Christmas Morning

Here is the first post from Christmas Day.

Hey Look...Johnny was VERY good boy this year and Santa came to visit leaving behind lots of gifts and toys.

Elmo here was Johnny's big gift, he sings 4 songs and over 60 phrases, reacting to hugs and head pats and all other sorts of things...even sits on his little stool.

John Robert's stocking, stuffed to over flowing!

Sweet little boy sleeping away.

And then in the morning happy and smiling, excited to see Christmas morning!



All of Johnny's family came over for the morning to see Johnny opening his presents. We where so sure he would run right to his Elmo waiting under the tree. Everything going and everyone around was a little over whelming, but he quickly warmed up and figured it all out.

Johnny had a system...he would pick a present carry it to Daddy's lap, turn around sit down and opened his present with Daddy.

He also got lots of presents from his Aunt Kimmy, GG, and Grandma Sharon. It was a very exciting morning.



Eating up his one pound chocolate Santa out of his stocking.

Look at all that loot....really! Johnny must have been a VERY good boy and very VERY loved.

Making sure he got all his presents out of every where.

Even though Santa was sure that Elmo would be his favorite toy it ended up being all of these Little People. His train which he drove around saying "choo choo" and stacking people in and out.

Johnny also really loved this car mega block play set Aunt Kimmy got him. It took her a while to put it together for him...but it was really worth it!

After presents we got dressed up and had a big family breakfast and played a whole bunch more...that is another post with even more pictures.

Christmas Eve

Hey look I finally got around to sharing our Christmas pictures! It has only been a full month.

This year spent our Christmas season with Grandma Sharon, GG, and our family in Chicago. Christmas eve we spent at home eating, watching Christmas movies and spending time with our together.


Grandma Sharon made spinach dip, Johnny loved it, and helped it self to quit a bit!

Johnny spending time with Bella...aren't they cute.

Watching a Happy Holidays Elmo's World where we all learned about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Did you know Little Bear is Jewish?

Johnny is always a big help playing Uno.


This is one of Momma's traditions. At the traditional Penney Christmas Eve party Grandpa Bob used to peal shrimp for Momma, even though he didn't like them...Johnny didn't really care much for them either, but he tried them just like a big boy.
No one could eat anything without sharing it with Johnny, but GG was happy to share.



Johnny playing Santa and handing out the gifts he got for everyone.

Relaxing at the end of the night and watching another Christmas movie.

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa, we also read A Night Before Christmas, but Johnny didn't want to sit still for the entire book.

I got Johnny's stocking done right in time!


We all match! and yes I have a kit for Lily's stocking too :)

Enjoying our Vacation

We have been having a great time visiting with GG, Grandma Sharon, Grandpa George and Auntie Kimmy here in Chicago for the past 4 days. Johnny has really settled into his family here and has been showing them all what a good little boy he is and how amazying his personality is. The first night we where here Johnny ate a whole bunch of brocoli and really impressed GG. Since then he has been helping out around the house including cleaning up and making dinner and really impressing Grandma Sharon. When he eats like Cookie Monster and makes "nom nom" noises Aunty Kimmy thinks it is amazying and he has been playing catch with Grandpa George.





Monday Johnny, Daddy and I went to Navy Peer in downtown Chicago to play in Winter Wonderland, a huge indoor Christmas themed center with lots of rides and games for everyone...especially Johnny. He and Mommy and Daddy had a great time. We where very impressed with Johnny and how much he was able and willing to do and try. He loved the bouncy houses, just didn't understand when the time was up that he had to leave. He even got the point of standing in line like a good boy.



This was the first ride we tried, Daddy took Johnny up to the top and slide down with him. Johnny's mouth and eyes got huge and he laughed the entire time...not for one second was he scared.

These candy cane shaped tunnels where the frist step into the play area for kids his size, under 46 inches. At first he wasn't sure he wanted to go into them, but once Daddy chased him through once he got the point and did laps. I was so proud of how he was with the other kids. He waited his turn and stepped aside when other kids came running through. He didn't get upset when one of them knocked him down and he was mostly careful not to knock any of them down.

This was King of the Mountain and when I realized I no longer had a baby that needed me to hold his hand, but a big boy ready to try the world on his own. This was the first area Mommy or Daddy couldn't go into, and was just fine without us. He acually almost got to the top of the mountain, but loved how he could take really big steps on the bouncy floor and fall down laughing.

This area was Daddy's favorite. It was a snow ball fight with really light foam balls. You just go in and throw the balls, where ever. However Johnny loved to give the balls to other people.

Big bean bag pillows in the snow ball fight area.

The special treat of the day was this funnel cake sunday with strawberry sauce. Johnny only needed Daddy's help for this first bite, then he dug right in using a spoon like a big boy.




And Johnny's suviner, a blinkin binky. Of course it is not orthodonically approved, or safe really, but it is really fun for a few minutes at a time. Maybe not the best choice of toy for a toddler trying to get rid of his binky, but still so much fun for all of us!.

I have a video of the decorations around the Navy Peer that made this winter wonderland come alive, but it is kinda long and I having trouble loading it. I will try it later.

Yesterday Grandma Sharon and GG came with us to the big mall 45 mins away so Johnny could see Santa, but the line was at least 1.5 hours long, we waited for a little while, but Johnny wasn't really into it and he had already told Santa that he wants a new Elmo doll, so we let him play instead. This area in the mall was so cool, EVERYTHING was made out of super safe and bouncy foam, so the kids could climb on anything and run and play with little worry. Johnny really loves playing with other kids and trying new things...he is so amazying.





We are having a great time on our Christmas vacation and Christmas day gets closer and closer. We miss our family in Maryland and today is cousin's Wyatt's first birthday! We are sorry we aren't there, but we left some special presents for the little man. We love you Wyatt!

Change of Plans

Johnny saying hi to Lucas, Aunt Kimmy's cat, they really liked each other.

Johnny helping Daddy play Uno, as Daddy, Grandma Sharon, Grandpa George and Mommy spent about 2 hours playing these games.

This afternoon Aunt Kimmy took Johnny (and Mommy and Daddy) to Toys R Us to see what Johnny wanted for Christmas and discovered that Johnny likes bikes and look how big he is!

After dinner Aunt Kimmy and Johnny made a ginger bread train! It was all very cute and a lot of fun, especially eating the icing!

Though the train didn't want to stand up all the way, it still looked pretty good.

Johnny loves his family! Kisses for Grandma Sharon.

I think by now word has gotten around about the crazyness that was our trip to Chicago. We had plane tickets to leave Baltimore Saturday morning, but Friday as Mommy looked to check in on line we discovered that our flight had been canceled 24 hours in advance, because the forcast said it might snow. In retrospect Baltimore did get 16 inches of snow on Saturday, but on Friday looking at clear skies we where pretty annoyed. So after much talking and a lot of help from Grams and Pops we hopped in our car and the 12 hour car trip started. The entire thing was more stressful in thought then it was in reality. We stopped at Aunt Cookies in Ohio and had a nice sleep and then some quality time, then back on the road and made it safe and sound to Chicago. It has been nice seeing family we hadn't seen in a year. I will write more on the rest tomorrow.

Decorating the Tree

Yesterday we finally got around to decorating our tree! The needles on our tree are really sharp, so Shawn and I did most of the work, but it was still a lot of fun.

Daddy had to put on a sweat shirt and gloves to put the lights.

Johnny found the hat I made him last year and it stretched really nicely so it still fit....and oh my god have you seen how cute this kid is!

Here is Johnny trying to put ornaments on the tree, he just did what we did, but he didn't understand that you needed to put the string around the branch. He broke one ornament by just holding it up the tree and letting go.

Playing with the garland...he just gets cuter!

Johnny wanted to see all of the ornaments everywhere on the tree, so here he is using Daddy as a step ladder to do just that.

The apple pictures are from today, but I just couldn't leave them out. Johnny has been growing up so fast! No longer does he need apples cut up to eat, actually he eats more of the apple if you just hand it to him and let him go to town. When I pulled out the camera to get a picture of him biting into the apple this is the face he gave me, immediately. My little ham!

There is the big boy eating his big boy apple.