A Ton of Pictures! A Long Overdue Post!

Ok...this post is LONG overdue - and normally I would split it up into more than one. However, as I am desperately trying to get through an impossibly long to-do list, in order to kill a couple of birds with one stone I am going to do them all at once...

So about two weeks ago Mark and I headed over to St. Pete for my cousin Matt and his fiance Jessie's wedding. However, I knew that having Chris along would be too much to handle, so we planned on having Mark's parents come to our house to stay with him. Since it had been way too long since we'd had any sort of vacation, especially without Chris, we took advantage of the free babysitting and left a day and a half early. Since Orlando was right on the way, and since we had free Sea World passes... we left Thursday morning and went to the park. Unfortunately, the weather didn't quite cooperate... it was FREEZING cold and POURING rain! But I seriously could have cared less! Just being together was so much fun! However, around lunch time I had to admit that I'd had enough of being cold and wet.. so we left the park. And, go figure, no sooner had we left than the sun came out! So we grabbed some lunch, checked in at the hotel, and then went back to the park so that Mark could ride the roller coaster :) After that we had an AMAZING dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse... I have NEVER eaten so much meat in my life! The waiters just walk around with skewers of different cuts of meat, and they will give you as much as you can eat. And it tastes incredible! The next day we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then headed over to St. Pete to begin the wedding festivities.

The night before we left, we took Mark's parents out to eat to celebrate their birthdays. I snapped this picture of Chris with my new point-and-shoot camera (Merry Christmas to me!). I love his silly face!

Here's Mark on the roller coaster... in case you can't tell, he is in the back row closest to the camera :) I think this was the highlight of the whole weekend for him!

Once in St. Pete, it was a whirlwind of events! Friday night was the wedding rehearsal dinner. Saturday morning we got together with my mom, my grandparents, and my sister Kristin and her husband to exchage Christmas gifts. That afternoon was the wedding, and the next morning was a baby shower for my cousin and her husband who had just adoped a little boy.

This is my cousin Kate holding my neice Belle... she is a talker!



Here's me with another cousin, Laura.

The following weekend was another crazy couple of days! Thursday night we drove an hour down to Mark's parents house, spent the night and the next day, and then exchanged gifts with Mark's dad, who would be out of town for work on Christmas. While we were there we discovered that Chris had learned how to say "cheese!" for the camera! He only does it when he feels like it, though, but it is really really cute!

So then Friday night we drove home, and Saturday morning Mark got up and went to work while I unpacked and then repacked... that afternoon we loaded up and drove 2 1/2 hourse up to Jacksonville to celebrate Christmas with my family. Sunday afternoon everyone gathered at my sister Kristin's house to exchange gifts... it was fun, and a bit chaotic - a typical Weidner holiday!

I love this picture of Joy, one of my sister's twins.

My sister has a great playroom at her house - but there's a catch: she keeps a baby gate up at the door so the babies don't escape. Chris HATES being gated in! So he usually stands at the gate and cries until I take pity on him and rescue him ;)

The exchanging of presents! My stepmom Sherrie is on the left; my sister Jessica is next to her, my brother Luke is in front of Jessica, and the other five are all my sister's kiddos..

Here's Luke handing out more gifts...

On Christmas Eve Mark's mom and sister came up, and then we all went to church. I really wanted a picture with Chris... but he wasn't so much interested. This is the best we could get!

Doesn't this ornament just say it all?!

Christmas morning! Chris immediately saw the set we had gotten him, and of course right away he wanted the little train that was attached to the top. Once he had that he wasn't interested in opening anything else!

Since he didn't quite get the concept yet of opening presents, I actually had to open them all for him. I did it one at a time, and let him play with them as we went. He was so excited! In this picture he is playing with three different toys!

He got a TON of new trucks.. and he couldn't have been happier.

I made a book of pictures from the year for Mark's mom.

More trucks!

His favorite truck was the one that Mark's sister got him. It is a truck that holds a couple of cars in the back... he literally played with this truck ALL DAY. I am not kidding! He never left the living room all day! I had to force him to eat... and I didn't even dress him until about 5 that evening. He was just so engrossed in his trucks.

Mark was the videographer :)

However, for a short time his job changed, when I had him put together the train tracks we'd gotten him... Mental note: next year, put the toys together the night before! This turned out to be a more complicated set than we'd anticipated...

But Chris was quite happy with the results!

A picture with my baby :)

Here he is with "Grandmom".

A quick family shot... notice the huge goose-egg on his head! Just before we took the picture, he ran - hard - into our table. Poor guy!

Now it's time to get ready for the new year... there's lots of excitement ahead!

p.s. - stay tuned - tomorrow morning we should find out if we're having a girl or a boy!!