Happy First Christmas Roman!

One year ago today we found out that this sweet little guy would be joining our family!! We were very surprised by the pregnancy but quite excited to welcome a new baby. We could not have asked for a better addition to our family! Roman has such a calm and happy disposition. He loves to smile and laugh - especially at his big sister and he is super active - he kicks, rolls, and scoots everywhere these days! We love you so much little man! We are excited to celebrate your first Christmas.

 

 

Christmas Train

Over the weekend we went to see the Christmas train at Olbrich gardens with our friends Erinn and Charlotte. Lucy and Charlotte visited the train together last year too so I guess that it is officially a tradition now! :)

The girls were so excited to see the trains. So cute - holding hands!

 

The train weaves its way through poinsettias and other seasonal plants.

Lucy was captivated!

Roman enjoyed the scene as well - here he is in the front pack with Mama.

 

I had to include this picture - only in Wisconsin at a Christmas event for children would there be a beer sponsor! Haha! Apparently Santa's train has a car filled with Miller High Life.

 

Choo choo!  

Gingerbread Man

We went to a Gingerbread Man event at our local library last weekend. Lucy had a great time.

First we listened to stories about cookies and watched a movie about the Gingerbread Man - both activities were huge hits. :)

 

 

Then the kids had the opportunity to decorate (and eat!) their own Gingerbread men.

 

Lucy very carefully put eyes and buttons on her little guy. She also sampled some of the decorative candies and frosting along the way!

 

Here is the finished product:

 

It was delicious!!

Here is a video of Lucy decorating her cookie!

 

Getting ready for Christmas

Here are a few photos of our holiday happenings!

 

We went to Fired Up Pottery a few weekends ago to make some Christmas ornaments. I was super excited to have both of the kids participate. Wrong.

 

Roman was happy to do some painting with his sweet little toes. I don't have a picture of him at Fired Up but he pretty much looked like this:

Peaceful and content to paint.

 

Lucy on the other hand threw a fit!! Absolutely freaked out about having her hand touch paint. She screamed like she was getting shots at the doctors office. Ugh! Meanwhile the store was filled with pleasant people making ceramics, nice groups of ladies drinking wine and making jewelry, and Miss Lucy definitely did not add to the ambiance with her cries. Oh well! So we aborted mission and ended up having Lucy do some painting with a brush instead. Maybe one day she'll ask me why only Roman has his prints on the ornament for 2013...

 

Our sad girl at Fired Up Pottery, I think that you can still see the tear streaks on her face! :(

 

Winter Wonderland! We have gotten a few snowfalls in Madison this season. I love snow at Christmastime but I have had a couple of horrible commutes due to weather recently. Not fun!

 

Lucy enjoys the snow. She gets really excited to see snow falling outside. Here she is playing while her Dad shovels the sidewalk.

 

 

We have a few advent calendars and Christmas countdowns this year. Lucy love, love, loves these things. She can't wait to open little windows and attach stickers each evening. This tree is from Grandma Nola and Grandpa Ken. It lives on our refrigerator and each night Lucy puts new stickers on it - little stars, Xmas lights, holly, or items from the Nativity. She gets so excited to do this and as soon as we get home each night she runs to find her tree and message for the day! Thank you for putting this together, Grandma Nola!

 

 

We have lots of Christmas and wintry books to read this time of year at the Storm household. Here is Daniel reading with Lucy. So sweet! Her favorite book this year is Santa Mouse. A Classic! That used to be my favorite too. :)

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Roman is laughing

We are starting to get our first baby giggles and laughs from Mr. Roman! It is so much fun! Here is a quick video of our little guy laughing.

 

 

More Stories and Sweets!

We went to our monthly installment of Stories and Sweets at Hawthorne Library on Saturday! Lucy loves going to these special story hours. She gets a treat, stories, crafts, and a short movie -- All of her favorites. :)

 

Here is Lucy Bear - excited to get started!

 

 

A donut hole and milk! No better treat on a Saturday morning.

 

As you can see, Lucy was super excited for Ms Tracy's flannelgraph story.

 

Ugh - Lucy has been chewing on her hands quite a bit lately. She is f-i-n-a-l-l-y getting her incisors. Again - we have a super late teether! The average kiddo gets their incisors at 16 to 18 months and here we are at 25 months and you can just see a few tiny while nubs for teeth! Maybe we'll have 2 year molars by the time Lucy turns 3? :)

 

 

Lucy is 25 months old

Over the weekend, our Lucy Bear turned 25 months old! She is doing great. We recently had conferences with her teachers at day care and they reported that she is a joy to have in their class, that she is very caring and respectful of the other kids, and that she is a good listener. (Which was good to hear -- sometimes we need to work on those listening ears at home! haha!) Lucy recently moved from the Younger Toddlers to the Older Toddlers Room at Big Oak and the transition was a little bit rough. There is a lot more activity in the Older Toddler Room and she was very used to being the little boss of the Younger Toddlers - she was the oldest kiddo in there for the last 5 months. Now she is the youngest child in the room! We had some sad drop offs and tears for the first couple of weeks but now she is doing very well in her new room. She is learning all kinds of new things and going on field trips once a month, riding the city bus to places like the Childrens Museum or the Central Library. The other day she came home from day care singing the lyrics to What Does the Fox Say (If you are not familiar with this phenomenon - here is the link to the You Tube Video). Daniel wasn't aware of the video so, it is official, at 2 years old our child knows more about pop culture and viral videos than her Dad. :)

 

Lucy is very excited about Christmas this year. She requests Christmas music in the car and shouts with joy whenever she sees Christmas lights. She can't wait to see her grandparents and her cousins when we go to the Dakotas for the holidays. She asks about our upcoming travels everyday as we do her various advent calendars and Christmas countdowns. Here are some pictures of Lucy sporting a pair of her Christmas pajamas with 'Polka Ots' as she calls them and 'Bucks!' She calls all reindeer bucks. :)

                                          

 

Hunting for Rubber Duckies...

Lucy got some new bath toys for her birthday so she has been enjoying her tub time a lot lately!

 

 

Including the extra bubbles! Thanks for the bubble bath, Auntie Amelia and Uncle Brian!

 

One thing that Lucy has been doing a lot of lately is 'hunting'. :) I think that she hears her Daddy talk about it and has decided that it sounds like fun! The other day her daycare provider told us that she put on the tutu from the dress up clothes and told them that she was "Going hunting with Mommy!" Haha!

 

Here is a quick video of Lucy hunting for rubber duckies and bucks in the bath! Love it.

 

100 days of Roman

Here are some recent pictures of Roman commemorating that he has been with us for 100 days!

 

Roman's first one hundred days have been busy! He has been all over Madison, he made 2 trips to Rhinelander with us, he attended his auntie's wedding, he has been to a couple of 2 year old birthday parties, and he has been to 3 states. He loves his activity mat and he is just starting to reach for things and grasp objects. Roman can roll and scoot like a champ! The other day Dan was out of town so I had Roman on his activity mat while I prepared dinner for Lucy. When I went to get him, he was totally missing from his mat. I have to admit that my heart started pounding for a few seconds until I spotting him chilling under the coffee table - super happy and proud of himself!!

 

Roman on his activity mat

 

 

Hanging out in the Bumbo chair

Love this little guy!! 

Roman's Baptism

We celebrated sweet Roman's baptism over Thanksgiving weekend! We attended the Saturday evening church service for the big event. We were so happy that our family from the Dakotas and Minnesota were able to attend!

 

 

Here we are during the service. Roman's godparents are Kevin and Katie and Brian and Amelia. Cousins Anna and Peter, big sister Lucy and Elmo also joined us up front. :)

 

Our family with Pastor Swanson

 

Thanks for finding Lucy's sweet little dress, Grandma Sharon! It is remarkably difficult to find a little girl's dress that is not over the top Christmas this time of year!

 

Another photo of our little family

 

Look at this beautiful little boy!! Roman is wearing the same outfit that Daniel wore for his Baptism more than 30 years ago! We are lucky that it still fits our little guy! A few more weeks and I don't think that he could have squeezed in it. The tag does say 9 months but I think that 9 months in 1979 was a lot smaller than it is today! Haha! Roman is cuddling in the blanket that Great Grandma Storm made for Lucy's baptism. So sweet.

 

We are so blessed to have this little boy!

Here we are with Kevin and Katie

 

And Brian and Amelia

 

And now with all of Roman's sponsors!

 

 

Here is the extended Storm family...

And all of the Hoekmans (minus Dad!). Unfortunately, Dad started feeling sick on Saturday morning and was unable to attend the service! He was there in spirit! Some sort of bug was going around because, by Monday - Austin, Mom and Katie all got sick as well. Kind of strange but awesome that none of the kids got sick. We were all very thankful that the kiddos stayed healthy.

Grandma Sharon with all of her grandbabies. We'll have to photo shop Dad into the picture so that they can use these pictures for Christmas cards!

 

 

 

Little Roman with his grandmas

 After the service we all had dinner together along this delicious cake for dessert! Yum! Lucy was in heaven - she at several bites of her Uncle Brad and Auntie Amelia's pieces of cake. :)

 

 

Roman was such a good boy - he napped peacefully through the entire service and the actual Baptism. During dinner and gift opening he was quite alert!

 

He received this great little hat from Kevin, Katie, and the kids.

 

Our bright eyed little boy! We love you Roman!

I know that I say this a lot but Daniel, the kids, and I are so lucky to have such an awesome family! Thanks to everyone for traveling to Wisconsin for this special event! We love you!