching Ella discover what has been under this paper for the past month in her room. She was so funny cuz she would open up the present and then just look at us like, "Is this for ME?"

Opening her Elmo Medical Kit from her cousin Jason...Thanks Jason! She LOVES it!

Mid-clap

I love this picture cuz she had just figured out how to push the button to make Cookie Monster talk and she thought she was so smart!

Ella with her cousins Kaitlyn and Carson


This was my favorite gift this year!

Tagged...25 questions for 25 days of Christmas

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate...Egg nog makes me gag!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
When I was a kid, he wrapped everything but I like the idea of just placing them under the tree...less work for me!
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White lights on both...more versatile
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No...it's poisonous
5. When do you hang your decorations up?
Ok, I'll admit it...we don't really do decorations...not yet at least. There's too many other things this time of year that I want to spend my dollars on.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Probably cinnamin rolls on Christmas morning.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
In Rancho Bernardo, everyone puts luminaries out on Christmas Eve and we always spent that evening with my dad's family so when we drove home that night, we'd always drive all around the neighborhoods and look at all the sidewalks all lit up.
8. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Like Meg...depends on what I'm wrapping.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Sometimes
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
We didn't do a tree this year but next year for sure!
11. Snow? Love it or dread it?
HATE IT!!!...but if my husband asks...I'm indifferent to it.
12. Real tree or fake tree?
I used to want a real tree but now I just see all the work that goes along with it so I think I'm sold on a fake one.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
No but it was probably something my Grandma Dewey got me. She always got me something great!
14. What's the most important thing about Christmas for you?
That's easy. Being with family. This is the first year that we don't have to travel for Christmas so I'm excited for that.
15. What is your favorite Holiday dessert?
Homemade carmels!
16. What is your favorite tradition?
Probably the Christmas morning breakfast that the boys are in charge of making.
17. What tops your tree?
I'll let you know next year...
18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
Receiving! Wait, is that bad?
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
20. Candy canes, yuck or yum?
Yumm-O! But mostly the rainbow ones.
21. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I think it's ELF. ("Santa? I KNOW him!)
22. What do you leave for Santa?
Cookies (or whatever treat we had in the house) and of carrots for his reindeer. I do like Megan's idea of leaving some Diet Coke for him...we might have to adopt that tradition.
23. Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?
It usually involves waking up to presents and stockings and then some sort of yummy breakfast...depends on whose house we're at.
24. Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall?
At the mall for sure! I love all the energy there!
25. Christmas letter or Christmas card?
This year it was just a card but maybe some day I'll have more to say.

Uhhh...what?

Okay, maybe I had a bit too high of expectations for who they would cast as Edward for the Twilight movie...but this guy? I have to say I'm a little dissappointed. But let's be honest, no matter who they got to play our beautiful vampire, he still couldn't live up to the images in our minds...

For those of you who haven't seen yet...this is who is playing Bella. Cute, right?

Logan Stephen Pratt!!!

Little Logan is a lot of things...precious, loved, a "little trooper"...but patience is something he might have to work on! Making his debut a few weeks early for proud parents Steve and Cammie Pratt (our dear friends from dental school) is the beautiful Logan Stephen Pratt. I told Cammie that he figured that because his mommy had been a nurse in a NICU in Omaha, he knew she could handle it if he came a bit early. We can't say we blame the little guy. We've always thought the world of his parents!



The proud Daddy with his son

Check out those locks!

Congratulations Steve and Cammie! Logan couldn't have better parents!

Our little Monkey...

Here's just a few shots of my favorite little girl in the whole world!

Ella's new favorite Saturday activity?...Pick up a Jamba Juice and head down to the pier!

Ella and her cousin Carson playing with their Shrek toys. Where's Kaitlyn???

There she is.

Thanks for the lift, Carson!

FORGET IT!!!

I'm over at my sister's right now and she has just discovered the joy of digital scrapbooking. Trying to go along with her enthusiasm, I tried to put together a new header for my oh-so-boring blog. Anyway, this is what I came up with and now I'm just having major issues with the size of it. It's huge! I've tried all kinds of things to make it smaller with no luck. So this is it. I'm giving up. I know it makes me sound like a quitter but I'm this close to throwing the computer through a window so...it is what it is. Huge. Oh well.

A week in Utah

Last week we got to be up in Utah to be with family for Thanksgiving. Originally we were going to drive up Tuesday night (by the way...driving through the night is the ONLY way to go with a baby on board!) but then Ryan found out he had to be in Denver for an interview on Tuesday so we ended up driving up Friday night so Ryan could just fly out of SLC. Anyway, we were really glad to be able to spend the extra time with our family! (Sidenote: because of this extra time we were up in Utah, I had to forfeit my ticket to go to the Dancing with the Stars Semi-finals with my sis, mom, and aunt. This was quite the sacrafice I had to make especially when I heard about the Celine Dion sighting. I can't fully explain as it still brings a tear to my eye. For more on this, click on my sister's blog on the right (The Banners))

Here's our little Utah cheerleader with her cousin Alex

Ryan and his brother, Steve, having a little too much fun with the Wii (I think they were boxing.)

and Guitar Hero...

On Wednesday we all went to see the movie Enchanted (which by the way...so cute!) After the movie, the kids found this little bathtub with a strange monster in it. So they decided to hop in!

That night we went to our friends, the VanLeeuwens, to have a little Omaha reunion and throw a baby shower for our friends, Steve and Cammie, who are having a little boy in January. It was SO FUN to be with all of them again. Within the first two minutes of being together, it felt like no time had passed at all! Because this was probably the first baby shower for the guys, we thought we'd make them do some of the typical baby shower games. Here they are tasting different jars of baby food. It all came down to a "taste-off" and Adam was the proud winner. They also played a very creative game of Memory.

Adam taking a heaping spoonful of the Turkey babyfood.

The Heffner, I mean Van Leeuwen boys.

Ella LOVED playing with all of her Omaha friends again!

Me and the Cammie with her cute little baby bump!

Ella with her Aunt Debbie on the way to the Jazz game.

Speaking of the Jazz game...this was probably the highlight of the trip for Ryan. We just had normal tickets for the game but Ryan's sister and brother-in-law had great seats right on the floor! They were probably the best seats in the house! They were on the floor about five seats down from the Jazz bench right next to the score table (at least I think that's what that table is.) Anyway, Cindy and Chris were generous enough to let Ryan and his brother sit there for the first quarter of the game. Ryan was like a little kid in a candy store! He was SO excited. He shook hands with Sen. Oren Hatch who sat a couple seats down. He was high-fiving the players as they walked by. He was standing right next to Jerry Sloan when he was arguing with the refs. It was seriously more fun watching him than watching the game! Anyway, here are a couple pictures he took...

Our favorite little Christmas elf!

The rest of the story...

It seems like a while since I've done a post. We were up in Utah last week for Thanksgiving (you know there'll be pictures from that later!) Anyway, here are the rest of the pictures...

While taking pictures next to the ducks, my vicious aunts and sister thought it would be funny to throw a bunch of bread by us so the ducks would attack. Ella and I did NOT think it was funny.

After the duck incident, we went to my cousin Chase's football game. As usual for our family, we did our best to cheer as loud as possible and embarrass him as much as possible.

My grandpa, Mom, and Lindsay

Ella and my mom. It got REALLY cold when the sun went down.

All of us (minus Jill and Todd) after the game.

Aunt Jill, Uncle Todd and Chase.

Happy 50th Mom/Go Chaser!!!

I know...kind of a weird title for this post but it decribes how we spent our day last Thursday. It was my mom's 50th birthday and even though we're really gonna celebrate it later when we go on a little girl's weekend get-away, we had to do something on the actual day of to celebrate the big occasion. It also happened that the day landed on my cousin Chase's last football game of the season so we decided to "kill two birds with one stone" and do it all in one day!

My aunt Melanie had some shirts made. (I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of all of us but sis did so I'll steal it from her blog if she does a post about it.) Anyway, this was my mom's. Ours said "Fifty is Nifty" on the front and "Go Chaser" on the back.

The restraunt we went to was on a lake with ducks so gues what we did after lunch???

My Aunt Jill (Chase's mom) with Ella.

My computer's being stupid with the pictures...I'll have to finish later.