New Years Eve - Bring on 2011!

Ok, you may think we are crazy but we let Gwen stay up to celebrate New Years and see the ball drop. Not in person...maybe this coming year we can do that, but on TV for sure. She loved it. You could tell she was getting tired in the end but once the count down started and she put her hat on and held her horn, she was totally pumped!





Our neighbor below us actually turned us in for being "too loud" and having a "loud kid" the next day so that was rude of him, but we don't care, she wasn't loud - he is an angry drunk who no one wants to be around so whatever, can't stop the Wright family fun :)

Anyways - here are some CUTE pics of Gwen on New Years Day listening to Daddy's music on his headphones. She loves them. Actually I think we are going to need to get her some for her Bday because she thinks they are super cool.

Christmas 2010 in New Jersey

Like I mentioned in a previous post, we stayed in NJ this year for Xmas. It was fun but we missed our family and friends a lot. Luckily we did get to spend some quality time with Mike & Randi and their kids, Allyson and Owen and their immediate families on Christmas Day at their house. Gwen even met santa and FINALLY got over her fear of him. It was cute.

I have to say Gwen was sooooo spoiled I cannot even believe it. Well ok I can, Jason and I felt so bad that she didn't get to have any other family members around that we made it so that she could have an amazing Christmas and I believe we nailed that on the head! She is still finding new toys and books to play with from Xmas and it's March right now!(*probably can't do that if we have more kids, sorry Gwen!)

Enjoy some pics from her opening of gifts...it took quite a long time to do, HA!

And I didn't get pics of each gift that was open so I am sorry if I didn't catch the one "you" may have sent - she was showered with gifts and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! She truly loved them all :)

Gwen put out a carrot and some cookies & milk for Santa and his reindeer the night before. The next morning she ran into the living room - totally missing the mounds of presents - and went straight for that plate of goodies to see if it was gone. She saw it and said "Is All Gone! Gone!" and was so excited. Yes Gwen, Santa did make it to our location even though the pizza guy can't find it.



The HUGE stocking of mine has been passed on to Gwen...I am really not sure about this because - once again - can you imagine all our kids having 3 foot stockings?!?! Santa would go crazy!



This was the remaining pile after her stocking was finished and Santa gifts were open...





Uncle Steve, Aunt Cissy and her cousins Aaron, Amari, Aman and Logan sent a gift card to Toys R Us and she got a Little People Train set (she LOVES trains)



Uncle Tom, Aunt Kim and her cousins Ryan and Riley sent a gift card to Kohls - she got loads of clothes from that gift card!



Just a few of the items we bought with Grandma and Grandpa Miller's money they sent for Gwen. It's a princess tray and a magna doodle!



Daycare made these and sent them home with the parents. They were wrapped and we kept ours wrapper until Christmas day :) It is the most perfect gift ever.



Kyle and Heather come through with another larger than life stuffed animal! (Last year was Spiderman) and Gwen could not be happier with her Buzz :)



One of the many adorable outsifts from Grandma and Grandpa Carter - she LOVES the heart hoodie, it's hard to get her out of it!



Jason's gift from his brother Shane and Sis in law Niki...he is grinning ear to ear!



Grandma & Grandpa Wright and Uncle Gene sent this for me...I LOVE IT!



I couldn't help it - even with our whole "no buying gifts for eachother" rule...I had to get Jason his favorite hockey player's jersey (cheap from China, I rule!) and he wears it all the time...I am not kidding. It's Kovalchuk from the NJ Devils.



Jason got a hoodie from his parents and is thrilled to have more IOWA stuff out here in NJ...we need to represent!



Jason also didn't listen to the rule, lol - he got me an Iowa shirt and a movie...perfect gifts :)






Day after Christmas - 12-26-10 - the first snow of the season in NJ and we got over 15 inches! Snow Day!!! No work, no school...classified as a State of Emergency. Gwen thought the snow was cool, too. I can imagine this might be the first time she actually rememebers snow from here on out because last year she was too small when we want back to the snow cover state of Iowa, hehe.



We made waffles in the AM (Gwen did all the mixing) and then played all day long, it was awesome and relaxing.




Later that night Jason had to go and dig our car out of not only the snow from the whole day, but also the plow that comes up our hill and has no where to put the snow since it's a dead end so they just plow us in...it's GREAT! We didn't have a shovel or gloves for him at that time so here he is in his make shift winter "dig your car out" gear. :)

Furry hat, 2 shirts + 1 sweatshirt, leather jacket, women's gloves (mine), boots and a Dollar Store trash can as a shovel...needless to say it took him a while but he did find a neighbors shovel and used it so it went a lot faster in the end. I love him.

Our little girl is getting big!

Leading up to Christmas Eve 2010

Because of the wedding and all the time off I had to take for the planning and the actual big day I didn't have any more time off allowed and quite frankly I am still negative 18 hours, OOPS! So that being said, we had Christmas at home in NJ this year! We kept meaning to get into the city but Gwen got sick in December and on top of that, we actually had a pretty bad winter here this year. The worst since we have moved here. I would compare it to a noraml Iowa winter but we have gotten pretty soft living here with winters...I was actually complaining about being cold and it was only 30 out...not even negatives, HA!

We went to a little place called Santa Land in Denville, NJ. Denville is a small quaint town that kind of reminds me of Pella in a way. We love it and wanted to live there but it's rare to find a place open up and on top of that it is expensive. They have fun little festivals and cobble stoney streets with cute shops. We visit often. We took Gwen to their Santa Land which was created buy their Rotary club...I was trying to NOT be judgemental but I was expecting a bit more or at least better art but hey, Gwen liked it and that is all that matters.












Gwen also got numerous gifts sent to her from both families in Iowa. If it was a gift certificate we tried to buy something with it so she had something to open (which was perfect) and if it was presents we just shoved them under the tree...needless to say - the tree was packed!!! (90% of those gifts are for GWEN)



Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Gene sent their gifts and Great Gma/Gpa and Uncle Gene's gifts in a big box and Gwen and I turned it into a house one snow day while Jason was slaving away on his work...it was fun, even Eddie enojoyed playing in it although Gwen did not approve him being in there at times.






For Christmas Eve we decided to make my parents version of Potato Cheese soup (which is the most amazing soup ever) and we ended up having soup for 4 days which was fine with all of us! We cook all the time now because our new pots and pans are the best ever and we feel professional when we use them, HA! Oh yea, even Gwen helped "clean" the dishes...





Our Christmas Eve Dinner Family Photo



Can't forget Eddie :)



We let Gwen open 1 present on Christmas Eve and she ended up picking Grandma and Grandpa Wright and Uncle Gene's present. It was a baby doll and she was from that moment on, attached to it like glue!

Mobile blogging!

Sweet! We can now blog from our phones! The wonders of internet on our phones, instant news about Gwen! Well, kinda instant, I'm a bit slow with staying up to date...sorry. well here is the first attempt of uploading a pic from our phone to our blog...

It's called Gwen-a-bet soup!

Gwen says her prayers now before she goes to bed and it is so cute I had to video it. I posted this on our YouTube channel as well.The part at the end is something I used to say when I was little "God Bless everybody I know and they know" and to hear her say that is precious.

Snow White

This is just too funny to not post. Sometimes Gwen puts her "s" on the end of words that start with "S". Not with all words with S, but a few.
Examples are:
Scared = Careds
Spill = Pills

So anyways, last night we were reading her Princess ISpy book and she pointed to Snow White and asked me "Who This?" and I said, "Snow White" and she said, "Nose Wipe" and I about died laughing. I laughed so hard I cried a little and Gwen was very confused..."What wrong mommy?" and I had to assure her I was not sad, only laughing at her hilarity.

Nose Wipe. I wish I had caught it on tape...I will try tonight :)