Smidt Christmas 2013

I was planning to post this last night, but I was extremely exhausted! Having a big family Christmas with no Tony is hard work! Charlie is such a busy little guy! It was still a fun filled morning at Mark and Christa's house.

Here's my little Santa Baby!

There was a lot of play time with aunts, uncles and cousins. Charlie is showing us how big he is getting by standing up!

Kaylee and I made our shirts this year. CUTE!

Charlie and his Aunt Amanda and Uncle Will

Playtime with Connor

Charlie won with the most presents this year! 

Here he is with Great Grandpa Arnie and the neat frog pillow he gave him!

A fun toy from Kaylee!

1st Cousin Picture

1st Cousins with Charlie and Grandpa!

Another blessed Christmas with the Smidt family.

Our Christmas 2013

In the night, Santa visited the Knutson household. Our stockings were filled to the brim AND he left a trail of candy in the fireplace and all over the floor. Santa needs to clean up after himself....

Charlie struggled with opening his stocking. He'd find something and then want to play with it for a while. Let's just say, stockings took a while. But it was so fun to see how excited he was!

Look at all that loot Santa brought! 

Charlie crawled over to help me open my stocking, but he got distracted by the coffee table!

I was trying to take a picture of Charlie under the tree, but the lights were so tempting!

Charlie's gift from Momma and Daddy. His very own remote! 

 Tony got a coconut shell thumb piano from me.

and new pj pants!

A Jaw Harp

and a harmonica! 

For lunch we made a snowman pizza. It sure was tasty!

Right before our snowman pizza was done, Charlie and Daddy built a fire for momma. It was FREEZING in our basement today!

Trying out his new Santa cup! 

We had a great day together! Charlie's down for his afternoon nap now (well he's working on it....I hear him talking away). Tonight Tony and I are going to my brother's house for Cousin Christmas. It's all the "older" cousins getting together to play games and enjoy each others company. Charlie gets to have his first sleepover at Grandma Becky's and Grandpa Buck's.

A Sutter/Millard Christmas

Today we headed to Rochester to celebrate Christmas at Laur and Jill's house. There was not a shortage of food, presents, cookies or conversation.

We had a delicious lunch, Taconite Tator Tot Hot Dish and the best buns ever! Charlie really stuffed himself to the brim!

Charlie had lots to say to Great Grandma Jayne and Great Grandpa Bob! 

He snuggled up with Aunt Kate for a long time. He was excited to see her 2 days in a row! 

He had lots of smiles for Grandpa Alan! 

and then the presents came....Charlie didn't know what to do with this giant present!

His first Little People set! 

new jammies that match Harvey's new jammies!

Harvey got some cool new toys too! 

Natalie wearing her new mittens and showing off her art kit!

Charlie was taste testing his new car. 

Patty Cake time with Aunt Mindy 

Maya had to try out Charlie's new tablet toy. 

Maya's LOVING her baby doll stuff she got today. A diaper bag back pack with a seat for the baby and a new stroller!

We had such a great day today! Tomorrow night we are celebrating Christmas as a family, Tony, Charlie and myself. I'm sure I'll have another post tomorrow night! Thanks Laur and Jill for a wonderful day! 

Knutson Christmas 2013

This morning we packed up the Equinox AND Mazda and headed to Willow Hill to celebrate Christmas with Tony's immediate family. We drove separately because Tony had to work at 3.

After some delicious egg bake, fruit, muffins and mimosas, we headed to the basement to unwrap our gifts! I only snapped pictures of the kids unwrapping!


Here's Natalie opening a gift from us! Gelarti. It's a make your own glitter stickers kit. 

Maya opening one of her gifts from us. A bath time xylophone. She also got a bath time fishing pole and fish from us. 

Harvey got Switch and Go Dinosaurs from us. 

Charlie opening his first ever present from his Kasson cousins and aunt and uncle. 

He of course needed some help...

My first Christmas present! 

Charlie was up on Grandma Cher's lap, and we thought it was the perfect opportunity for a picture with all the grandkids. Precious!

We chased after Grandpa Al to get a shot in there too! 

This is the 2nd year that we did a secret Christmas exchange with the adults. I had a blast with my person this year. I got Mindy. I made her a Christmas wreath, got a snow sampler of Bath and Body Works soaps and an iTunes gift card. Cher had my name, I got new Smart Wool socks and post-its! I LOVE both of those things!

9 Months

I've been waiting to post a 9 month blog until I can get a picture of Charlie in his bouncy seat. However, this weekend I completely forgot to do this! Look for the picture later this week. I wanted to get his 9 month stats out there. We went to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon. Laur and Jill were so kind to take Charlie for the day and then meet us at the Baldwin Building. Here are our BIG guy's stats:

20 lbs 6 oz (60th percentile)
29 inches tall (75th percentile)
46.9 cm head circumference (95th percentile)

The doctor thought he was looking perfect and healthy! He had a flu shot and we were out the door and on our way to meet Laur and Jill at Hu Hot.

Our daycare lady was diagnosed with shingles this past week. She has been in an extreme amount of pain with that. We thought we should keep Charlie away, so my mother-in-law, Cher, took Charlie on Friday. It's so nice to have such wonderful babysitters ready and willing to take our little man on such short notice!

Reflection

Lately Charlie has noticed what fun a mirror can be! Every morning, I get him out of bed and bring him into the bathroom with me while Tony makes a bottle. I sit on the floor in front of our big full length mirror and continue to get ready with Charlie sitting on my lap, playing with his bath toys. Lately, he doesn't even need his bath toys. All he cares about is his reflection!

Here are a few pictures capturing his mirror times!

Break Time

Here are some more pictures from our Thanksgiving break!

Tuesdays at O'Neils, there is a group that gathers and plays Irish music. We haven't gone much since Charlie was born because of bedtimes and such, but we decided to head out there last Tuesday since we were home Wednesday. It was a blast! Charlie really enjoyed watching his daddy play! He also enjoyed all the fun people watching he could do.

On Thanksgiving, we did some fun footprint art with the kiddos. Here's Maya getting her feet painted for her snowmen print.

Harvey doing a Christmas tree.

I didn't capture Natalie in action, but she made mistletoes just like Charlie! Here's the goofball girl waiting for her turn to get painted up!.

Here's Charlie making his. He didn't enjoy the process as much as his cousins.

Saturday around lunchtime, we headed to Willow Hill to pick out and chop down our Christmas tree. St. Peter Knutsons were still in town. Maya just loved hugging her little cousin!

It was a team effort to cut down our tree. Brian holding, Alan and Maya supervising, and Tony sawing. (Not to mention Kate, Cher and I watching from a distance)

The boys and kids had to do some geocaching after the tree was cut down!

Yesterday morning, Charlie tried pancakes. He LOVED them!

I made my boys heart shaped pancakes. Tony felt loved...