Speedy Season

The Holiday season just zoomed by! December was packed with so much! Gloria's dance recital, family Christmas parties, birthdays, Christmas, we have had an amazing month!

Earlier in the month, Tom and I had a great night out together when we went out to my work Christmas party at the Putney Inn. The food was delicious and I was so excited to get out and dance! :) We had a great time with everyone! We also celebrated my mom's birthday this month as well as mine. We took my mom out for breakfast that morning then Tom took me to The Farm Table for dinner which was really good. We tried Oysters Rockefeller, which was interesting. They were okay, but I wouldn't have them again. :) It was a great birthday!

Then, of course, there was Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at Dave and Irene's and then stopped by Matt and Tricia's for a bit after that. Christmas Day started at 5:00 AM since Tom had to work at 6:30. (boo!) Gloria was not impressed with getting up that early, Santa or no Santa! :) I can't say I blame her. Once she was with it though, she was thrilled to get up and see what was in store for her on Christmas morning. Her hope was that she was going to get a Princess Fishing pole from Santa. Good thing Santa brought her one! ;) She was so excited!! It was the only thing she asked for from Santa. In fact, Santa brought daddy a fishing pole too! Gloria and Tom can't wait to go fishing together this summer! Leo was up and alert too and got into crinkling paper and drooling all over his new goodies. :) We had a lot of fun together before daddy had to head off to work. After he left, we spent some time playing together then it was off to church for a bit then home to prepare for Christmas dinner. The family was all coming over to our house for Christmas. We had a fun evening with everyone—my family and Tom's parents.

Some of my favorite Christmas Day moments included Gloria telling us to "Go away" when we were trying to wake her up so early, sleeping in her new Princess Tent during her nap and her excitement about playing her new game, Candyland. Leo had such a good day too, although he had no clue what all the commotion was about. He was perfectly content hanging out in someone's arms which wasn't a problem with so many people around. :)

We've uploaded many new photos to our December 2011 album as well as our Christmas album. I can't believe another year has flown by! More to come...

Happy Holidays!!

Toe Touching

Leo reached a pretty big milestone on Friday. He started grabbing his toes! Tom took a picture with his camera phone of him doing it for the very first time. Leo is getting so strong! He is pushing more and more with his legs. I think he'll be rolling over before we know it! I can't believe he is already at this point of development.

We've had a great weekend together this weekend. Gloria, Leo and I went to a craft fair on Saturday and ran into our friends Dawn, Matt and Bre. It was fun to see them there! Later on, Tom and I took the kids to Yankee Candle for some shopping and to see Santa. Unfortunately we didn't get to see him (long story) but hopefully we can get back soon to try again. We did get to enjoy some pizza at Hillside Pizza afterward though. Yum!!

Today we started the day off with decorating the house for Christmas. Gloria was so into it this year! She did a great job! Afterward, we headed to Bre's house for a play date. When we ran into Matt and Dawn yesterday, they had offered to take Gloria for a few hours so I could have some time for myself (and Leo). I was so touched by their offer! I'm so incredibly thankful for good friends! Thank you again Matt and Dawn for today. It really meant so much to me and to Gloria as well. She had a fun time! :)

I was able to get almost all of our Christmas shopping done today! Phew! It was a shopping marathon weekend. A few more things and we're done! Lots of Christmas activities coming up this week too. We are looking forward to getting our Christmas tree and Gloria has her dance recital this weekend, which we are super excited about! I can't wait to see those kiddos, they are going to be adorable!

Ghost of Christmas Past

So I'm just realizing that I've paid no attention to the fact that I never posted the photos from Christmas Day. I uploaded them a few weeks ago but never posted here. If you haven't already seen them, you can take a look in our Christmas 2010 album.

One of my favorite moments from that day was when Gloria woke up, she came into our room (Tom was already at work) and got into bed with me to snuggle. I asked her if she knew what day it was, she said "Christmas Day!" I told her yes it was. Then she said to me "Santa must have brought presents!" haha Can't get anything by her!

Here is my favorite photo from that day.

Christmas Photos

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We've been very busy with all sorts of fun Christmas activities. I've posted some photos in our Christmas 2010 album. These are all from the week of Christmas. I've got day-of photos coming soon too.

It was such a magical week with our family and friends! We are so very blessed with the people in our lives! We love you all so much!!



This is one of my favorite photos from Christmas week. We spent time together Christmas Eve making gingerbread men. Gloria loved it so much! She had her own roller and everything. :) She was so focused and did so well making her own cookies. It was a beautiful family evening together!

A Very Happy Christmas

We had a very special Christmas this year! We had three celebrations which made it 3 times more fun!




Our first celebration was at home. We had our own little family Christmas a few days early since Tom had to work and we had such a busy Christmas schedule ahead of us. We really wanted Gloria to be able to spend the morning at home with us so we could have a nice quiet time together.

What a perfect day it was! Gloria was over the moon excited about everything. It was so much fun this year! We enjoyed watching her rip into her gifts, which she learned very quickly how to master! After gift opening, we enjoyed a special breakfast and even stayed in our pajamas most of the day:) That night, I read "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" to Gloria before bed (a book her daddy picked out special for her). I got all choked up while reading it because for her, this was a new and wonderful story and she was just so excited about it! I loved reading it to her (even now, when she has had us read it to her every day! haha). What a magical time in a child's life! I do remember those days now...funny how you forget for so many years.



Christmas Eve we spent at Irene and Dave's house. We had a delicious meal and enjoyed spending the evening together. Gloria was a big helper that evening. Not only did she have fun opening her gifts, she enjoyed helping everyone else open their gifts as well! haha She didn't seem too interested in what was actually in the gift, just the opening part:)




We hosted Christmas Day here at the house for my family. This was our first time hosting Christmas here and it was busy! I think I need a few more years of practice to get as good as my mom and Irene...phew! :) It was a great day though. Gloria had fun playing with all our guests...she was so excited she was running circles from the living room to the kitchen the first 10 minutes everyone arrived! It meant so much to have everyone here. Irene and Dave even stopped by for some visiting and dessert at the end of the evening.

We ended Christmas night by reading Gloria the Christmas story from her bible given to her by Ellie, Neil and Jonathan. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

We loved every moment with everyone. It was such a special time. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family! We love them so much!

We hope you and your family, friends and loved ones had a wonderful holiday! Merry Christmas! A few days belated:)

Visit our Christmas 2009 album for all the photos from the three celebrations.

Merry Christmas!

We had such a great time with our friends at our Christmas party. I know I've said this many times before but we are so very lucky to have amazing friends! We are so thankful for them. They truly are our family!!

Lots of fun was had and lots of pictures were taken. Here are some fun ones! I'm posting these pics first because I've had a lot of people asking about them:) So here they are! To see many many more, visit our Annual Christmas Party 2009 album. I didn't edit out a lot of the photo booth pics because in order to get the true effect of a photo booth, all should be viewed and appreciated:) We seriously had so much fun with this! I'm told that this is a must for the next party!

Hold onto Your Hats!

A lot of catching up to do here! :) I started this post on the 14th and I'm just now getting to finish it up!

We've been super busy these past few weeks and I am so far behind on updating its sad. Let's see if I can cover everything without boring you too much:) This will be like speed blogging!

Ready. Set. Go!!

November 30th we celebrated my brother Pete's 29th birthday as well as enjoyed another great Thanksgiving feast at my parent's house. We had to delay Thanksgiving a bit on my side of the family which was fine because it gave us time to spend with each family and not have to stuff ourselves silly! Well...ok...we still did that anyway:)

The first week of December Tom was on vacation and I'm sure you know what that meant! Yup! Hunting:) He got into the woods every chance he could get. Unfortunately, no deer yet but there is still a little more time before the season ends.

December 5th we enjoyed Christmas in downtown Greenfield. We took a carriage ride and Gloria met Santa for the very first time! We never did the Santa thing last year. We figured it just wasn't something we felt we had to do with Gloria since she was so young. This year would be fun though! She wasn't sure what to think. She wouldn't sit on his lap but she didn't cry, so that was good! haha We actually went to Yankee Candle on Tuesday and saw Santa there too. She did much better with that Santa. I think because it was a bit more laid back seeing he was in his "workshop" :) She was so cute with him!

For the Sund family, the Christmas season started the evening of December 5th. We had a Christmas get together for my Grandma at the nursing home she is staying at. It was nice to see everyone and spend the evening together. My uncle Greg came up to visit from Florida which was nice too. We miss seeing him!

We celebrated Irene's birthday on December 6th (her actual birthday was the 7th)! We got together at the McDonald house and enjoyed yummy Chinese food for dinner and a cake I made for dessert. It was a fun evening with the family! :)

This past Saturday, Gloria and I went to a Christmas party at Phil and Jan's house (my father-in-law's cousins) for a holiday get together. It was a fun afternoon and it was so great to see everyone! I was just so bummed that we had to leave early. It was nice to get the little bit of visiting in that we could though. Gloria loved playing with the kids. I wish I could have brought them home with me...they were so good with Gloria! Very sweet:)

Later that night, we hosted our annual Christmas party at our house. This was our 7th year! I can't believe it! It was super fun!! We did a few things differently this year. First, it was an adult only party. We love having the kiddos but felt this year might be a good year for just the adults. When the kids are older, it might be a little easier. Second, we set up a photo booth. I had a wireless remote control for my digital camera so people could take their own photos. No photographer necessary:) This freed me up to enjoy the party and made for some really really fun photos! haha

Last night, we celebrated my mom's 60th birthday! We had a very small group of friends and family get together at my parent's house for cake and ice cream. I think my mom enjoyed having such a small and intimate celebration. We had a pink cowboy hat cake...perfect for my mom! :) It was a fun evening together. My mom's actual birthday is on Monday, which happens to be my birthday as well:) I love that we share a birthday! It makes the day so special!

Now, we are in full Christmas mode. We are behind this year...not sure how that happened?! I'm sure we are only a few of many who have a lot of shopping and prepping to do:) It will get done...as it always does. The important thing to remember is that the day is about celebrating something much more important...the birth of Christ!

There is still so much to enjoy this month! Many more fun times will be had:)

I have lots of photos to share but I'm in editing mode at the moment. I'll have to post them separately. I can't believe I've gotten so far behind! Eek!

If you haven't checked them out already, I have posted new pics in our November and December albums. I'll get more in there before the New Year, I promise! haha