Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! 

We are in Houston with Christian's parents this year so we celebrated the Norwegian way by celebrating on the 24th and opening our presents on Christmas Eve.

Another Norwegian tradition is having someone dress up as Santa and come visit and bring presents. A neighbor dressed up as Santa and dropped by. Lilly loved it.

Lilly was a little cautious at first but that disappeared the minute she saw the bag of presents.

She was really excited and super cute when Santa was there. We'll post a video of it later.

She really enjoyed helping Santa pass out the presents to everyone.

 She even got on Santa's lap and gave him a hug.

Opening the present from Santa.

Then we proceeded opening all the presents under the tree that Santa had pre-delivered :)

Lilly really enjoyed helping Opa and Bestemor open their presents . And help pass out all the presents to everyone.

Lilly got these wings from Opa and Beste and loved them. She wore them the rest of the night until she went to bed.

Sneaking cookies.

Christian and his big gift from me.

Lilly loved her little drum and the other instruments she got.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the laptop. She loves it! 

Trying out her new tutu.

Visit to Santa

At the beginning of December, we went to see Santa. I thought Lilly might get scared and cry for the picture but once she saw that Santa was handing out little candy canes she let us stick her on Mrs. Claus' lap.  I was so surprised we got such a nice picture. I only wish Lilly was smiling.

Lilly has been thoroughly enjoying all the Christmas activities that we've done. But I think that Lilly has blurred them together with her birthday. When I told her we were going to the Christmas Party for our ward, she thought it was going to be a Birthday Party for her. Oh well, it is fun to see her get so excited over things. I just love this stage she is at. She is soo sweet and loving and gets excited for all the fun Christmas things we are doing for her.

We have been up to quite a bit and Christian has been busy with school (his last final is tomorrow). I will try to blog soon about all the fun things we have been doing!

Birthday Part 2

Saturday afternoon we went bowling. Lilly was super excited and really enjoyed it.

This is just a funny face Lilly made.

She had this metal ramp thing and the bumpers up so she did really well.

Getting ready to roll.

Smile!

Playing air guitar with Uncle Thomas.

She kept sticking her butt out like this. It was pretty funny.

Lilly ended with a 94. Way to go Lilly.

Lilly kept running around the table dancing to the music. It was pretty awesome dancing too.

After bowling we went to the arcade and let Lilly pick whichever games she would like to play.

Mostly a lot of button pushing or Christian playing for her.

Trying to throw the balls up.

She loved this whack-a-mole game. She was pretty good at hitting them too.

A pink duck I won for her in a claw game.

After cashing in all her tickets and picking out some prizes (included a much beloved toy microphone) we headed home for cake and ice cream. I made her a Minnie Mouse cake.

Waiting for the cake while staring at her Minnie balloon.

Singing Happy Birthday.

Trying to blow out the candles. I finally had to help her out a little bit.

No, Mom. I want the whole cake!

Overall, it was a great day. I still can't believe it has been 2 years since this day though!

Two

Sunday was Lilly's Second Birthday!

 Crazy, I know. I can't believe I have a 2 year old now.

Anyways, we celebrated on Saturday since Christian's family was leaving on Sunday. We decorated the night before with streamers and balloons.

She was definitely surprised in the morning and needed a little prodding to come out all the way into the hall.

Finally getting excited as I am telling her its her birthday. We had made a little paper chain countdown to her birthday and had talked about birthdays a lot in November so she would be excited.

Getting down to business. She definitely knew what to do with those presents this year.

Twinkle trying to get in on the action.

Candy!

She even figured out the quickest way to empty those bags.

  Streamers...

and a helmet....

means a bike! Grandma and Grandpa got Lilly the bike and she LOVES it.

Though she still wants to just sit on it and walk with her feet. I'm sure she'll pick up the pedaling soon enough.

After presents we sat down to breakfast. Cinnamon rolls and a breakfast quiche/casserole thing.

Twinkle needed to feel special too. She was just sitting there in the doorway for the longest time.

Ready to go out for the first bike ride.

We didn't stay out too long because it was freezing and really windy.

Happy Birthday Baby!