Visiting Santa

Brennen visited Santa for the first time this year last Thursday.  For a little comparison, here he was last year meeting Santa for the very first time.

Dec 2011 - 8 months old

My mom, cousin Sheila and her baby Shane, my cousin Shannon and her kids Carson &Avery and Brennen & I headed to Crown Center. 

We went to see Santa first hoping the kids would be good since they weren't tired or hungry quite yet.  They all did pretty good.  Carson & Avery went first and Avery was not quite sure what to think about Santa.

Carson told Santa what he wanted!

Watching Avery with Santa, Brennen immediately laid his head down on my shoulder and grabbed me and said "No".  He was not looking forward to meeting the big guy.  I took him up there and handed him off and well, this was what we got...

Poor boy was not happy with me, but it's a cute picture anyway! Maybe next year will be better!

Santa really loved Baby Shane!  He was so cute loving on him and Shane was such a good boy.

After playing for a little bit, we headed over to Fritz's for some lunch. Brennen is obsessed with "choo choos" right now, so he loved eating there. 

After getting our bellies full, we headed outside to let the kids play on all the fun toys.  It was a little chilly out so we didn't stay out very long.

They also had a train display at Union Station so we decided to walk over there.  Brennen absolutely loved this exhibit and we decided we need to take Daddy down there sometime soon to show him all the trains. I have pictures of this, but I have reached my limit for Blogger on how many pictures I can upload. I need to figure out what we are going to do next, so I'll be back once I figure this out!

I can't believe Christmas is 2 weeks from today! 

Uncle Dustin = Brennen's Barber

I have waited way too long to get Brennen's hair cut and it has been driving me CRAZY!  I have always liked little boys to have short hair, but since it took B quite a while for his hair to fill in everyone was telling me not to cut it.  Well, it had gone on long enough and when my brother told me he had his own clippers since he cuts his own hair, I told him he needed to cut Brennen's! I had made an appointment for this Saturday for Brennen to go see my friend Jillian who has done all of his other hair cuts, but I couldn't wait any longer! 

I am in LOVE with his short hair.  He looks so much older! I have to say Dustin did a great job with him.  He was very patient considering we did this around Brennen's bedtime! 

Before...this is what I was dealing with!

The Barber

...and his assistant, Meg!

Using the iPad for some distraction!

After...SO much better :)

One happy mama!

Thank you Uncle Dustin!!

So handsome!

One of the first things Brennen said this morning when he woke up was "haircut, Dustin".  So sweet!  That must have been what he dreamt about!

Our Weekend...Basketball, Christmas & Wine

We had a pretty busy weekend, but Brennen got to spend time with both his Nana & Papa and his Grandma & Uncle Chris (Grandpa was at the lake)!  Friday night Ryan had his first basketball game of the season and we had his work Christmas party.  I dropped B off with Ryan's parents and headed over to my brother's house to watch the KU game.  Ryan wasn't done with his game until around 10:30pm, so we didn't get to the party until around 11pm. I was pretty tired by then, but managed to last until 2am! 

Saturday morning we picked Brennen up and grabbed some lunch and headed home to put him down for a nap.  While he was out, Ryan and I got the Christmas decorations out and put up the tree so when Brennen got up he could help us decorate it.  His face lit up when I brought him out to the living room and he saw the tree all lit up.  I wish I would have caught a picture.  He was really into putting the ornaments on the tree and clapped his hands and said "yay Brennen" after placing them where he wanted them! 

Papa letting him ride Rudolph!

Ready to decorate!

"Yay Brennen!"

He was so proud of the tree

Saturday night B spent the night with my mom while we had another night out.  We had bought a Living Social coupon for a wine tasting at Cellar and Loft so we enjoyed an evening with our friends Landon & Julia.  We had a blast.  It is kind of a hard place to explain.  It isn't a restaurant and isn't a store. It is just a big wine cellar that has different events all throughout the week. You can purchase wine and beer and we got a cheese & meat sample platter and a chocolate sample.  You can become a member to either the wine club which is 2 bottles of wine a month or the beer club which is two 12 packs a month. Then with the membership you can attend any of the events throughout the weeks for free.  It was a really fun place and I could definitely see us going back!

After we were done there, we decided to head back to Landon & Julia's house and play some Wii U. Ryan and I had never played this before and we had an absolute BLAST!  We played a chasing and a ghost game that were so much fun.  I don't think I have laughed as much as we did in a really long time!

Sunday we had a relaxing day and Ryan had practice in the afternoon so Brennen, my mom and I did some grocery shopping.  We also took advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having and let B play at the park.  It was a high of 70 degrees! Not bad for December 2nd :)

B is getting really good at playing by himself while I make dinner

It was a fun weekend, but a tiring one.  Already looking forward to the weekend again!  Hopefully the week will fly by!

Recovery Week

Last week was spent recovering from my 5-day Thanksgiving weekend!  It was a wonderful and relaxing break and I was so happy to get to spend lots of family time together.

Friday we just took it easy at home all morning then headed out to Ryan's school to let Brennen play for a little while.  He had a blast running around the gym!  That night we ventured out to the mall for some dinner and walked around for a little bit.

Playing in his jammies all morning

Our one purchase...the Mickey Mouse Look & Find book!

Saturday my mom, Brennen and I headed to our second Thanksgiving celebration.  Ryan had basketball practice so didn't make it. 

Our wonderful hosts, Martha & Jonathan

The whole group!

Sunday was another day of just taking it easy. We went over to Ryan's parents to let Brennen play with his cousins.  Then, Ryan had practice again in the afternoon, so B and I spent some time visiting my parents. 

B helping Grandma clean!

I only have one picture from this past week. With Ryan's new coaching job, our nights are mostly spent at my parent's house or just hanging out at home.  I did go to dinner with some high school friends this week and that it always a great time catching up!  Ryan was home Wednesday night because he had early practice, so at least we got to spend one evening together!

After walking the dogs, B wanted to swing!