Monday, December 29, 2008

Noah's First Christmas







Well, we're back in Knoxville, and Noah's first Christmas is in the books. What a great time we had. We spent Dec. 21-27 in Hendersonville, and Noah had a fun time seeing so many family and friends on our trip. He also loved getting lots and lots and LOTS of new toys and goodies to play with...and watching us try to fit everything back in the car for the drive home!

There are way too many pictures to post, but you can see many of them right here:
2008 Christmas Pictures

It was great to see so many loved ones while we were in town...Tyra and I even got to go on a date night too, which was lots of fun!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Noah's New Friend Ernie



On December 1st, we were introduced to a new addition to the family, Ernie The Elf. Ernie is the official Haag Family "Elf on the Shelf," one of Santa's little helpers that lives with us throughout each Christmas season. During the day, Ernie sits still and silent in the same spot in the house...but at night, Ernie magically flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa if Noah has been a good boy. Ernie then returns to our house by morning, and plops himself in a different location in the house.

It's a fun family tradition and is a funny and good story to read to your kids, and we highly recommend it.

Noah has become fascinated with Ernie and his mysterious relocation around the house. Each morning when we go downstairs we say "Where's Ernie?" and Noah looks around puzzled. Then we walk around until we find him and Noah just grins from ear to ear when we discover the new place he's ended up. One day this week, we found him on the kitchen counter with hot chocolate mix in his hands, so we figured he was cold and/or thirsty when he returned from the North Pole.

Anyway, much to Noah's chagrin, he's not allowed to touch Ernie (per the book's rules) or he'll lose his magic. This frustrates Noah to no end, but he really enjoys trying to find him each day and has even started trying to say "Ernie"...although it comes out more like "Innie."

It's been a lot of fun to start new Christmas traditions this year with Noah, and seeing his curiosity at the tree, lights, and presents is funny. Speaking of curious babies and Christmas decorations, I saw a hilarious picture the other day that some friends of ours posted. They set up their Christmas tree INSIDE their Pack 'N Play so their little daughter couldn't get into any mishcief. PURE GENIUS!!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

November Pics

Here are just a few pics from a fun November: