Glaedelig Lille Julaften!

Our 2012 Christmas Tree. Dylly did a fairly good job leaving it alone, considering it is an enormous temptation. I ended up having to remove one strand of beads on the bottom, because they were just too much to resist (and caused too much catastrophe when pulled off!) We only hung baby-safe ornaments within Dylly range, and she had a few favorites to pull off that were re-hung several dozen times. But all in all, I'm glad we put it up in the room we hang out in all the time. We enjoyed it much more that way. 

Our Lille Julaften dinner table (I forgot to take any pictures after the candles were lit or anyone was sitting around it - shame on me!) We had Risen Grot (a Danish rice porridge) and grape juice as always, with the addition of a creamy tomato tortellini soup which may be Dylan's new favorite food. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kelly, & Uncle Jesse were all here. Unfortunately Mimi couldn't make it this year due to bad weather. We were all so disappointed not to see her this Christmas - we'll have to make a trip to Wooster soon! 

Dyl, modeling her Christmas tutu! (Because what little girl doesn't need a Christmas tutu?!?)

Dylly & Grandpa. I know they're not looking at the camera, but I thought it was too cute not to post it. She is a Grandpa's girl all of the sudden. When we went to church that morning, she just wanted to go straight to Grandpa!

Christmas Eve morning - watching Baby Signing Time while sitting in her rocking chair that Grandmum Wisconsin gave her when she was born. She thinks it's fun to sit & rock in, but she can't be left alone with it or soon enough she's standing up in it and waving her arms around. She's going to be a rock climber someday - she climbs on everything!

I was a complete slacker about posting during actual Christmas time - so I'll post about them a little belatedly. These are all the pictures I have on my camera, so I need to borrow Grandma's camera and download the millions of pictures from Christmas Eve & Christmas Day on there. Then I'll post about both of those days as well. We really did have a wonderful Christmas - it was so much more fun this year with a 15 month old Dylly around to provide tons of cuteness. We just love her SO much. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Dylly's 1st Santa Photo Shoot!

Dylly's 1st time meeting Santa Claus! (Sorry for the terrible iPod photo of a printed picture. I'm too cheap to pay $10 more for the right to download it! ;)) Dylly really had fun meeting Santa. She was happy to sit in his lap, but was too busy pointing at everything on the "set" to take time to smile. Santa was great and worked really hard to get her to smile - he sat with her, put her on a rocking reindeer & sat behind her, rolled a ball with her on the floor, and let her stand in front of him while he sat in a chair. She was happy for all of it, but serious. The minute he'd let her go and she could run around and grab things, she'd smile away. In any case, this one at least has happy eyes! It was probably the worst picture of Santa, but the best picture of Dyl. So we went with it. Yay for a good first Santa experience!

After meeting Santa, Dyl & I went for a ride on the train in the mall. Another first!

She thought it was great fun - especially in the beginning. She liked waving at all the people we rode by, and had to try looking at all the various windows in our train car.

"Why aren't  you coming with us Grandma??" 

Someone might have struggled a little bit with the "hands, arms, legs, & head inside the car at all times." ;) Also with the "sitting at all times" rule - I'm pretty sure there was no sitting at all!

All aboard!

Looking like a sad caboose passenger. But really she was having fun, and I still think she looks adorable - even if she's not smiling. 

Playing in the kids' area after our train ride. She officially had her first Auntie Anne's pretzel experience today too - she's a fan of the almond pretzel, just like her Mom & Grandma! 

Elves on the shelf

"Hey, I've never sat up here before..."

"Oooh, look at this cool window frame thingy."

"I can keep a good eye on everybody from up here!"

"This is SO much fun!"

"Who's this? The elf on the shelf? He's keeping an eye on me to report to Santa?!? Oh dear, too bad he can see that Christmas tree I keep snitching ornaments off of..."

"We do make a pretty cute pair though!"

16 days till Christmas!

Dylly, all dressed up to go to the Christmas Play at Ebenezer Baptist Church this evening! We were out at Grandma & Grandpa's before that, making kleinjer, having dinner, and constructing Christmas count down candles. It's been quite the Christmas-y day - and very fun too! 

She definitely has a few little curls in her hair. When she's in the bath and her hair is all wet, it's down her neck almost to her shoulders!

Practicing her pirouettes. <3 p="p">

Getting our coats on to head out the door to the play. She had a blast at the play, as well as eating tasty treats and seeing all her friends (Emrie, Henry, Greta, Charley, Harper, August, Saylor, & Eden) afterwards. There was even a real donkey in the play, and all the kids got to pet it & it's baby outside when the play was over. Too cool!

Lecturing Grandma about something or the other. ;) She's probably telling Grandma to only look at the Christmas tree, but not touch it, because that's the #1 thing she hears these days!

It was a fun day - but boy have I got a lot of things to do to be ready for Christmas in 16 days! I think I need to borrow some of Santa's elves... 

Tutu Fabulous!

Modeling the awesome handmade tutu & hair band that Kristy Keirns made her for her birthday. :) (She liked the tutu, she wasn't so sure about the hairband!)

On the move! I think she looks a bit like an adorable tulle turkey. I should make her a Thanksgiving tutu in turkey colors and have her sit on the Thanksgiving feast table! That'd be one cute centerpiece...

First Steps!

Well, over the last week or two, Dylly has been taking a step here or there. If she's holding on to the coffee table say, and she wants to get to the footstool, she'll let go and take the one step in between. But no more than that or she just gets down and crawls. She has been standing hands free for slightly longer periods of time, and yesterday she actually took a drink standing up, and never fell down! Then Chad reported that last night she went from kneeling to standing for the first time ever. Now today while she was with Grandma while I went to the doctor, she started walking about 5 steps from the coffee table and over to Grandma's arms! She did it multiple times for Grandma, and again and again when I got home too! It was sooooooooo adorable. And she was so proud and excited for herself. She's going to be cruising in no time. :)

Dyl also had her one year check up today (a little late, I know.) She got 4 shots (including her flu shot), poor cricket. :( It breaks my heart. And she's getting her upper incisor in, and she's just sort of an ouchy, miserable mess all around. I guess she's decided to acheive all her milestones in one big whack! Teeth, shots, standing, and walking all in a day or two! She hadn't gained any weight or gotten any taller as of this check up, but the doctor said that's not too unusual in babies who are still nursing past a year, and who haven't taken a huge liking to cow's milk. So she said just to keep doing what we're doing, but maybe push the cow's milk whenever we can. Dyl is starting to like it better, so here's hoping she takes off with it (and weans herself!) sometime soon. :)

"Helping" Mommy unload the dishwasher. Generally, standing on the dishwasher door is a no-no, but it was momentarily allowed for a cute photo-op. It's almost impossible to keep her off of it these days though, so unloading the dishwasher has had to become a stealth mission. 

WooHoo, Spatula! She's such a good helper. ;) 

My cutie pie - I love her to bits! 

Baby wants out, dogs want in. The grass is always greener.

Taking a step towards Mommy! She was getting pretty worn out at this point, we'd just been soaking up the awesomeness of her walking and not taking pictures till pretty late in the game. So Grandma had her hands near by as a safety net, but Dylly was doing it all on her own. Go Dyl! :) :) :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Well, it was 4 days late, but we finally managed to have an official lasagna birthday dinner for Mom tonight when she was done with parent-teacher conferences. Chad was head chef and even made her not one, but TWO mocha prune cakes! (He might've forgotten to put the eggs in the first one, but still, he was sweet enough to make a second one. :)) Thanks Chadmo, it was delicious!

Here's a picture of a very sleepy Dylly "helping" Grandma with her cake and candles. Grandma will probably yell at me for posting this picture, but I had to put at least one up here. Poor Dyl is cutting her left upper incisor and is quite the pathetic creature today, so no smiles during cake time. She did think Grandma's birthday lasagna and cake were quite tasty though. I was grateful for that because she hadn't eaten much today before that. 

Happy birthday, Mom/Grandma! We love you bunches and bunches!

Dylly's 1st night at Grandma & Grandpa's

A sneak preview from our photo shoot with my friend Carrie Patterson when she was in town in October. I asked her to send me one of her favorites, and now I'm just dying to see more. I think I love everything about this picture, but I REALLY just almost can't stand how adorable Dyl's toes are. I could just nibble them right off!

Dylly stayed the night at Grandma & Grandpa's last night (without us) for the first time ever! It sounds like she had a wonderful time, and she was a good girl and slept from 9:10 pm - 7:15 am for them. (Traitor baby. ;)) She got to have pizza crossing with them last night, and a french toast breakfast this morning. They brought her back at about 10:30 am today. She nursed and then fell asleep instantly and proceeded to take a 2.5 hour nap! Her longest nap EVER! She must've partied hard with Grandma and Grandpa. ;)

Chad and I had a super fun evening - we went to a party at our friend Tom's cabin. I actually played a game of King's, and I know it has been at LEAST 3 years since I last played a drinking game. It was tons of fun, and I even managed to not be hung over today. A+ for grown up moderation! After the party, we came home (Chad was the responsible DD - thank you Chadmo!) and slept a consecutive 8.5 hours - for the first time in 1.5 years for me. It was so incredible, my body thought it needed to go run a marathon or something. Then Chadmo continued his sweet husband streak and made us a french toast breakfast-on-couch. Dylly arrived home shortly after we finished breakfast, and our wonderful night was made all the better by hearing how good she'd been for Grandma and Grandpa, and having her safely back in our arms.

I must confess, when we got home from the party I had a desperate moment of begging Chad to take us out to my parents' to sleep. It was so hard to be here without Dylly sleeping in her bed, and I wanted to go to where my baby cakes was. But my DD was a meanie and insisted we stay at our own house and soak up the uninterrupted sleep. It was a step we needed to take sometime, and the uninterrupted sleep was glorious. Thanks for standing strong Chadmo. :)

A huge thank you to Mom & Poppy for taking such great care of our Dylly-roo and giving us such a fun evening out! We love you bunches!

More of our cute little zebra :)

The computer finally cooperated, so here are more of the pictures from Halloween and Dyl loving her zebra costume! 

Dylly with her two main men. :)

Proud parents of a zebra filly. ;)

Striking the perfect zebra pose.

"Can zebras climb stairs??"

"This outfit is SO awesome!"

"What do you mean I don't get to wear this every day??"

On the move. <3 p="p">

"I'll get you, Grandma!" (She was having so much fun!)

Showing off for Grandma and Grandpoppy.

Checking herself out in the mirror. 

Also - Happy Birthday to my Mom! We love you bunches and bunches, and we don't know what we'd do without you. We wish you hadn't had parent-teacher conferences tonight so we could've celebrated with you on your actual birthday, but we're glad we got to have dinner with you and see you last night. Love & hugs from all of us. XOXOXO.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little zebra, to you! She loved her costume, it was sooo cute. Hopefully I'll be able to get more of the photo shoot posted soon. For now, here she is with Grandma & Daddy! 

A trip to Wisconsin

Chad, Dylan, & I just got back from a lovely week in Wisconsin. We stayed the first part of our trip with the hostesses with the mostestes, Nancy & Bill. A big thank you to them for having us and making us feel so incredibly at home (and well fed!) :) We finally got to meet our adorable new nephew, Connor. We went to Chad Schroeder & Abby Nelson's wedding. We spent lots of time with lots of family & friends. We stayed the last couple of nights of our trip at Chad's mom's house and soaked up some time with Grandmum Wisconsin (as Dyl 'calls' her), and Granny & Grandpa Lee. Then we broke up the long drive back to Ohio by spending the night at Matt & Mandy's new house in Wilmette, IL where Dyl developed a large crush on the adorable Will. :) All in all it was a great trip, and as always there wasn't nearly enough time to do everything we wanted to do. I guess we'll just have to go back soon. :) 

Melissa & cutie-pie Connor.

Leighton (16 months), Aubrey (19 months), & Dyl (12 months)

Ella (9), Lexi (10), Kylee (3), & Claire (9.5).

It was quite the henhouse! Brad & Will, the 2 boy cousins on this side of the Mitchell clan, couldn't make the party. So it was all these lovely ladies and 9 week old Connor! He was one lucky guy. ;)

Cousins and kiddos. :) I'll have to track down some pictures from the dinner at Patty & John's later that day and get some pictures of the Meade side up here too!

Connor, the most content baby ever. 

Dylly loving her bath in Nancy's kitchen sink. This is the night she first said the word 'duck'!