Visiting Santa

Ha, ha, ha!  I love this picture.  There's a good story to this.  We were visiting Steve's family in Las Vegas (we stayed with Matt and Amy) and went to Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef one morning.  Santa just happened to be there, so we payed a visit.  Here's where the story begins.

For the whole month of December all Lee asked for was "star wars toys".  That's all he wanted from Santa.  Everyday was "star wars toys".  We go to see Santa, who happened to be at the shark reef, and Lee tells him "I want a telescope".  WHAT??  Santa = failed, because he brought... (drum roll) ... Star Wars toys.  Has not mentioned a telescope since visiting Santa however, so that worked out good!

Fast forward to this week (2 weeks after Christmas).  We're at a friends house that has a "red airplane".  Insert 3 continuous days of how Lee "has to have" this red airplane.  Steve and I are not buying anymore toys... for a long... long... time.  Lee then said he was going to ask the next person that came to our house for a gift card so he could buy the red airplane.  NO!  <-- our response.  Lee then was throwing a little fit over this "red airplane" and said "why couldn't Santa have brought me a red airplane?" 

Me: Because you wanted Santa to bring you Star Wars toys. 
Lee: ACTUALLY... I asked Santa for a telescope and HE didn't bring me one. 
Me: Um... ahhh... ya.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating with Grandma, Papa, Aunt Kelly & Aunt Jackie!  A few houses tried to scare Lee, but he didn't really get too scared.  It was a bit chilly, so Elsie and I came home earlier and Lee stayed out with everyone else treating.  It was a great night and lots of fun!

I'll post more pictures soon.  

Merry Christmas

We ran out of Christmas cards this year to send everyone, so in case you did not receive yours in the mail, here is what they looked like. We would like to wish everyone a very, very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2010!

Christmas Card Rejects...

With all the pictures I took of Lee for our Christmas Card this year, I couldn't help but post the reject ones that didn't make the cut. As you remember last years fiasco with trying to get Lee to sit still and take a picture, this year went MUCH better ;)

I tried a session before lunch and Lee just wasn't into it and wanted to play. Here's an example of the pictures I got.

Card would of said: "Merry Frick'n Christmas"

So... I got Lee undressed, fed him lunch, we had our neighbors over at the time and played for awhile and after they left I thought I would try one more time to get a smiley - sortof picture for our card before naptime. Although I did get some cute ones, here's some that didn't make the cut.

Please note: Although I could get Lee to put his button down shirt on, I could not get him to put his jeans back on. So the following pictures were taken with Lee in a nice shirt and no pants!

Christmas Card: "You don't need pants to have a great Christmas"

Christmas Card: "Just peeking in to wish you a Merry Christmas"

Christmas Card: "Hamming it up for Christmas so my Mommy stops torturing me, I mean taking my picture"

There you go! I have mailed out the cards and if you haven't received yours, I apologize, I have run out, so I will post the card here in a few days so you can see it. I'm sorry again we couldn't mail them out to everyone, we do want to wish you the Merriest of Christmas' and Happiest of New Years in 2010!

Decorating the Tree

I never would have imagined decorating the tree would have been this fun! For some reason I envisioned Lee not being too into it, or vice versa, being a little too into and breaking something. We have lots of ornaments that are either paper, wood or metal all of which are unbreakable, so we dove in and started decorating.

Lee remembered that at the bottom of the tree went the "polar express" train. Papa and Grandma Shoes gave us a tree train last year that was put away almost immediately because we were afraid he would break it. This year is a different story. He was SO excited to get the train set up that it was up before any of the ornaments were on the tree. He just laid there and watched it go round and round. It was so neat to see him so excited.

It took about an hour for the train to wear off and then we started putting on ornaments. He was so excited for his "polar express" train, that I got out the official Polar Express bell and gave that to Lee to hang on the tree first. He kept shaking it by his ear to hear the bell. It was so sweet and such a great memory that I will cherish. He loves the movie and I'm so glad he has the train and the bell for the season.

Lastly, we put the angel on top, Lee again was a huge helper. He clung to Steve as if Steve would throw him up there and let go. We got it up and turned off the lights and Lee said "oh SO beautiful". As you can see, Lee put all... I mean A.L.L... of his ornaments in one teeny, tiny section of the tree. For the first week, he would take off a few and redecorate, but he always put them back in that one section!




Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you enjoyed decorating your tree as much as we did. It really makes me want Christmas to come that much sooner!!!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July. Parade, food, family, friends and fireworks. What more could you ask for? This year was the 1st time Steve didn't have to work, so we were all able to go to the parade together. The rain held off too, so that was nice.

It was nice seeing my family, although we missed my Grandma and Grandpa, we had to leave before they were able to make it to my Aunts house. I didn't think Lee would do good with the fireworks being so loud, so we opted out and headed home so everyone could get a nap in. My neighbor Liz has two little boys and she knows of some areas where you can watch fireworks but not hear them, so she invited us over for dinner and convinced us to go and I'm so glad we did. It was a lot of fun! Next year I think he'll be ready to handle them full blown! It worked perfect though because in Naperville, there's an area where you can sit in a well lit parking lot and see them pretty clearly. So we just parked and stayed right by the car! Lee was interested in them for all of 1 minute and then wanted to get down to run around.

Waiting for the parade to start.

Wanting to run up and down the hill like big kids, but was too scared.

My cousin Megans brand new baby girl! She was so sweet and cuddly!

My Aunt Kathy, Uncle Milan and their two girls, Steph and Lisa.

My cousin Megan, her husband Brent and their newest addition Lucia. They have a 4 year old as well you'll see in other pictures. Beth and Lee got along really well together and had a lot of fun playing!

Beth helping Lee too run up and down the hill!

Steve's new trick. Jumping over Lee!

Climbing!

Grandma and Lee waiting for the parade to start!

Waiting...

Beth and her Daddy Brent

Here it comes! The sirens were really loud!

Getting and grabbing candy. Grandma was helping Lee and showing him what to do!

Beth and Lee had a lot of fun grabbing up the candy!

The clowns. They are so fun!

Cheery girls.

Thats my Grandma. She was on the old people float and Jackie tells it! She was throwing us candy.

Steve, Lee and my Dad. My Dad and Jackie were in the Elgin parade and weren't able to make it to the Rolling Meadows one. So we saw them later on at my Aunts house.

Asleep in the car. It took all of 2 minutes before he was asleep. Too much excitement!

Naperville fireworks show! These are all the boys! They are also our neighbors.

Lee with his flag!

Sitting in the back of the car.

Letting off some poppie thingies. Spencer is eating Lee's snack. That boy just might eat anything you put infront of him, lol. Lee was totally not into eating a snack, so I'm glad someone ate it!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Father's Day 2009!

When I asked Steve what he wanted for Father's Day he said that he just wanted to rest and relax. He had been working some long hours the week before and was out of town the whole week. So we stayed home and chilled. Here's what a 2 year old looks like when Momma lets him paint however he wants.

We decided to make Steve a card for Father's Day and Lee wasn't too sure about the paint on his hands at first.

Thinking "hmm, maybe this will be ok"?

Getting the hang of painting and putting handprints on paper.

Wondering what the paint tastes like. Can you see the blue in his teeth?

He didn't like the taste, so he rubbed it all over his arm like lotion.

Here's a birds eye view of what a mess he can make in 5 minutes.

Father's Day morning. Lee was explaining to Steve in great detail how he made his card for him.

Lee sneezing and Steve imitating him. I just thought this picture was funny!

Lee was so proud of his card. It was cute!

This is the cheesy smile I get when I asked him to show me the card and smile. He just too cute and funny!