Crazy Eyes McGhee!

We had kind of a rough Christmas this year. Both Lenny and I came down with the flu on Christmas Eve, and we still weren't feeling all the great on Christmas morning. Needless to say, we didn't get many pics of the kids opening their gifts. And this was Alex's first Christmas, too! New mommy Fail. :(

I did, however, manage to capture this little gem... and it almost makes up for the fact that its the only pic we got all day long.

Helpin Daddy clean

Lenny was cleaning out the kitchen pantry today and turned around to find he had a lil helper that had come in to assist. What a guy! (both Lenny and the lil helper)

Just hangin out playin with my S table

Jolly ol St. Zandy Pants

Alex totes looks like a mini Santa Claus in these pics. His cheeks are all rosy and his belly shakes like a bowl full o jelly. He's so jolly! I love this lil guy sooooooooooo much!

My ghetto elf

Bwuah ha ha ha!!

2 Little ducks

Two little ducks went out to play over the hills and far away. Mama duck said, "Quack quack quack quack" and two little ducks came waddling back!

8 months today

Santa baby, just slip a baby under the tree for me...

Frosty the snowman

Check out this outfit I got online for the babe. Is that cute or what? The teachers and director were going gaga over it one day when I sent Alex to daycare sportin the Frosty threads. :)

Mama's lil cheerleader

Alex somehow keeps getting himself worked into this cheerleader pose, and he'll stay like that for a good 20 min or so while he's playing. Cracks me up! How this can be comfortable is beyond me, but then again I am not the most flexible person either.

Alex, Alex, he's our man! If he can't do it, no one can! GOOOOOOOOOO ALEX! YAAAAAAAY!

The return of Shell

Bella's Elf on the Shelf, Shell, reappeared in the Ulanoski residence the day after Thanksgiving. He's been a lot more mischievous this year than the last couple years. See for yourself:

Say Cheeeeeese!

As you know, we hired my friend Jodi Schlosser to take professional pics of Alex at 4 mo, 8 mo, and 12 mo. It took a lot of convincing to get Lenny to agree to this, as it was more money that he wanted to spend. He kept saying to me, "Why can't we just take pictures of him ourselves for free?" Uhh...not quite the same there bro, but thanks for playin!  Funny thing was, after seeing the final product, he willingly admitted that he is really glad we made the investment. Jodi's awesome and she captured some great memories for us! Thank J Schlo! You rock!

Ridin in style

So Alex graduated from his infant carseat to a big boy carseat this weekend. Whoo hoo! No more carrying that chunker in the punkin seat. My arms are so relieved!!!

So excited to be in the big boy carseat!

Looks like we still need to have the "no drinking and driving" talk

Get in shape girl

So somehow, I let Jason and Janine talk me into signing up for this 6 week bootcamp at the Renaud Center out in O'Fallon. Just started this week, and boy oh boy am I mad at those two! Seriously. My triceps are SO flippin sore from doing tricep dips the first day. Cannot.move.my.arms. I just downed some Ibuprofen cuz they hurt so bad. Oy vey. Guess that year-long break from working out (whilst prego) didn't do me much good. Shooty shoo.

This is SO me right now:

Pea Ridge

On Saturday, we took our lil fam out to Pea Ridge in Hermann to cut down our Christmas tree. We've been going there for the past 3 years now and this is quickly becoming one of our fave Christmas traditions! I love riding the wagon out to the field, finding the perfect tree, coming back to the gift shop and drinking hot chocolate, picking out an ornament each year, and getting a bag of kettle corn on the way out. Having a pre-lit fake tree has it's perks, but nothing beats the scent or the look of a fresh cut pine that's filled with all your family's favorite sentimental ornaments. That's the good stuff right there!



All bundled up





Found the perfect tree!





Love how Alex is checking out the scene here. He's like "Heyyy, who's got me?"



"Oh you mean this guy brings presents? Woo hoo! I like him now!"