Thurs. Dec. 15, 2011 - Pageants, baths and Santa

Daddy uses our sleepless nights to smoke a brisket and a pork shoulder for 15 hours

Riley is super cute in her Christmas dress, all dolled up for her first Christmas pageant

The girls (sidenote: this is not the onesie Micaela wore to the pageant. As we got in the car she spit up all over herself. I forgot how often newborns need outfit changes).

Riley concentrated very hard on ringing her jingle bell

But sometimes she turned around to check out the action

Or played with her friends

A stage full of 2-5 year olds

At the end our little diva stood up and did her own little dance (notice the rest of her class is still seated). Unfortunately, this was during the closing prayer.

Our family after Riley's debut (as usual, Micaela slept through the entire thing nestled against Mommy in her Moby)

We are still decking the halls

Our visit to Santa Claus. Riley was not scared at all and ran right up to his lap.

Micaela had to give Santa her wish list, too.

Priceless

We visited Santa at Knudsen's creamery, so of course we had to celebrate with ice cream

I never thought I'd see the day when Chad gave a manicure, but of course he couldn't deny Riley's request when a mani/pedi kit arrived for her from Great Aunt Donna. I guess that with 2 girls he does need to learn how to paint nails. He's already gotten much better at barrettes

Blowing dry her nails

Micaela's first bath. She was not impressed at first, but she never really cried.

Riley was a great big sister and helped get her all clean

Micaela decided this isn't too bad

Afterwards Daddy got her all dry and snuggled

A happy, clean baby

Another busy but wonderful week for the Freese family. On Friday Riley had her preschool Christmas pageant. It was completely adorable. The older kids (4-5 year olds) acted out the story of Jesus' birth and the younger kids sang songs at various points during the play. Riley had been practicing the songs at home for months so I knew she knew the words but she didn't sing much; there was just too much going on. She watched the action going on behind her, played with her friends and did her own little dance during the closing prayer. Too funny! She really enjoyed being on stage and it was a great experience for us all.

We also visited Santa this week. The way Riley fearlessly ran up to him amazed me. We didn't have to coax her up to his lap and there were no tears. Santa Claus was very friendly and was happy to hold our 2 week old baby. Micaela slept through the whole thing, even when she was transferred to his lap, but I'm sure she'll receive everything on her Christmas list.

Micaela got her first bath this week. Riley was a great big sister. She held Micaela's hand to comfort her and helped get her all clean. We are going to have so much fun with these girls.

This is Chad's last week at home on paternity leave, he returns to work on Monday. We will all miss him so much. He and Riley have had a lot of adventures so I could get extra sleep and constantly feed our newborn. Micaela has really bonded with him and he has such a calming effect on her. I have no idea how I'm going to get all 3 of us dressed and out the door 3 days a week for preschool. I feel very lucky that his job allowed him to spend 4 weeks at home with us: 1 week before our baby was born because I was so late then 3 wonderful weeks to spend as a family.