Almost ready for Santa!

Two weeks ago Santa snuck into our house while we were all away for the day and left this message on my Computer for Haley!!! (takes a few seconds to load)

She LOVES this video and watches at least every night and every morning before school! While Santa was here he also snuck a small gift into hers and Noah’s stockings :-) Haley had been asking for Christmas PJs from Santa all year and look what he brought her!!! Slippers and all! Noah got a snack trap cup! I guess Santa really knows how much this little man loves his snacks....ha!






On December 10th, 2011 we started the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition here at the Lichtenberg house!!! Haley first wanted to name her Elf Emma after her best friend at school but we told her that her friend might get confused so she re-named hers and Noah's Elf "Goo Goose"! What a perfect name. Goo Goose has been closely watching Haley and Noah and so far so good! Goo Goose did get snowed in the other night due to a bad snow storm at the North Pole and wasn't able to make her trip back to Santa that night so she happened to stay in the same location for two days in a row ;-) Other than that she's been reporting back nightly!

On December 16th Haley, Macy and Makayla all got to go to North Carolina to ride the Polar Express!!!!! What an experience! The girls LOVED it and Haley's favorite part of the entire trip was the "Hot Chocolate" song and drink!! She loves it when they sing and dance to this song on the movie and of course the girl very much enjoys her hot chocolate :-) 2nd favorite was the ticket and her bell that Santa gave her!!! Thanks to Mimi and Grandpa for the girls matching PJs and robes to keep them warm! Mimi, Grandpa, Clayton, Noah, Gary and Mandy were all there too! We drove up there Friday afternoon for the big event and then stayed in a cabin that night! I think we are going to start making this a new tradition for as long as the kids still enjoy it! Renting the cabin was definitely the way to go as it allowed all of us to hang out and play together rather than staying in a hotel room. What a wonderful weekend to start the week of Christmas off!

Last night we started making our Christmas cookies! Those of you that know me well know that the packaged cookies are the ONLY way to go at my house :-) So off we went....Noah had chocolate brownie cookies with red and green Hershey's on them and Haley's were Christmas Sugar cookies! Both were delicious and kept the kids attention for just the right amount of time before they lost interest.

I also wanted to post a couple of pictures from Haley and Noah's first combined play date! How perfect that Haley's 2 best friends from school (Sophia and Emma) also have little brother (Will) and sisters (Audrey) Noah's age?!?! The six of them are the best of friends :-) At one point the 3 girls were up stairs playing and then all of a sudden they all came down dressed in Haley's PJs and their hair pulled back in clips and head bands...HAHAHA! They were so proud of themselves! Brings me back to the old days when i was a little girl! I know we've done that a time or two ;-)

SANTA!!!!

This is going to be such a FUN year!!! Haley could hardly stand the anticipation of seeing Santa!!! She was all giggles and smiles all morning long! Noah had no clue what we had in store for him....HA! Luckily Bass Pro Shop had several other activities to keep the kids entertained while we waited to see Santa. First we visited the North Pole, then Haley wrote her letter to Santa and mailed it to the North Pole in case Santa may have forgotten what she told him she wanted! She told me what she wanted to write and I told her how to spell it so that she could write the letter. Her list was as follows: Baby Doll, Percy (green Thomas the train), Princess Castle, and a King to go with the Castle. Of course she mentioned tonight that we need to send Santa an updated list as she's changed a few items :-)....typical girl!! The most important thing is that she realized that she couldn't just add to the list for Santa but she could swap things out if she wanted.
Finally it was Haley & Noah's turn to talk to Santa! Haley has been planning this conversation for a week or so now! Yes.....we have a screamer!! HAHAHA! I think that's almost the exact same reaction Noah had when he saw Papa dressed as Ernie for Halloween! After the picture we took Noah so that Haley could have a very serious conversation with Santa :-) She had a lot to tell him and wanted to make sure he was listening very carefully to her rather than her screaming little brother. The discussion was a success and Haley can't wait till Christmas morning! She continues to remind us that Santa said he'll be back soon with her gifts on Christmas morning! Until that time Haley and Noah are enjoying reading Christmas stories, singing Christmas songs and their new Christmas PJ's!

Two cute video's of Noah that I wanted to share....

• Noah's getting better and better with his walking! Noah started walking Monday night and this video was taken Wednesday night. It helps that he has such encouragement from his big sister!


• Noah sure loves stealing Grandma's drinks :-)

Baby Shower for Manace and Baby Jackson!!

Of course that precious little girl Manace is holding is not Jackson...he's still in her belly till around 2/11/12 but what an adorable belly his Mommy has in this picture :-) We had so much fun planning and celebrating for Jackson's arrival! Can't wait to meet this little man!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

In looking back over the past year I can't believe how blessed we have been! We are VERY grateful and continue to count our blessings every single day!! We have the most amazing Family and Friends and we are so thankful that you are all apart of our lives! Thanksgiving was spent at Mimi and Grandpa's house this year and Grandma, Papa, Melissa, Whit, Sheryl, Ryan, Gary, Mandy, Macy, Makayla, Smitty, Pattie and Angie all made the long distant travels to their house as well so we could celebrate as one big family! It was perfect! Of course we topped of Thanksgiving with our usual Black Friday shopping that started at Midnight Thanksgiving night! So much fun!!!!!!! We all stayed the weekend up there and were able to get in a lot of much needed, quality visiting time with the family! By the way...... go FSU! They beat Univ of Florida!

I think Noah is thankful for his maraca's...haha! He was so excited he could hardly stand it!!

This year Haley was old enough to help Grandma decorate the Grandkids tree! This is something she has done since Clayton and Brandon were babies and now it's become a Grandkids tree! Look how cute!!!

We also started a new tradition this year and decided to change things up a bit. Rather than putting up our usual fake Christmas tree we decided it was time to take a family trip to pick out a real one! Haley picked the perfect tree and we loaded it up and took it home! This year is a test, not sure if this tradition will stick or not :-)

Noah's WALKING!!!!

Noah took his very first steps tonight!!! He's 1 year and 13 days old!! Haley was 1 year and 25 days old so I guess he beat her on this one even though she crawled much sooner than he did. Soooo very sad to see my baby boy growing up so quickly but I'm thrilled for him and all the new adventures that are ahead for him! Noah's really good at standing himself up....must have been from all those squats Papa had Noah doing when he was a little baby! Thankfully Clayton, Haley and I were all there to see it! Even Kylah was there for the big event. I will try to post my Thanksgiving update soon but wanted to share the news and video of Noah walking tonight.

Can you DIG it, Noah's ONE?!?

Since Noah's never really been the "baby" boy type I just couldn't throw him a typical Baby Boy Birthday party and decided trucks was a much better theme to fit his personality! Noah can literally entertain himself for an hour or more just with one little truck! Haley of course loves to join in on all this fun and has her own favorite truck as well! Rather than really digging into his b-day cake Noah decided to share with all of the kids. What a nice boy..hehe. It was more of a community kid cake than a smash cake this year. I was a little bummed though because I thought for sure Noah of all kids would dig right into his cake as he loves just about any other food in the entire world so why wouldn't he love his cake? He did love his coke float though...haha!! Noah flips out anytime he sees or hears Grandma getting a drink and demands that she gives him some of it so this was an obvious next choice. The rest of the kids enjoyed digging in the dirt and making their own ice cream sundae's with oreo crumbs, gummy worms and hershey's syrup! Aunt Sher Sher did another FABULOUS job on Noah's cakes and check out the "Can you DIG it, Noah's 1" banner that Aunt Miss made for Noah!!! I've always told you guys how creative my sisters are! I wonder how I'll ever repay them for always making Noah and Haley's parties so memorable with their special touches?? A big THANK YOU to Sheryl, Melissa and Manace (w/ baby Jackson in her belly :-)) for coming over the morning of the party and basically doing all the decorations for me! Thank you to all our Friends and Family who made the journey to come to Noah's 1st Birthday party!! We love you guys!

Noah and Haley went for their 1 year and 4 year old check-ups on Friday and stats are as follows:
Noah (1 Yr):

Height = 30.5 inches (75%) Dr. said if he continues at this rate he will be 6'1!!! Can you imagine our family pictures in a few years...HAHA!

Weight = 21.8lbs (58%)

Head = 18.25lbs (58.7%)

Haley (4Yr):

Height = 37.63 (11.28%) She'll probably be about 5'2 or 5'3

Weight = 29lbs (6%)

Man are those two complete opposites or what??? By the way the 4 year old shots are the worst ever.....6 shots plus the flu shot!!! Haley was a trooper though and only cried at the very last one and it was probably because she was upset about getting a band aid. She hates those things!!

Noah is such a wonderful and sweet little boy!! That's Papa's FSU hat he has on :-) He's a very relaxed and calm boy and usually just goes with the flow as long as he's not hungry. He's not hyper and enjoys LOTS of snuggling and playing with balls and trucks! We got him a ball pit for his b-day and he LOVES it!!! It's in our media room so one of his favorite things to do with it is to get all 125 balls out and throw them through the railings so that they all come downstairs into the keeping room and then says "uh-oh!" Cute, but not fun for Clayton and I to have to pick all those up. We usually recruit help for Haley! Noah is standing all by himself for about 20 seconds at a time and can even throw a ball while standing but NO steps just yet but I feel that they are right around the corner! He will walk by himself if he can hold one finger!!!!!

Haley and Noah surprisingly still get along very well so far! I continue to pray everyday that it continues!!! We just love our family of four and continue to be amazed at how fast time is flying by and how much we LOVE these two kiddos!!!

Haley's last soccer game was the morning of Noah's Birthday party and she received her very first trophy as well as she got the Team medal for the game for "Team Player"! YAY...go Haley!!! Luckily since I was at the house getting ready for the party Grandma, Papa, Clayton, Gary, Macy and Makayla were all able to be there to cheer Haley on!

The morning after the party Haley, Macy and Makayla got to let all the balloons go! Oh and I almost forgot (sorry no pictures) but the girls got to have their VERY FIRST sleep over in Haley's room!!!!! They all did soooo well much to our surprise!!