Christmas '09

Since Mommy has taken a nearly week long vacation from blogging, she has an overload of pictures to post. To save her sanity...and yours, she is breaking up Christmas '09 into several blogs. The first will include pre-Christmas festivities and Christmas Eve.

Jace always has an abundance of toys and gifts and although Mommy is happy he is able to enjoy these things she also wants him to experience the joys of giving. She decided to make it a tradition to let Jace pick out a few toys for Toys for Tots. This year, since it was the first year, Mommy thought picking out girl toys might make having to give them up a little easier. Jace and Mommy chose a Barbie and a My Little Pony. There was several conversations about why Jace was giving the toys away and several more protests that he needed a Barbie. In the end, however, Jace did a great job and even put the toys in the box himself.
What a little ham!



Getting ready on Christmas Eve....Jace wanted to wear a headband.



Making cookies for Santa. Jace and Mommy made several excuses as to why they needed to eat 'just one more' of Santa's cookies. In the end, there were 2 left for the man in red.



Jace celebrated Christmas Eve at Keith and Darcy's this year. He had a great time with Daddy's side of the family including Nana and Papa!



Nana and Papa gave him this cool guitar (it seems to be the theme this year as Jace received numerous musical presents...please note that none were from Mommy and Daddy or Santa).



Snoozing with Nana...and his new Thomas blanket courtesy of cousin Jami



Covering Grandma Rosie with his new blanket



Stay tuned....more pictures of Christmas Day and beyond coming soon!

7 months!

Sorry there are no Christmas pictures yet....actually Jace is still in the midst of his Christmas fun at Grandma and Grandpa's. Also, Mommy is on their computer and has no editing software so she is going to wait until she gets home to post the rest of the pics. For now, enjoy these larger than life shots of Mommy at 7 months!

A Message From Santa

Check out the video Santa send Jace! Mommy can't take any credit for this one....his teacher Tricia set it up for him. So cute!
CLICK HERE

Mommy's Letter

Dear Total and Near-Total Strangers (seen on the street, in the store, etc, etc),

Mommy would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your concern over her ever-growing belly. Yes, she is aware that it is fairly large. Yes, she is sure of her due date. Yes, she is sure it is not twins.

Mommy appreciates random comments from total strangers on her roundness and any unsolicited advice you have given. She has taken into account that girls are fun to buy for but are much harder to raise. She also has checked Lolly off her list of names because the grocery clerk at Fareway had a friend who, at 16, named her daughter that and it is just a silly name.

Also, Mommy does agree that she will really be waddling by March…again, yes she is sure she is due in March. Sorry to those of you who were sure she was due around the New Year. Mommy definitely does find it strange that there are those of you with daughters due mid-January who aren’t this big.

Mommy appreciates the sympathetic glances at her belly as she walks around and the shocked looks when you ask her how far along she is. No, there is not more than one in there and yes she has had several ultrasounds to confirm it. Yes, she did hear about the woman who got pregnant while pregnant, therefore having two babies in her. No, Mommy does not think this is the case. Yes, Mommy has heard stories about one baby hiding behind the other during ultrasounds and having synchronized heartbeats. No, Mommy does not think this is the case. And no, Mommy’s first child was not THAT large.

Again, it is not twins.

Sincerely,
Mommy

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Jace’s Christmas season is in full swing!

Mommy decorates Christmas cookies with her speech kids every year (there is no forgetting as they start asking if it’s time again in about February) so she decided to let Jace in on the action this year. She had multi-colored cookie dough to use this time which just made it that much cooler! Jace chose a yellow cookie and went to town with the frosting and sprinkles.







Ahh, sweet sugar!




Today was Jace’s Christmas Parent Party at Daycare. It was so nice to see all the parents of the kids Jace talks about every day. The kids wore reindeer hats, danced, decorated cookies, and gave the parents a couple of gifts.

Jace presented Mommy and Daddy with a handprint picture with the cutest poem that brought tears to Mommy’s eyes. He also made an awesome 2010 calendar with pictures of himself on every month. Definitely one of the best presents Mommy has ever received!



If Mommy hasn’t said it before, she absolutely LOVES his daycare/school and can’t wait for little Peanette to begin there as well. Jace has learned so much in his 2-year-old classroom and has had the greatest teacher. It is still up in the air as to whether he will move up to the 3-year-old room and (gasp) start preschool in January but Mommy is fine with either. He comes home with new information he has learned and can’t wait to share every single day. The other day at Walmart he was looking at the ceiling and said, ‘Look a big, white, octagon’. Mommy wasn’t sure what to say because, sure enough, there was one hanging from the rafters. Good thing Jace was there to confirm it was an octagon…Mommy may not have been able to name it herself!

Silly Daddy!


Playing hide and seek with Molly



Hanging with Molly...isn't she a doll



Hanging with Mommy...isn't she a doll??



Showing Mommy and Daddy how 'circle time' is done



Making cookies with longtime gal pal Morgan



And a couple more recent pictures just for fun....

All dressed up and nowhere to go



Coloring with Daddy-o

Randoms

Mommy has a bunch of random pictures floating around on her computer so she thought she would share. Your welcome.

Jace got an early Christmas package from Chuck and Denise and was able to open the DVD's. He was in heaven....Curious George and Thomas...what more could a guy want?








The rest are just Jace being Jace.

Jacer's 3-year photo shoot!

Mr. Jace is turning 3 in less than a month and had a photo session today......














Mommy isn't even sure if any of these are the ones she actually ordered but you get the idea.

Merry Christmas!!

Make sure you have your sound on!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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Miami Vice Wedding

For those of you who were in attendance at Erin and Tom’s wedding last weekend, you must agree with the photographer that Jace looked very ‘Miami Vice’. He ended up doing very well after a few minor bumps in the road. The first occurred when Mommy and Daddy tried to put on his tux. As expected….not gonna happen! He ended up wearing his tux pants and jacket with a white t-shirt and white pumas. No black shoes, no tie, and no white collar shirt. Mommy must admit however, it was a look few could pull off...but Jace, of course, did!

Next came Jace’s walk down the aisle with flower girl Abby. She, as expected, did wonderful and trotted right down to where her Daddy was sitting. Jace also trotted (although somewhat slower and with Nemo in hand) but was reluctant to sit and thought he would go up where Mommy was standing at the altar. After a few cries of ‘I want my Mommy’, Grandma was able to reel him in and hand him over to Fabulous Aunt Kay. Kay proceeded to introduce Jace to gum, which proved to be genius as he was never heard from again during the ceremony!

After the formalities were over, Jace kicked his heels up at the reception. Mommy must say, that he pretty much owned the dance floor (and many of the single gals) most of the night. Mommy didn’t see much of her little man throughout the night as he went from girl to girl dancing and giggling. He made it to the bitter end and was still boogying on the way home Sunday.

On to the pictures of the handsomest Miami Vice ring bearer EVER and his smashingly beautiful/handsome Aunt Erin and UNCLE Tom. Oh, and there’s a few of Mommy, just to prove she stuffed her and Peanette into a non-professionally expanded bridesmaid dress!

Thursday night the festivities began with an oh-so-good dinner on the Plaza. Jacer was pretty worn out already after the long drive and late hour.



Friday was ‘Jace and Daddy’ day as they ate cookies and pizza and bought goodies (stuffed Nemo) at the mall. The rest of the crew was busy decorating and turning Tom and Erin’s college into their beautiful reception.



Friday night it was still up in the air as to whether or not Jace would actually make the walk down the aisle. Luckily, Abby was a great little lady and offered to let Jace throw a few flowers too (although she was certain he should be throwing rings). This sealed the deal and he agreed.





Who knew you got presents (and Thomas presents nonetheless) just for looking suave and walking down an aisle?





Saturday morning was more Jace and Daddy time while the girls got pretty.







Dressed and ready



Who can guess what Jace is doing a mere 5 minutes before the ceremony began?



Enter Miami Vice



Mommy giving her bone sober speech



Mommy must apologize about the quality of some of these pics. Even with the technology of photo editing, you can’t mess with the moves of some of Jace’s family members!





Jace and Daddy chilling at the reception




Tom and Erin smashing cake



Cheers



Grandpa and Erin dancing





Jace:totally in his element



Guess who set up this shot?



Jace and his many women







Grandma cutting loose with Tauren



Rita and Sean burning up the dance floor



Cheers with Pete and Sean



Tom, getting his KU garter



Jace and Mommy taking a break



Yeah, Jace has game



Jace and Kay cutting a rug



Mr. Stud on the drive home (Mr. Stud with ketchup on his face and Elmo on his arm).