Thanksgiving weekend & Christmas Preparations!

I have not updated in quite some time...turns out I have been rather busy! Prepare for a long read with lots of pictures :)

Grandpa Don and Sharon came down from Saturday night (November 26) through Tuesday night (November 23) to watch Callie. There were able to spend a lot of time with her as Josh and I had conferences on Monday and Tuesday - ALL DAY... Callie had a blast playing hard all day. I think Grandpa Don received more a of workout - he may have been more tired in the end :)

Thanks for babysitting me :)

Right when conferences were over-our Thanksgiving break began ;)

We traveled up to Grandma Lynn's house; however the winter storm that moved in slowed traffic way down causing us to arrive way later (it ended up taking 1-2 hours longer because of the snow :(...) but we arrived right after she got home from work, so we were still able to spend the entire evening together :) Callie had a great time playing with Grandma's kitchen utensils!

Playing in Grandma's kitchen :)

That next morning (Thanksgiving Day), we traveled over to Grandpa Don's house for Thanksgiving with Don, Sharon, Kayla & Mike. It was a nice quiet afternoon together! Callie enjoyed searching for her Christmas presents in all of the "Black Friday" ads, and then soon took a nice nap with her grandpa! Sharon prepared a delicious Thanksgiving meal!

Love her new hat :)

We then headed over to my parents house where everyone was still there...YEAH! We made it in time for pie! Callie played, but mostly tried to eat her Grampa's famous pumpkin pie...which she succeeded in doing!

Mmmm...Pumpkin Pie

My dad and I went out to Toys R Us that night and waited in line :) It was so wonderful when we were finally inside. There is something about crazy packed stores on Black Friday that really puts me in the mood for Christmas :) I got everything on my list (well, all but 2 things...).

Friday afternoon I headed back home to Austin (Josh had gone Thursday night, because he had basketball on Friday morning). The three of us went out to dinner and then headed downtown for "Christmas in the City". It was so much fun. We mainly got in line and had Callie's FIRST picture taken with Santa Clause! It turned out AWESOME :)

Beautiful picture with Santa!

A couple days later I was able to take Callie to Christmas in the North West. She had her picture taken with Mrs. Clause and Santa - they didn't turn out all that great...but the one from Christmas in the City was PERFECT!

She didn't like this one :)

Callie and I also took a day off from work and daycare to go to the cities and shop ALL DAY with my mom ;) We met at the Mall of America at 10:00 AM and left at 4! Callie was perfect the whole day :) She finally fell asleep at the end!

Girl talk about our day at the mall...Gramma is preparing Callie for her First REAL shopping experience...us "Shellum" girls really know how to shop :)
We ended up taking 2 trips out to the car because we had so many bags :) Her stroller can only hold so much!

:)

I hope she loves Christmas as much as I do :)

Gramma got Callie this puppy for being such a good girl!! Callie even picked it out! She looked at about 5 different animals, and this was the one she was most excited about :)

Someone finally fell asleep!

Callie and I stayed the whole weekend, because of the winter storm. We were supposed to go to a baby shower with my mom and to a concert that night (Saturday); however, the weather kept us inside all weekend :)

On Sunday morning Callie and myself, along with Grampa and Gramma, Heather and her 3 kids (Callie's cousins), went to a "Breakfast with Santa"! The Pioneer Press puts it on, and it was so much fun! Callie had her picture taken with Santa again, and I'm waiting to see how that picture turned out! She was a good girl there as well :) My favorite part was letting her decorate a cookie :) Haha - she was covered in red frosting :) It was nice to actually get snowed in at my parents. I hadn't been able to spend quality time with them in a really long time. There had been a couple "quick" visits, but this was much needed! I loved our movie dates, Mom - we CAN'T go that long again before having a movie date :)

I love this picture of Callie and my dad :)

I also put on a huge concert for our community :) Dennis Warner came down and performed "Beads on One String" to our Kindergarten Center, and then his band performed that night! I had organized the entire ordeal, and more than 150 people were there :) I even received food donations for a free meal :) This is Callie and I enjoying the concert! This girl LOVES music :)

I was also supposed to graduate this past weekend, but due to the Minnesota Blizzard, I was not able to make the ceremony. It would have been nice to receive the recognition for completing my Specialists Degree in Education Leadership: K-12 Principal Licensure...but I wasn't willing to risk my life to get there. So there you have it, I did graduate with a 4.0! I now have my Bachelors degree, Master's Degree and my new "Specialists in Education Leadership"... I was given a gift for all of my hard work...A TON OF STUDENT LOANS TO PAY BACK.... great, right!? NOT!!!

For now, we're snowed in, praying for a snow day tomorrow! Christmas Cookies are baked! I'm going to take Callie and deliver them to families that have been very helpful to us this year! I want to start this with her so she can learn to show appreciation to others :) I made my favorite: Ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle, dipped in chocolate :) YUMMY!

Christmas presents are bought and wrapped, lights up, deer buried in the snow, cookies baked...I believe we are ready for Christmas :)