Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy Holidays!!

We have had a wonderful, yet extremely busy last couple of weeks. We went home to Michigan for ten days to celebrate Christmas with family on Dec. 18. The first weekend Jay and I took advantage of the grandparents who were more than willing to babysit Emma and we went with our friends Tony and Angela on our fourth ski trip up to Boyne Mountains. We had a great time and stayed overnight in an awesome little 3 bedroom cabin with a kitchen and fireplace. We skiied both Saturday and Sunday, and we all managed to return home safely without any broken bones. We did get stuck on a chair lift after some rascal high school boys jumped off their lift and it derailed. We had to wait 30 minutes or so while they fixed it.

We had a very busy week traveling back and forth to our families homes. We took Emma early in the week to the pool at Delta College. It is a beautiful facility with a great pool for kids with shallow water and fun play equipment. As I predicted, Emma absolutely hated it and screamed the entire time. She loves the bath tub, but hates any other form of water. Poor girl is going to have to learn to love the water since mom and dad both love the lake and water sports.

We spent Christmas Eve with Jay's family in Grand Rapids and traveled back to Auburn on Christmas morning to spend time with my family. Saturday we had extended Christmas celebration back in Lansing - travel, travel, travel! Emma wasn't super interested in opening gifts this year, but was very interested in what was inside. She was spoiled, as you can imagine. Some of her favorite gifts were a new purse, a stroller to push her babies in, a new cell phone, some cute outfits, books, a matching apron set with mommy, and a Sesame Street dance DVD. She has to learn those characters for her trip to Jamaica in March!!!

We managed to find a couple nights to see our friends that we don't get to see often enough being spread throughout the country. It is always so nice to be able to catch up with them and as always we talk about how we don't see each other enough! Emma enjoyed playing with her friend Benjamin who lives in Milwaukee and her cousin Kole who lives in Grand Rapids. Interestingly enough, both boys were very interested in hugging and kissing her! You can see this on the videos below. It is a bit early yet, but dad may have to invest in that shotgun to keep the boys away!!

Jay and I also celebrated our 6th anniversary at home on the 27th. We went out for dinner and to a movie - a better showing than last year when we watched UFC kickboxing with friends hehe!

It has been very nice to get back home and settled in again. All of the travel is super exhausting on us and Emma. She is much better behaved when she can stay on schedule with her naps and bedtime routine. We spent New Years Eve relaxing at home - we ordered pizza and watched movies. It was so nice to stay home and not cook or have any plans!

We were super productive this weekend too. All of the holiday decorations inside and outside are down and put away. I put up a few Valentine's Day decorations. I washed windows and cleaned the entire house! Jay picked up all the leaves and edged and trimmed the bushes. He also put down new mulch around the trees and we tag teamed the master bath shower. It was in dire need of new caulk so we spent hours removing all of the old caulk. It is already looking so much nicer!


Happy New Years to everyone. We think 2010 will be a great year! Enjoy the pics - there are a lot and I really condensed them too.
At our cabin in Boyne

Tony and Jay pre-Jagermeister

Boyne Mountain - ski weekend


Angela and I - cutest ski bunnies ever!


Jay and I




Tony and Angela


Waiting for them to fix the lift


Emma with Papa at the pool - aka torture chamber


Whatcha cooking Emma?


Emma with her cousin Darian
Emma with cousin Kennedy
Emma's cousin Kole really trying hard to plant a kiss
Jay's side of the family

Nana and Papa with their grandkids - lovely pic of Emma


PJ picture
Emma with Grandpa Big John
Her new Hello Kitty bath towel

Emma with Grandma and her new cell phone
Emma with Great Grandma Charney

Reading to Kennedy


Emma and Benjamin

Emma's BFF at home - she LOVES Jasmine and first thing every morning she would say "dog"


Emma and I with Great Grandpa Bill


Mom - look what I found. Looks like mom has to pay more attention to what she is doing!!!
The ladies (plus Benjamin!)


First video of Emma's friend Benjamin trying to hug and kiss her

Emma and Ben climbing on the stairs (sorry about the sideways video)



Emma's new trick - exercising on the treadmill (again - sorry for the sideways video)


Emma's cousin Kole trying to hug her