A very merry Christmas, 2009!

Whew! It's hard to believe that Christmas 2009 has come and gone already! We are thankful to have been able to celebrate with our families at several gatherings . . .

#1 - Boese family at Grandma's, Christmas Eve

getting the hang of this "unwrapping" business . . .

#2 Miller's at Grandpa & Grandma's, Christmas morning

#3 - our own family at home, later Christmas morning




#4 - The extended Miller family at Dennis & Sally's, Christmas day

#5 - The Hartsocks at Grandpa & Grandma's on Sunday

It was wonderful to spend time with everyone - catching up, laughing, eating, and giving/receiving gifts. We are blessed!

Now - vacation days are ticking away . . . here's what's (hopefully) on my agenda:

• organize photos from the year - time to be sure CDs are burned/up to date

• make some digital scrapbooks - Shutterfly is having a 40% off sale!

• take down Christmas decorations (I hate this job!)

• breakfast/lunch/coffee dates with friends

• perhaps some after Christmas shopping

• clean out some closets (I know, not fun, be desperately needed!)

• organize/figure our storage for all Braden's new toys/loot

• read!! (somehow this doesn't happen much with a 14 month old around . . . and his daycare provider took this week off, so I am not sure this will happen even on vacation)

What are you up to this week?

testing, testing

Billy got me an SLR camera for Christmas! Just had to test out a couple of shots to see how they look . . . I'm hoping my photos will improve. :)

splashin' santa

always wanting more time in the tubby . . .

Sorry for the posting hiatus . . . but you know how December goes! Since our 3 snow day stretch, it has been nonstop go, go, go! But now the gifts are wrapped, cards have been sent, the goodies are baked, (school is OUT finally!) and we're reading to relax with family and to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas!

snow day #3

ANOTHER snow day.

Unfortunately, when it's the 3rd one in a row, it's not nearly as fun . . . especially when it's too cold and icky to venture out of the house. Today Billy went back to work, and Braden and I did get to relieve a bit of cabin fever and went out to lunch here in town with friends (although I really wanted to head to the mall and knock some items off my Christmas shopping list).

After lunch I decided it was in deed, time to start baking cookies. Miss Alison came home with us to help. We made double chocolate chunk (some with Andes mints melted on top - a new trick I learned this year from a co-worker - yum!), and daddy's favorite - snickerdoodles (made Christmas-y by rolling in red and green sugar).

Of course the best part of making cookies is . . .

EATING them!

snow day #2

Today was, you guessed it!, snow day #2. Although it doesn't look like all that much snow (less than a foot, I'd say), most schools were closed today and Billy even stayed home to join in the fun.

We all slept in and spent the morning cozied up inside. I'll admit, I took another wonderful nap with Braden this morning. Naps with a snuggley little boy are The. Best.!

After lunch we agreed that we really needed to attack the driveway. Billy went out to move the truck out of the driveway so that we could thoroughly shovel the whole thing, and Braden (watching from the door) wanted to go out and help sooooo badly. . . . in fact I opened the door to ask Billy to grab the mail while he was outside, and before I knew it B had stepped out the door . . .

. . . he was quite pleased with himself for getting to stomp in the white stuff (in his socks)!

It looks like perhaps Billy did need help . . . he got stuck in the berm at the end of the driveway. :(

We decided to bundle up properly, and head out into the winter wonderland with Daddy . . . it was a LOT colder and quite windy today, so I didn't think B would last very long. But none the less, we pulled out the snowpants (glad I got those too!), coat, hat, boots, and mittens. . .

. . . and headed out. B loved it!

So much more snow than yesterday!

After a while, I cut off the merriment and sent Billy inside with our chilly child. I scooped for a while, then traded off with Billy.

Driveway cleared (for now - it is still snowing/blowing), warm showers/baths taken . . . let the snuggling begin. I'm still hoping to do some baking tonight . . .

snow day #1

Today marks snow day #1. I must say I'm not really excited about this fact (I was hoping for an early out, since tomorrow will most likely be a snow day as well, according to the forecast - and I hate adding a make-up day to the calendar already!).

Anyway, Braden and I are home enjoying a lazy day. Since I didn't get the call that school was cancelled until after (huge bummer!) we were dressed and ready for the day, Braden and I met up with a friend for breakfast. And since I had him all bundled up to go out, and it wasn't too windy, I let B play in the snow for a little while . . .

Braden's first steps in snow!

Looks like we need to find some mittens that stay on! I'm glad I went ahead and got him boots though (I debated if toddler boots were really necessary) - because he loved stomping around in the snow. Now I am wishing I had purchased the sled I found at Target that has a little seat/seatbelt! Maybe Santa will bring it!

Well, back to being lazy. The agenda for the day is shaping up to be something like this: breakfast out, play in the snow, and now watch Christmas movies that I have tivo-ed but haven't had a chance to watch yet, lunch, nap (maybe for both B and I?), and then perhaps some gift wrapping and/or cookie baking (depending on how long B sleeps). I guess there could be worse things than a snow day!

these are a few of my Braden's favorite things . . .

If I thought November went by quickly, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that December (and all of the holiday events that accompany it) is flying by too!

The biggest news at the Hartsock house is that Billy is off weekends!!!! Yes, after a little more than a year of working weekends (yep, every weekend unless he used vacation time), he's off! It has almost felt like a vacation yesterday and today having him at home/being home at the same time during the day! We were very excited to be able to go to church as a family today for the first time in a long time . . . yay! Braden even went to the nursery and did great - he was happily playing on a rocking horse when we picked him up after the service.

Now - onto the good stuff - pictures (and a video)! I think I have mentioned that my blogging seems to correlate with my picture taking - and since I haven't taken many pics lately, I haven't blogged much lately. So tonight I dusted off the camera and snapped some photos of our little fella in action (which explains why he's wearing the same pj's in all of the pics)!

And now, at the age of 14 months, a few of

Braden's favorite things:

• running - he loves to run back and forth from our living room to the kitchen . . . and loves larger spaces to run in, like at grandparents' houses.

• books and baskets - B still loves his books, and also still loves to climb in his baskets of books/toys

(we're still working on not biting the books!)

had to throw this one in because you can see all B's teeth!

• toys - Braden is at the stage/age where he finally really "gets" how to play with his toys, and he really likes toys -- which is making Christmas shopping fun this year!

• kisses - Braden loves to give big, wet, open mouth, sloppy kisses to any willing recipient

• pointing/showing "1" - most of the time if asked how old he is/the number one is mentioned, B will hold up/point one finger. He has also recently started pointing at everything, then babbling some sort of nonsense word - it will be super fun when he starts using the correct words for things that he sees!

(here he's pointing at a Christmas tree - one of his favorite things to look at these days - but luckily he has stuck to just looking and hasn't touched/grabbed/pulled yet!)

• remotes (and cell phones) - loves 'em!


And finally - he has learned to make a basket! For the longest time he loved to bring the ball to us to shoot (and would do this repeatedly) . . . but now he doing it himself!