Another Video Log

Can you tell I got a flip-cam video camera for Christmas?!  (Thanks Steve & Pam!)  I'm really enjoying taking videos of the kid, especially since he's talking so much now.  A few weeks ago, we posted a video of Ledger doing cat and dog sounds.  Well, as you can hear on this video... he has learned a few new animals...

New Year's Resolution Reality Check

Last year, I made a few New Year's Resolutions and posted them on the blog.  Let's see how I did...

1. I would like to be more consistent in Ledger's daily routine and establish a more FIRM bed time. --DONE, and boy has it paid off!
2. I would like to try once-a-month cooking for a few months in a row. -- I did January and February and learned some valuable lessons about pre-cooking meals.
3. I would like to start walking more often and am hoping to RUN the River Fest 2 mile run in June. -- NOPE.  This one is still on the list for this year I guess.
4. I would like to improve my time management -- since we've had a baby, I feel like we're late everywhere. -- I think that this has improved a lot over the last year.  Most of the time, we're well within the courtesy five-minute-window. ;)


So, overall, 3 out of 4.  Not too shabby.

Welcome 2011!

For New Year's Eve, we took Ledger to the Ramada to swim.  Although we spent most of our time in the hot tub (because the pool was freezing) Chris took Ledger down the big waterslide and he liked it until he splashed into the pool at the bottom.

We had dinner with Pam and Steve at Red Lobster and I thoroughly enjoyed the crab legs!  Then, just like last year, we rang in the new year at home with Jarod, Briana, and Shawn.  We played some cards and watched the ball drop on TV -- nothing crazy.  I'm too old for crazy stuff.

We spent the rest of the weekend getting some things on our "to do" list finished up and taking down the Christmas decorations.  I also re-decorated the blog, in case you didn't notice. ;)

Celebrate the New Year... With a Dance

Stomp your feet, spin around, clap your hands, shrug your shoulders, get DOWN! :)

Christmas Video Log

We had a great, but exhausting Christmas weekend.  If you missed it, you should check out my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day posts.  As a follow-up, I thought I'd post some of the fun videos we took over the weekend.

Ledger loved playing with the empty wrapping paper rolls.  Here are a few videos of our "sword fights"



Ledger opened a remote controlled tractor and he thought it was pretty funny when it moved.  He also really liked when you pressed a certain button and it played music.



Alright, one last video.  Ledger was up pretty late on Christmas night, and he found everything hilarious.  Especially this yelling match between him and Papa Dooda...

Christmas On-The-Go

After an awesome Christmas Eve with the Michel and Vanderbeck families, we drove to Lindsborg and stayed up late playing games with the Hensleys and Perkins'.  We spent the night in Lindsborg and woke up to a big, family Christmas morning.  As usual, Ledger woke up pretty early, so we didn't have to wait too long to open our stockings and presents.  It was really fun to spend Christmas morning with my family.

This is the best family picture with the dogs that we've ever taken!

Uncle Josh showing off his camo hunting gear.

Mom gave Emily and I a scrapbook that has pictures and memories that are nicely organized by year from when we were born to when we were married.  Chris and I enjoyed looking through mine.

Emily and Josh went through her scrapbook too!

After a fun morning, Chris, Ledger, and I returned home to have our own family Christmas.  We were running late, so it was a more rushed than I would have preferred.  But, Ledger opened his presents from Santa -- Mega Blocks and a Mega Blocks dump truck.  Chris and I opened stockings and the lotto ticket in his stocking won him $50!!

A quick shower and clothes change later, we were on-the-go again headed to the Michel household for Christmas lunch.  Grammie always makes an excellent spread with baked chicken and she definitely did not disappoint us this year!  Ledger hitched a ride with Uncle V in a Christmas tote bag.

After a yummy lunch, we packed up again to head to Tracy's house to celebrate with the Peterson family.  Her house was packed with people and food.  Ledger enjoyed playing with Faith's vacuum and his cousins: Edward, Aubrey, Isaac, Annika, and Faith.

For Christmas, everyone contributed one page to Grammie's scrapbook.  It turned out to be a very neat family treasure.  A few days prior to Christmas, Grammie was told that after 6 weeks of chemo and radiation for uterine cancer, her CT scan is completely clear.  What a blessing!

We had to leave the party after about an hour to get Ledger home for a nap.  (Mommy and Daddy napped too.)  After a few hours, we went back to the party to hang out with family.  Chris and Josh quickly disappeared into the basement to play X-Box with Ethan.  Ledger and I watched the family play Wii games --  Let's Dance, Tennis, and Bowling.  It was pretty funny to watch everyone dancing around.  About 7, we headed back to Lindsborg for another evening of games.

We tried to let Ledger stay up a little later than his usual scheduled bedtime of 7:30pm and finally put him to sleep around 8:45pm.  That plan completely backfired when Ledger woke up screaming around 10:30pm and was so overly tired that he couldn't get settled down.  So we packed ourselves up and drove back home.  Three very exhausted Michels finally got ourselves home and to bed just before midnight.  Phew!  What a Christmas, huh?

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve this year, we had our Michel family Christmas celebration.  Ledger had another great Christmas and had a mountain of presents to open.  His favorite gift, BY FAR, was a kid version of a vacuum that makes vacuum-like noises.  We made the mistake of letting him open that gift first, so he happily spent most of our family Christmas vacuuming the room and only took a few seconds' break to rip paper off of his next present.  :-)  Daddy got a laptop, which he was very excited for.  His laptop has been out of commission for more than two weeks!  Mommy got a video camera that works underwater and a nice pair of jeans.  Uncle Chris V. got some cowboy boots and aunt Jaime got two different types of vacuum. :)  Grammie scored some beautiful jewelry and Grandpa got a stack of puzzles and gift certificates.  As always, we finished with the Michel family scavenger hunt -- we look forward to it every year!  For the second year, we had our family dinner at Red Lobster.... yum!!