Enjoying Life Everyday

Enjoying Life Everyday

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas!

We woke up bright and early Christmas morning. AJ didn't quite grasp the whole Santa thing--he knew who he was, but not what he did--but he LOVED opening presents! Presents took about 2 hours or so because he insisted on playing with everything he opened. It was fun! I made a large breakfast and we played all morning with AJ's toys.

Here is AJ discovering the kitchen--which was a HUGE hit!


Here is mommy and AJ (excuse the rough look, I didnt' have time to shower or even wash my face or put my eyes in before we opened presents!):



I got spoiled by my husband for Christmas--I got some things for my camera (including a tripod!), some work out clothes (one of my wishes, since i started training at Mase Training), and an entire day at Lansdowne Resort's Spa! Here is me using my new tripod to take a Christmas Photo of our family:


Afterwards we went to Grandpa Hall's to open presents. AJ got all kinds of goodies--including a recorder:



Mommy wasn't feeling good again, so we decided not to go to the annual Hanna Christmas Party. Regardless, we still have a great Christmas!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas Eve!

We had a fabulous Christmas. It kicked off with Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's. We ate a lot of food (and cookies) and then opened presents:



Here is AJ with Uncle Dave (or Daveess as AJ says) and Cousin Roman:



A tradition: my mom gets us lotto tickets. This year I won $50!! I would have been just as excited if I won $5 because I have never won before!




After the good food, presents, and family time, we went home to put AJ to bed in anticipation of Santa. I remember fighting with my sister to get to bed (as you know, I'm 15 years older and I used help Santa with the presents), it was nice not having to fight with a child to go to sleep to wait for santa yet. I'm sure we have that to look forward to in the next few years!


Santa got AJ a kitchen and asked us to help him put it together. I don't know if I just ate too much (I've been trying to watch my weight this holiday season!), or if I caught a bug but I immediately started to feel sick. I helped John bring the two HUGE boxes up the stairs and wrapped some presents and then it happened: I really did get sick. I just went to bed hoping it would pass. John was up until 3am putting the kitchen together and finishing wrapping presents. I felt SO bad for him, especially since AJ had been getting up by 6am every morning. Here is a picture of my husband putting the kitchen together:


A very great Christmas Eve!



Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Blizzard of 2009

I will conclude with my updates with our most recent event--the blizzard of 2009! This past weekend we were SLAMMED with 21" of snow. I had fun taking pictures of the turn of events and we made it out on Saturday for a little bit to enjoy the snow. John had to shovel MULTIPLE times since as soon as he was 'done' on Saturday, the snow filled up the areas again! Here he is enjoying himself:




Here is AJ. The snow was up to his waist! I guess that snowsuit was WELL worth the money!





After we put AJ to bed that night, I had to get a picture of how tall the snow was after shoveling. It's as tall as me!





Remember our pictures from this fall of our fence getting done? Here it is with the snow--just to give you an idea of how high it was!




And our deck...crazy!



While we could have REALLY used the time to get some shopping done for Christmas, it was really nice to be snowed in with my family. We ate a lot, but all in all, it was a great weekend! Now we will have a white Christmas--all that is required is 1 inch on the ground, and I'm sure that we will still have that!

Decorating the Tree

Here we are!


That was it...I did the rest solo after AJ was in bed!

Play dates

We had three play dates recently:


Sofya and her daughter Elle. Elle will be expecting a brother or sister in the summer!

Xan, Haley, and I got together to plan a shower for our friend, Clare (yes--another baby shower!). Haley brought over Reilly and we made a play date out of it!!!

Christine and Avery (and Chad too) recently moved back into the area after a few years in Chicago. I talk to Christine so often that I feel like Avery is my neice! Avery is only three weeks younger then AJ, so we have A LOT in common to talk about!

The kiddos saying "Night Night" to each other.Now AJ is running around the house saying "Avery's" and he picked up "OHH NOOO!" from her too!



First Snow and Christmas Tree Hunting

We had our first snow in Early December. We got a good amount. The next day, we decided to trek out to Bluemont, VA to pick out and cut down our Christmas Tree. Let me tell you, it was memorable. AJ was tired, we picked the wrong time to go, so he was cranky. We sat in line waiting to get into the parking lot for 40 minutes. The fields were SO muddy since the snow was melting. John and I didn't feel like the tree was secure enough, so for the entire 30 minute ride home, we had the sunroof open (it was cold!) with our hands holding on to the tree for DEAR LIFE. About 5 minutes from the house we realized the tree was secure and let go. We weren't the smartest! Then we got home and the DVR'd Skins game John caught up with the Skins BEATING the undefeated Saints and with two minutes left in the 4th quarter, the DVR cut off the game. Not only did he miss the end, but the Skins lost in that two minutes plus overtime to boot. Poor John had to find out by looking at the internet. BUT..we got a great tree! It smells so nice, is very tall, and perfect for the area we have it in! Was it worth it? Well, I can say that we probably will go back to Lowe's next year for our tree, but I'm really happy that we had the experience!

The first snow on Saturday the 5th of December. The weekend before we got a snowsuit on major sale--so cheap that we thought "if he never gets use of this, it is ok since it was so cheap!"



We picked out our tree--that was the best we could do considering AJ was not happy!


And John cutting down our tree. What a big, strong, man I have!

Thanksgiving

This year we decided (well, Grandma Nelson decided for us) to stay local and my mom hosted the BEST thanksgiving at her home. The morning started out great--we woke up, ate breakfast and left to go over to my mom's. We left AJ with my parents while John and I went on a FIVE MILE run. You read that right, FIVE MILES. We were surprised how far we went, especially since I have been running in years! I must say, I give myself some kudos and I think John was proud of me too!

After our run and promptly getting ready, the boys watched football while my mom and I finished cooking. My mom is amazing, she bascially had everything organized and ready to go!


Then came dinner. The table was perfect. I made the centerpiece and my mom set the table. The table was HUGE, but we needed it--9 of us for dinner. Smaller than the usual 50-60 at Grandma Nelson's, but big for our family of 5--we are growing!




Jose carving the Turkey and mom feeding the boys marshmellows!


The boys sitting down to eat with their hats!


After dinner, we had a few casualties!










Lauren's Shower

As you all know, my best friend Lauren is expecting her baby girl in January. Her sister Maridith, friend Erica, and I hosted her shower in late November. The shower was amazing, I must say. Between the three of us, we really did a great job! We did a 'sweets' theme, in honor of Lauren's sweet tooth. How she stays so thin, even pregnant, is beyond me!
The fireplace clothesline and gifts:


The candy bar favor. We had sweets quotes on the candy labels and 'to go' boxes with personalized labels.



Erica made the very cute and amazing cake. Dummy me didn't take a picture from the front, that is an elephant that you can eat--the detail was amazing! You can check out the Fitts blog for more details. She actually posts on time, so you have to go back to November.




Erica's mom is a florist, so she made all of the beautiful flower arrangements (and there was a lot of them!)


One of the details I loved about this shower:



The hostess's and the Mother to Be (me, Erica, Lauren, and Maridith):


And finally, how do you make a mother to be cry? Give her a priceless gift: a stuffed animal made out of the blanket she could never live without as a child. Maridith is quite the seamstress (check out her blog on all of her projects for her kids!):




Dylan's 2nd birthday

Back in November, our good friends Sunny and Seth hosted a 2nd birthday party for their son Dylan. Boy, was it a party. No detail was forgotten and there was a TON of stuff for the kids and the adults! AJ got to take his first ponny ride! He didn't like it at first, but soon warmed up to it.


They also had a petting zoo. AJ LOVED the animals, but as soon as the baby pig came anywhere near him, he freaked out. This is a picture of him after he warmed up to the pig. He loved quacking with the ducks though!


They had a boucing slide too! I loved the slide--I think I had more fun then AJ!



And finally, what kid party is complete without a TRAMPOLINE! AJ has always loved trampolines--so he was having a blast!


Halloween

Yes, I am posting this two months late. I have a lot to catch you all up on!

AJ was none other then ELMO for Halloween! AJ LOVES Elmo. He has all of his books and got so excited when we picked out his costume "Elmo, Elmo, ELLLMMOOO!".

We had a wonderful time. AJ is still a little young for trick or treating, so we met up with his little cousin Roman and hit up a few houses in Grandma and Grandpa Padilla's house. Here is my little Elmo:


No pictures of the boys together, we forgot!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Missing AJ (and John of course)

I had to fly out to Minneapolis yesterday (12/8) and drive a few hours (normally it's 1.5 hours, but it was snowing) down to Albert Lea, MN for a work meeting. The meeting was cancelled and postponed until tomorrow morning due to a HUGE blizzard that hit here. We were going to just go back home, but the road conditions are NOT GOOD, so we are stuck nonetheless. So, I'm stuck in my hotel room all day long. Luckily, I have a good internet connection and can work.

I called John this morning and he said AJ was crying for me. I started crying because I have never been away from him for more than one night--and it's not even like I'm with John and we are having a romantic weekend. No, I'm stuck here all alone in the middle of nowhere MN and on top of it I can't even leave the hotel because the weather is so bad!

This stinks :(.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

First day of School

Our amazing nanny, Hannah, is moving to Indiana to persue her nursing degree. I personally, loved Hannah. She was piece of mind for me when I needed it the most. She was so great with AJ and I could tell she loved him and he loved her too. He knew her by name (sounded like banana!) and picked up all kinds of good language from her on a daily basis. Hannah and her husband are very great Christians, which is important to me. Hannah will be missed so much.

Hannah announced last summer she would be moving (that is the perfect amount of notice!) in December. We took a few months to decide what to do. I love the nanny set up we had, but we couldn't afford full time and since AJ is down to 1 nap a day and is literally into everything, it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to work the amount of hours I require. After much discussion and research and many visits, John and I decided it was time to send AJ to school. We decided on The Goddard School for many reasons and quickly got him on the waiting list.

The Goddard School is a full time educational dayschool. Every day he learns spanish, sign language, nature (they teach about the seasons, how to dress, about plants, etc.), etc. They do Yoga and go outside every day, even in the winter (weather permitting). We fell in love with the school and the teachers and administrators.

So fast forward to last Tuesday, and AJ started his first day! I had a lot of anxiety (mostly about naptime--AJ DOES NOT nap anywhere but my car and his crib). It started out rough. We pulled up and I started crying and was holding back the tears when we were talking to his teacher. When we walked in, AJ was excited to see tons of new toys but quickly realized mommy and daddy were leaving him. We had paperwork to fill out and left a crying AJ. After 10 minutes we peaked in the window to check on him and he was BAWLING. My heart was pounding and I was thinking "ok, that is enough, I quit work". Teresa, the operations executive, consoled me and promised to call me in a few hours to give me an update. I left feeling sick to my stomach.


Teresa called me a few hours later and was happy to report he participated happily in all of the activities, ate all of his food, and took a nap with no problem!

Day 2 and 3 were so much easier and it feels like AJ has adjusted well! He is already saying YES (after saying NO to everything including things he wants), "see you tomorrow", "China" (it is Chinese New Year learning week), and singing new songs!

So while I miss Hannah, I am happy with our new arrangement!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Good Pictures of AJ

It only took me two months, but I finally sat down to figure out how to upload pictures onto my computer from my new camera! Here are some good pictures of AJ that I took--enjoy!



Thursday, November 12, 2009

Updates

I have been so busy these last few weeks--I feel like I can't breathe (let alone sleep). Anyway, I do have a lot of BIG NEWS to share:

-Our good friends Kevin and Suzanne got ENGAGED! This is the engagement we all have been waiting for. It was expected, but surprising. Kevin, didn't tell anyone but his mom what he was going to do. Suzanne, as mentioned in an earlier post, is currently in Georgia in training for her job. She returns in December. Kevin went down there for Halloween weekend and proposed. I can't wait to see Suzanne this weekend when she comes back for a short visit!

-Our good friends Lindsey and Jon had their baby girl, Lily Anne Davis on November 4th at 11:38 am via a C-section. The little munchkin weighed in at 7.02 lbs and was 19.5 inches long. We had yesterday off for Veterans Day and traveled the two hours down to Harrisonburg to meet Lily. The doting parents are doing SO well. I am so glad--they seem to be dealing with the stress extremely well!

-Our good friends Clare and Josh are having a boy!

And what is a post without my little monkey, AJ. His My Gym class ended this week and his Babygarten class started. He starts school the first week in December. He is talking so much and is popping some more teeth. We are working on #14, 15, and 16--all eye teeth.

Here is a great picture of him falling asleep in his chair, mostly because he hasn't been sleeping well at night! You can't see from the picture, but he is holding food tight in his hand :).


I am so proud of my little monkey, so mature and everything!