Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from McKaila

To start off Christmas morning, we all woke up in bed as a family! I love waking up next to my little girl in the morning. Especiallly when she is all cuddlying, like this morning. Amber and David came over around 10:30 to open Christmas presents. We started with the stockings ofcoarse, then went to all the presents under the Christmas tree.

time to open the presents under the Christmas Tree

Blanket that Grandma Nancy made

Mickey Airplane ride from Great Grandma Kuipers

McKaila loves Grandma Nancy's cookies

Around 4:00 this afternoon, we headed over to Amber and David's place to celebrate Christmas with them and the boys. The kids opened presents and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared by David.

Our little Christmas Princess

Willie and McKaila

McKaila and Brayden checking out the toys

Best Friends and Sisters

Festival of Lights

I've always loved riding around neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. I have always enjoyed looking at all the different things that people come up with to decorate for the holidays. I even remember growing up, driving to Byron Center with my parents to look at Christmas lights there.

So, this year, I really wanted to find some where, where we could look at Christmas lights, and I heard about this park that did Christmas lights. I really had to idea what to expect, but we were highly impressed. Last night, McKaila, Amber, Courtney, and I drove about 20 minutes to get to Watkins Regional Park. As soon as you get to the entrance, the lights begin and they don't end until you exit. It was great!! All 4 of us really enjoyed it.

This was the temperture last night!! (4 days away from Christmas)

Blue Crab

McKaila was having fun looking at the lights

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays Everyone!!

ICE!

ICE! is a winter holiday attraction done at the Gaylord Hotel every year and this year it featured DreamWorks' Merry Madagascar. They bring in over 2 million pounds of ice to create the ice sculptures and over 70 craftsman from Harbin, China to create them.

Courtney and I have always wanted to go to ICE! and this year, we knew it was a must when we found out it was going to be about Madagascar. McKaila loves that movie, so we knew she would enjoy going. But, we had to remember it was going to be 9 degrees in there. Yup, you heard right, 9 degrees. Not my favorite part of the whole thing, but it was well worth it.

All bundled up and ready to go

Right before entering ICE! they provide you blue winter coats to keep you warm. We made sure though to layer up before hand because we knew how cold it could be. Believe it or not, I kept pretty warm, besides for my hands that I had to keep free for taking many pictures.

Daddy and McKaila are ready to brave the cold

 

McKaila and Mommy

King Julien

Melman, Gloria, Alex, and Marty

Santa and his reindeer

Melman

Marty

Gloria

Alex

The Penguins

Family Picture

We had a wonderful time and hope to go back next year!!!

Tysons Corner

Yesterday, we felt like we needed to get outta the house for awhile. It's been cold here, so on Courtney's days off, we've been pretty lazy and staying at home. Which is awesome, because when it was warm outside, we felt like we were going, going, going. So, it's been incredibly nice just to spend time with our little family. But, we wanted to go walk around somewhere, so we decided to make a trip to Tysons Corner. It's about a 30-45 minute drive from Waldorf and located in Tysons Corner, VA.

On our way to Tysons

We love going there. It's a 3 story mall with all you the stores you can ever imagine. Ofcoarse, we spend most of our time in the Disney store. Especially this time. McKaila was picking up every stuffed animal and pointing at everything. I think if she had it her way, she would have gone home with a lot more stuff. We did end up getting her a Lightning McQueen stuffed car. It's the first thing she grabs every time we go to the Disney store.

Ofcoarse we had to stop in the American Girl Doll store. Oh my, I can't wait until McKaila is older and she can pick out one that she likes. People go crazy in that store, and I'm sure when she is older we will be part of that. They have everything you can imagine for those dolls. Eye glasses, crutches, wheel chairs, retainers, braces, and so much more. McKaila was just loving everything though. Especially when she saw the strollers with the babies in them.

One of the places that we really like to go when we are at Tysons is Pottery Barn Kids. We love this store. McKaila does too because she gets to play with all the toys without us having to tell her "no, she can't play with that". Before McKaila was born we've talked about getting the chair they have there, called the "everywhere chair". We thought that would be the perfect thing for her once she's bigger. So, we decided to get it for her for Christmas. The best part of it is, in the store they have these chairs all around, so she kept getting in and out of them, then sitting for a little bit. It was so cute, so we knew it would be the perfect gift for her. But, McKaila won't be unwrapping a chair on Christmas morning because it's all put together already and she's loving it like crazy. She loves climbing all over it and she sits there while she watches Bubble Guppies and Cars. It's so cute!!