Visitors

There were a lot of things I loved about Christmas this year.  A major one was that Barry was home for two whole weeks!  Another was all of the great visitors and the places we got to visit.  Audrey and Kelly came over a few times to visit.  Brody loved them both of course!  They played tractors with him, racing them around the living room, the chair, down the hall, and into his bedroom!  They colored, read books, chopped food, and much more.  Gotta love friends!  Brody could say Kelly's name pretty well, but every time he tried to say Audrey's name it came out sounding like "sorry".  We'll have to work on that one!

Christmas Day 2011

We spent Christmas Day up in Ely with the Park family.  Brody got to enjoy some snow!  He went sledding, snowmobiling, and slipping and sliding on the frozen lake.  He had fun playing with his new toys from Grandma Cindy, Grandpa Steve, Uncle Zach, Aunt Aimee, and Uncle Eric.  He loves Aimee and said her name every few minutes, it was so cute!  At first he thought Zach and Eric were both Eric, but by the end of the day he knew who "tac" was too.  I think it's safe to say that he now has the whole opening presents thing down and I'm sure next year will be filled with even more excitement!

Christmas Eve

 Looking mighty charming in his Christmas Eve outfit.

 Paco is feeding blueberries to Brody.  I think Brody ate an entire container that morning!

 GG & Brody

 GG with her MN greats - Andrew, Claire, Briggs, Max, Everleigh, and Brody

 Mama & Brody :)

Omi is helping Brody open his present from us.  He loves his tractors!

Christmas Eve we headed to the farm for the day.  We spent the morning with the Mieska side at GG's house.  The little kids (well they are all little) had fun playing together.  In the afternoon we hung out with Omi, Papa, Paco, and Auntie H at the farm until it was time to head to Bill & Lisa's shop to visit with the Docken crew.  After that big day, we hopped in the car at 7:30 and drove up to Ely.  Christmas Day and Ely pictures will be on the next post.  I'm catching up after a busy week or so of fun.

Play Date

 Hockey, I guess you have to start them when they're toddlers these days!

 Brody and Claire racing on their scooters.

 Omi daycare extraordinaire offering some helmet safety advise to Brody.

 Max gives the best hugs and kisses of anyone I know.

 Good thinking Claire!  With that driver behind you, it's best to wear a helmet.

 These two are such good friends!

Just over a week ago Brody had a play date at the Eagan Community Center.  He went with Barry and Audrey and they had a blast!  He played with Claire, Max, Andrew, Everleigh, and Briggs not to mention all of the adults (Omi, GG, Sue, Bonnie, Ami, Jesse).  Briggs isn't pictured because he's just a little tyke and was busy being carried by his mama.  Andrew was there too I swear...I'm just told he found the car and it was love at first sight so he spent most of his time scooting around in it!  From what I hear Brody is fast!  Brody and Claire just loved running around in the wide open spaces of the gym!  If I was a stay at home mom, I would be visiting this gym during preschool open gym time every week!

Brody & Santa

The Brody/Santa experience, version 2011.  Maybe next year Brody, maybe next year.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone!  Here are some of our nice photo attempts over the last few weeks.  It will be a weekend full of family-Dockens, Mieskas, and Parks, so I am sure there will be a few more photos for next week!
We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Making Klub with Great Grandma & Grandpa Docken

 Brody was the salt and pepper person.  Here he is helping as Papa scoops to make the klub.  I think he did a good job right up until dinner time when all he wanted to do was sprinkle salt and pepper on his empty plate.

 Brody getting a good story from Grandpa Don.  He does pretty well sitting on his lap considering most kids wiggle away!  He did score one of grandma's cookies from him at the end of the night.

Helping Grandma Camilla keep an eye on the boiling num-nums.

On Monday afternoon Barry and Brody went to the farm to help make klub and side pork at Grandma and Grandpa Docken's house.  It's a Docken tradition and an absolute favorite of mine!  It's blood klub specifically so I won't get into the details.  Brody was a little helper (sort of) and had a fun afternoon hanging out at the farm.  It was ready to eat by the time I got there after work.  Even Brody tried some out this year!