Trimming the tree

Update: 1/30, Pictures added, Finally!

A few weeks before Christmas we invited one of Gianna's favorite people, Uncle Johnny, over to help with Gianna's first tree trimming. She loved playing with him and looking at all of the lights and pretty ornaments. It was fun, we played "Christmas music" (I think it was the Eagles) and hung out together. It was really fun and got all of us in the mood for Christmas. It was interesting learning how high the ornaments had to be in order for them to be safe, luckily we had some plastic ones to put low on the tree that Gianna could play with (no hooks!). Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

Gianna and her favorite Uncle.
Johnny made us do this for the picture :)Gianna helps Mommy decorate.
Justin, Gianna and Johnny in front of the completed tree.

Note: I am trying to catch up with my blog, but for the past few days I've been getting error messages from blogger, so I'll at least leave this text here, check back in a few days for pictures.

Playgroup Christmas Party

On 12/9/07 (Yes, I'm almost a month behind on blogging), we had our playgroup Christmas party, white elephant exchange and the kids exchanged gifts. Sophia and her parents hosted and it was a very fun time! All the kids were dressed so cute and they all played well together. Plus, it's always fun to get the dads together too. Santa even came to the party! Okay, it was Hayden as the shortest santa ever, but he was very adorable. Here are some pictures from the party...Jenny took a lot more and posted them on her blog, All About Sophia about a month ago...so you can check out more there too!


Gianna all dressed up for the party.
Hayden and Gianna Practicing Sharing.
Spencer and Gianna love the walker.
Gianna opening her present from Sophia.
It's a purse!
The usual suspects, all lined up, eating puffs and Cheerios.

We tried to get some pictures of the kids all together but with 3 that are on the move getting them all lined up was quite a challenge, as you can see.


The only two who were well behaved for the pictures, Sean and Sophia. Trust me, they wanted to run away like the other kids, too.

Gianna tells Santa and Santa's little helper what she wants for Christmas.

Finally, our tree.

Gianna was really excited about the cool, crisp air on the morning we went to get our tree. Here she is doing her best Popeye impression.
My mom got her a perfect hat for the occasion, she looked very festive and even left it on all morning!It says "I love Santa" (with tiny invisible subtitles that say "from afar").Gianna and Mommy look for trees.
Here is our tree! Gianna picked a good one!
We cut it down! And Gianna helped.Why does daddy have a tree on his back?
All packed up and ready to go.
Yeah! for Christmas.

What is that?!

While we were at my mom and dad's house they inflated their big Santa hot-air balloon. Gianna enjoyed saying hello to this Santa.

Santa?

So, Gianna isn't too keen on strangers as it is. A big guy in a funny red hat with a crazy beard is no different. We thought we'd try taking her to the mall anyway so that we could try and get a picture. Santa was a really good spirit even though I'm pretty sure Gianna hurt his feelings.

Here we are waiting in line.

Here she is in her "christmas picture"

"Why did you do that to me?!"

Family portrait in front of santa.

The hunt for Gianna's first tree

On December 8th we went to a few tree farms in Sebastopol (during a visit to Jessica's mom and dad's house) to look at christmas trees and enjoy the Christmas spirit. Gianna had a lot of fun seeing all of the people walking around carrying trees.

She also loved going on the hayrides (we went on one pulled by a tractor and one pulled by a pair of beautiful white horses).

She liked playing Santa.

And she really loved the petting zoo at one tree farm.

It's amazing how much the tree farms have to offer! One even had a bounce house. What fun.

Happy 6 month Birthday Sophia

In our playgroup Dawn started the fun tradition of celebrating the babies' 6 month birthday. Sophia is one of the youngest, and you can tell she learned from her predecessors. She put her hand right in the cake! Here are some pictures of her gorgeous cake and Sophia enjoying it.

An alliance you'd never expect

I think that both Lily and Gianna are realizing that they have a common interest: Getting into everything. Here they are one morning deciding the easiest way to both get into the tub to play. Gianna loves sharing her toys with Lily too.