Merry Christmas!

Despite our bathroom & plumbing situation at home (which is still the same), Craig, Will & I enjoyed a very nice Christmas week. Though exhausting, the numerous parties went pretty smoothly and everyone had a good time. Will had a cold most of the week but nothing major.

I had the 24-26th off work so Will & I went to a Christmas Eve church service at noon and then Craig joined us to spend the evening at his parents house.









Will opened a few presents but had limited attention for one new item after the next so we were grateful that the gifts weren't excessive. He couldn't appreciate them all. Here's a picture of his biggest gift from Christmas Eve - a new set of wheels! Grandma & Papa Riedeman got Will an Escalade that has all sorts of noise-making buttons.



He also got several books and a child-size, folding "beach chair" that night.



Here's a few cute pictures of what we like to call the "toddler squat". Now that Will apparently feels like such a big boy, we catch him squatting down to the level of anything he puts his attention to. It's so funny.

Here he is checking out Grandma's dancing snowman.



And later, checking out cousin Daniel who was controlling Papa's new train set.




And posing again with the snowman.



A group picture of the cousins.



And Congratulations to Jeremy and Stephanie who got engaged recently and are planning a spring 2010 wedding!



Later in the evening, the adults opened presents. Craig can never have enough tools!



And Kelly & I got some new fleecy jammies and matching eye masks.



I also got 4 months of visits from a house cleaning lady (for around the baby's birth) and a massage gift certificate - what perfectly thoughtful gifts!!!

On Christmas morning, Will patiently read his books in his new folding chair while waiting for dad to wake up so we could open presents.



Santa brought Will some little, toy cars (his favorite!), a new Ohio State football, some coloring and water color books, crayons and paint brushes, bubble bath, and best of all - a tunnel! Will loved the tunnel and it folds up really compact for easy storage.

Ready mom & dad? Here I go!



Where's Will??? Peek-a-boo!



This thing is pretty cool!







And here's Craig with his favorite present - an authentic, reconditioned BGSU helmet. Unfortunately the OSU helmet didn't arrive in time, but it's on its way.



And I got a Cuisinart Panini Griddler. Can't wait to try that out!

After a morning nap for Will, we headed over to Nana & Papa Skees's house for brunch and more presents. Look how festive our meal was! There was so much food, but this was the cutest.







This is Taylor and his new girlfriend Amanda. We LOVE her! She is so nice and friendly and easy to get along with. She's the one who watched Will for us the night of the TSO concert we went to. We're praying she sticks around - she's great!



Okay, I know this looks like child abuse, but I swear he's not as high as the picture looks - it's the angle. Craig's recently gotten into tossing Will in the air and Will loves it. Look at that perfect posture! Maybe Will is going to be a diver when he's bigger!









Gift opening.







Will got a new Ohio State jersey that's big enough to fit him through next football season.



Taylor & Zach always have the goofiest poses on Christmas.



Will also received a Fisher Price Nativity Scene to keep at Nana's and learned what a donkey says ("hee haw!"). He got some Leap Frog maracas that he can shake and learn counting and colors, etc. And a cool, metal stand to hold a bunch of new wooden puzzles from Aunt Casey, Nana, and Great Grandma.



Sophia got some cute, new clothes too!


In the afternoon we went to Kelly's for the Riedeman Christmas and on Friday we celebrated with the Koneskys & Buhros. Busy, busy! Yesterday, mom, Casey & I went to Babies 'R Us for a long afternoon of working on Casey's baby shower registry. That is absolutely exhausting! And now today, we are finally relaxing at home just the 3 (well, 4) of us. My belly's resting too. :)

Will spent part of the evening in the buff because he loves to be naked and I love to let him air out. Craig later insisted on a pair of sweats and no diaper, just in case... And just because his hiney is so cute... here's a couple pictures.

Why do I feel like someone's looking at me?



Are YOU looking at me?

When it rains, it pours.

Or, rather, when the temperatures reach negative numbers, it isn't good for the pipes...

Here's a scene that hasn't happened in awhile:
Will getting a bath in the kitchen sink.



And here's the reason why:







Late Sunday night, we returned from a Christmas concert. It was -2 degrees and the upstairs water pipes had frozen. The downstairs water was working fine, but unfortunately the frozen pipes broke in a few places and we had water leaking through the ceiling INTO the downstairs bathroom below. In order to reach the broken spots, Craig had to tear out part of the downstairs bathroom ceiling, thus creating a whole new project: remodeling the downstairs bathroom. Craig has been wanting to do this anyway before we sell the house (I thought it looked fine, pre-pipe-breaking, and wasn't necessary) so he's not totally devastated by the whole thing. I'm trying to be positive about it, but I just didn't want another project to complete before the baby's born, especially when we were just making progress with our office/basement transition. Ugh. So the pipes are still not repaired (hopefully that will be fixed today) and we currently have one non-functioning bathroom and one in shambles, hence Will's bath in the kitchen sink. I ran over to my parents for a shower last night and we didn't finish up until 11:30 p.m. Thankfully, Craig's parents were kind enough to come over and help us the whole time.

Oh well. I guess I'm not meant to have a relaxing pregnancy. We were remodeling the kitchen when I was pregnant with Will and had no oven, counters or floor when he was born. ANYTHING is better than that. I'm just thankful my husband knows how to DO most of this stuff! He really is amazing to me and I'm so glad that HIS dad took the time to teach him how to be self-sufficient growing up. It's also really important to me that Craig passes that on to Will.

The Christmas concert I mentioned was for my mom's 50th birthday. Her actual birthday isn't until January 8th but my dad wanted to put this surprise together for her. So he rented a stretch Escalade and got 12 box-seat tickets at the Palace of Auburn Hills for the Transiberian Orchestra. Our whole family went (Taylor's girlfriend babysat Will for us) along with a few other people.

Here's another (belly) picture of Casey & I before we left.



And here's the limo ride to the Palace.









Here's an inside view of the Palace from our box seats. The laser light show was wild!



And here's mom & Aunt Shirley just before the concert started.



I can't believe it's Christmas Eve tomorrow. Craig & I just want some down time to relax and I don't see that happening for awhile. I wish Christmas didn't entail so many commitments. But I am looking forward to our own little Christmas morning with Will.

Here's a reason to smile: Will has been practicing saying his sister's name. So now, when I ask him "What's our baby's name?", he says "Sofa". It used to be "Sof" but has progressed to "Sofa". Also HIS name has progressed from "Wee" to occasionally "Wheel". Too cute!

22 Weeks

Snow Day

Craig & I unexpectedly got the day off work today because of the weather. So we all hung in and vegged. There's something so nice and relaxing when it's a surprise day-off. You don't feel obligated to do housework. We did get a few things done, but mostly relaxed.

We stepped out briefly last night for Will to see the snow... He hated it.

Will's new play pen.

Can't you read the sign, dad?

Will loved it and didn't want to get out!



Then in the evening (because the roads were really never that bad), Craig & I got a babysitter again and enjoyed a date night out, just the two of us. We had dinner, browsed a couple shops, and saw Four Christmases - very cute movie.