Opening Presents

This video makes me laugh. This is what opening presents is like with a 7 month old baby.

Alaina's First Christmas!

Family picture at Yiayia and Papou's house Christmas Day

Alaina playing with Uncle John and Theia Katina
Alaina says, "I'm so happy it's Christmas!"
Opening presents and eating wrapping paper...

Alaina's first Christmas was so much fun! We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with my brother, sister, and brother-in-law. We had a big dinner and then opened presents. Alaina did not get too excited about opening presents, she's still too young. She got more excited about crinkling the wrapping paper with her hands and trying to eat the shiny paper. I'm sure she will understand more about Christmas next year. On Christmas Day, we spent the morning at our house. Alaina had a few more presents to open from Grandma and Grandpa Bruck. We enjoyed our Christmas morning together as a family. Even Zoe hung out with us as we unwrapped the last few presents and went through gifts from Christmas Eve. Alaina had fun following Zoe around the living room as Nate and I watched a movie. It was a laid back morning, but lots of fun- just the three of us. I imagine that Christmas morning will become a lot more exciting as Alaina gets older and is anxious to see what Santa brings. But for now, eating wrapping paper and chasing Zoe was fun too.

Theia Katina and Theo Yanni

My sister and her husband flew in from Greece last night. Their plane was supposed to arrive at 4:00PM, but did not get in until 9:30PM! There was a pretty bad snow storm going through Chicago today, hence the delay. Kathryn and Yanni spent 5 1/2 hours waiting at the airport in Madrid! Needless to say they are very happy to finally be home in Rockford. The original plan was to have dinner with Kathryn and Yanni last night, but since they got in to town so late we decided to meet them for breakfast this morning instead. Kathryn and Yanni had not yet met Alaina. They were very excited to finally meet her. Alaina was also very happy to meet her Theia and Theo (Aunt and Uncle). Below is a picture from the first time Kathryn held Alaina. Alaina is wearing a special Santa hat that Kathryn made for her. Too cute.

Christmas Caroling

Today the preschoolers went Christmas caroling at Alma Nelson nursing home. My grandma spent some time in the rehabilitation unit at Alma Nelson before she died. Since she passed passed away, I have taken the preschoolers to sing Christmas carols at Alma Nelson every year. The staff at Alma Nelson was so kind to my grandma and our family. Taking the preschoolers there to sing is just a little way to say thank you each year. We have been practicing our Christmas carols at school for a few weeks now. They really did a great job. We had a great turnout, probably half of our students came to sing!

Nate and Alaina came to watch the caroling. My mom and dad showed up too. Below is a really cute picture of Alaina watching the preschoolers sing.

Snow Day!

View from our front window

Picture of our backyard. Our lilac bush got squashed by the heavy snow.

As you can see from the pictures above, we got hit with a huge snow storm today! Schools were cancelled so I got to spend the day at home with Alaina. The snow started last night around 4:00PM and it's still coming down almost 24 hours later. Eventhough I hate snow, I have to say that it makes everything look so pretty. Plus, the day off from work is nice. It was great hanging out with Alaina today. We read stories and played with some of her new toys. Nate and I gave Alaina an early Christmas present the other day. It's a new bouncer that she can stand up in. She's become too mobile for her old bouncer, she tries to climb out of it! It was time to upgrade to something bigger and better! Today was the perfect opportunity for Alaina to spend some time in her new bouncer. She absolutely loves it! There's all kinds of toys built in to it to keep her entertained. Just look at that happy face!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas around our house. I finally got around to putting up my Christmas decorations this weekend. Nate and I put the tree up together while Alaina watched from her bouncer. She seemed amused by the twinkle lights and shiny ornaments. We are looking forward to when Alaina will be able to help us decorate the tree... maybe next year! We still need to get a stocking for Alaina. We better do it soon, Santa will be here before we know it!

Alaina's First Thanksgiving

Cousin Alysa holding Alaina

Alaina giving Aunt Sarah Thanksgiving kisses

Alaina's first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Iowa. We went to Des Moines to spend Thanksgiving weekend with Nate's family. We enjoyed spending time together. Nate's parents had not seen Alaina since Labor Day so they had fun watching Alaina show off her new tricks (rolling, grabbing, babbling).

We also made a trip to Iowa State while we were in Iowa. We took Nate's niece, Brianna, with us. I have not been to Iowa State for a very long time so I was happy we made time to go visit. It was an especially special trip because we went on November 27th. Nate proposed to me five years ago on November 27th. We took Brianna to the exact spot on campus where Nate proposed- the armory. Of course we forgot to take our camera with us when we went inside the armory. It would have been a perfect picture moment. Instead, we have a picture of both of us in front of the campanile.

I was a little nervous about how Alaina would handle the 4 1/2 hour car ride. She had a rough ride on the way to Des Moines. We had to stop three times for feeding, diaper changes, and a meltdown. However, she surprised us on the ride back home and slept the entire time! I don't think we're ready for an overseas trip yet, but she's a fairly good car traveler.