Birthday Fun

Michael started off his birthday at 6:30 this morning with the unveiling of his new train set. He was thrilled. He played contently for 1 1/2 hours, while I continued to ask him if he wanted to go to Starbucks. He repeatedly said, "no," so my mom saved the day and showed up with a latte and hot chocolate. Michael then requested to eat his lunch while watching Cars, and since it was his birthday I obliged. That's when Mike got home from work to spend the rest of the afternoon with us! We ended the night with dinner at Round Table and then opened some presents when we got home. All in all, Michael's second birthday was fun and relaxing, and I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that he is already 2!

So excited to wake up to his new train set (a joint gift from my parents and us.)

Michael is really into tunnels now, so he kept on pretending that he was going through a tunnel.
Watching cars and...

eating french fries, his favorite!

Enjoying some pop with Pa.

Posing nicely for the camera then...

making funny faces:)

Ending the night in his new track suit.

What a fun day, and looking back, what a day filled with junk food!

Our Baby is 2!

Happy Birthday buddy! We love you more than you will ever know!!!

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Afternoon and night at my parent's house. We started off the festivities with brunch and then moved on to opening presents. After presents, Michael took and nap and all of the adults watched Tropic Thunder, which by the way is my new favorite movie. We then ended the night with dinner and dessert. It was the perfect way to spend Christmas!

The calm before the storm.

Michael's second stocking of the day.
Michael loving his new umbrella.

His big surprise was this dog, Duke. There is a dog just like this at my grandparent's assisted living facility that Michael is in love with. He always tries to take it with him, so my mom found him one of his own.

My mom and brother right before dinner.

Mike got this shot, but couldn't fit me or Michael in, not a problem for me:)

This kid just loves ketchup!

We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning

When Michael woke up on Christmas morning, he couldn't wait to see if Santa came. He was thrilled to see that Santa ate his cookies and had some milk. He wouldn't even let us move the plate and glass into the kitchen. Micheal then moved on to open his stocking. We made a huge mistake by putting several little cars in it. He spent the rest of the morning playing with the cars and lost interest in opening any of his presents!

Checking to see if Santa had his snack.

Looks like he was here!
He even left a note!

A few items from his stocking.

Loving the cars. Not even interested in the giant block set.

"Cool backhoe, but I think I will go back to playing with my cars."

This new step stool is perfect for lining my cars up.

Finally something that tore him away from those stupid cars!Michael thinks he is so cool now with his "bike."

Mike learned that he could have spent $15.00 on a bunch of cars for Christmas and Michael would have been just as happy:)

Treats for Santa

Michael left out treats for Santa and his reindeer for the first time tonight. He thought that it was the best and had to exercise great restraint to not eat the cookies himself!

He is doing everything in his power not to grab a cookie right now!

Michael grabbed a new Santa ornament that he received from my aunt today and tried to feed him the cookies:)
We hope that everyone has a great Christmas tomorrow!

"Run, run as fast as you can...

you cant catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

I recently blogged about Michael's love for the Gingerbread Man, which got me thinking about whether or not he would be ready to decorate some gingerbread cookies. I stopped by Williams Sonoma and I found a Gingerbread Boy cookie cutter and picked it up just in case. After hearing the weather forecast yesterday, I decided that we would need a fun project to keep us busy if we were house bound, so we went for it. I picked up all the ingredients at the store so we would be ready. While Michael napped today I quickly made the cookies and Mike got all of the candy ready. When Michael woke up, he couldn't believe his eyes! The project went over a lot better than I thought it would. Michael ate way too much candy and Mike almost had a heart attack because he thought Michael was going to develop juvenile diabetes right then and there.

This is what Michael woke up to.
Trying out some candy before decorating.

Getting the hang of it.

Pretty creative.

Having more samples.

The Gingerbread Boy starting to take shape.

When Mike and I weren't looking, Michael would try to eat candy. When we caught him he would take the half eaten candy out of his mouth and place it on his Gingerbread Boy...gross.

Believe it or not, this is his "smile."

Enjoying the fruit of his labor.

Not too bad for our first attempt.

Presents Wrapped- Check

More Fun in the Snow

Mike took Michael out to play in the snow again this morning. It was so icy that Michael had a hard time even standing up!

Bundled up and ready to go (his "smile" is back).

Michael needed a lot of help this time.
There was some falling.

Then he found some shelter in our old dog house.

Michael discovering the joy of snowballs.