Counting our Blessings

I will be the first to admit that lately, some days go by without me being thankful for the gift of Owen that God brought into my life.  The terrible two's can be trying on your patience and Paul has been traveling so much, that it has been me dealing with a little boy that is independent and doesn't want to listen.

This morning, at Christmas mass, the homily touched my heart so deeply that  I cried through most of the rest of mass.  Our priest spoke of a young couple that he got to know at a prior church.  He married them, baptized their first baby, then walked a hard journey with them as they welcomed and said good-bye to their second baby - a little boy named Owen who was born prematurely and spent many weeks in the NICU.  Father Mike baptized him in his isolette at Children's and then gave him his last rights. 

Owen kept hearing his name during the story and said, "Me? Me Mama?"  Thank God that it wasn't about you buggy!  God blessed us and this world with an incredible little boy and I am so grateful that our story turned out differently than it could have.  We are SO LUCKY and we believe in miracles.

That being said, here are some fun photos from this Christmas morning!

Cookies and apple juice for Santa and a bowl of water for Rudolph in case he got thirsty

He came!  Santa came! 

 Finding goodies in his stocking

 Gifts for Mommy and Daddy too!

 WOW!  A construction set!

 And some tools!

 Who doesn't need two saws at once?

 Bubble wrap is pretty fun too!

 And the best present...Fireman Sam on a LeapPad!

 Playing construction site with Daddy

 

 Merry Christmas everyone!  We hope you have a safe, happy and healthy 2013!  Hug your kiddos and don't stop believing in miracles. :)

The Adventures of Jolly

Our elf, Jolly, has made his way right into our home and into Owen's heart!  He loves Jolly and each morning, he runs downstairs calling, "Jolly!  Jolly!  Where are you Jolly?"  I think he'll be sad on Christmas that Jolly had to stay at the North Pole.  We didn't really use Jolly to "threaten" him to be good, we had him go tell Jolly when he did something nice.  His favorite thing to tell Jolly was, "I no go pee in my pants Jolly!"

 I should have taken more photos of Jolly's resting spots, but I didn't think about it until the last few days.  Jolly has turned up on the lamp, in the Christmas tree, on a toy motorcycle, by our stockings, holding baby Jesus from our nativity set, in a wreath, baking with spices, eating Cheerios (he even wrote HI OWEN in Cheerios on the counter that day!), hanging from a light over the island....what a crazy elf!  Here are a few other funny spots that Jolly has been.

Trying to reel in the BIG one!

 Weeeeee!  Ziplining from the railing upstairs

Our First Holidazzle Parade

Today was such a fun day!  We woke up with cinnamon rolls and cheesy eggs, stayed in our jammies and played with some of the new toys that Owen has gotten for Christmas so far.  We played Chutes and Ladders, read some books and....

 He was a fire fighter!  Thanks Jen and Eric for the outfit and Laurie and Scott for the fire truck!

 

Santa came for Mommy in the form of a delivery man, dropping off some shelves for the living room.  I was VERY excited!  After nap, the Withers family paid us a lovely visit.  We played, enjoyed some pizza, opened gifts and then it was off to the Holidazzle parade!

 

Livia, Owen and Sophia

 Tickle Monster paws!

 Daddy and Owen waiting for the parade to start

 "Hot Seats" are the way to go!  We dressed way too warm, not knowing what to expect.  We had to take off our hats, mittens and coats because it was so warm in the tent.

 Thanks Withers family for a great evening!

 

Owen's First Christmas Program

Tonight was Owen's first Christmas program and I have to hand it to Heidi - she did a great job, considering her performers were 5 and under!  Unfortunately, Owen had a rough nap and was still asleep when all of the moms and dads started arriving for the program.  We woke him and quickly got him changed and then it was time to perform, so he was groggy and grouchy.  He wasn't sure what to think about all of those people there.  Some kids cried and sat on their parents' laps.  He wasn't quite that bad, but he sat quietly for a lot of the program trying to wake up.

Litte Star Daycare Performers

 "Owen took the cookie from the cookie jar!"  "Who me?  Couldn't be!"

 Owen and Gavin sat with their fingers by their mouths for a lot of the program!

 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!

 Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles

 Not so sure about this Rudolf getup

 "Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say...."

 "And when they placed it on his head, he began to dance around...."

 Daddy and O about to enjoy a cookie after the big performance

Heidi and the gang

 We stopped at Gerten's afterwards and Owen loved the lights

 ...And the fake reindeer inside the store!

Daycare Days

Heidi has a website where she posts the monthly calendars, newsletters and the best part...photos of the kids playing each day.  I am so glad that she does that so we get a sneak peek into what his days are like while he's there.  Here are some photos from October and November.

 

Orange Day

 Making Halloween masks

 Celebrating Madison's 4th birthday "Silly Style"

 Playing outside

 Hat day

 Learning how to make brown on brown day

 On a field trip to see a magician - Owen even go to pet his bunny!

Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!

We've been reading lots of books about Frosty, Rudolph and Santa at our house lately, so Owen was very excited to have breakfast with Santa and some of our friends this morning.  I think he was equally excited because Ronda sewed a very special costume for him to wear.  In fact, he was upset that he had to put on "real" clothes to go to the party!

It was a very special day and I have to say, we are blessed with some of the most amazing friends.  We are so very lucky and don't go a day without being grateful for each and every one of them. 

Dance party with Santa

 One very proud little elf!

 I think the costume brings out the mischief in him!  Ben and Norah are adorable, as always!

 Quite possibly my favorite pic of the day....look at those cute knees!

 It's a Christmas Miracle!  I don't know that we have any other picture over the 3 years of all three smiling.

 Love this pic of Sully

 Owen gave Ronda the funniest look when she sat on Santa's lap.

 Is that a real beard Santa?

 What a special gift Ronda made for Owen!  We'll treasure it!

 A little after-party chat

SNOW!

It's been a pretty exciting weekend for the Mordorski family!  Friday night was fun for all - Owen went to spend time with Nana and Papa and Paul and I went to his work Christmas party.  Since we didn't have Owen and the weather was kind of icky, I decided to surprise Paul with an overnight stay at the W in Minneapolis.  We've been to Manny's and to the lounge in the W before, but we've not been in the hotel.  It's very pretty!  We ate breakfast on Saturday at Hell's Kitchen, then picked up Owen and headed to see Disney on Ice.  I probably wouldn't have bought tickets to the show, but one of my radio reps gave them to me, so we thought we'd check it out. 

O was really interested when Mickey, Minnie and Donald came out, but then there was about 25 minutes of princesses and he lost interest.  Then he discovered how the seat of his chair flipped up and down and that is pretty much all he wanted to do until Buzz and Woody came on.  Oh, and he took Woody's hat on and off a hundred times too!  Thankfully he's not quite the age yet where he wanted EVERYTHING because they charge $15 for a sno cone - yes a sno cone!!!

This morning we played puppy for about an hour.  That entails Paul or me on all fours taking commands and being asked if we want a bone.  It's pretty cute and he is very sweet to the "puppy."  Then we got bundled up and went out to play in the snow  We tried to make a snowman, but the snow wasn't sticky enough.  I taught O how to make snow angels and he was LOVING it out there!!!

Having a snowball fight with daddy

 Snow angels

 Caught this cute pic of my boys watching football, enjoying popcorn

 Hi Mommy!