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Making Him Laugh

Christmas Day

Chloe here. I know I've been absent, but life has gotten busy again around here. Daddy is remodeling the kitchen so we've been hanging at Grammie and Grandpa's house on the weekends. And toddler school, ice skating lessons and dinner with the Reske's has started up during the weeks, so we've been running around a lot.

So that's where I've been, but I realize I left you hanging with Christmas. Let's see what Christmas day brought!

After Christmas morning at our house, Casey and I got dressed in our "Christmas casual" gear and headed to Grammie and Grandpa's house for more celebrations.

"All I want for Christmas is to feed myself milk and wear a sparkly hat," says Casey.

I started by opening cards (with George).

And then got to a cool coloring book.

Daddy also got a cool book.  Thanks Auntie Megan and Uncle Morgan!

They jokingly got me packing peanuts for Christmas, but I took some time to sort them and the joke was on them!  What a fun present for a kid who likes to organize!

Here I am showing off my handiwork.  Remember how I made my own wrapping paper?

Casey and Papa did some chillin' out in their red Christmas shirts.

And I played with some of my new Christmas trains.

Then Morgan got some Casey time with his godson.

And Mommy caught a cute shot of me :)

 Here's a cute shot of the boys in the snowflake sweaters.  (Casey looks so completely serious, right?)

 And the girls!

 Bud bud doesn't like his pants.  We take them off often.  Although not usually with a collared shirt on :)

 Mary played with Casey for a long time.  He loved her!

 And Daddy played with Ben (1) and me.

 We tried to get a picture in our Christmas jammies.

 And this is the best we got.

 But here's a cute one of Ben!

 It didn't take long before we were over the whole thing.

Finally we got home and it looked like Christmas threw up in our living room.  Guess we rushed out without cleaning up.

That's it for Christmas catchup... Happy 2012!

Christmas Morning

Chloe here.  Christmas morning, as you saw from the videos, was everything I ever hoped for.  I was really excited because... Santa had come!

Casey was pumped for his first visit from Santa.

 I rolled right out of bed and headed for my stocking.

 It was the year of the Squinkies!

 After getting my hair brushed, I continued with the present-opening.

 Casey and I also got some little Christmas books from Santa in our stockings.

 Oooohhhh... Aladdin figurines!  Thanks, Santa, I asked for these!

 What could this be?

 Enough train tracks to build all around our basement!  I asked for that too.

 And a cool Pixar story book.  Santa, you know me too well.

Finally, some Peter Pan figurines to go with my Aladdin ones.  My favorite.

Here's our Christmas morning pajama shot!  Look for this to be an annual tradition.

Christmas Morning in Videos

Christmas Eve

Chloe here. We started out Christmas Eve morning playing in the snow at Nana and Grandpa's. More on that another day.

Here's Casey all set to go in his "candy cane outfit."

Grandpa got some quality time with his little buddy.  Don't they coordinate well?

Then we traveled back down to Milwaukee and over to G & Gs house for Great Grandma Shemanske's bomber and hot beef sandwichs.  I also got to open some presents from my Great Aunts and Uncles.

Cool!  Thomas the Train stuff!

Then we headed home and I put out milk and cookies for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.  Can't wait for tomorrow!

Christmas in Merill

Chloe here.  A few days before Christmas we went up to Merrill to see the whole Simek family.  Grandpa is doing very well and we are grateful for all of the thoughts and prayers :)

It all started with a spotting of the deer at the feeder.

I helped Grandpa by making sure there was lots of corn in it the whole time I was up.

I ran to the back bedroom to get a better look.

Uncle Mike, Nana and Grandpa joined me.  Do you see the 3 deer?

Then it was time to open presents.  I was all ready!

 I helped Grandpa first.

 He got a some Badger gear.

Then I helped Nana.  She got a new phone!

Then it was time for Uncle Mike to open my presents for the cousins - Jack and Oscar.

The got new fleece jackets to wear outside!

Oscar is wearing the Wisconsin jacket and Jack is wearing the Packer jacket.  (Pay no attention to wear Jack has his nose.)

After all that present opening they were tuckered out!

Then it was my turn!  Aunt Jodi got me this cool "SpinBrush" toothbrush with Thomas on it.

Obviously I was infatuated with it.

I also got to dig around in my stocking that Santa Nana filled for me.

Cool... what is it?

I got some really cool Thomas Bath toys from Nana and Grandpa.

And of course I had to use them right away.

 Then we tried to take some pictures of me and Casey in our Christmas jammies.

 Mommy thinks that this one makes Casey look like he lost his dentures.

So I tried to hypnotize him so he would smile.

But this is how we ended up.  Oh well.