mrsjenpeters: this will take a minute to load

Monday, December 31, 2007

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happy new year's eve!

the weekend was good. hannah and oliver spent friday at mom's house. hannah spent the entire day enjoying the snow - making snowmen, snowballs, rolling around, taking the dog for a walk. she was pretty pooped by the end of it all. i'm glad she got a chance to see some snow (and we're supposed to get more before she leaves). ollie was the perfect baby all day for mom, of course.

saturday morning, hannah, shannon, and i hit the mall and libby lou first thing. libby lou wasn't as crazy as i thought it would be, probably since we got there right when it opened. we did the "spa" portion - which is a help yourself station where you make some cosmetics. i was going to make a face mask, and the pump was clogged - and unclogged ALL OVER ME.

i was not thrilled about my purse being covered in tropical breeze goo, but luckily i had my leather purse, which cleaned off much easier than a cloth one. my coat and jeans had to take multiple trips through the washing machine. we had fun, though. hannah make some beautiful bright magenta lip gloss, and shannon and i made some lip gloss as well. hannah tried out her face mask that night, and loved it. we made it out of the mall without further incident (though there are plans to go back for limited too and macy's, so i'm not in the clear just quite yet).

mom, dad, and shannon came over saturday afternoon for family movie day. chris was flying in that evening, and actually hopped an earlier flight, so was able to join us to watch mr. magorium's wonder emporium. i was in and out of the room taking care of stuff, but it was a pretty cute movie. on a side note, chris brought me some trader joe's candy cane joe-joe's, which i had mentioned in an email

i thought sounded great. turns out they are - a lot like thin mints but with bit of candy cane, we all headed out to hibachi dinner for dad's birthday. hannah had been at a place similar, but apparently the place she had been at before wasn't half as fun, as she hadn't seen any the tricks the chef did before (such as the "butter fly" and onion volcano... not to mention the giant oil fires every chef started at the beginning of each "show"). she thought it was the NEATEST

thing ever. dad had a blast as well. the chef kept hitting on shannon, and bryan was trying to help him out, which earned him some extra sake. dad and chris also won extra sake shots (squirted directly into their mouths) by catching shrimp in their mouths. very mature. ;)~ all the noise and commotion had oliver feeling a little agitated, though, so we skipped pie at mom and dad's and opted to head home instead. bryan and chris watched football downstairs while hannah and i sat upstairs and watched the disney channel with oliver. rocking in a familiar place helped calm him down.

sunday morning was oliver's baptism. we managed to show up at the church on time, which was a small miracle in itself. ollie had been a little fussy in the morning, so we feared the worst during the service. however, he was the most amazingly well behaved baby EVER. he was a little squirmy when we got to the church, but i think that is because he doesn't seem to like being strapped into his car set when he is awake. i took him out, he immediately calmed down, and he slept in my arms during the entire service (though his dead asleep weight started to make my arm pretty sore - i wasn't about to tempt fate and try to put him back in his carrier!). even if he fusses for us at home, at least he is the perfect baby for everyone else. ;)
when it was time for the christening, he woke up and was perfectly quiet and cute, even when the water was poured over his head.

he sat in quietly in bryan's arms and checked everyone out while the priest completed the ceremony. he was all bright eyed and cute while the priest showed him off to the congregation as well. :) just perfect!! adrianne made his christening gown, and it was just beautiful.

everyone came to congratulate us and fawn over the baby at the end of the service. all the matrons of the church whom we love to visit with on sundays were pretty close to tears over his cuteness, i am sure (and who can blame them?). everyone came over to our house afterwards for hot ham and rolls, and white cake with pineapple frosting (which i am told was stellar). we had a lot of fun sitting around and chatting, and i got to get all the details of maggie's proposal

(and see the KNOCK OUT GORGEOUS ring). mom and aunt mo swear oliver smiled at them a TON... but he does a pretty good job of pretending he can't for me (i think i've gotten a few real ones out of him, but he's so gassy we may all be wrong). we played some wii (which chris kicked all our butts at), and everyone wandered home.

hannah the good big sister let bryan, oliver, and i take a nice quiet nap for a bit, which was much needed. hannah and i played battleship, which was fun. hannah won by a full ship and a half! we watched nancy drew, which hannah hadn't wanted to watch but ended up totally loving. then we all hit the hay! we were pretty beat.

today, aunt mo & uncle tom are taking the kids sledding. we got a fresh layer of snow last night, so it should be a perfect day for it. hannah hasn't been sledding yet this year, and hasn't been for a few years, so she should have a blast.

mom, dad, and shannon are coming over for dinner tonight (see my previous post for a menu), and i'm pretty excited about dinner. i LOVE coconut curries, and the whole meal should be nice and warming on a chilly night. we're supposed to get MORE snow tonight. it will be nice to have tomorrow off!!

we had planned on taking hannah to chicago on saturday, but with oliver being sick, we're not too keen on taking him on a long day trip or leaving him all day (even though i know mom would take great care of him!). we were afraid hannah would be upset, but it turns out she wasn't feeling it either and would rather go to the domes. done and done! :)

and as promised, here are some additional pictures:

random cute picture of aunt/godmother shannon and oliver, on christmas eve --

here are more pics of christmas, including dinner:

mom had been dropping hints for a good year about how much she would love to have a laptop, and while dad pretended not to listen the whole time, he did GOOD and got her one for christmas, which she was pretty surprised and happy about! --