My Little/Big Einstein

I was driving Sydney to school last week and she asked,

"Mommy, why do I go to preschool?"

I said, "You like going to preschool don't you?"

She said, "Yes, but why do I go to preschool?"

I said, "You go to preschool to learn about things."

To that she said, "But Mommy, I already know everything!"

Yep, that's the stage we are in right now...

Jan. & Feb. Picture Overload!!

OK, so I am done procrastinating all of this!! I am going to try and catch everyone up in this one post!! So much has happened in the last two months!! I think the biggest change is that our sweet Sydney started preschool!!! I wasn't intending on starting her until the fall. We were just going to tour some preschools that I heard good things about and decide from there. Well, the moment I saw Sydney's face and how she just lit up like I have never seen before, I knew that she belonged in preschool. She is just so darn smart both intellectually and socially - she needs more interaction than I am able to give her alone. So, they had one opening left at the school we loved so we signed her up! The day we stopped by to get paperwork, the office assistant took Sydney into the classroom to introduce her to her new teachers and classmates. She took to them all right away. Her little friend Caden (our neighbor) is also in her class. We were only there to get paperwork and she was suppose to start the following week. Well, she was so excited to be there that the teachers said she could stay for the rest of class - a whole 1.5 hours! I wasn't expecting this at all. Sydney bagged me to stay! They took my phone number and said, "Go, we have it handled. She'll be just fine." I gave Sydney and kiss and left the classroom. I felt very strange...got into my car, drove a mile down the road to a strip mall, parked the car and thought, "I better call Greg and let him know what's going on." So, I called Greg, told him excited Sydney was in her new classroom, playing with the kids and working on art, and how her fact lit up with pure joy and....well, I started crying!! Yep! I sat in my car and cried - wasn't expecting that! I was so happy for my daughter and so excited for her new adventure BUT, I also felt this unexpected, overwhelming sadness...my only child is growing up into a beautiful big girl!

When I picked Sydney up from her classroom that day, she seemed bigger to me. She has now been in her school for a month - and as I am sure you can guess, she absolutely loves it! She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the afternoon. At first I thought I would be getting all kinds of things done during that 2.5 hours BUT you would be surprised at how fast that 2.5 hours goes by! We have already signed her up for next year when she will be going 4 days a week!!

Enjoy the pictures...

In January, I took Sydney to an indoor aquarium we have here in Phoenix. It's nice but not very big. We went on a weekday when there was hardly anyone there but us!!

Here she is looking at some fish.

More fish

Here she is a little nervous because that is a shark tank behind her!!

We thought this fish was funny!

YIKES!

Bull sharks!!

Sharks!!

This was so cool - a glass tunnel to walk through with the sharks swimming all around us. Sydney was pretty nervous going through here also!!

Sydney being silly!!

Sydney loves to dress up now. She always wants to have jewelry on and bright, colorful clothes! She will often disappear into her bedroom and reappear with some very interesting outfits on!!

1st day of Preschool!! She was sooooooo excited!! She kept saying it over and over!!

She has her cute little backpack on but you can't really see it - so cute!!

Her classroom!!! She ran right in when they opened the door without even saying goodbye to me!! I had to run in after her and bring her back out so I could get a picture and kiss:)

This was taken right after her 1st day of Preschool!! She was so excited to tell me all about her day!! This was her 1st art project!!

Sydney and I were really bored one day at the beginning of Jan. So I took her outside on an adventure and we collected leaves - we then came home and made this project to preserve them. It was lots of fun:)

Sydney had her 1st sleepover and Nana & Paps!! This was a big deal for all of us!! She packed 4 bags!! She would have kept going but I had to finally put an end to it! She wasn't even going to be there for 24 hours!! At one point, she came down the stairs and had her all of her clothes from her bottom drawer in her arms, wanting me to put them in a bag!! It was very cute and it was a successful 1st sleepover!!

This is a diaper cake I made last week for a baby shower. Not bad for my 1st time! They are actually fun to make!!

I took Sydney to North Mountain today and let her walk up all by herself (holding my hand of course)!! This is the same mountain that I used to push her up in the jogging stroller all the time! She did so good!! I brought bread with to feed the little squirrels at the top.

My "lil Monkey"!

She calls these little guys "little critters"!!

They are so cute! They come right up to your feet and just wait to be fed!!

The squirrels also get very close up!! Sydney was having a blast!!

Love the view from this bench!!

Celebrating life!!!

My Little Buddy!!

Christmas 2010!!

We had a wonderful Christmas at the Wade Residence! We were so busy all month long with so many Christmas activities!! Between our MOMS group, Kate's Cup (women's ministry), Christmas shopping, Christmas decorating, Christmas parties/celebrations with friends - Whew, makes me tired all over again!! I hit complete exhaustion the 1st week of January!! I think it took me at least 2 weeks just to pull myself together again!!

We were very blessed that we got to have Jordan and Nana & Papa in Arizona for Christmas!! Jordan spent a lot of time playing with Sydney - they have such a wonderful bond! Sydney just lights up when she sees her "JoJo"!! Nana & Paps were able to come back to Arizona and spend Christmas Day with us!! This was very special to all of us. When I was little, we always had a Christmas Eve celebration at my Grandma Doris's house and Christmas afternoon at the Nickels Grandparents home. I always had so much fun playing! My hope is that Sydney will have some of the same memories and will have a strong sense of how important family is.

Below are some of our Christmas Pictures from 2010! Enjoy...


A ballerina doll from Auntie Abby.


A Strawberry Shortcake DVD from Santa! How did Santa know she liked Strawberry Shortcake?? Love her expression...


Grandpa Nick & Karen got Sydney a whole box full of dress up clothes!! Big hit! She loves to wear her princess clothes and model them for anyone who will play along:)

This is her knew American Girl set. She LOVES it!! It now sits in her bedroom.

Her scooter from Santa!!

She was so excited to see that Santa ate some of her cookies that she decorated and that Rudolph ate some of the mini marshmallows we left him.

One of my favorite Christmas pictures!! So blessed to have us all together for Christmas!!

Our annual Christmas feast with our family!!

One of Sydney's favorite people!!

Yummy cake!!

Christmas 2010 with the enormous tree!!

Christmas Eve before Church. This year, Nana, Aunt Peggy, Uncle Michael & Erik came with us to Church!!

Sydney with cookie frosting on her mouth!! She was suppose to be decorating cookies...instead, she was decorating her face and mouth!!!

This is the "special" cookie she made Santa!! Hmmmm, hope Santa likes frosting!! Trust me, there is an actual cookie under there, somewhere!!

Decorating Christmas cookies!!

That's it!! We were so busy at Christmas time that I realized, I really didn't take that many pictures!! I guess it's better to live in the moment anyways instead of missing a moment because of trying to take a picture!!

Thank you all for the Christmas memories and thank you God for all of our many blessings. And, I can't possibly end this post without saying, "Merry Christmas Mom. You were with me in my heart every moment. I love you so much and know you are with us. We love you..."

Polar Express Trip!

Yes, I know, I am posting this almost 2 months AFTER our trip!! Better late then never, right? We had such a wonderful time at the Polar Express!! I am so grateful we took the plunge and took this amazing journey!! The week of the trip, I read the book Polar Express to Sydney so she had an idea of what the Polar Express was. We also rented the video; however, it seemed to make her a little scared so we didn't watch the whole movie.

I was also excited to take this trip because I thought there would be enough snow up North to take Sydney sledding - but that just wasn't in the cards. Maybe next time.

Every year, the Polar Express sells out quickly! Knowing this, I purchased our tickets back in September - and they were almost sold out at that point!! We purchased the Polar Express Package which entitled us to tickets for the Polar Express, a night at the Grand Canyon Hotel, and dinner/breakfast tickets to the buffet. Now that the trip is over, I can definitely say that it was worth the money! We planned our trip for the middle of the week so we were able to bypass much of the crowd. We didn't have to wait in any lines and the trip was relatively stress free!! Below are pictures from our trip - enjoy:)

This picture was taken at dinner. Can you tell Sydney LOVES her chocolate cake!!

As if the chocolate cake wasn't enough...she also got ice cream!! Here she is trying to get the last drop of her ice cream!!

We were so excited that our dinner table was right next to this huge fireplace!! It was beautiful! It felt like we were at a cabin resort. It was freezing outside (in the high teens if that!) but so warm and cozy by the fireplace, enjoying our dinner and wine.

A happy memory!!

After dinner, we had to go back to our hotel room and get ready for the Polar Express! All of the kids wear their P.J.'s on the train, just like in the book and movie. These are Sydney's Christmas jammies! Like I said, it was really cold outside so Sydney enjoyed wearing her kitty cat hat also! This was the 1st time Sydney had experienced cold weather like this - it was pretty funny!

Off to the Polar Express! I am not sure who is more excited at this point - Mommy or Sydney!!

Here she is mad because I made her stop so we could get a picture of us in the hotel! She wanted to get to the train!! We took this picture to give everyone an idea on what the hotel looked like. It was so cool - so old yet very well maintained. And, they had it all decorated with Christmas decor. The hotel lobby had a HUGE fire place that was so elegant and old. It was a gathering place for guests to warm up!!

Outside, between the hotel and Grand Canyon Railroad station, they had everything decorated for Christmas. It was beautiful and so colorful and bright! Sydney was so excited as she took it all in. She also got to pet this horse!

Here it is...The Polar Express!! So huge and magnificent!!

Here we are getting on the train!!!

So exciting!! The people working on the train were soooo nice and had so much energy!! They really brought life to the whole experience.

Thank goodness the train was heated!! We got to relax and cuddle and play! During the ride out to the North Pole, they read us the book, "The Polar Express" and we got cookies and hot chocolate. Sydney is not a fan of the hot chocolate (she doesn't even like chocolate milk!) but she loved the cookies!!

Being silly on the train!

Getting some love from Daddy!

She ate her cookie and mine!! Remember, she also had chocolate cake AND ice cream at dinner!! YIKES!!

Here she is getting her ticket punched - just like in the book/movie! Shortly after this picture was taken, our train arrived to the North Pole!! We didn't actually get out of the train when we got to the North Pole - but we did get to see Santa in his sleigh with his elf. We also get to see the town and all of the toy shops and buildings and Santa's house! Everything is lit up with Christmas lights! Once we pass through the North Pole, the train stoped then started again in reverse. When we got back to where the sleigh was, Santa was gone!! Hmmm, where did he go??

Little did we know, Santa actually got on the train when it stopped at the North Pole!!!

AND THEN THE BIG MOMENT....receiving a bell from Santa!! This was priceless and still brings a tear to my eye! She just lit up with excitement and anticipation. What a special memory for all of us!

After the kids got their bells, the ride back to the station consisted of everyone singing Christmas Carols! People really got into this - even the parents! The whole experience of it all really brought out the kid in everyone!

Between the hotel and Grand Canyon Station, they have this little fake Christmas town set up and all lit up - it looks really cute at night time. This is only one of several little buildings.

After the ride on the train, we then went to see Mrs. Clause!! At this point, there was hardly anyone there , so Sydney sat on Mrs. Clause lap for a long time and talked her ear off!! It was priceless! Mrs. Clause was so patient with Sydney and listened to all of Sydney's "suggestions" in regards to Santa!! We have this on video - it seriously was hilarious!!

More suggestions from Sydney on how she thinks Santa should get into her house and so on!!

Time to write her letter to Santa!!

Mailing her letter to Santa!!

She made a decoration for the Christmas tree and Mrs. Clause's elf was kind enough to help Sydney reach the perfect spot for her ornament!

After our visit with Mrs. Clause, it was getting pretty late so we went back to our room for bed. Sydney was still pretty hyper from the day (the sugar)! We brought with us some meat/cheese, crackers, juice and wine and had our own little celebration in our room. Sydney had her own bed - although I ended up sleeping with her so she would go to sleep!! It really was the perfect day!

The one thing that was missing from our trip was snow! Williams is right by Flagstaff and Flagstaff reminds me a lot of Mankato! They also get the same winter weather as Mankato. I was hoping we would be able to go sledding on the trip but once I saw the forecast earlier in the week- I realized we wouldn't be able to do this. I really wanted Sydney to see snow...

Guess what we woke up to in the morning....

SNOW!!!!!

We quick got ready and went outside - there really wasn't any accumulation on the ground yet, but we had a blast watching Sydney trying to catch all of the snow flakes!! We then went and ate breakfast. By the time we got out from eating, the weather was quickly turning into a snow storm!! We played in it just a bit before we headed out. This made our trip perfect!!

This was taken right before we left.

When I look at this photo, all I can think is, "Thank you God for my family!"

You can't tell by this picture but the snow was really coming down good!

So beautiful!! By the time we hit Flagstaff and for awhile past, the road conditions were getting pretty slippery. I was glad once we were out of the storm!! It's been over 14 years since I have been on the road in this stuff!!

So, that's it! That was our wonderful adventure to the Polar Express! The trip met all of our expectations and more! What a great way to bring in the Christmas spirit!!