Christmas at the Bode's

After my parents we head to church on Christmas Eve for the annual children's program. Always a good program :) Connor was playing with his dozer beneath the pew most of service and a few times tried to roll it down the aisle. Nice. Thanks, Nate and Cheryl, for a wonderful Christmas!

New dump truck from Uncle Aaron. This one makes noise AND has a seat to sit on when you lift up the bucket. Life-size dump trucks have come SUCH a long way :)

This is gonna be good!

His very own basketball hoop!!

We'll see how many Bode's it takes to put it together...

Helping Grandma open her gifts.

Still working on it.

Yes, he's standing on a chair.

Showing Grandpa his cool new truck.

Christmas at the Loula's

Christmas Eve day/afternoon we spend with my parents. It's so fun to see the kids play together, they're quite entertaining. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for everything!!

First gift. A suped-up dozer from Ashlyn. I'm not sure he put this down the rest of the DAY.

True love.

A six-piece play kit for Ashlyn from Connor. Coolest thing ever, car seat, pack-n-play, swing, high-chair, stroller and something else.

Opening a joint-toy from Grandma and Grandpa. Notice only one hand is free to help unwrap...

Ooh...mega blocks! Still holding the dozer.

They both got some really cool new books.

Connor still holding the dozer.

Ashlyn's first set of personalized note cards from none other than Pear Tree Greetings ;)

such a serious task.

Another cool new book, this one makes noises of excavators.

And...we're still holding the dozer.

Bryan's, er, I mean Connor's, new pjs :)

And we have dropped the dozer! Apparently the Elmo phone wins out.

The big gift from my parents, they loved them! Too bad their feet didn't reach the petals. Won't be long!

And the totally awesome fish tent my mom got.

Christmas!

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas break. Mine has been awesome. I've been off of work since Wednesday afternoon and am taking most of tomorrow off. Loving it, and it was a much needed break. It was so nice how Christmas fell this year, my Mom and I both said on the way home how NICE it was that the next day was only Saturday! We did the 'norm'...Christmas Eve afternoon at my parents, Christmas Eve evening at Bode's, Christmas Day at my Grandma's in the cities and then tonight we celebrated with Cheryl's side at Whiskey River. Pictures of all to come. I think we're still having a Bode extended Christmas, I hope?

Bryan was able to make all of the events, the time not spent at a family gathering was spent plowing. Crazy how much snow we have!

Anyway...hope you all had amazing weekends with friends and family!

PS...to explain the Santa picture. We knew it was going to be bad. He started shaking and kicking when we got within 10 feet of Santa. But, the scrapbooker in me couldn't go without a picture, right? Plus, I knew it was going to be hilarious. So, I made sure the camera guy was ready and plopped him on. Literally...there was NO sound coming out of Connor's mouth he was 'screaming' that hard, not even breathing. I bet it was a good 5-10 seconds after Bryan saved him from Santa that you could finally hear the screams. Took quite awhile for him to calm down. Hilarious. I love the picture (is that wrong?)! He'll laugh someday ;)

fun with Payten

Payten Otto came to visit the other day. It's so fun watching little kids interact. And fight for toys. And kiss when we tell them. Ha. Why do we do that?

She's walking! She turns 1 in mid January.

Nice to have a friend that makes him look tall, don't you think?

She's making a move...

no idea.

giving rides. Shocker.

awww....

Payten's dad made sure to point out that this is the ONLY age Connor will be able to get away with such a thing. However, I'm no body language expert...but I'm thinking Payten's more into it than Connor. Look at her hands.

Clearly, she doesn't want to let him go.

Merry Christmas!

Ha.

lacking

I've definitely beel slacking on the posting lately, have kind of lacked a motivation to do so. Been really busy at work and working at night after Connor goes to bed, which, I am definitely not complaining about as at least I have a job, but, I'm tired! I'm so ready for a break but unfortunately have barely even thought about Christmas yet. I FINALLY wrapped the presents under the tree tonight, however the gifts have truly just been laying beneath the tree for the past few weeks. So, Bryan knows all of his gifts, Cheryl, I'm sure you saw yours, and Killer, if you read this, I'm sure you saw yours, too. So, sorry, this Christmas is not much of a surprise but at least I wrapped them. That counts, right? I also bought myself a pack of mats for my Cricut and wrapped them from Bryan. :)

I've been a slacker on taking photos and videos as well, however the other day I was thinking about that and then decided that it's less moments I'll have to scrapbook and then I won't be even more behind. Bad, bad, bad.

So, hopefully you all are doing well and let's hope this supposed snowstorm doesn't prevent us all from seeing family this week! (I'm highly doubting we'll get 20 inches...they didn't even predict the two we got the other night, why should I trust them when they say TWENTY inches)

bubble machine

I've tried giving Connor a bath in our master tub once, he HATED it. However, he was probably only 5, 6 months old, sliding all around, turned on the jets, freaked him out. Needless to say it was a very short bath. Then one night recently, Ashlyn was over so we decided to give them both baths and in our master tub. The kids had a BLAST turning on and off the jets. Laughing, giggling, etc. Loved it. But I don't know if it's because our tub is wide or I had the wrong soap...it didn't create a bubble heaven like my mom's tub did a few days later...

Connor (wuss) unsure while Ashlyn (half-fish) soaking it in.

Okay, maybe this IS fun.


Don't worry, we stopped the bubbles before they overtook Ashlyn.
She was in no immediate danger.

Yes, I realize they will hate us for how many bath pictures we have of these two together.
It's quite a lot.

Snow Day

Wednesday Connor and I stayed home do the the super fun blizzard outside. Our street I swear is the last street to get plowed. Two vehicles were stuck in our street, one required towing. The drift in front of my neighbor's garage was probably 5' tall. I was planning on going into work as soon as Bryan got home from plowing (had been out since 1230 am), but it was so bad out that it took him FOREVER to get done. By the time he got home to do our driveway I was putting Connor down for a nap and they still hadn't plowed our street. So I worked from home. Anyways, here are a few shots while trying to keep Connor occupied.

baking cookies...by candlelight. ha. don't worry, he knows the candle is 'hot'

My attempt at a sihlouette! Kidding, it happened by total accident. But, thought it was neat. He watched the plow the entire time it was outside, and for probably 20 minutes after it was gone hoping for it to return. In the afternoon, Bryan took Connor plowing a few driveways in the neighborhood, you can imaginehow cool he thought that was.

silly boy

The other night while eating supper (I should clarify, attempting to eat. He has been SUCH a bad eater lately, barely eats anything at home, not even his banana in the mornings! But, knock on wood, still sleeping like a champ, 6-630 to at least 7, hate to even type that for fear of jinxing it) I noticed Connor was trying to hide food under his chin. It was hilarious. (mostly because, it's probably the most unattractive pose a person can do, ha) Bring on those chins!

Conley Ryan

This past Sundy I drove up to meet my friend Sarah's new baby, Conley. He is SO adorable and such a good baby! I pretty much hogged him from his parents the entire time, but also was able to witness their newborn photo session with Gina! Ha, yes, I invited myself to stay during their first family photo shoot, classy, right? However...it was super cool because Gina gave Sarah and I some pointers with our cameras so that was cool!

Gina at work. It was so interesting to watch her (uses all natural light) and how she sets everything up. Newborn babies are fun to manipulate! Ha. Again made me so sad I never got to do these with Connor. Oh well.

The new fam + photogrpher :)

Baby legs! Not going to lie, SUPER impressed with the fact that I got his feet/legs in focus and the rest of him is out of focus. Whoo hoo!

So cute.

fun with Kate

The other night we couldn't find a babysitter so Angie kindly offered to watch Connor the first hour we needed and then her sister came over for the rest of the night (thanks again!!). Ang snapped a few pics of the two playing together. Sounded like there were 'toy struggles', 'light hitting' and of course, a kiss or two. To clarify, Connor was the attacker...we're working on it. Hug, not hit, that's our motto, ha.

"Who are you and why are you on my chair."

"Um, well, I think your hair looks really nice."

No idea why Connor is standing like this. Kind of impressed, looks to be an ab workout.

And she goes in for the kiss. Yes, at this time, Connor is claiming he was only trying to stand upright and she took full advantage and kissed him.

And then Kate must have gotten sick of him wanting to liplock...she tried replacing herself with his sippy cup. Not sure how long he ws fooled.

Ha.

Okay, are you okay back there? Because if not, just get off.