Christmas Eve with the Johnson's

Let the festivities begin! I have to say, there is just something more magical about Christmas when you have a little one to share it with. We had so much fun this year!

Here it is! The Christmas outfit for 2008! I love finding that cute outfit that will make it's appearance on Christmas Eve. So adorable! We even got a good smile for a photo!

Our annual family picture

This was the game of choice Christmas Eve thanks to Grandpa Johnson. Ready?

DIVE!

FLIP!

MORE, PEAS!

Brady got a magna-doodle from Grandma and Grandpa J. It was a big hit on our long car ride Christmas day.

One of Brady's favorite things to do with Grandma Johnson is to "help" her vacuum. He usually pushes his popper around while she vacuums, pretending to do this fun job. Needless to say, Grandma thought a "real" vacuum would be fun for Christmas. Here is Brady doing his cleaning. It was too cute.

Following that, Brady didn't want his popper to be left out. So, here he is maneuvering both!

Toys are great, but boxes are just about as much fun!

Christmas Eve with the Schwartzhoff's

I always take a picture of our tree on Christmas Eve before I take all the presents out from under it. Our gifts only made a short appearance under the tree this year due to the little busy hands in our household. Wrapping twice was not on my TO DO list!

We spent Christmas Eve day with my parents. It was a great afternoon of laughter with family, good food and gift giving. I got two good pictures of Brady opening gifts, so here they are.

Most of the time, he was not interested in opening new things up because there were too many other neat things to play with.

For example...a new airplane! Why would you want to open something else when you have this to play with? Thanks, Uncle Jer and Aunt Jen!

Bows and ribbons were a big hit this year. Here is giggle box playing with his ribbons.

Brady is very into balls right now and was trying to hide them while we were opening gifts. Here he is fishing one out from behind Grandpa's legs.

Two highlights from Christmas at the Schwartzhoffs...for Brady, a motorized race track! Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa! For Daddy? The new Brewer sweatshirt that Brady is wearing!

Christmas in Iowa

We spent Christmas Day in Iowa with my mom's side of the family. It is always so wonderful to get down there to see everyone. It was an early, long morning of driving in the car, but great to be able to spend the day with family.

Great Grandma got Brady a big Tonka dump truck. He didn't care so much that it was in the box, he just wanted to sit in it!

Kylee (my cousin) and Brady became pals pretty quickly. They opened presents together, read together, and played basketball together throughout the day.

Uncle Jerry got a pickling crock for Christmas. This is Brady checking it out.

Who needs presents when there is paper to play with?

Christmas at the Farm

Yesterday was a fun filled day with family and Christmas at the Farm. Andy's Uncle Eric and Aunt Shelley just built a new house on the farm this fall, so that is where we celebrated. The highlight of the day for Brady was playing with Grandma Johnson's stuffed toys. She loves all things stuffed that sing and dance and so does Brady! He was enthralled with this snowman and played with it for quite a while. He especially got the giggles when he realized he could knock it over and it would still keep on singing!

Brady also loved seeing all the new kitty's at Grandma's house. She has a new litter. This is Brady naming off all the kitty's facial features for Uncle Matt.

Candids

It seems that Brady is rarely without a ball in his hands these days. I think he would play catch all day if he could. Brady is getting to be such a big boy and we are continually amazed at how much he talks. This was him this morning chatting up a storm.

Nigh, nigh as Brady says. This was the view after nap time this morning. Cute one, daddy!

Santa!

Okay, no photo on this one, but I have a story that I just have to share! This past week, Andy's mom took Brady out grocery shopping one afternoon. As they were leaving the store a man with white hair and a beard got out of his car and Brady started to point and shout "Santa! Santa!" The man looked at Diane and she said, "I'm sorry. He is 1 and 1/2 and with your hair and beard he thinks you are Santa!" The man smiled and said, "That's okay...I'm a grandpa and that's the next best thing." Brady of course, continue with his shouts of "Santa!" Needless to say, we all had a good laugh about that one!

Jerry's Big Day!

Last Saturday was Jerry's big day - graduation! We are so proud of him for his big accomplishment and went to Mankato to take in the ceremony and festivities. We had a great time celebrating with him and it was fun to spend some quality family time together.

Brady was everyone's buddy during the ceremony, hopping from person to person to play.

Jerry didn't mind that Brady wanted him to hold him most of the time after we met up with him. They were buddies and I think Brady liked his hat best.

The highlight of Brady's day came in the evening when Uncle Jer got out the excercise ball for him to play with. Jerry bounced Brady up and down on it forever and he was full of giggles!

Nice mittens!

This morning, Brady found my slipper socks lying by the bed on the floor. He picked them up, played with them a bit, and then was rubbing them on his face. He loved how soft and fuzzy they were. Needless to say, I thought it would be fun to see what he would do if I put one on his hands. Brady thought this was hilarious and I got, "Please, please, more!" as he asked me to put on the other one. He proceeded to play with them on for the better part of the morning and we got this gem. Silly boy!

Prayer time

Brady is getting better and better at saying his prayers before meals. He will now fold his hands and a listen the entire time.

When we are finished, it is usually all grins followed by Brady declaring "Amen!"

Trees, Lights, Stars, and Bobbles?

Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree. Brady LOVES all the lights. This was him checking it out after nap time last Saturday evening. He just says over and over again, "Tree! Lights! Star! Balls!" I also put up my nutcrackers from Germany. It is hilarious, but Brady thinks that they are bobble heads. He of course says "bobble" and then wiggles his head around. It has taken about a week, but now he calls them "crackers." Too cute.

These are two of Brady's newest friends. He loves sitting on the fireplace harth and talking to moose and snowman.

Another of Brady's favorite things to do is playing catch. Here he is retrieving a few balls that he threw under that table.

A little Thanksgiving fun

There doesn't seem to be much time for blogging these days when you are crazy busy with reports cards and holidays and then BOTH computers in your house break down. Ah! The good news is, my wonderful husband repaired one of the two, so I am posting again.

We had a great Thanksgiving filled with lots of time with family. I haven't got all of my pictures on the computer yet, but here are a couple my sister took. This box was the highlight of Brady's day when we were decorating the Christmas tree at my parent's house. He loved throwing his balls into it and most of all, sitting inside it and having his Aunt Jen pull him around the house in it like a car.

We tried decoratin Brady in lights for a picture but he was not a big fan. Can you tell?!