Tickle me Elmo

On Sunday we went to Kelly's parents' house for dinner.
It was very nice. Thank you Uglems. And the puppy there made me want to get a Wheaton terrier.  Very cute.



Ellen has a tickle me Elmo she uses with kids at school. We all think it's pretty funny. 

Lucy does not.

Killer bunnies

The gang listens carefully as Ryan explains/makes up the rules.

Wow Kelly you have a lot of Kaballa dollas...too bad you closed the market...twice. Well live and learn.

Kill that bunny Snicks! Oh wait that's Brian's really nice hat.

Grandma Pam

Aunts and Uncles are awesome

Already letting her get away with things...

That's a lot of love staring going on.

Aunts are great because they let you try new things...like bananas...

Note: sweet bib a gift from Grandpa Brian

And uncles are great because they give you the keys to their leaf mobile.

Presents

Very generous family. Thank you all! Classy presents, useful presents, crafty presents and presents from far away...



Lucy got the hang of unwrapping right away.

Yes! I got tissue paper for Christmas! Mom, did you see this?! Here you try some....

Naptime

Snacks, walk, nap....wait, who's supposed to be napping...

Shhh, Mom...Dad's sleeping.

Walk it off

After a snack fest we went for stroll.

Snicks rides in style.

So does Lucy who fell asleep about 10 seconds after we stepped outside.

Holiday aprons

This past weekend we met up with the Erickson clan in Deerwood for some good times, good eats and festive merriment.

Pam is becoming quite the prairie homemaker...canning...making christmas aprons...

We all benefited from her skills.

Modeling aprons.

And a Christmas bib!

Santa!

Lucy met Santa this week at the aquarium. (Co-worker Jay was a great jolly ol' sport!) She was in line right behind a lady (another co-worker) and her bunny. Thanks to Jillian and Jay for these priceless shots.

Scooter!

Lucy's been moving beyond simply throwing everything onto the floor to moving forward bit by bit! She's adding this to her movin' and shakin' repertoire. This week she also rolled over in both directions. Nice work kiddo.

Happy Charlie Brown Christmas

A great shirt from Becky, Cadel and Matt!

The tree is up!

The ornaments we have pretty much fill up this little tree. Looks like we'll either have to be picky in the next few years or get a bigger house so we can have a bigger tree...

Winter Family Fun

One of the best full family photos we've gotten in long time. This was such a great day out in the snow and ended with even more good times with friends complete with dinner and games. A morning ski (first time at Piedmont), a date with Ryan for his birthday (Harry Potter!) and a visit with Nadine wrapped up a great weekend. Thanks to Nadine for babysitting!

Cuddles with Clare

So we brought the sled and the moby wrap for Lucy...not sure which she's enjoy the most. Or how cold it would be out there. The sled ended up giving the tree saw a pretty cush ride and Lucy snuggled with Clare. It's a bit more challenging to put a large infant in a moby wrap while they are wearing a snow suit and boots. But we managed. I even managed to tie the whole thing onto Clare. Those are some mean moby skills.

Lucy was pretty snuggled in. She even fell asleep part way through.

Tree cut part 1

Boulder tree cut day! Which started with an amazingly delicious breakfast by the Zoellick-Miragis. Thanks Frank and Erin! And thank you Shakira for letting us bring the little funny smelling alien into your house.



Shakira getting back in touch with her sled dog roots. 

Family photo - with Clare's arm. :) Lucy got a ride with Clare (more on that later)...

Snow snow snow. It was so beautiful out at Boulder. 

Britt and Bjorn claim their Charlie Brown tree with pride. 

Erin and Frank show off one huge beautiful tree. 

The rearrange

I have this quirk. I am constantly rearranging my space. Ryan laughs at me a little but rolls with it (and sometimes like it...)

I'd been scheming about our living room for weeks and last weekend I had the chance to make it happen. So cathartic. We moved our computer downstairs and spun things around and it's really working out well.

While I was at it...I did the dining room too. And it seems like a whole new huge room! Which is great for that little Elmo walker that Lucy throws things from. And improves Lucy and Ryan's racetrack around our first floor. 

Face(s)

In honor of Facebook (tm) trademarking the word "face" this past week (*for solely chatroom/oneline message board forums) - we share with you some really cute faces. Gotta use them while we still can.



Photo shoot with Dad while Mom is at work. 

Snuggles.

Smiles.

This is not one of the photos that Ryan edited in Picassa to look all polished and lovely but I just love the expression on her face. It looks like she's just gotten away with something.