Santa and Christmas programs

I took Charli to the Mall of America on Friday, December 10 to see Santa. She absolutely LOVED him. He's so great with the kids. If you have never been to see him, I highly recommend him.

And then later that day she wanted to go outside with Papa, but yet wanted to pose for pictures, so I had to take one.

Here's the start of Snowmaggedon, Friday night December 10, 2010 in downtown Hudson, WI.

And around 1:00PM Saturday, I took this picture at my folks house looking out onto their deck.

Same shot only about 5 hours later

same snow mountainon the deck from the side door at about 1:00PM

and at about 6:00PM

And on Sunday when Charli and I were able to go home, this is what our front porch and doorway looked like.

On Thursday, December 16, Pony Preschool had their Christmas program. It was great.

Charli loved the songs they sang.

they even had an appearance by Santa

And then on Sunday, December 19 she had her Sunday School program. She's standing next to one of her best friends, Violet. Note the halos. Charli's was constantly tipped to the side (I think it goes perfectly with her black biker style boots)

The two buddies after the program.

So, now I think I finally have my blog all caught up. I hope to get the Christmas pictures upin a more timely manner. That is why my resolution for 2011 (although New Year's is a few days away) is to do a better job on keeping this thing up to date and current. Now let's see if I can do it.....

Christmas card photo shoot

On a beautiful Saturday morning after one of our many snowfalls I decided it was time to take some pictures of Charli for our Christmas cards. I was also doing this just in case I didn't decide to use one I took with Santa in the next week and it's a good thing as I liked these better.

We started out in her Christmas dress in front of mom and dad's big tree.

And then put on her new winter dress coat.

And last but not least we did jeans and a hand knit sweater from one of mom's friends outside in the yard.

I love this goofy one of her. It captures her true playful personality so well.

And then later that night we went to see the lights at Lake Phalen. Wow are they wonderful. I highly recommend going if you can.

(I see that I didn't download some of the best pictures, but you get the idea of the photos I snapped of Charli that day)

A little late

Being as Christmas is only a few days a way, I decided I better get the Halloween pictures posted before I post any holiday pictures. So here is my little "Dora" girl.

And in this one I refer to her as "Wisconsin" Dora (note the flesh colored long underwear)

And I went as Dora's mom. (I love Halloween, so why not do something. Maybe next year I'll have an even better costume)

Time to catch up

I am just not as good at keeping this blog updated as I used to be. Oh, well. Things happen and let's face it, I am the mom of a toddler. Life is busy. But it's time to get this current once again.

Last week early on Monday morning (10/4/10) Charli and I went to Children's Hospital in St. Paul. She was scheduled for a tonsil and adenoidectomy at 7:15AM.

When we were checking in, after putting on her hospital jammies, she seemed happy and content to play with the gloves.

And then, I took her into the operating room to hold her while they put her under. That was tough. But we had a fabulous team who kept me calm as I watched my baby drift off. I sat in the waiting room for about an hour and a half. (she also had some periauncular cysts removed) She didn't handle the anesthesia too well and I was taken into the recovery room to help keep her calm. Once she settled down, we were then taken to our room for the night.

Our first nurse, Jenny, was a peach!!! Charli may not remember her, but mommy sure does.

As you can see, she's still a tad stoned from the drugs. Not sure she'll like this picture when I put it out at her graduation :-)

But by the time we were ready to leave the next morning she looked like a whole new kid.

Of course our weather has been fantastic. The colors were vibrant over the weekend. Since Charli was feeling better I decided it was now or never to stop on our favorite street by my folks house and take our annual pictures. I think I got some great shots (if I do say so myself)

Here's "the street" that I so love for fall colors.

And this is what is looked like pulling into my folks drive way

Charli is recovering well. She's back at "school" and I think we are on the home stretch. My next project with her is to get her into her own room and bed on a regular basis. I am hoping that having the surgery will improve her sleeping and that this will just be a natural progression. But as they say, one thing at a time.