Christmas 1-2-3-4

We celebrated Christmas four times this year! It started out on Christmas Eve at Oma and Opa's house for dinner. Garrett was excited to open up presents and especially enjoyed his new baby doll and some new balls he got, among other things. We headed back to our house to enjoy Christmas Eve together as a family at our house, ate some cookies, put on new pajamas and snuggled into bed to wait for Santa.

On Christmas morning Mama and I got up first and had to restrain ourselves from going downstairs and waking up Garrett, but eventually he woke up around 8am and we got to go downstairs. Christmas morning was nice and relaxing and Garrett enjoyed opening up his gifts, playing on his new tricycle in the house, and carrying on the Bousley tradition of having creamy beef for breakfast.

We then headed off to Great Grams house for the day, met by another tradition of coney dogs on Christmas. Garrett was quite a trooper and loved helping everyone open up their presents and playing with his dinosaurs and eating cookies, lots of cookies.

The day after Christmas was a day of rest for us and getting ready for the fourth and final Christmas here at our house on the 27th . Today Mima, Grampa, Jack, Brett, & Jared came over and we had a Mexican feast and exchanged gifts. Garrett managed to go all day without a nap, because having his uncles around is just way to much fun too waste time napping. Needless to say he went to bed at 6pm tonight after falling asleep at dinner.

Settling in for a long winters nap at Oma and Opa's on Christmas Eve

opening up his new baby

one more cookie before bedtime in his new pajamas

Merry Christmas - new crayons! opening up his snowman ornament

new bike!

the family on Christmas morning

playing with dinos at Great Gramsriding with Uncle Jack
helping Mima open up her gifts
fire truck from Mima, Grampa & Jack

cookie house

Last weekend had a lovely pre-Christmas event here on Biddle, made cookies, shortbread, a mini thanksgiving dinner (with our first turkey), and most importantly decorated a gingerbread house. The gingerbread house was bought from an unnamed Swedish superstore and came broken in many pieces. Luckily we were able to sugar glue it back together while Garrett was still napping. He had a blast decorating it and we had so much fun watching him. Surprisingly he didn't even try to eat the candy while we were decorating (the same can't be said for his moms).

trip to ohio

The weekend before last Garrett and I headed down to Ohio to meet Owen and visit with his moms. We had a great time and Garrett loved "baby Nowen". Garrett was gentle with him and wanted to show him lots of toys and play with him.

Unfortunatey this weekend was not nearly as fun. All three of us got sick while we were at Grampa and Mima's house and had to stay in bed for almost two solid days. It was rough, but we were thankful that we had mima and grampa to take care of us.

checking out baby owen
smiling with baby owen

aunt lindsay, mom, & owen
reading the choo choo book with Theresa - so much fun!

lots to be thankful for

We truly do have a lot to be thankful for. Cindy is continuing to have a great pregnancy. She has been feeling well all along and we all are very excited for the arrival and the transition from a family of three to a family of four. We are using the same midwife that we used when I was pregnant and are looking foward to another wonderful birth for our second child. Garrett has become very affectionate toward Cindy's belly/the baby lately, which has been so sweet. We are not finding out the gender of the baby until the big arrival, but just about every time we ask Garrett if he'll have a baby brother or a baby sister, he replies "baby ister". . . So we'll just have to wait and see!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week and as always constant reminders of all of the love we have in our lives. We spent Thanksgiving day at Great Grama Donna's house with lots of family. Garrett had a blast and was on the go all day long. He especially enjoyed G-Gram's roll throwing and green bean casserole at dinner. It only took moments before he was asleep for the car ride home after all of the playing we did that day. Thanksgiving was also the birth day of baby Owen, to moms Lindsay and Dana. (check him out at http://danalindsayandbabymakesthree.blogspot.com/) We are super excited for them and can't wait to meet the little guy.

watching something with Uncle Jack

Barry Sanders

everybody all together at Thanksgiving

Mama had to work Friday and Garrett and I stayed at home all day long, no shopping for us thank you, just resting. Saturday we celebrated with the Bousley family for Kennedy's first birthday party. Garrett and Kennedy interacted much more than the last time they were together this summer, which was very fun to watch.

Mama, Garrett, and KennedyOma & Gcousins

On Sunday we set off to do something fun and new and ended up at Henry Ford Museum to check out the Lego Exhibit. It was so awesome and Garrett instantly fell in love with it, especially checking out all of the cars and trains. He wanted to pose in front of every car for a picture and really enjoyed himself. checking out the dragon Mama & Garrett with the knight

cool car

race car

We also went to the tree lighting ceremony here where we live last night. Garrett was very into the pretty lights and cookies and very anti-Santa again this year. He had his picture taken with him but he was very frightened and not happy with the situation. Maybe when he's 3 he'll like Santa? Or maybe never. Oh well!

a pic of G at the park taken by Mima back in October

second birthday party

We had a birthday party with family this weekend to celebrate Garrett's second year. He had a lot of fun with his uncles, aunt, and grandparents. Mama made a beautiful car carrot cake that was a big hit with everyone. For dinner we feasted on eggplant parmesan (one of Garrett's favorites), salad, and sundried tomato and garlic bread made by grandpa. The three of us plus Uncle Jared decorated number 2 cookies for the party, which really meant that Garrett dabbed a few cookies with frosting and ate some when we turned our heads momentarily. It was a lot of fun! happy birthday

the family

yummy

yummy cookies

playing outside during the party

mima, grandpa, & opa
"frosting cookies"

halloween

Well Halloween was a success! About a week before Halloween we showed Garrett his costume and suggested he try it on. He wanted nothing to do with being a lion, despite how many times we put the different parts of the costume on ourselves. So, we hung it in the hallway and talked about it all week long, which didn't do much good. He got the "ROAR" part down pat, but the suggestion of putting it on was followed by a very serious "no". But, as soon as he saw other kids running around outside in their costumes, the story changed and he was willing to put it on, so we quickly changed him into the lion costume and headed out the door to play and trick or treat at a few neighbors. It was a lot of fun and he especially enjoyed passing out candy to other kids when we got back to the house.

two

Holy moly Garrett is TWO! Monday was Garrett's big birthday - two on the second. Mom brought home a piece of tres leches cake to enjoy after dinner, and boy did he enjoy it. He also got to open his gift from Mom and Mama - a baby. He loves the baby and has been snuggling with her/him at night time. This weekend he'll be having his official birthday party with family.

how time flies

Two years ago today we had just put the finishing touches on "appleseed's room" and it was the due date! And now we have an amazing little boy and one on the way. Who would have thunk it?

We spent a long weekend up at the cabin while our one full bathroom was getting remodeled. Made it home Tuesday to see some serious progress, all of which we are very excited about. Now there are just finishing touches to do when parts come in and a nice coat of paint and we'll be back in business! Grandma (Mima) stayed the rest of the week with Garrett because our daycare provider was on vacation. He had such a fun time and I know she did too. Every morning Garrett woke up and immediately asked for Mima, even today (she left last night). We did some walking errands today to the post office and cake shop, played outside before the rain started. Here are some recent pics.

hiking at reedsburg

getting a free ride

reedsburg dam

playing with uncle chad on his 18th birthday

yummy treats for uncle chad's bday

last weekend

Last weekend thanks to the weather Garrett missed an opportunity to be in his first 5K, well the opporunity to be pushed in the stroller in his first 5K. But, the route went right by our house, so Mama and Garrett were able to do some cheering. We also met up with some friends at the pumpkin farm for cider and donuts. Garrett adores the big girls and tries his best to keep up with them!

reegan, bailey, & garrett