Christmas, just us three

Every year, Nate and I love driving around looking at Christmas lights. We discovered that Naperville has a website with all the "must see" houses. So this year, on the night of the 22nd, we got Jade in her jammies and headed out to look at as many of these houses as we could! Jade seemed to enjoy it, and stayed awake the whole time.

 

 

This was our favorite house on the tour!

 

Nate had a couple of very busy days at work between that night and Christmas Morning. Luckily he got home around 8 in the morning on Christmas Day, just in time to open presents and enjoy a cinnamon roll breakfast!

Santa came!

Love this one of Jade opening her present!

 

More presents!

 

Showing off her new stuff!

Trying to figure out her new potty...

 

Haha ;)

 

The Princess Castle was a big hit!

 

Santa

Today we took Jade to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop as we did last year. They have a great setup that includes a free picture with Santa, coloring, a carousel and lots of exhibits. Here are a few pictures from our morning!

Coloring a picture!

Mailing it to Santa! 

Admiring Santa from afar.....

But not up close!!

Finishing up the experience on the carousel!

A bit of Jade

I finally got around to taking some pictures and video of Jade today. She loves wearing her name tag sticker from church pretty much the rest of the day, so she has it on in most of these pictures.

Weeeee

I told Jade to be silly...however I have seen her much sillier than this :)

Best friends (this photo was not enhanced, I do not know why Charcoal's tongue looks that pink)!!

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Jade was standing at the fridge looking at her letter magnets, so I thought it would be a good time to quiz her on her letter identification. She did pretty good considering half the letters were upside down!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We had a fun day putting up our Christmas tree together as a family. Here are a few pictures highlighting our afternoon.

Our traditional snacks!

Jade enjoying the tradition.

Daddy helping Jade hang some of the non-breakable ornaments.

 Loving the puppy ornament I selected for her this year.

Posing with her puppy.

A close up of the ornament. I made sure it went up high enough on the tree where she couldn't see it and ask to take it down! :)

The finished tree!

What we have been up to lately

Just a random hodgepodge of pictures from what we've been up to, and let me tell you, it hasn't been much! :)

We took Jade up to Carthage for her first tailgate and football game. It was pretty cold, but Jade (wearing my big gloves) was such a trooper. We only stayed til halftime and never made it in to the game, but Jade sure had a blast playing bags by herself!

Two of her newest obsessions, bracelets and Da Bears! :)

Wearing her hair in a ponytail, sometimes.

Blowing kisses.

Snuggling with Grammy.

Looking and playing like a big kid! 

A little side note, Jade climbed out of her crib during her nap on Friday. We were not quite ready to switch her to a toddler bed yet, so the little escapee is currently sleeping in a sleep sack which has worked out perfect since it's so cold outside. Mommy and Daddy - 1, Jade - 0.