Merry Christmas!

Christmas is here, Santa has come.....the joyous Celebrations have begun!
The very best material gift we could receive as parents is a hand made gift. Dylan has made several wonderful decorations at pre-school and childcare but this one is so very special! As you can see it is a piece of candy, decorated with his little hand prints and this very cute poem! Dylan has his own Holiday tree on the kitchen table hung with his wonderful crafts! Thanks buddy!

Christmas Eve morning we awoke to this! Several inches of white, fluffy snow. It was just beautiful!

As the day went on the more snow fell. It was falling fast but it didn't deter our Christmas Eve celebration plans.

Our Christmas Eve tradition started with my Dad when I was very young. It is a tradition that Brad started joining us in when we started dating and now that we have our own family, we have continued the tradition that is very special to us! We headed to Christmas Eve mass at St. Pius at 4pm. It is so special for Brad and I to go to mass at the place where we were married. There is no other church Christmas service that gives us quite the same feeling as the place we were wed!

We came out and the snow was still falling! So pretty!

After Church, our tradition continued with dinner at the Olive Garden...yum! Dylan was very excited to go to dinner, and after a busy day at home and a wonderful mass our tummy's were hungry for some delicious Italian food!

After dinner our tradition continued with a drive thru Cedar Memorial cemetery. Even before our precious baby boy was laid to rest, this was a part of our tradition. There are many friends laid to rest there as well as my Grandparents. Now it is even more special making this stop as we spend the time wishing our precious baby boy a very Merry Christmas in heaven.

The lights are beautiful.

And after the lights at the cemetery our tradition continued with a stop at Brad's parents house to celebrate with them. This was the first time we have celebrated there with both kids. We had our red Santa bag loaded with gifts and we were ready to get indoors and thaw out from the elements outside!

Dylan and Uncle Tony reading Christmas stories!

Daddy giving Danielle some loves under the Christmas tree!

Dylan was very excited to open the first of his Christmas gifts!

In Danielle's stocking she got a pink tiara, we put that on her right away. Very fitting for our princess!

Dylan helping Grandpa Holub open his gift from us!

And Brad's Mom loved the handmade with love calender from the kids, each month has great festive pictures of the kids.

It seemed the little stinker Dylan had his hand in helping everyone open their gifts! Here he is helping Uncle Nick and Aunt Sarah.

And by the end of gift opening, everyone has a bow on their head!

Danielle just loved her bumble bee pillow pet!

Dylan got quite a few big presents!

And after all the gifts were opened the kids had some play time. Dylan loves his new Memory Cars game! And he is amazingly good at it too!

Dylan was very silly putting actual 'stockings' on his feet!

We got home just before midnight. The kids were all ready snug in their pj's ready for bed. But not before we put out reindeer food and cookies and milk for Santa!

And the next morning we awoke to see.....indeed Santa did make a stop!

The look on their faces when Dylan runs into the living room and then into our room to say that SANTA has come......is precious, so very precious!

Santa brought festive ears for the kids! Silly Santa.

Our little snowflake!

We opened gifts, had breakfast, opened a few of the toys Santa brought and enjoyed the morning! The parades on TV were on and Dylan loved watching his favorite characters!

That afternoon we headed to Brad's Grandma Holub's for her Annual Christmas gathering. It was really nice to see a good amount of the family all at one time! Auntie Rae got in some snuggles and put Danielle right to sleep!

After a yummy lunch feast there were more presents! Dylan opening his first gift from Cassie!

And then the boys took their traditional spots around the bar and the kids played their heart out. Dylan loved this Sit n Spin! Too funny watching him spin and spin, round and round!

Grandma Holub handing out all of the gifts for the little kids first!

All of the Uncles and cousins found their seats at the bar!

Dylan got this super fun guitar from Great Grandma! It is a HIT, what a perfect gift!

Thanks Great Grandma Holub!

Christmas evening we headed over to my Aunt Ellie's house for more Christmas fun! They had lots of fun gifts for the kids!

And he got Mickey's Party Band instruments, perfect to go along with his guitar!

Danielle got lots of fun gifts too! A musical book and fun hair bows and some really comfy jammies! We love going over to Aunt Ellie's, we have such a great time and the kids love playing with their cousins. It was a great wind down to a very special Christmas Day 2010. Towards the end of the night the girls went out and looked at Christmas lights and Daddy stayed back with the kids and boys. Danielle was all snug in front of a nice warm fireplace enjoying the view from the fire.

We were very blessed this Holiday Season. We were together as a family. While some of our family was miles away they were with us in spirit. The blanket of fresh snow just brought tears to my eyes, it was a true white Christmas and could not have been more beautiful for our day. We were with our family and our children had a very special Christmas this year. We are truly blessed!~

Special Day!

Today is a Special Day for Daddy.....it's his Birthday! Happy Birthday Daddy! We LOVE you SO much and are very lucky to have you as the best husband and father that anyone could ask for. Brad spent the day home with his little man Dylan and then tonight it was off for a yummy Birthday dinner at Red Lobster with great friends!

He even got serenaded the Happy Birthday song! And Dylan finished off the ice cream..yum!Happy Birthday Honey, I hope you had a fantastic day and we hope that ALL of your Birthday wishes come true!

*Special Gift*

I simply cannot begin to tell you how much this precious gift means to Brad and I. Our wonderful photographer Kristi made this amazing picture for us. She took the picture we have of Dalton's feet and put it in a picture for us with Dylan and Danielle's feet. I look at it and cry tears of joy. To have a picture, one simple picture, with a part of each of my children, together in it.....means the world to me. This picture is so very precious and while we struggle on certain days that our first born, Dalton, is no longer with us....I look at this amazing picture and see our three children together. Something so small as their feet, the feet that guide them thru life and Dalton's precious ten little toes that guide us to the sun and the stars where he watches us from a place so beautiful above.

THIS is what Christmas is all about, Kristi I can't Thank You enough, from the bottom of my heart...this picture means the world to me :)

Go Well.
Happy Holidays.

Sights and Sounds of the Season!

I just LOVE this time of the year! As a matter of fact, I get quite emotional when thinking about Christmas and the Holiday Season in general. This year it came up so incredibly fast for me, I didn't think I was prepared......but I have fallen to the true meaning of Christmas. I love every minute of it and I LOVE having a husband and two little children to spend it with. It is truly about them.

Brad has been home for the past week playing Mr. Mom! It is SO good for him, (wink, wink) and the kids also! He will return to work the Monday after New Years so we both are enjoying this time having him home! He has taken over the pre-school duties and we have taken Dylan out of before and after school childcare for these few weeks, since Brad is home, so he takes Dylan to pre-school at 8:45 and returns to pick him up at 11:30 and then those two have the whole day to themselves! It is great. Daddy is also sharing in taking Danielle to therapy, which is excellent too. So these next few weeks are very precious for family time!

Dylan has been making so many neat things at pre-school. He has come home with this adorable ornament that he is SO proud of. He hung it right on the tree for us!

And on Friday at pre-school they celebrated Baby Jesus' Birthday, they also made baby Jesus dolls and he is even more proud of this. Silly mom didn't quite know what it was and called it Mr. Potato head.....and OH MY lord did Daddy scold me. Dylan was in bed when I got home. I walked in and I saw it sitting on the table, I had been out shopping for the evening and walked in the house to find one of Dylan's precious hand made items from school. Well thank goodness Dylan didn't hear me say that I thought it was Mr. Potato Head! This in fact is Baby Jesus, wrapped in a blanket and he even has a halo on his head. Baby Jesus even has a beard, even though he is a baby ;) I LOVE seeing how excited our child is to make and then show these creations to us. This is the best part of our days when he gets home, seeing what is in his backpack and hearing his explanation of how he made it!Saturday morning we ventured to Dylan's First Christmas Program. He was so excited to have Mom and Dad and Danielle and Grandma Holub, Great Grandma Martin, and Uncles Tony and Nick there with him. We had briefly heard him practicing his songs at home, but this was the full reveal!

Each pre-school class sang 2 songs and then all of the classes together sang. It was SO cute. It took until about the middle of the first song for Dylan to warm up and start singing, but then he belted it out and did the hand motions and all. In between songs each child scoured the audience for their parents and family's, Dylan finally found us and waved like crazy. Our hearts had already melted! This was one of the best firsts as a parent, that we have experienced yet!
We have already had one Christmas, this past weekend we celebrated with Brad's Grandma Martin. Saturday after Dylan's Christmas program, we headed over to Brad's parents to celebrate with his Grandma, Aunt and Uncle and cousins. It was great seeing the cousins together really for the first time.... all at one time.

Danielle got some snuggles with Uncle Tony...

and Uncle Nick too!

Dylan and his cousin Carson are just a few months apart and they sure had a lot of fun being boys!
Dylan was patiently waiting for the 'go-ahead' to tear open his presents! He sat and sat and sat....and then the kids got the go-ahead to tear into their gifts! He peeked inside and said, 'o0ooh mommy, look what is inside.' Some very fun gifts for such a good boy and girl!

Thank you Great Grandma for the fun Christmas presents! Danielle and I LOVE them!

Sunday I had lunch with a few girlfriends and then we headed to see Follidays at Coe College. What a wonderful performance! It really got me excited for what Christmas brings. The sounds of music and children's voices, singing and giggling! It was a very delightful show! We are excited for this week, spending time with family and friends! The kids are very excited to see what Santa may bring, pending they have been a good boy and a good girl ;) Mom and Dad are excited to sit back and soak it all in, the true meaning of Christmas, being together with the ones we love and our children that are truly the light in our life.~