Dog Training

Secret Santa Party

We had a Secret Santa party at our house on December 26th with all of Mommy's friends from college and their kids.  Here's an action shot of the kiddos loving the playset.

Posing for pictures isn't as easy as it used to be for Mommy and her friends!  Tommy, Mommy, Auntie Kimmy, Robby, Brenda and me.

Tommy and his baby buddy, Henry. 






Group photo!

From left back row: The Alexanders (Danielle, Luke, Scott, and baby Carmela), the Pete and Brenda Mueller, The Borgs (Kristine, Miles, baby Henry, and Dustin), Mommy.
From left front row:  The Buntens (Stacy, baby Kate, and CJ), Jake Alexander, Evan and Isaac Mueller, Me, Daddy, and Tommy, and the Kowalewskys (Andy, Lizzy, Auntie Kimmy, and Robby)

We all had lots of fun playing together, and so did the grown-ups.

Miles is still my best buddy... 

But everyone was really fun to play with.  I like this picture because it shows our yard being used to its full potential: Luke and Isaac swinging, Miles going down the slide, Robby playing baseball, and Evan, Tommy, CJ, Lizzy, and me in the tube. FUN!

After playing we went in for a snack... 

And a little playtime with my toys.  What a fun Christmas weekend!

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day Nana, Uncle Stuart and Kyle came over.  We opened some presents, like these books I gave to Tommy...

And this cool dinosaur pop-up book I got from Mom and Dad.

Tommy and Kyle shared/ate their toys...

And I showed off my animal hand stamp puppets from Santa.

We played a little basketball...

Enjoyed the nice weather...

Then went back in to open more presents!

Tommy liked Mom's Star Wars lunch box...

And Kyle and I couldn't be kept away from Tommy's puffs...

Even when Dad tried to shake them out of me.   

Tommy liked his new monkey towel that Nana made for him.

After all that excitement, we needed a little downtime in front of the TV. 

Then it was time for cake!  Nana made an R2D2 cake for Mommy and Tommy's birthdays.  The force was strong with us this year!

We had so much fun opening presents on Christmas Eve!  My favorite was my puppy playset from Grandma and Grandpa!

We had a nice dinner together (you can almost see me over the glasses in the back)...










And then had some fun with Dad's new remote control helicopter.  I'm not sure that Chewy thought it was as funny as we did...

Then I left a note for Santa.  I told Mom to write, "Dear Santa, We want these cookies to be yours because I love you".  Then I signed my name.  And look!  He even ate most of them!  This is what we found in the morning.

Tommy and Daddy were excited to look in their stockings...

And so was I, though you can't tell by this look on my face. 

This is a better representation.

I got a test tube with a little dinosaur in it that grows in water, animal stickers to put on my hands and use as puppets...

And this cool Pocoyo racetrack toy, that I'm told I have to share with Tommy if I want Santa to come back next year.  Sigh...

Christmas Eve Day at the Beach

We went to the beach on Christmas Eve day, because that's what you can do in California.  We could not keep Tommy away from the waves.  

He's a beach baby!

Grandma and Grandpa decided to watch and enjoy the waves...

While we went for a little frolic.

Tommy's First Birthday

Tommy is 1 year old!  He got all kinds of neat toys, like this bouncer:

I got to help him open all his presents...

 

Chewy tried to help too, as you can see from the nose in this picture.

Later that night we went out to dinner.

I wasn't thrilled about all the picture taking...

But I did like the ketchup.

Tommy was ready for his second dive into birthday cake.

And he didn't disappoint.

Happy birthday, Tom Tom Frog!  We love you!

PS: Is there something on my nose?