Smith Family Christmas

On Saturday the Smith family celebrated Christmas. The morning started out with Grandma and Grandpa bringing Anabelle home, they had babysat the night before. They brought with them Anabelle's Christmas present, a play kitchen. Here she is checking it out.

After a nap we headed over to Michael and Stephanie's for the rest of the Christmas festivities. We had a lot of fun opening gifts and watching Anabelle open and play with her new things. We also had a delicious dinner. Here are some pictures from the fun.

Mikey and Steph got Anabelle a rocking horse.

Here is John opening the U of I garden gnome I got him.

Grandpa and his girl, just hanging out.

John and I got Anabelle a ukulele, to start her collection of musical instruments.

Each year Grandma and Grandpa get Anabelle a bell, here she is ringing it.

Stu getting some love and attention from Mom.

Auntie Steph and Anabelle.

Ooohh a new outfit.

Anabelle is exhausted after a busy day and lays down next to her pal Stu.

Stu opening his gift

Pepper all curled up on the couch

Uncle Mike, Belle, and Auntie Steph

Brother and Sister

The only picture of our little family, too bad it didn't turn out so good, oh well!

We had a great time celebrating Christmas together. Thank you Mom, Dad, Mikey, and Steph for all the fun, food, and gifts. Merry Christmas!

Old MacDonald's Barn

Hey what's in the box?

Anabelle got an early Christmas present in the mail a few days ago. A nice big wooden barn with animals from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ken. It is a very cool barn with moving doors and a fence. Anabelle really enjoys playing with it, especially when Daddy makes all of the animal sounds for her.

Who's got a beard that's long and white?

Even before Anabelle was born Mom and I had a tradition of going to Macy's on State Street, eating lunch at either the Walnut Room or Berghoff's, and going to the Christkindl market. It was a trip that we both looked forward to every year.

Last year Anabelle joined in and we added a visit to Santa to our itinerary, she was pretty young (at only 3 months old) and wasn't really impressed with the big man.

When it came time to plan our trip this year we decided that we needed to cut out our visit to the Christkindl Market. If you have ever been there before you know that it is not a good place for a 1 year old. Lots of crowded, non-stroller friendly places, and lots of breakable and expensive glass ornaments. Maybe next year Anabelle can check it out, this year we had our hands full with just seeing Santa.

We arrived at Macy's and headed to the Walnut Room to get a pager and get on the list for lunch. They are very accommodating, you can get a pager and then go anywhere in all of Macy's and when your pager goes off you head to lunch. If you are in line for Santa and your pager goes off they will just seat you when you are done. With that done we headed to the line for Santa. The line is long and winds through a maze filled with elaborate decorations and toy displays. All in all it was about 1 hour, we spent that time....

running around Macy's,

being carried around by either Mommy or Grandma,

eating crackers,

checking out all of the decorations,

playing with lots of toys,

looking at our reflection in ornaments,

and sitting under Christmas trees.

Now Anabelle was really pretty good during the whole wait, but right at the end just before we went in to see Santa she appeared to have reached her limit and was just about ready to freak out. Thankfully we were able to keep her in good spirits with some "patty cake". Finally it was time to see Santa!! She did a great job, she wasn't afraid, and she seemed to enjoy sitting and listening to him.

After Santa we looked at the tree for a bit and then it was time for lunch in the Walnut Room. It was very busy and we were seated pretty far from the tree today. Oh well, we still had a delicious lunch and lots of fun.

Mac and Cheese-yum!

Hey guys I am pretty tired, when is nap time?

The tree was very pretty this year, you can't tell from my pictures, but it had lights that moved, it looked pretty cool.

After lunch, it was time to head home to tell Daddy and Grandpa about our adventures. Anabelle needed a nap and we were pretty tired too. What a fun day, thanks Mom!

PS-Notice Anabelle's cute outfit? It's her dress from last year worn as a top! I tried it on her and it fit for a shirt, you gotta love getting 2 years out of something she only wore once or twice. And it looks jut as cute as a shirt as it did as a dress =)

Lunch with Darcy!

Darcy and I had always talked about meeting up for lunch and for some reason we just never got around to it. Last week I realized it had been far too long since I had seen my good friend and I missed her! So on Wednesday Anabelle and I took a trip into the city to have some lunch with Fun Aunt Darcy. We met at Bennigan's, a favorite of mine (try the turkey o'toole-yum!), and had a lovely visit. Anabelle was in a great mood, but seriously, who wouldn't be when out to lunch with the ladies?? Here she is being silly with Darcy.

Thanks for meeting up with us Darcy, it was great to see you. We will have to do it again soon. After lunch we decided to go over and visit John at work. All of his co-workers are so sweet and love to see Anabelle every once in a while. We visited a bit and then it was time to head home for a nap. Later in the day we put on a little fashion show. Darcy got Anabelle some adorable gifts for Christmas. A little faux fur vest and boots- so cute!!

Baby it's cold outside!

It has been pretty chilly around here, so we have been spending some time indoors. Anabelle has been into wearing either the Santa hat or the reindeer antlers around the house. She picks them up and brings them over to me to place on her head and then runs around the house smiling. Here she is pulling some ornaments off the tree. As of right now our ornament casualty is 2, but I was able to glue them back together. Thank goodness for crazy glue. Little did I know when I decorated the tree this year that I would be re-decorating the bottom half every day.

Today was definitely a polar fleece kind of day!

On Sunday John was watching football and all of the sudden Anabelle decided to clap along. She seems to like when the band plays, and even shows off some of her dance moves. Too cute!

Snow Day!

Last night John informed me that a big snow storm was headed our way, so after dinner we stopped at Menards to pick up a snow shovel and some salt. Then as soon as we got home we realized that neither John nor Anabelle has snow boots. This morning we woke up to about 3 inches of snow, so Anabelle and I made an early morning trip to Target. Boy was that a bad idea. Every other Mom who doesn't know enough to buy snow boots in November was there also. The boot aisle was a disaster, but we were successful in finding boots for John and some for Anabelle (even if they are a size too big). We also picked up an infant sled, labeled "infant boggin", but should be labeled baby boggin =)

Thanks to some hand-me-downs from Sarah Kortge we had a snow suit and so we were ready to play! Anabelle is not very good at walking while wearing boots and a snow suit, and therefore is not so sure about this whole snow thing. I assured her, she will grow to love it!

Hmmm..... what is all this white stuff?

Hey Dad, I've got an idea....

how about you pick me up and carry me.

Oh, this is much better! Now I like this snow stuff!

Weee!!!!

Snow Belle

December 1st here and we got a nice dusting of snow this morning. I decided it was a good day for Anabelle to debut her new Snow Belle shirt. When I saw this at Carter's I knew right away we had to get it for little Miss. It came with a cute little tutu, which is a new thing for Anabelle and she seemed to like it. Here she is playing with some refrigerator magnets, her new favorite thing to do in the kitchen. She especially loves to pull them all off the fridge and then stick them in various places around the house. So you find them in places like the Christmas tree, your tupperware drawer or the coat closet... I am loving life with a 1 year old =)