Christmas

As most families, our Christmas celebrations started a few weeks before Christmas and ended just this past weekend. Kaitlyn loved opening presents so we had to hide them all until it was time to open them. Thomas our cat was the only thing under our Christmas tree this year. This Christmas was also a little snowy. (I wonder if I can say that 12+ inches is a little snow?) Nate spend most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day either plowing or sleeping, so we had to do some rearranging of our plans.

Santa was in Mora and Kaitlyn wanted nothing to do with him, so we decided to make this a family picture. Kaitlyn was not too thrilled that she was close to Santa, and Nate and I were trying not to laugh.
Kaitlyn and Cousin Hailey during our McNeilly family Christmas in Mora.
Kaitlyn showing off her dance moves with her new Tutu she got.
Auntie Mel and Uncle Sam got all 3 cousins computers with their names on them. They all had to open them before we could move onto more presents.

My sister found this super cute Christmas dress for Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn called it her Santa dress!

Christmas morning while Daddy was plowing and we were waiting for everyone to come over, we took some pictures with the timer on the camera.

We had to wait until the afternoon on Christmas day to open our presents and stockings from Santa. We didn't want to have daddy miss out on all the fun.

My mom made her a super cute scarf and head thing. (It has some sort of weird name that I can't remember.)

The snow stopped just in time for us to travel to Mora for our last Christmas Celebration. Here are all the cousins.

This is my favorite picture of our niece and nephew. They are growing up way to fast.

Here I am with my sister-in-law Mandi after we enjoyed a yummy drink.
Kaitlyn was a lucky little girl this year. I think we need to buy a bigger house to fit all of her new toys. Here is one of her favorites from her Bopapa! A new bike.

It's That Time!

The other day when I picked up Kaitlyn at daycare I was told that Kaitlyn climbed out of the crib after nap. Daycare has tried to have her sleep on a little cot but Kaitlyn just thought it was play time. At home Kaitlyn had never tried to climb out of the crib, so I knew it would only be a matter of time.

Today Nate called me around 8:20 to ask if Kaitlyn was awake when I left for work. I said No! He said he woke up and when he checked the monitor she wasn't in her crib. So, he got up and she had climbed out of her crib, opened her bedroom door (which is a new trick too) and was down in the entryway with Cody.

So, we might need to go shopping for a new bed very soon. Maybe they will have some after Christmas sales on Twin size beds.

Baking Cookies

This weekend was the perfect weekend to get all our Christmas baking done. Saturday morning I headed to the grocery store for all the supplies. After Kaitlyn's nap we began baking. We made 4 dozen on Saturday evening and another 6 dozen on Sunday. Kailtyn loved adding ingredients, mixing them together, and watching mommy do the rest. She was a big help.

Getting ready to start making cookies. Kaitlyn was very excited to help mommy in the kitchen.

Here is Kaitlyn mixing the dry ingredients. She did a great job. Mommy actually made a bigger mess than Kaitlyn.
Here is Kaitlyn watching mommy mix all the other ingredients.

Mommy and Kaitlyn having fun making cookies together. A few hours later we had to keep daddy away from eating all the cookies we made.

Kaitlyn is almost 2 1/2 and has really began to start testing more of her boundaries. This weekend she learned how to climb up her dresser to get to her nukies. She is only allowed her nukies at bedtime or in the car. Nate found her in her bedroom with the door shut a nukie in her mouth and her laying on the ground with 5 more in her hands.

Kaitlyn also started putting herself on time-out. One time I asked her why she was on time-out and she said it was because she wasn't listening. After a couple more times of her putting herself on a time-out we had to tell her she can only go on time-out when mommy and daddy tell her too.

McNeilly Recent Happenings

I can't believe that November is over and Christmas is just a few short weeks away. We were certainly busy in November. We were in Mora for 3 weekends for Deer Hunting. Nate got a nice 8 point buck on opening morning. Kaitlyn and I spent the weekends hanging out with Nate's family. We went to a few craft fairs, raked leaves at Mel and Sam's, and played with my niece and nephew.

Kaitlyn, Cousin Darren, and Cousin Hailey hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Thanksgiving we spent the day in St. Cloud. I stayed overnight to experience the great joys of shopping on Black Friday. Nate's 2 aunts and my mother-in-law and I got up at 3:30am to start our shopping adventure. We found some great deals and I got all our Christmas Shopping done in one day.
We brought in some of Kaitlyn's outside toys for the winter. She insisted that we bring her car upstairs while she watched a Veggie Tales movie. It entertained her for about 20 minutes before she got bored.