lego maniac

"santa" thought legos would be a perfect gift for greta for christmas. "santa's helper" wasn't so sure. last night, i had to apologize to "santa" and agree with him that legos were probably the best gift we could have given. there is nonstop lego building going on in our house, and has been since christmas morning. as i write this, greta is building a train car, narrating the whole adventure as she goes.

rolling on christmas eve

here's that video of greta and her cousin ellie on christmas eve. they are about a year apart in age, and i think it's only going to get more fun the older they get. this particular 'rolling' event was definitely sugar induced....greta had a piece of chocolate cake and then was hand-fed a few cookies by ellie just before the rolling commenced.

christmas at grandma joan's

after spending christmas morning at our house as a family, we headed to my mom's for more celebrating. greta did well even though this was her second straight day without a nap....we enjoyed seeing everyone, eating food (especially pumpkin bread!) and sharing presents. merry christmas everyone!! click on the photo below and then click on 'slideshow' in the top left to see all the photos....

tumblison christmas 2009

trouble.....

otto is mobile now....he has been army crawling for a few weeks. just in time to try to reach the ornaments hanging on the christmas tree. greta did most of the tree decorating, so most of the ornaments are on the front of the tree, near the bottom....perfect for otto. just look at that face!!

happy birthday to Jesus

christmas morning 2009

what a joy it was to spend christmas morning as a family!! i really don't think i've EVER enjoyed christmas this much! after a fun christmas eve at grandma and grandpa hansbauers, we woke up on christmas day to see what santa had brought. greta reminded us to sing happy birthday to baby Jesus, and we checked the advent calendar one last time before opening gifts. we have decided to do three gifts a piece for christmas, following with the christmas story where the wisemen brought three gifts for Jesus. (thanks tricia for the idea!) it felt like just the right about of gifts....the kids were THRILLED at each one, and it gave us time to really enjoy each gift, as well as lots of time to enjoy our time together. click on the photo above to see pictures from our morning....

hansbauer christmas

hansbauer christmas 2009

again with the slideshow....you can click on the photo above and then click on slideshow (on the top left) to see all the pictures from our christmas eve celebration at joe's parents. it was so fun to celebrate with grandma and grandpa and the ford cousins.....we had lots of yummy food and greta and otto got so many great gifts. we missed seeing uncle bill....
stay tuned to the blog for a future post of a video of ellie and greta taken after one too many cookies and a big ol' slice of chocolate cake!!

christmas cards

greta LOVES all the christmas cards that have been coming in the mail. if she is awake when the mail arrives, we open them together. if the mail comes during naptime, i leave the cards on her table and she goes through them when she gets up. she POURS over the photographs, studying the people in the photos and asking over and over who they are, even when she knows the answer. she insisted that the card of "baby addie" sit with her during lunch, and she stood and "talked" to the card of her best buddy ella for about 25 minutes when it arrived. her genuine excitement for the little things is definitely contagious, and definitely what the season is all about....

in the spirit....

i thought it would be fun to have greta make gifts for her gymnastics teacher and a few friends for christmas. i figured it would be good to get her into the spirit of giving gifts....we made muffins together, and we also made candy cane ornaments. greta was very focused and i think she was excited to give the gifts. merry christmas!!

nestheide family christmas

nestheide christmas 2009

click on the picture above to see pictures from my extended family christmas party. it was tons of fun....the kids were up WAY past their bedtime of 7:30 and enjoyed every minute of it. sorry uncle mike about the snuggie....it seemed like a good idea for the gift exchange.

festival of lights

on monday it was a unseasonably warm day, probably in the mid 50s. so when the temperature dropped to freezing tuesday evening, it only made sense to go to the festival of lights at the zoo! it was SO cold, but otto stayed warm and toasty in his bundle me, and greta didn't seem to mind the cold at all!! the bonus of going in the cold was that it wasn't crowded at all.....and it really was a ton of fun! greta and otto enjoyed the lights and music, seeing the baby jesus in the nativity, and meeting the gingerbread boy and seeing reindeer.

icing

c is for cookie

greta and papa continued another christmas tradition by making cookies together, just like they did last year. greta enjoyed mixing the dough, and putting the cookies on the cookie sheet. she also was surprisingly good at icing all the cookies....we'll add video of that later!

ol' saint nick

after trimming the tree on saturday, greta and otto woke on sunday to find that st. nick had filled their stockings with some holiday goodies. sweet!

o christmas tree

we headed all the way to monmouth street in downtown newport to get our christmas tree. there is a little local market (peluso's) that sells christmas trees out of their back lot....not the most festive of locations, but it's a short drive to get there and back and we've found the perfect tree the past few years. greta was very intrigued by the chainsaw they used to cut off the bottom of the tree...she kept repeating "that guy gave it a FRESH CUT" all afternoon. here are some pictures from the tree trimming. otto slept through most of it, but woke up in time to hang his ONE ornament on the tree. greta enjoyed hanging all the ornaments in one bunch right on the front of the tree. we listened to christmas music, had tea and candy canes....it was such a fun time.