Christmas Weekend

We celebrated Christmas Eve in Sioux Falls!

We went to the falls to see the lights display. Daniel and I walked around with the pups and little Lucy. Lucy loves looking at Christmas lights! She had a great time peeking out of her stroller. :)
The Storm family at the Sioux Falls



Grandpa and Grandma Hoekman with their granddogs Chief and Scout

Lucy had a sparkly red dress and matching shoes for her Christmas outfit. Thanks for the adorable dress Grandma Nola! Here is a picture of Lucy modeling her dress and holding her My First Christmas doll.


We went to church and had a delicious lasagna for dinner made by yours truly :). Dan and Dad enjoyed some egg nog.


Our first Christmas with little Lucy! She is so precious. Here we are in front of the fireplace waiting for Santa on Chirstmas Eve.

Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Glen with their little sugarplum, Lucy!

Lucy's Week in SoDak

After celebrating Christmas, Daniel returned to Madison for a week of work while Lucy, the dogs and I stayed for a week with grandma and granpda. It was wonderful. We had such a good time. We spent some of our days with Mallory and the kids.

Mallory with Paul, Abigail, and Lucy


Paul and I did a lot of drawing and coloring together. This kid is quite the artist - especially with Star Wars characters! Thanks for all of the great drawings, Paul.

Lucy loves her auntie Mallory!


Lucy took naps with grandpa!



Lucy donned her snowsuit for several outings. We visited friends, we were guests in Mrs. Hoekman's first grade classroom, and we went to the vet with Chief.
We actually didn't need the snowsuit very much since it was so warm in South Dakota! No snow at all. It felt like spring!

I love Lucy Meet and Greet

While we were in South Dakota Mom planned a meet and greet for little Lucy! A bunch of neighbors, friends, and family came over to see the baby. It was so much fun.

Here is the invite (put together by Mallory!):


Here are some of the decorations and delicious treats at the event:


Here are some of the guests:

Ella - my cousin's daughter! She was so excited to hold the baby. Too bad that she lives in Sioux Falls, otherwise we would have a great babysitter to call upon in a couple of years. :)


Here is Lucy with my Aunt Lois!

Cousin Jaye holding little Lucille.

One of the highlights of the meet and greet was seeing my old friend from high school - Heide and meeting her new baby girl Luciana! We both have Lucy's! :) In this picture my Lucy is 6 weeks old and her Lucy is 3 weeks old. Love it.

Aunt Katie, cousin Anna, and Lucy

Thanks to all of our neighbors, friends and family that stopped by! It was great to see all of you and we really appreciate all of the nice gifts for little Lucy.

Christmas at the Hoekman's

We celebrated Christmas at the Hoekman household early this year, the weekend before xmas! Daniel, Lucy, and I arrived early Saturday morning after driving all evening from Madison to SoDak. We were unsure how Lucy would do as a long distance traveler since the longest she had previously been in the car was 30 minutes. She did great on the 7 hour journey. Mama hung out in the backseat to play with/feed Lucy and also pumped in the car so we only needed to stop once for fuel and a diaper change. We pulled into the Hoekman residence around 3am on Saturday morning.

The Christmas festivities started around noon on Saturday. All of Lucy's cousins came over to celebrate! It was the first time that little Lucy met Paul and Abigail. Here is a picture of all of the cousins:


Anna, Abigail, Paul, and Lucy! Aren't they the cutest?


Just the girls! These girls are all within 16 months of each other, it will be so fun to see them grow up together. We have already gotten lots of hand-me-downs from Abigail! :)

I did have time to finish my Christmas shopping but I neglect to wrap anything before arriving for xmas. Good thing that Mallory offered to wrap the gifts from the Storm family! Thanks for the help, Mallory!


Before we opened gifts, Paul presented a program for everyone. He told the Christmas story and we sang carols before opening presents.

Anna passed out presents! She did a great job!

Some of the highlights from the gift exchange include:


Paul received a light saber from Uncle Dan and Aunt Andrea. It lights up and makes zapping noises. He is a huge Star Wars fan and he l-o-v-e-d his new toy. He even took some time fight uncle Kevin who used Katie's new lefse stick as a weapon. :)




We gave dad an I Love Lucy mug to use for his morning coffee.


Anna got a stroller for her baby doll that she adored! She pushed it all over grandma and grandpa's house that day. Super cute.

The dogs love Christmas too! Scout and Chief got some great chew toys and rawhides this year. Unfortunately, Chief was not feeling well over the holiday. :(
(I will write more on Chief's health status in an upcoming post...)

We had a great meal (Thanks, Mom!!) and took family pictures by the fire place.

The Hoekman family

Grandpa Glen and Grandma Sharon with their 4 grandchildren!!

Thanks for the wonderful Christmas Hoekman family! We love you guys.

Farewell to the Malcolms!

Our dear friends - Karl and Shoshana Malcolm are moving to New Mexico this January! We will miss them very much!! We have had a number of adventures over the past 5 years including lots of camping, hunting with our dogs (Our Chief is litter mates with the Malcolm's dog Luna), snowshoeing, and fishing in Florida. We spent some time together last week before Karl and Shoshana take off! Here are some pictures.


Karl and little Lucy!


Shoshana and the baby. :)


The Malcolms and the Storms

Good luck with your move, Karl & Shoshana! We wish you the best - can't wait to visit you in New Mexico! :)

Getting Ready for Christmas

Here are some pictures from the Storm household as we get ready for Christmas!

Lucy and I prepared for our mother baby hour holiday party. I slaved away in the kitchen and made some awesome candy pretzels. :)



Doesn't Lucy look cute in her little plaid dress? I love going to mother baby sessions. It is great to talk with the other moms, it gives Lucy a chance to hang out with other babies, and I get to weigh my little girl! I have to admit that I am a little bit obsessed with Lucy's weight. I feel like a high school wrestler trying to make weight or something...I need to make sure that my peanut is growing! :)



This is Lucy with her favorite Christmas book - A Very Shiny Christmas. It has pages of pictures of very shiny things like ornaments, presents, and snowflakes.


We have a pretty small house and so we don't have room for a big Christmas tree. In the past we have purchased little Peanuts Christmas-like trees from Trader Joes to hang our ornaments. This year they didn't have any! :(
They just had super miniature trees that aren't big enough to support ornaments. We bought one anyway to be festive! Here is Lucy next to our very little tree.


We carried on our family tradition of watching Home Alone each year!! Love it.


We set up our Nativity!


And I made peanut butter blossoms!! Yum.


Merry Christmas!

Swing Time

Here is a picture of little miss Lucy in her swing! She loves to sit in her swing and watch the mobile spin around. This was a great Craigslist find!

December Crafts

Happy December! We are getting excited for Lucy's first Christmas. Get ready for lots of holiday posts over the next 2 weeks. :)

We had time to do a couple of crafts with little Lucille over the past few weeks.
Grandma Nola bought some kits to make Christmas ornaments with Lucy's foot/hand prints stamped in them.

Grandpa Ken held Lucy while Grandma Sharon stamped her little foot in the foam.

Here is an action shot!

And here is the finished product just drying and getting ready for some grandparent Christmas Trees!

While I didn't have time to make lots of homemade gifts this year - I did make some little barrettes for Anna! I think that they are pretty cute. Can I just say that I can not wait for Lucy to grow some hair! :)