Christmas morning

Sharing some pictures of our Christmas morning. The kids had a good time getting presents out of their stockings and opening things from their Santa bags!

Merry Chrismas!

Aaron likes the new balls that Santa brought



This was definitely a favorite gift- Handy Manny's power drill, Spinner





Maggie and Aaron got a blender, mixer, and coffee maker to go with their new kitchen set

Maggie has fun tearing off the paper!


She even likes to eat some of th epaper










Aaron & Maggie got 4 sets of animals- dinosaurs, ocean animals, farm animals, and zoo animals. They both love them!

Some new dishes for the kitchen set

Dear Santa

When we asked Aaron if he would like to leave some cookies and milk for Santa, he said no- he wanted to leave Santa a Coke!!! He put out some carrots for the reindeer as well. Here he is putting out the Coke, carrots, and a note that we wrote for Santa.

Christmas Eve

Sharing some pictures of our Christmas Eve celebration with our family.


The lovely Totten girls! Notice the winter wonderland outside the windows. It was beautiful!


Maggie getting some help from Nanny. The bows were her favorite!






Aaron tears into his gift- a really fun new game called Pengaloo!

Claire smiles with her new magnetic dolls.

Brett seems pretty happy with his gift too!

Emma, Jacob, & Olivia wait for their turn to open a gift.

Red dress

Gorgeous little Maggie in her beautiful red Christmas dress! (Thanks for the hand me down, Amy & Claire!)

Our visit to Santa.....

We went to visit Santa with our friends, Kate, Connor, & Sawyer. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the area where they met with Santa, but they had this cool snow area before they got to Santa. The kids loved it. The only downside was that right after this it was time to get their pictures taken with Santa and they looked like they had heads full of dandruff!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Aaron & I enjoyed some time playing outside in the snow in December. It was our first big snow in Chicago and Aaron was anxious to get out there! We did some shoveling and made a small snowman.


Aaron decided to use some rocks for eyes and he wanted our snowman to have a 'long' nose, so he used a stick!

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree

I took some darling pictures of the kids in front of the Christmas tree. They loved the tree and both of the kids spent a lot of time 'rearranging' the ornaments!

Maggie at 9 months old

At 9 months old, Maggie weighs 20 lbs and 14 oz (50-75th percentile) and is 28 3/4 inches tall (75th percentile). She is a go getter and is really keeping us on our toes! Maggie is walking all over the place now. She can get herself up to her feet without holding on to anything and then goes walking around the room! Maggie climbs up on anything and everything that is low enough for her to get up on- she has no fear!

Maggie feeds herself with her fingers and loves to eat all kinds of real foods. If you give her anything that comes from a box or container that says 'Gerber' on it, she generally wants nothing to do with it! Her favorite things to eat are cheerios, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, pasta, toast with jelly, fruits, and veggies. She now has 7 teeth that are getting bigger every day!

Maggie is a very social little lady who likes to smile and laugh and is very easily engaged. She loves it when we sing to her and will wave her arms and bounce on her legs like she's dancing and is now trying to clap her hands together. She loves to point to things with her little pointer finger and she loves to be carried around by her Mommy!

Maggie is starting to say mama at times when she sees me, so I'm pretty sure that she is labeling me. She loves her Daddy and big brother and doesn't mind when they rough house with her! She will likely be a tough little lady!

Maggie has brought so much joy to our lives in the last 9 months! We are so blessed to have her as a part of our family!

Messy eater

Maggie loves her food! Our little 9 month old beauty does not believe that she is a baby and pretty much refuses to eat baby food! She already eats most of the things that we eat, just chopped up into smaller pieces! Here she is enjoying some pasta and toast with blueberry jam.

Catch up!

I have been a terrible, terrible blogger for the past month! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that 2011 is off to a great start! Get ready- I have a lot to catch up on!