Merry Christmas!

If only half of the picture is showing on your screen, click on it to see the full image :) 

It has been a great first Christmas together as a family! We started our celebration on Saturday at Nana and Papa's house (I couldn't find my camera:( ) with a delicious dinner, advent wreath, and opening of presents. 

Sunday,, Nate and I went to church, then in the evening exchanged gifts to each other. Nate bought Ari a fabulous new Ipod Nano, a beautiful mother's necklace, cashmere gloves and a baby book for Danika. Nate received his beloved RC Helicopter, sheepskin slippers, pj pants, a celtic ring and an empty bear to stuff with Danika at the Teddy Bear Factory. Afterwards we enjoyed a fabulous Christmas dinner at Maggiano's... delish!

On Monday morning we battled the Colorado highways and headed over the mountains to Grand Junction to visit Grandma and Grandpa Banks. On Wednesday Nate experienced his very first cross country extravaganza... and turned out to be a pro! Wednesday evening Nate, Ari and Danika went to a Christmas Eve service, then joined the rest of the family for dinner. 

After dinner we opened our traditional gift from the parental units, and got the boys! All the Banks gals went in together to find the ugliest sweaters possible for the boys. The gents were too kind to say anything rude and humbly wore the hideous sweaters with a hidden grimace. Ari asked Nate, "Do you like your sweater, N?" He replied with a large grin, "YES! I love it!" And all the ladyfolk collapsed in a heap of laughter at his politeness. The men caught on to our game and the joke was over. We got our Christmas laugh, for sure!

Danika got her first pair of Christmas PJs, a candy cane footsy labeled "Mommy's little joy",and what a joy she is! She definitely made out with the most from Santa and family! She received beautiful ornaments from both grandparents, a packers jacket for our little cheesehead and other clothes from Nana and papa , a 25th anniversary cabbage patch doll that is exactly the same as Ari's from when she was a little gal, a baby nativity set, and her first Willlowtree Angel from grandma and grandpa banks. Her aunts and uncle gave her D's first pair of diamond earrings and a personalized fairy tale book that teaches her how to spell her name! She is a very loved and lucky little girl!

We'll be enjoying Christmas dinner later on today followed by a Christmas movie with the family. Tomorrow evening we will be having our extended Whiteside Family Dinner with the traditional white elephant exchange! It's spitting some snow outside... we'll post more pictures later of our first Christmas together!

 

So Sweet

We're often amazed at how wonderful life seems to be for our baby girl. SHe flops herself all over the place and sleeps through the noisiest trips to the mall and other occasions. We're also making her great grandpa flossy proud by sporting the overalls! She has her first pair of overall jeans and her first overall dress. On Sunday, we went to get our first family portrait and CHristmas pictures. Here's a preview! 

Thanksgiving '08

What a great day! We went to Tim and Melindas for our Thanksgiving day festivities. It started off with a fabulous batch of cinnamon rolls thanks to Courtney. We watched the parade, and dog show!, as we munched on a variety of yummies. Afterwards we watched a bit of football and visited with each other for a bit. our dinner was delightful! I think the best part was the salad, but that's coming from a vegetarian. Danika was a hit with our family members- everyone loved our little turkey and her adorable outfit and bib (thanks to aunt tori and grandma val). It was a great day and one that helped us to remember all that we are thankful for:) 

A busy weekend!

What a weekend! It was free day at the Denver Zoo, so we decided to take advantage of it on one of our last beautiful weekends. Then we started to put up Christmas decor, complete with a nice cup of Russian Tea while listening to Christmas carols  as Danika slept in her bouncer. We finished off the evening with a nice dinner with our cousin and aunts and uncle Brady at the infamous Pascuini's. It was a great but busy day! 

Newborn Pictures!

So, Ari has a severe need to photograph EVERYTHING, so of course when we had a COUPON! for newborn pictures, she jumped on it. We had a lot of laughs at our little girl as she was photographed. Here are just a few of the adorable pictures of our baby - enjoy! 

A proud papa

Nate has taken to his daddy role quite with great enthusiasm! He is such a good daddy and a huge help to his wifey. A few picture of Nate with his girls:) 

We are home!

We broke out of the hospital at about 1:30 this afternoon and boy is it nice to be home. We had lots of fabulous photo opps the last few days- here are a few of the best! 

Our Halloween Baby is here!

On Friday, October 31, Danika Grace Hall arrived, long legged and beautiful. She's a sassy one, and one that has completely stolen our hearts. Ari's water broke at around 6:30 am on Friday, and by 7m, with the help of her wonderful husband, she was holding her daughter in her arms. It was a pretty amazing day and one that we never knew could change our world so much already. Here are a few pictures of Danikas first 12 hours in our world. Enjoy!