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!

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!

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!