G-pa Time & an Embarrassment Free C-mas Program

This video is a priceless pre-cursor to Dude's 2011 Christmas program recap, found at the conclusion of this post.

Grandpa V was in town for the weekend, which was a treat for all of us.  He and Diane generously bought us our piano for Christmas, thus the posed shot above.  The kids ate up the attention. Squirt cuddled with her G-pa a ton, which was very endearing. Tim loved the Dad time and extra set of hands, especially since I was struck down with a 24 hour bout of grossness. Tim's bro, Nick even made it for a night after a Vail skiing trip, which was a uber fun surprise. His little man, Chase, is only 3 days older than Squirt, so it was fun for him to see Rea Rea.


Tim, Grandpa, Dude and buddy, Trevor, all went to Toy Story on Ice Saturday, which was a huge 4 year old success. Although, when I asked Dude about the ice skating, he said, "None of dose pointy, ouchy shoes were dere Mom. Dey just wore gym shoes." Mmmm...I guess he figured they all just ran really fast and elegantly.

Now for Sunday's activities...we're proud to announce that Dude's 2nd Christmas program went off without any embarrassing Dude hitches. It was just pure cuteness this year. Well behaved cuteness. By that I mean, no bright lights causing him to stand, backward, the entire performance. Actually, the bright lights were present, but apparently he's mature enough now to squint and deal. Ok, so I kinda threatened him that if he stood backward he would lose his candy privileges for the rest of the month. Whatever.

 Grandpa held Squirt through the whole program.  She didn't make a peep, which was quite shocking.

Of course Maria caught his diggin' for gold.  And for sake of later in life embarrassment, it's going on the blog. 

The video highlights are below.  Unfortunately, the first part of the video (my favorite) is blurry, but you can still make out what's happening.  You'll know it's Dude when you see his sheep ears falling over his face like 13 times. He finally turns around and requests the assistance of Mrs. Williams, which does the trick.  He's also the kid that does NOT stop rotating his body side to side the entire time.  Standing out in the crowd is what we're good at.  Enjoy!  We sure did.  THANKS to Grandpa V for taking time out of a busy and stressful time to hang with us.  Grandma Di, you're in our prayers and we sure wish we could have wrapped our arms around you this weekend!  We'll be praying for very good things these next few months.