Christmas Time

Our Christmas festivies have long since concluded, but here is the tale of our events.  It spanned 3 days and 3 separate houses for Reegan's 2nd year of celebrating the holidays and we had so much fun!

Day 1, House 1:  Dec. 23rd - We decided to have our family Christmas time a couple days early due to the rest of the weekend's schedule, so our house was visited by Santa on this day.  :)  Our main gift for Reegan this year was this table and chair set!  She was really excited about it when she came into our living room and saw it.  :)

It really came w/ 4 different colored chairs, but for now we're just using the two.  Then it was time for her stocking...

She really liked the Nerf football we got her.  I t was honestly a purchase made because we were in the toy section at the store and she was obsessed with it.  She loved it just as much this time too! :)

Day 2, House 2: Dec 24th - We headed over to the Heine family home on Christmas Eve.  It was a great day and Reegan had so much fun opening her presents.  Here she is digging into her stocking...

Reegan did a much better job this year with unwrapping her gifts.  She made sure each and every piece of paper made it into the trash bag too.  Such a good girl!!

Grandma and Grandpa got her a doll named Reegan too!  She loves it!

This ladybug hat was a big hit too --- can you tell this girl likes to be the center of attention??

And the big surprise of the day for Reegan was this kitchen set!  She was really excited about this too and spent a good part of the day "pouring coffee" for everyone.  :)

One highlight for us as an entire family was to each get a pair of Toms shoes.  Jess has been telling us for quite awhile now that we each need a pair...she was right!  They are amazingly comfortable!!!  Plus Toms donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased - go get some!

Day 3, House 3: Dec. 25th - The Larson home was the last stop on the Christmas tour this year.  Another great day with family and gifts, and Reegan once again had a blast!  She got a bunch of hair accessories and this headband was an instant favorite. 

She got a cute bike helmet for when we go on our family bike rides this coming spring and summer!

And a matching Hello Kitty sweatsuit outfit - she loves thing with hoods on them.  Cute!!

This was Dad's favorite gift for his little girl - a Jamal Charles jersey.  Go Chiefs!!!

Reegan was so happy seeing all of the family and opening the gifts.  I can't wait until next year when she will hopefully be able to better understand the true reason we are celebrating this time of year.  Until then, I'll continue to enjoy the smile that always brightens my day...hopefully it makes you smile too.  :)

Seeing Santa

They say times flies when you're having fun right??  Well we must have been having WAY too much fun lately to not have a post for almost 3 weeks!!  I hope nobody out there thought we'd fallen off the face of the blogging earth.  :) 

But anyway, we're back.  And last Saturday afternoon we took Reegan to see Santa down at Crown Center.  We met up with Jana and Cade for the adventure so the kiddos could play together while we waited in line.  About the waiting...it took a hour and a half!  We knew that it was probably not the best idea to go see Santa on a Saturday afternoon in mid-December with all of the other slacker parents, but we really didn't expect it to be quite that bad.

Regardless, the outing was mostly successful - I say that because Reegan was terrified of Santa, but she did have fun with some other stuff...check it out...

Here we are in line - See the happy face on Dad?  We just got here...  :)

A little time gone by and Reegs moved to Mom...hmmm, I'm sensing someone might be getting tired...

I think she was starting to wonder how long this was going to take.

Santa was located in the Crayola play area in Crown Center, so after you had wound around thru the main part of the line, but BEFORE you got to see Santa, there was a little obstacle trail for the little ones to play on.  This proved to be the best part of the Santa experience for both Reegan and Cade.  They're both still a bit young to get the whole idea, but slides and tunnels and climbing and running around they definitely know!

Reegan went down the Crayola box slide about 20 times before it was all said and done.  :)

Finally we made it to Santa, and let's just say Reegan was less than thrilled about sitting with the scary man in the red suit.  We couldn't get her to sit on his at all, which was disappointing, but she was at least calm enough to snap a few pics.  No smiles though.......

After Santa, we took the kids to Fritz's for dinner.  They LOVED this part of the day!  While we waited in line here (yes, another line...) Reegan climbed up on the big train outside.

She insisted on sitting on the same side as Cade on these benches, and it was funny watching them because Reegan would come sit by him, and shortly after Cade would move to the other side...then Reegan would sit by him...then Cade would move!  It was cute.

Reegan was SO excited once we were in the restaurant!  Every time the train whistle blew signifying an order was on it's way out, she cheered and said CHOO-CHOO!!  And she really liked the conductor hat too.  She wore it just about the entire time.

It really was a fun time had by all in the end.  Maybe next year we'll try to go a little earlier...

Excited!

I am really excited about this!

And this!

The first is a kid's nativity set.  While we were decorating last week, I realized that we don't have any decorations for Reegan to say are her own or to even play with.  So after some research, I found it!  We're going to open it up this afternoon, so hopefully Reegan likes it as much as we think she will!

Second is a reusable gingerbread house.  We can put it together, decorate it and when we're done stick it in the dishwasher for the next year!  I bought this at Holiday Mart, but haven't used it yet.  Christmas is going to be here before we know it, so hopefully we can squeeze in all these fun traditions that I am hoping to start/continue!!!  I'll keep you posted!