Here Comes Santa Claus

So we hit up the church Christmas party this weekend and had a little visit from Santa himself. T's not a big fan of bearded people so we both thought she would throw an absolute fit as soon as she got into viewing distance of Santa. As Mark walked her up towards him I had the camera ready to film the meltdown. To our surprise, she gave him one weird little look as Mark sat her down on his lap and that was it!! No crying, no throwing herself on the ground. Nothing. she just sat there, posed for a couple pictures and moved on to Mrs. Claus and her own bag of treats. I will admit, I was a little disappointed. I thought it would be funny to see a mini meltdown of epic proportions, but it is nice to know T is not too timid (that might come back to bite me in the butt down the road). Here are a few pictures of the meeting.

Hmmm....I don't know about you...

Yah, I think he's alright.

Now this is better, she has candy!

Let It Snow

We had a balmy day of 23 degrees on Saturday, so while Mark was out and about shopping, T and I decided to go out in the yard and play in the snow. This was T's first time playing in the snow since last winter she really couldn't play in the snow. I think she had fun. she had a hard time keeping her mittens on and when she couldn't pick up the stick she found, she took them off for good. After she face planted without her mittens, we quickly went inside because she wasn't too happy anymore! We traipsed around the yard, she followed in my boot prints, we threw snow up in the air, attempted a snow angel (she wouldn't cooperate very well), and just had some fun. The snow wasn't good packing snow, so we couldn't make a snow man, but maybe next time if we get some good snow.

Am I supposed to lay in this stuff?

Crawl in it?

Testing out her snow legs.

The sad little snow angel....kind of.

Stop taking my picture!

Christmas Fashions

Every Sunday that Tennyson wears a new dress, I usually have to take her picture when we get home. I should really take them before we leave because she would probably be much more willing to cooperate, but I'm never that on schedule. So here is this past Sunday's Christmas frock. I think it's my favourite. And this week she actually cooperated and stood by the tree and smiled. She would even jump up and down and flap her arms around like she was excited for this impromptu photo shoot. It makes it much easier that way than fighting to get her to stand in front of the camera instead of saying cheese behind the camera!!

Star Search Here We Come!

Happily our little Rudolph is now back to sporting her regular nose instead of the beauty she's had for the last week. She was a real trooper and kept her band aids on too. She did cry a little bit when we had to put a new one on, but she survived. Unfortunately week one of the Christmas dress pictures had to showcase the band aid. Oh well, she's still cute. She is also the hardest person to get to sit or stand still for a picture. Oh my goodness!! Thankfully I got a couple decent ones out of the bunch instead of the tens of blurry, kid running away, back to you photos. She is more interested in looking at the pictures rather than posing for them now.

Tennyson also has an awesome new talent. Check it out below.

Not the best video quality, but she makes it difficult since she likes to be behind the camera, not in front. We don't know where she picked this up from but she just started one day and anytime you bring out a cup and take a drink she starts up!! It cracks us up.

Friend Thursday

Yesterday was a day of friend fun for Tennyson. She has taken to stuffed animals like nobody's business. She routinely lines them up on the stairs and sits with them, lines them up on the window sill and waves at them, or most fun, she will pile them all on top of you when you're on the couch or chair. Then she climbs on top and lays on all of the animals. It's quite fun.

Here's the newest way to play with her friends.

The best thing about T and all her friends is when she gets to meet a new friend! Like when we brought home little Mouse (from the "if You give a Mouse..." stories), they are now inseparable. Well last night she met another new friend, but this time I don't think she was too excited.

This friend...we'll call him, carpet, I don't think T likes him too much. I suppose they had to meet at some point. I am actually kind of surprised they didn't meet earlier in life. Thankfully she wasn't too traumatized, and I think it should heal up alright over time. So, when you see her holiday pictures, we didn't intend for her to look like Rudolph, she did that one all on her own!

Christmas at The Smith's

Well I guess Christmas is well under way in our neck of the woods. Now that we have snow outside a fantastic windchill, and negative temperatures...all we need is the fat man and his sack of presents to make an appearance.The tree has been purchased, lit and decorated. The gingerbread train will begin assembly today, the last gifts will be purchased today and the cookie baking will begin today (fingers crossed).

So here are a few pictures of our little T during the holiday fun. Some of them have nothing to do with Christmas other than they were taken in December.

Hanging with some friends...oh and Dad is in there some where too.

Like our hats?

Mmmmmm blueberries!

The tree.

She loves her Daddy's ties.

I'm guessing the smiles seen above won't be around too much tomorrow since we have her 18 month check up. Maybe a sucker will cheer her up after the shots. Or after the weighing in since she seems to scream as much for that as getting poked 5 times in the leg. Crazy kid.

Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Words

Not many crazy things going on in our household as of late, so here is a photo array of little Miss T and her shenanigans in the past month.

Trying on some new footwear...

and some new head wear

trying to get some work done!

eating the first chocolate chip cookie

Going for a horsey ride

Just writing a letter in Grandpa's notebook

getting ready for the turkey!!

Dancing with Daddy

Hanging out in the crib (her hands were tucked under her bum!).

So, that's about what we've been up to lately. Maybe we'll have something more exciting next time, like the 18 month visit to the Doc next week! Or maybe putting up the Christmas tree sometime soon. We're pretty laid back.

Randomitis

That pretty much sums life up lately...random. Nothing too crazy or exciting, just random and mundane. If T could talk, it's a sure bet she would agree with me, probably add boring, slow, painful....

She's about to be 17 months tomorrow (party at our house!!) and she has definitely got her own little personality, more so than before, if that is at all possible. Along with all the fun things she does, she has a few not so fun things. Like deciding she doesn't need a nap some days. Not fun. Throwing fits when you won't give her the freezie she saw when you opened the freezer (throw herself on the floor, my dog just died fit). Not fun. Thrashing her body around, flipping over, while trying to change her diaper. Not fun.

Luckily her fun things outnumber the not fun things. Reading books, sometimes 1o at a time. Fun. Filling her little coupe car with the goldfish crackers and BBQ sauce bottles from the food shelf. Fun. Playing Ring around the rosie in the living room and watching her throw herself to the ground. Tons of Fun. Letting her try to play the Wii with us. Fun. Playing with the puppies, kitties, rabbits, ferrets and other pets at the pet store. Fun!!

We haven't been out to any exciting places lately, just some play groups, a lunch date, random shopping and a church activity. Of course, no pictures were taken during any of these!! It's hard to take pictures these days because as soon as the camera comes out she wants to take the picture or see the pictures. Either way, she doesn't want to be in front of the camera!

This week T will love the excess of boringness that will happen, especially since she will be stuck with just one parent for most of the week. That's always the most boring. Maybe we can find some fun things to do this week. Or maybe I can teach her how to do laundry? It's never too early to be self sufficient, right?

Hanging out with some friends on Sunday morning.

I LOVE this picture...I have no idea what she was doing!

Playing in the leaves in the backyard.

Don't let this picture mislead you..this is not a look of pure leaf playing happiness...oh no, this is mid scream of terror from being covered in leaves.

Watching the plane fly over the house.

Practicing her photography skills...she still has a way to go before she hits the big time!

That's all for now folks...perhaps we'll have something more exciting to say in a few weeks after we have our Turkey day visitors. But no promises.

Scary Stuff!

T was a little Halloween trooper this year! I think she quite enjoyed going door to door and watching strange people put things into her little plastic pumpkin, well almost everyone, one house sort of scared her when they started with the fog machine. Other than that, she had a grand old time.

We started the day off by going to the Halloween carnival in the Halloween capital of the world. We live right next to it, who knew?? It wasn't quite what we expected but it was fun and T won some little prizes, jumped in a bouncy house, spun the sucker wheel and played a few games.

Throwing the football with Dad...he didn't have very good aim!

Throwing bean bags into the jack-o-lantern, better aim on this one!

Then we went to a little strip mall where they had a Halloween parade.

Basically all the kids lined up at one end of the mall and walked by the stores while the store workers handed out candy. When we were done, the mall gave away free pumpkins. We got a huge one and I spent the afternoon carving it out - another masterpiece if I do say so myself.

The Halloween parade was at 1:00 but T really needed to come home and take a nap, so after a quick lunch out, we came home for a nap.

Walking around at the mall waiting for the candy!

Two very awesome pumpkins!

Due to this new time change schedule, it was still light out at 5:30, but we went to our neighbour's homes for a quick hello and to let T get her first taste of trick or treating. We then went home to warm up a bit and wait until it got a little bit darker. I think her favourite part of trick or treating was shutting every one's door for them as we left. It's her new favourite past time. She has to make sure she shuts every door that's open. She made a nice little haul of candy and we wound up having to use some of it for the kids at our door because we ran out. Luckily she won't mind...she doesn't even know she has candy!! I am sure that will change next year though. We thought she would be more than tuckered out when we got home but even after keeping her up later to try to adjust for the time change she just did not want to go to bed!! Lucky for us.

Rocking the costume

Trick or treating...needs a coat in MN. Luckily there was no snow!