We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!!!!

During the week of Christmas, we traveled on our third and final family vacation for 2010.  But before we left on our trip, we celebrated an early Christmas dinner and opened gifts with family on my side.

This year we started a new tradition exchanging cookies and having a contest of who made the Best Cookie!  There were many great entries into the cookie contest and so full of creativity too!  We all voted for the best overall cookie, and I am happy to say that Derek and I won for 2010!  Woohoo!!!  We made these delicious Mint Oreo truffles!

The rolling pin trophy was given to the winner for 2010, Derek and I, and we will bring it back next year for the 2011 contest!  It will be passed along to the next year's winner....unless of course we win 2 years in a row!  :)

The week of Christmas we spent time with Derek's family in Philadelphia.  One night we decided to travel into downtown Philly to eat at Bobby Flay's restaurant named Bobby's Burger Palace.  The food was amazing!  We watch him all the time on the Food Network channel, so naturally we were curious to visit his restaurant!

We also went ice skating one day during that week.  Logan just finished taking his second ice skating lesson, so he wanted to show Papa and Nanny how well he could skate now!  Another day we took a train ride to this cute little place called Media!  We walked through the shops and ate lunch at one of the restaurants.  This is a tradition that Derek remembers doing every year at Christmas time when he was younger, so he wanted to share it with his kids.  What a fun tradition!  :)

Lastly, at the end of our trip it was finally Christmas day!!!  The kids were getting anxious all week to open their presents since Christmas fell on the last full day we were in Philly.  Here is a picture of them Christmas morning ready to open their gifts!

Logan was so blessed and got almost everything he wanted this year!  Elise had a great time opening her gifts, but halfway through she was tired of having to move on to the next present.  She wanted to just be able to sit and play with each toy as she opened it.

Overall we made many great memories with both of our families and had tons of fun!  Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving in Arizona

So we didn't take a vacation during the summer like we normally do, but instead we have been planning all our traveling during these last 4 months of the year.  Between buying and moving into a new house, and then taking our scheduled trips at the end of the year, we have been super busy lately!

Over Thanksgiving week, we planned a visit to see my Dad in Arizona.  They moved down to the warm weather, which is great because now we have someplace warm to visit when it's cold up here in the North!  Our trip just happened to be during a little colder week for what they typically have, so the weather was only a high in the 60's during the day.  But I would take that anyday over snow, which I heard Ohio had while we were gone.

We did some sightseeing around the city of Phoenix.  Saw LOTS of cactus, which were pretty interesting!  We took a picture next to one that was at least 3 times taller than we were!  Mountains surround the entire city and it's such a beautiful view!  When the sun sets, the mountains display the most amazing colors!

One day while we were there, we planned a train ride through canyons north of Phoenix.  The views were breathtakingly beautiful!  The train ride was 4 hours long round trip, and we rode through very remote areas of Arizona.  We saw an eagle's nest tucked onto a rock ledge, heard history stories of the area, and viewed the rock formations.  We took some amazing pictures, went through a cool tunnel, and enjoyed our first train ride through the countryside!

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all the things we are thankful for, and this trip really showed God's artwork in His beautiful creation!  Among many other things, I am so thankful for that!  God is good!

Overall, we had a great visit!  The grandparents were able to see how much Elise had grown in the past 8 months!  Lots of fun!!

Disney World Trip

What a trip!  We spent 6 fun filled days in Orlando, Florida during mid October on a family vacation to Disney World!!!

This was a first time trip to Disney for everyone except me and my husband.  Derek's parents, my cousin Kristen, and the four of us all went on this trip together.  I must say, Disney World parks are super crowded and yet at the same time the smoothest experience EVER visiting an amusement park.  We thought October would be less crowded than the summer months, and boy were we wrong!  With the Halloween celebrations at Magic Kingdom and the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, we still had to fight the crowds and wait in long lines.

Four of our six day vacation were spent visiting the Disney parks!  We had found a GREAT deal on a 3-bedroom condo only 5 minutes from the parks, which turned out to be sooo nice for our big group!

Out of all the rides and roller coasters we went on, we thought that the Rock-n-Roller Coaster was by far the BEST ride out of them all!!

Here are some pictures of our trip.  Enjoy!

Summer 2010

Has it really been 4 months since my last post??

We had a very busy summer this year, and I am finally catching up on our blog!  To recap some of the highlights from our summer, we celebrated birthday month in June, had some of our family visit us from Philadelphia, and took the kids to Kings Island for a fun filled day!!  Many more fun times in between, however, I will not try to list them all.

Here is a fun photo of Derek blowing out his birthday candles this year!  The kids were both ready to help him.  :)

Papa and Nanny Santan came to visit from Philly for Derek and Logan's birthdays!  We loved having them here!!

Logan had his 8th birthday this year and we celebrated it with a Super Mario themed pool party!  He had some school and church friends, along with several family members, join him to celebrate his birthday!  He received some great gifts, but his absolute favorite present was his iPod touch!!!

Derek's sister Wendy, her husband Chris, and daughter Avery (and little baby boy in her belly) came to visit us from Philly over the 4th of July weekend!  We went to watch the Dublin parade, and the kids had tons of fun playing in the water at the splash park!!  The cousins got along great and had so much fun playing together!

Another fun day this past summer was the day we took the family to Kings Island!!!  Logan loved all the roller coasters so much (even the huge hills and upside down ones), and Derek conquered his fear of them!  And little Elise just loved to see Snoopy!  The kids rides and play area all were a Snoopy theme, and we also went to the Snoopy Rocks on Ice show!  She just loved it all!!!

There were many fun memories this summer, in which I cannot even begin to name them all, and we are now on to the new school year again.  Logan has started 3rd grade this year!  Next month Elise is getting ready to move up to the next class at daycare, she will be 18 months already!

Looking forward, we have a fun family vacation planned to Disney World next month!  Yea!!!  We are SO excited!  Look for a blog post on our Disney trip soon!

One & Tutu Cute!

Elise is ONE!!!

Wow!  I can't believe a year has passed already.  It feels like yesterday when I was bringing her home from the hospital.  Here is her newborn picture so that you can see how much she has changed!

For her birthday party, we dressed her in a cute little pink and purple tutu that I had made for the occasion!  The party was at our house and kept very simple since she would not participate in very many activities at this age.

Elise absolutely LOVED opening all her presents!  I was very impressed with her as she had so much excitement opening every present, and did not get tired at all like she had during her Christmas presents.

My other favorite part of the day was watching Elise eat her birthday cake!  She didn't know what to do with the candle when we lit it...Daddy ended up blowing the candle out for her.  With her dainty little touches and grabs, she ate the icing off the top of the cake and barely made it to the actual cake itself.  She did not like having the sticky icing all over her fingers, so she had to lick it all off her fingers before digging into the cake for the next bite.  :)

Since my last post at 9 months old, she has grown so much in many ways!  These are some of the milestones she's had since the last update, plus some of my favorite memories:

• Started taking steps while holding on to our hands (but still not crawling, standing, or walking on her own yet).
• Had three new teeth come in -- now has six total.
• Her hair is growing in, curly I might add, and I can now pull her hair up in pig tails!
• She scoots and turns around in a circle when sitting.
• Learned to drink from a straw.
• Slept on her stomach for the first time.
• Had her ears pierced for her 1st Birthday!
• Favorite song is "Patty Cake"
• Loves to clap and dance!
• Has a BIG sweet tooth -- her favorite by far is ice cream!
• Loves watching Daddy play hockey in the driveway!
• Throws her food on the ground for Bella to eat and says "Uh oh!"
• Does a very cute little whine that is one of my favorite sounds!!
• Drinks from a sippy cup, and eats table food almost every meal.
• I started calling Elise's sunglasses her "cool dudes" and it's funny that she knows what we're talking about!  :)
• We have many fun baby talk conversations almost every day! 
• She LOVES her big brother Logan...he entertains her all the time.
• Bath time is one of her favorites -- she enjoys splashing in the water and playing with her rubber ducky!

I am enjoying all the great memories we are having as a family of four!  Elise is such a joy and she brings a smile to all of our faces each and every day!  God has blessed me and my family so much, and I wouldn't trade any of them for the world!

We have Elise's 1 year doctor's appointment this week, so we will find out how much she's grown in the past 3 months!

Next up...Derek and Logan's birthdays!  Stay tuned...

April Fools Prank!

Dinner tonight was a success!

On the menu for Logan we had cherry kool-aid, grilled cheese sandwiches, and strawberry pie for dessert!  Or is it really?

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

The kool-aid is actually jello!  The grilled cheese sandwich is actually pound cake with icing!  And the strawberry pie is actually meatloaf and mashed potatoes!

Best of all....it tasted pretty good too!  We totally had him tricked.  It was great!

Happy April Fool's Day everyone!

Spring is here!

Now that the weather is warming up and the sun is shining, we are trying to spend as much time as possible outside!  Here are some pictures from this week at the park!  Love it!!

Wedding Day

Jon & Stephanie were married yesterday!!!  They had a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception with a great dinner and dancing!

Stephanie, welcome to the family!  

We are so happy for you both!  Congratulations and God bless your marriage!  

Have fun on your honeymoon in Hawaii!!!

Wedding Shower for Jon & Steph!

Well, after being rescheduled from the original date because of a snow storm, we had a successful wedding shower for the happy couple!  And, the wedding is now only 2 weeks away!!!

I planned a tropical theme for their shower because they will be spending their honeymoon in Hawaii!  It just seemed fitting!

The shower was for both Jon and Stephanie, so I wanted to do something fun to have them both be involved!  I found this great idea to "practice" feeding each other cake for their wedding!  The catch?  They had to feed each other without utensils and blindfolded!! It was GREAT!  They ended up having cake all over, and it was messy but oh so fun!

They were blessed with some great gifts from their registry, and we are very excited to help them start their marriage with all the things they needed for their home!

Congratulations Jon & Stephanie!  The wedding day will be here soon!  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We are having a wonderful family Valentine's weekend together!!

This year we decided to make homemade Valentine's treats!  I found this extremely easy recipe online that was great to make with kids!  So Logan and I spent some time yesterday making these yummy candies!

Just microwave the chocolate, put conversation hearts on top and chill!  So easy!!!

Once chilled, we cut into squares and wrapped them individually so that we can give them out to people.

I also found some very cool printable Valentine's cards online!  I was SO excited to find them!!!

We printed 3 different Valentine's cards this year to give out to our family and friends.  All you need is card stock, a color printer, and scissors.

Here is a photo of one of the Valentine's cards we printed online!  What a great idea, right?  I LOVE it!!!

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend!  

Enjoy!  :)

Love, The Santans

  

9 Months and Counting

Three months until Elise's 1st birthday!!  I'm already starting to plan her party...so much fun!

So, here we are at 9 months old with many more firsts that we have experienced since the last update.  Elise is growing leaps and bounds!  I just want to share some of the fun things she's doing right now:

• Has had 3 teeth come through and a 4th just about ready to break through any day now.
• First said "bye bye" and waved.
• Standing up with our help or by holding onto something.
• Celebrated her first Christmas and opened a present for the first time.
• Started clapping her hands.
• Daddy taught her to give high fives.
• Eating other table foods beside baby food - She has tried Cheerios, bread, bananas, yogurt, ice cream, cupcake, etc.
• Tries to dance along to music while she sits.
• Speaks baby talk all the time.
• Went swimming for the first time.
• Loves to play with her toys and listen to music.
• Still sleeps 10 - 12 hours each night and takes 2 or 3 naps a day.

We love her so much! She has brought such joy to our lives, and each day always brings something new and exciting!

This is the way we clap our hands

Just this week Elise started clapping her hands on her own -- it's so adorable!!!! I think her daycare is helping her learn to clap to songs and nursery rhymes, but we just noticed this week that she is now doing it on her own without help and without us asking her to!

Here's a cute short video of this:

There's so much more that she is starting to do at this age, but I will share more when I post her 9 month update soon. Stay tuned!

2009 Photo Shoot

Well, better late than never!

We have been "hiding" the photos we had taken of our family at the end of October 2009. Plus, we also had 6 month pics taken of Elise at the same time. We planned to give the photos as Christmas presents as well as use them on our Christmas card, so I didn't want to spoil it for them by posting online before they received them.

First, here are the photos we had taken of our beautiful girl Elise at 6 months old!! She was just starting to sit up on her own at this time, but she was a little unsteady still. OK, I have to admit I am such a girly mom....but I just absolutely LOVE the outfit we picked out for her pictures -- a cute, colorful sweater dress, with tights and matching shoes! This is definitely one of my favorite clothing finds! :)

Next, we have photos from our family shoot! Elise was getting tired by this point, so we don't have quite as many smiles out of her, but she still did very well. Logan always does so well smiling for the camera! The kids really interacted well in the photos of just the two of them as well!

Hope you enjoyed them! Next photo shoot will be for Elise's 1st birthday! Can't wait!!! :)