Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Chaos Part 2

So sorry for the delay in action here--I may or may not have forgotten (twice) that I was supposed to be continuing this series of posts. Oops.

My mom's side of the family has a tradition of getting together on Christmas Eve and then again on Christmas morning for Todd's famous omelets. This year was no exception.

We started Christmas Eve with naps and then got the girls dressed in their matching dresses. Yup...my sister and I got our girls matching dresses, and oh my goodness they were cute!

This is about as good as it got in trying to get a picture of the girls. Claire was distracted with something, and Lainey really didn't want to look up from her awesome shoes.

Me and my girls...we had to take a pictures for Bud. Besides the fact that I'm the only one looking at the camera, I think it turned out great. :)

I have a picture of just me and Claire from Christmas last year, and decided we should take one every year with her in her Christmas dress. It's amazing to me how different she looks this year from last year!

Yes, we also got them matching jammies! :) I love these girls! Claire gets a little (okay, a lot) jealous when I hold Lainey.

Reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" from the 1960's....the book was my moms and I read it to Claire last year as well--another tradition I want to keep.
After a busy night of opening presents with family, playing with cousins and eating really yummy food, it was time to sleep in our matching jammies. Oh, I may have forgotten to mention that since my sister and I made our girls match, my mom decided she and I should have matching pjs too! We did not get a picture of all four of us...darn. ;)

Best part of Christmas morning breakfast at Todd and Tammy's? We all wear our jammies! It is a great way to start the busy day, and the omelets never dissapoint.

Auntie Sarah and Claire bear got some snuggles in before heading out for breakfast.

My pretty girl. :)

Later that day, we headed to Bud's Granny's house for dinner and presents, but I forgot my camera so don't have any pictures. Claire finally showed a bit of her cranky side that night--she was such a trooper until then, but she had just had enough!

This was a really great Christmas with one huge piece missing---it just wasn't the same with out Bud. I had to try really hard to not be a Grinch about it all, and it wasn't easy. I just felt like we had already celebrated Christmas with him and I really didn't want to do it again. Thankfully I have Claire to make me do things I don't necessarily want to do. We really did enjoy our time with our extended family, I am always amazed at how much that little girl is loved.

From my family to yours, we hope you all had a great holiday filled with time with the ones you love.

{{I do realize I said I would do this in 3 posts, but since there are no pictures from Hiepler Christmas I decided to just make it 2, because who wants a post with out pictures?!?}}

Christmas Chaos Part 1

We had quite the Christmas this year. Lots and lots of places to go and people to see. Claire and I had 3 days of festivities to attend--Claire was such a trooper until Sunday night and by then she had had enough. She took TWO three hour naps on Monday, poor kiddo!

Since, like I said, we had 3 days of Christmas adventures, I will split it up to 3 posts so they aren't so long. :)

Day 1 was spent with the Thomas family. Since Uncle Brian had to work on Christmas Day, we exchanged gifts with them before heading to Claire's great Grandma Audrey's to celebrate.


Claire got a new Twins sweatshirt for spring! As you can see by our faces, Claire was really into saying "OOOO" about all her gifts.

Grandpa helping her open another present (check out the face again).

Uncle Lee! He was so excited that she was willing to sit in his lap for more than 10 seconds. :)

One of the traditions for this side of the family is to read the Christmas story every year. This year, Uncle Brian got to read it and Claire was just mesmerized by his reading.

Sitting with Grammy while gifts were being opened. :)

Check back tomorrow for Part 2: Carey Christmas!

Christmas Letter 2011

Instead of adding one in with the card, I thought I would write our letter here. Saves paper and ink (and of course my time and money) :).

So, anyway, here is a look back at our year.

Thomas Family 2011

January started off the year with a bang...Bud graduated from EOD school and we (well, the movers) packed up and moved back to North Carolina. We enjoyed re-connecting with friends and beginning the search for our home.

February was filled with house hunting...our poor realtor! I lost track of how many houses we looked at until we finally found the one that was ours. We moved in, and house projects haven't stopped yet! The month spent living in the hotel was NOT fun, and I hope to not have to do that again for a while.

In March, we had our first visitor to our new house! My dad came our for a week to hang out. We also closed on our house and we were finally able to make a few big purchases and start making our house a home.

April was an exciting month for Claire--she went on her first airplane ride! We flew home for my sister's baby shower, and had a great weekend! Claire was (and still is) an excellent traveler. We also spent a lot of time outside, and Claire was able to play at the beach for the first time!

In May, we made another trip to MN, this time for Kelly's bridal shower. While we were there, we made a quick trip to Iowa so Claire could visit Mrs. Johnson (my sister) in 5th grade! Bud was also able to join for a few days (thanks to a convenient lay over in MSP after a work trip to CO) to attend his brothers graduation party! We got our front landscaping finished (thanks to my wonderful husband), we celebrated our 3rd anniversary, and Claire started to crawl!

After two crazy months, June and July were pretty low key at our house. We spent a lot of time together at a family enjoying our crazy little girl. Bud's dad and brothers came over the 4th of July, and then his mom came at the end of the month to help me drive to MN for a really exciting August!

August was quite the month. Bud and I were honored to stand up with our best friends, Kelly and Drew while they were married. Bud literally was in town for less than 48 hours...that's how much we love them. :) Then, on the 12th--sweet Lainey Charlotte was born, and we officially became Auntie Em and Uncle Bud! We got to meet her the morning after she was born, and we completely fell in love!

September was a very fun month as well. With the deployment rapidly approaching, Bud's days at work were short and we got to spend A LOT of time together as a family which was an amazing blessing. My parents were nice enough to come for a weekend so Bud and I could spend some time just the two of us before he left, and it was an awesome weekend. We also celebrated Claire's birthday a few weeks early so Daddy could be there to celebrate.

October was the month I had been dreading for quite some time...just 3 days into the month we had to say good bye to our favorite guy. The rest of October was spent figuring out our new normal, spending lots of time with wonderful friends, and Claire turned one! Her and I spent the day together doing all her favorite things, and really wishing that Bud was with us!

November and December have been crazy--starting with getting ready to travel (packing for 6 weeks is not an easy task), then traveling to MN, then to IA, then to CA, and now we have landed for a few weeks before we travel back to NC! It has been nice to be here with help WHENEVER I need/want it! But, I do miss our house!

Celebrating Christmas before Bud left!

We hope you all are enjoying the season with your loved ones! May 2012 bring joy and happiness!

Dumbo!

***I wrote this a couple days ago but it wouldn't post. We are back in MN now and I will add more pictures from our trip in the next couple days. :)***

Just a quick update from Cali....

We were supposed to head home on Monday, and shortly after I told my sister on Sunday that I really could stay a few more days, Claire decided to make that happen! She decided to get the flu! Monday, about a half hour before we needed to leave she threw up twice and I quickly called the airline and changed our flight to Wednesday. Thank goodness for an understanding friend and a helpful lady at Delta!

Before the flu hit, we had a great weekend! Disney was an absolute blast, Saturday we let the girls recover and I had my first In N Out Experience (YUM) and Sunday we went to an awesome children's museum called "Pretend City". There was a grocery store, farm, fire and police station, house, beach, library, post office, etc...and what was Claire's favortie thing? A bridge. Seriously. The kid loved it. Goof ball.

I will post my pictures when we are back in MN, but here are a few from Suzanne's camera...

Claire loved her ride on Dumbo!

Two sleeping girls = SUCCESS!

By far, Claire's favorite part of the day was the parade! She absolutely loved every second and more than once tried to join in!

We fly to MN tomorrow...then I have got to get busy Christmas shopping! Yikes! Are you done shopping? Want to help me? :)

California Dreaming...

Tomorrow morning Claire and I are heading out to California to visit my good friend, Suzanne and her little munchkin, MacKenzie. Suzanne and I met first through an online forum that I belong to, and then both of our husbands were at EOD school at the same time. They are now stationed out there, and we decided Bud's deployment was a perfect excuse to have a girls weekend. The first time I traveled to California was for Bud's boot camp graduation in 2005, when we weren't even 'technically' dating. Now we are married with a baby and I am going to visit a friend that I met during this crazy ride of military life....funny how life works.

I am really excited to see them, but not gonna lie, I am a little more excited about going to DISNEYLAND!!! I have been to Disney World twice, but never Disneyland, and I. Am. Pumped.

I am also excited to get away from the cold from a few days...man it got cold fast!! But, I must admit, someone looks awfully cute all bundled up in her snow suit...

Check back next week and I will have some pictures for you. I can not wait to see Claire's face when she sees Mickey and Minnie---she LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Her face will either show sheer terror or joy...and either will be priceless. :)

Books from Daddy

Before Bud left, he recorded 3 different books for Claire. They have become favorites in our house, and Claire especially loves them because all she has to do is open the cover and the book starts to read! :) I brought them all to MN with me so she doesn't miss out on the books. In the last month or so she has really gotten into choosing these books on her own and wanting to read them. If I tell to go get Daddy's books, she knows what they are and brings them to me.

Here are a couple shots of her reading one of them last night...

At the end of every book, Bud says "I love you!" so she knows that it is the end, and now she will say "ahhhh duh" (obviously, all done. HA). It is so incredibly sweet.

Thank you, babe, for taking the time to record these books for our sweet girl. She loves them so much...her new favorite thing is to open all three of them at the same time. It is so funny but she just loves to hear your voice! We love you and miss you so much!