Vacation without Jay :(

So for Lorens birthday I surprised him with a trip for 2 to Steamboat Colorado. We were very excited for a chance to get away but anxious about leaving our little angel. Grandma Becky made it a little easier by coming a day early to get in the swing of things.

No note could have prepared her for her first nights adventure. As you know we live in the city and quite often random things happen around our home. After grandma put Jay to sleep she decided to retire to the couch to relax. She fell asleep on the couch only to be awaken by a sonic boom!!! Yup! once again someone blew up a garbage can in the alley behind our condo. She rose to her feet and ran to grab Jay as she was not sure what was going on. To her disbelief Jay slept thru the boom! She could not believe it. So she went to the back door to check things out and sure enough the smell of sulfur was strong in the air. I have heard this happen one time before and what ever they use to blow up the garbage cans is LOUD!!! Poor grandma and this was only the first night! Luckily that was the most excitement she had to deal with for the rest of her stay.

While we were on the slopes of Steamboat...

Our little angel was being loved very much by Grandma...

Cookies and Carols

Jay was invited to a "Cookies and Carols" party and oh what a party it was! My friend Bettina has 2 kids and every year she throws a holiday party. All i have to say is I have never seen more cookies or more holiday fun! I am not sure what our favorite part of the evening was...

Jay being introduced to a "holiday sweater"...

The band of "Cougars" singing Christmas carols...

Finding out my good friend Bettina is so musically talented...

Or just watching our little Jay take it all in...

It was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate the season with the whole family. Here are some other pics from the evening.

Babies Christmas Party

Jay had his babies first Christmas party on Sunday with all of his buddies, so much fun and so adorable!

This was what we saw when we walked in, 12 handmade stocking for all the babies...

Sydney and her mom Bianca did not miss a detail!! Their house looked amazing!!! Snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, handmade stocking for each baby, white furry snowballs for the kids to play with, a hand print ornament making station, a gift exchange, amazing food and way to many home made sweets! Bianca and Sydney were quite the hostesses!

Mom and her little snowflake...

Dad and Jay...

Jay and Mom being dorks...

Dad, Jay with party hostess Sydney and David...

Jay and his second time on Santa's lap this year!

Santa getting clobbered with 9 little Christmas elves...

Mr. Jay Raber doing "so big"...

Macy's Tree

Every day Jay is getting bigger and stronger. Any day now he will be crawling. As excited as we are to reach this major milestone we are a little nervous about how much it will change our daily routine. Jay has gotten some new "hand me down" toys from his cousins and he is loving them. They are "big boy toys where he can stand.

We had our playgroup last Thursday, wow are the kids getting big! Here he is at playgroup in a Bumbo seat eating.

Here is some of his crew...

As we were leaving the playgroup it was snowing and who wants to miss the photo op of baby's first snow? Not me!!!! To bad you cant tell its snowing :)

On Sunday we decided to make the trip downtown to see the Macy's Christmas tree. It was so fun seeing all the lights and people. Jay made sure he was bundled up!

Here's dad and Jay on State Street...

And finally, here we are in front of the famous tree...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A little help from dad...

Jay is crawling, okay, almost...

A run at the lake

Jay all bundled and snuggled in his new running stroller...

Thanksgiving

Jay loves to go shopping now that he is officially out of his first car seat and gets to sit in the cart. He loves looking around and grabbing for things as we go down the isles. I picked up some teething cookies and they were a big hit!

Here he is nibbling on one.

All that shopping can make a guy tired...

We had some last minute changes to our Thanksgiving plans and were able to go to the Quad Cities to visit Grandma and Gip Raber.

We had such a nice time and Jay got to do a lot of firsts...

First time in a bow tie (Thanksgiving day outfit)

First time petting Maggie (the dog)

First time eating with a fancy new place mat

First time eating Thanksgiving dinner. Here is his reaction to some of the fancy Thanksgiving dinner grandma made... so funny he is still getting used to the chunks in his food

First time sitting up at the table for breakfast with Gip

All of these firsts can make a little guy tired...

Unfortunately he caught a little bug on Thanksgiving and we had to keep the tissues close... poor little guy :(

So after our big Thanksgiving feast it was officially time to get into the Christmas spirit... Here Jay is in his new Christmas jammies with Gip

Before we left we stopped by Grandpa's office.

Here are 3 generations of Raber men...