Harness Christmas - December 26th

Due to the bad weather Christmas Day the Harness Christmas was rescheduled for December 26th. Luckily Grandma Harness was able to salvage the turkey dinner which was delicious as usual, and the white chocolate pistachio cheesecake tasted just as wonderful as it does every year. The amount of presents was incredible as usual too (see below). It must have taken us an hour to open all of them! Tyler just wanted to play with every present he could find whether or not it was his. He was a little ball of energy and would only stop to eat a cookie every once in awhile. On the way home he was happily enjoying a candy cane and finally "hit the wall" with candy cane in hand. (see below) It was a good day! Merry Christmas!

Schroeder Christmas - December 25th

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder on Christmas Day. They had a huge gathering of nearly all of the Schroeders and Smiths. Anneliese liked her new stuffed animals but seemed to be just as enthralled with the tissue paper they were wrapped in. Tyler got a new Tonka truck. It was a big hit!

Merry Christmas! Santa Has Arrived!

Merry Christmas! The kids, especially Annie from the get-go, were excited about Santa bringing presents this morning. Santa even put treats in their stockings.

Tyler got a 6:30 a.m. chocolate. Starts the day off right!

Too funny!

Annie likes her baby doll.

Tyler was excited to finally have James' coal car back. (He lost his first one on vacation this summer.)

Annie loves the boots. (Okay Mommy loves the boots.)

Hours of entertainment. Priceless.

Christmas Morning

Santa has been to the Smith House but the kids haven't figured it out yet... Pictures of the aftermath are forthcoming...

December 24th - Christmas Eve at Scott & Michelle's House

We spent last night with Jen's family at her brother Scott's and his wife Michelle's house. The food was unbelievable. We left feeling very stuffed (but somehow we'll still manage to eat Christmas dinner today). The kids had a great time playing in Uncle Scott's workout/Wii room. The big news of the night was the Jen's older brother, Jeff, got engaged! We're all so thrilled for him and are anxious to welcome Kelli, Austin and Alec into the family. What a cute picture of Anneliese and Daddy!

Anneliese was pretty photogenic but didn't want anything to do with a family picture. Maybe one of these days we'll get a good one...

My sister's family, the Williams', however, got a great family picture. Picture below are Spencer, Gerry, Morgan, Cindy and Courtney.

Here is Courtney showing off her outfit. She's so trendy...she reminds me of her mom!

Isn't Morgan adorable?!

This picture of Tyler and Spencer is classic and I think a sign of things to come from Tyler. He just loves his cousin Spencer and follows whatever he's doing.

Morgan and Courtney are the best babysitters! Anneliese just loves to play with them. Here are Morgan and Anneliese.

Anneliese's New Play Area

Anneliese is pulling up on everything these days. She's not happy unless she's standing up or crawling. Her favorite play area now is the pantry.

It's an odd coincidence but we have this very same picture of Tyler posted from June 1st, 2008. It's scary how similar they are...

December 13th - Gardenland Express

The Gardenland Express at the Missouri Botanical Gardens is becoming an annual tradition for us. This year's theme was the 150th anniversary of the garden so they made a replica of the garden. The replicas were very well done and the flowers were gorgeous. The first picture below is of the Japanese garden replica.

Tyler loves the trains. In fact, he has been a little ham lately for pictures but he was so enthralled with the trains that he didn't want to be bothered with posing for pictures.

Anneliese wasn't that interested in posing for pictures either.

St. Nick's Day

St. Nick picked up the kids' Christmas lists and left many goodies in their stockings. Tyler got a holiday Percy and Caboose and Anneliese loves her new blue ball. Tyler also got some yummy chocolate which he is proudly displaying below. We're raising a chocoholic! (Just like mommy...)

December 6th - Kansas City

We visited Jen's college friend, Aimee' Tilling Young and her family in Lee's Summit this weekend. We were a little worried about the car trip but both kids slept through most of it. We did learn that with two small children it now takes 30 minutes for a pit stop. We'll have to work that into the schedule next time.

We had fun visiting with friends and letting the kids go crazy in the Youngs' basement playroom which includes an awesome ball pit. All the kids had a great time. We also visited a Christmas light display and ended up at Crown Center. It was too busy to see Santa but we still had a great time looking at the gingerbread house display and eating at Fritz's. Fritz's was a great place for children. We had a peaceful meal and the kids were mezmorized by the trains that abound the diner. Trains even bring the food to your table! It was the highlight of the trip for Tyler.

November 28th, 2009 - Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Over the Thanksgiving Break we took the opportunity to decorate the house for Christmas. We got everything done but the outside lights. Tyler was a big help decorating the Christmas tree. He loves to help Mommy and did his best. One side of the tree is a little heavy with ornaments since he thought he was supposed to decorate just one spot, but we'll keep it that way.

And in case anyone is wondering, we did not put up glass ornaments this year. We bought all new "shatterproof" ornaments so we wouldn't have a repeat of last year's ER visit! In between decorating we were chasing Anneliese all over the house. She is crawling pretty well now and is really fast! She loves playing in the kitchen. She has gobs of toys but would rather play with plastic bowls, wooden spoons and the cans in the pantry. Go figure!

October 2009 - Halloween Party

We had the families of Jeff's Wednesday night group (South County meeting) over for a Halloween party to see all of the kids in costumes. All of the kids had a great time playing with the toys upstairs, but the big hit was the playset in the basement. Anneliese fell asleep at 6:30 p.m. and never woke up during the rest of the party. We don't know how she slept through the noise!