Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! What a busy couple of days it's been! Yesterday morning Wayne and I ventured to the mall to get Kaitlyn's picture taken with Santa Clause! I was really worried that there would be a zillion people there, but it turned out that Christmas Eve was really a great day to take her to see Santa! We didn't have to wait in line at all...we just walked up and chose the picture package that we wanted, Wayne set Kaitlyn down by the photographers stand and she walked right up to Santa Clause! We thought that'd be better than us handing her over to him...it worked out great...she wasn't scared of him at all...phew! So we got a good picture (Not a great smile, but certainly good enough!) and then we were on our merry way! We also picked up Kaitlyn's Christmas ornament while at the mall...each year (All 2 of them now...ha!) we've gotten her an ornament at that Santa's Pen place and have had her name, the date, etc. put on it...very cute! Then we stopped at Red Robin for lunch on the way home...Kaitlyn ate almost all of a grilled cheese w/cantelope kids meal! What a little piggy! Then we headed home and hoped that Kaitlyn would take a good 2 hour long nap...well, not so much...I think she got in a good 45 minutes maybe...her only nap of the day...ugh, it was going to be a looonnggg night! We headed to church for the 4pm service, got there at like 3:45 and the main auditorium was already filled so we had to squeeze into the overflow chappel! That was disappointing because we really hoped to see all the special lights and music and stuff they have for Christmas! Last Sunday and for Christmas Eve we put Kaitlyn in with the "walkers" toddlers and she did pretty well both times! After church we headed over to Wayne's sister Amy's house for dinner. We got there around 6:30, ate dinner and then started opening presents...I thought for sure Kaitlyn would be a little monster after only a 45 minute nap...but to our surprise she was wonderful!! She must have known that Santa was watching! He he! She played with her presents (caring mostly about the bows on them, not the actual gift) and kept walking back and fourth between Wayne and I...then Grandma Brennan would act like she was going to chase her, so she's hurry up and walk/run/fall into me! Her face was so cute...like "Help, this Grandma is chasing me and I can only walk so fast!" Oh, and she can now stand up on her own without pulling up on anything! So I think she'll really be walking all the time now! But she was a real trooper last night...we left there house around 10pm-ish. Once we got home Wayne's brother Chris and his family stopped over. Kaitlyn was still in a happy mood so I thought 'What the heck' and let her stay up a little while longer...bad Mommy alert, I know! So I think it was finally around 11pm once she finally conked out...only 3 hours later than normal! Oops...well, we paid for that last night! She woke up crying so we put her in our bed where she tossed and turned for a few hours...then I put her back in her bed and she was out 'til 8am.

This morning we went downstairs to see that Santa had visited!! Wahoo! We always open stockings first and Kaitlyn actually took most of her things out of her stocking on her own! Santa brought her a 'real' toothbrush (the over-the-finger one hurts Mommy too much now that she has more teeth)...speaking of teeth, Wednesday we woke up and Kaitlyn had a new tooth! What the?! I didn't even know she was working on any! Today it looks like she's working on another two teeth too! So now she has 5 broke through and another 2 on the way! Anyways, back to Christmas...she got all sorts of fun toys...a way neato kitchen and a cute little Barbie power wheels! She knew just what to do with the power wheels too...good thing because a few weeks ago she tried the one Gavin got for his bday and had no idea...but this morning she got right on it, pressed the button and ended up in the dogs bowls in the kitchen! It was hysterical! The Grandma's never laughed so hard! So, now all the gift opening is over with...we're just relaxing and playing with our new toys...and trying to get this little kiddo to nap! She just wants to go go go! Well, Merry Christmas to everyone...now it's time to relax! Here is a picture of Kaitlyn opening her stocking this morning...the Santa hat only lasted a couple minutes!