Santa

I am putting together a bigger post for tomorrow with some pictures and updates of what we have been up to, but for now I will post a look back at our visits to Santa. This year went much better than last. No tears but also no real smiles! He had Santa laughing by the end because he was making some very wierd noises and asking if he could just go home!

Year #1- very cold out so we bundled him up and then forgot to unbundle him for the picture!



Year #2- This one explains itself!



Year #3- A little hesitant but we got him on the lap and he didn't cry!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We are in full holiday swing at the Birkholz house! We had a wonderful thanksgiving with Bill's cousins and Aunt and Uncle. Henry showed off his new talent of being able to pull his pants down and Bill was very excited to show Henry that his new Windows phone played cartoons, which kept his pants up and allowed us to enjoy an amazing feast!

I actually started that morning with my Christmas decorating and am proud to say we are pretty much complete. Lights up, tree chopped down and decorated, advent calendar all filled up and Santa mantle completed (though we have space for one more on its way from my mom!)

We got our tree and had fun riding the tractor and hunting down the perfect tree. Henry loved the candy cane and puddle jumping most of all!








I have a big tree advent calendar for Henry that I have filled with ornaments and random little gifts that he gets to discover each morning. He has a little tree in his room he gets to hang the ornaments on and he loves it a lot! This is my favorite time of year and it has been so fun to introduce it to Henry. I think he may have inherited my love of the holidays! He can often be found singing Jingle Bells while playing!



We still have lots more big plans for our holiday fun but we have all been battling a cold for the past couple weeks and just when we thought it was gone it returned yesterday with avengance. That means no one is sleeping or feeling all that festive. He is so stuffy and looks so sick but not so surprisingly it has been hard to keep him resting. He does love the claymation Santa Clause is Coming to Town so we have watched it 100 times while drinking warm apple juice!

I hope to take more pictures of all of our festivities as the season continues. We have cookie making and some crafts to do. We also are going to watch the Christmas Ships and go to some light displays around town and I promise to bring my camera.

Snow Day

Yesterday we had snow! It was so nice to watch the snow fall all day and we took many adventures out to the yard to play in the snow. The only down side is that it is so cold (16 degrees right now) that the roads are just sheets of ice. This means we are stuck at home and might have to miss our soccer class today...boo!

So we spent the day yesterday entertaining ourselves with playing in the snow and playing inside. My favorite moment of the day was Henry's Frosty performance. The video and some pictures of the day are below.

Baby It's Cold Outside

The weather has taken a turn for the very cold! We are expecting a low of 17 degrees tonight...brrr! So we had a cozy week and weekend with friends. The kids love to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all cozied up in my bed. Little baby Thomas is getting so big and he is starting to be able to hang with the big kids, at least for a photo opportunity. I love see Henry with him. Its kind of like big brother training.

We had a light snow storm yesterday. Nothing stuck to the ground but Henry loves trying to catch snowflakes with his tongue. It doesn't look like it was snowing in the picture which makes it seems wierd but I am sure I will have plenty of snow pictures if the weather keeps up for winter.

Power Play

Yesterday was just one of those days where everything required some effort. Just getting out the door took 20 minutes of conversation and frustration! So I had one of those days where I kept trying to send Bill telepathic messages to come home early. When Henry woke up from nap I hd all but resigned to the day and decided we would stay home and be lazy. Henry had different plans and decided we must go to the park. I went expecting it to be a bad experience because our last trip to the park had ended in tears and a tantrum because I had forgotten our sand toys. We brought Henry's bike, and the sand toys, and he rode through the entire park and we just played and had fun. It was exactly what I needed!!!! It was empty which is always fun because it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Henry also shared in the sandbox which is major. It took some persuading and tears but it happened!!

So I realized that my 2 year old has the power to take me from the most frustrated person in the world to the happiest. I am beginning to think that it is a lot of power for such a little guy!

Here is a picture of Henry riding through the park. I dare you not to smile just looking at this picture!

Celebrate

We had a great weekend! The Ducks won, I went to brunch with friends, we saw lots of pictures of our sweet new neice Lucy and we got to celebrate my nephew Davis' birthday! We went over for dinner and Henry had a blast. He even sat at the table with us and ate some dinner just like at home. He loves his cousins and Auntie and Uncle a bunch and it is so fun to get together. The picture below is when we were eating birthday cake and Davis put the birthday hat on Henry. As you can see he loved the cake and the hat! We also go to go ome with a bunch of hand me down books and toys!

Tea For Two

Henry and I had a tea party this morning. It was so chilly when we woke up that we decided to warm up with a yummy drink. I should also mention I was out of coffee and it was 6am and we needed to kill some time. Henry enjoyed the first few sips but by the time I took this video I think it was a little bitter for him. He did keep saying he loved it. It was a really sweet and silly time for us this morning!