Our Canadian Cuties: I'll Be Home for Christmas Part 2

I decided to split this post in half because the number of pictures was about to get overwhelming (if it wasn't already). The first post was the first half of our trip and this post will mark the second half of our stay in Nebraska.

When we left Gretna, we headed straight for the Party Patch. The Party Patch is Aunt Jean's store, and it would only be fitting for Cora to visit. Lucky for us, Aunt Jean was up front so we got to see her right away!! Normally she is fast at work printing invitations in the basement. Cora thought the Party Patch was quite the place.

The first days at Jean and MJ's were full of relaxation. In fact, we didn't even get out of our pj's one day. Now, that is a holiday! We were gearing up for our fun filled weekend of New Years Eve and visiting the Omaha Children's Museum. For New Year's Eve, we had a house full! My BFF Lindsey, her husband Dave, and adorable baby girl, Parker, came over. Aunt Anne and her boyfriend, Justin, and his most sweet little boy, Alex, also came down from Lincoln. Add Grandpa Bob and Grandpa Jim to the list and we've got a serious house full! I absolutely loved the sounds of everyone laughing and all the little kiddos running/crawling around. It was a lot of fun. MJ made a Chinese inspired dinner to feed everyone. Cora and Parker were so cute playing together. Remember, these two are only 2 months apart in age. Click here to jump back nearly a year ago when the two little tykes met. Those little memories are so special. Here is the start of another slew of pictures.

Grandma Jo giving Cora a bath.

Linds and Sweet, Sweet Parker. She was so dainty and sweet. I couldn't get enough of her. She made Cora seem like quite the rugrat!

Funny story about this photo. While I was pregnant with Cora, I wanted Oreos all the time. Lee had a lot of "sympathy" while I was pregnant and also craved Oreos. He used to buy a package every few times he went to the store. Nice guy, right? Wrong! He would wait until I fell asleep and then eat them all. Every last crumb! I would call Lindsey (who was also pregnant and truly understood my agony) crying and complaining that he ate my Oreos again. About 15 minutes before Lee opened his gift, I was telling Lindsey that earlier that morning Lee had eaten nearly all of the Oreos. She was laughing so hard. Little did I know about the gift at the time. I guess this would go down as a "perfect gift" for Lee. He still, right to the minute of me typing this entry, claims he never remembers eating all my Oreos. Yeah right, Dude. You remember. It is called denial. Admitting your problems/mistakes is the first step. LOL. Make sure you take a look at Dave busting a gut. I am pretty sure he had just heard that Lee ate all the Oreos that morning.

Parker and Cora doing a Christmas gift exchange. Parker gave Cora two really great books. One is a huge book full of bedtime stories. It has been great reading through all the fun stories. The other is a book called "How Do I Love You". It is a really cute book. I highly recommend it for any little readers out there. Come to think of it, I might just make a blog entry of my most favorite children's books that Cora has. That would be an interesting topic. Cora gave Parker a book called "Gallop". It is another book I highly recommend. It incorporates scanimation into each page which is really cool. She also gave Parker a large polar fleece teddy bear. It was so soft and cuddly.

Cora had a really hard time sitting back and letting Parker open her gifts.

Our two little bookworms. You both make your Mommies proud.

OK, maybe the paper was pretty cool as well.

Parker giving her teddy bear kisses.

Dave got egg rolling lessons from Lee. Lee and his Mama make the world's best egg rolls.

Cheers, Grandpa Bob.

Cora thought Justin was pretty cool. We were able to spend a whole day with Anne, Justin, and Alex. We had a great time. We had lunch at Bass Pro Shops, shopped, and then headed to Scheels. It was a great time.

Cora opening her present from Aunt Anne.

A little wooden dog! How cute!. Cora loves him.

Cora getting some hugs from Uncle Dave.

How great is that smile on Parker. She had me laughing all night.

Cora and Parker also practiced going up and down the stairs. This was Parker's first time. She did so good. She was able to learn what to do and what to not do from Cora. Cora at one point decided she would go screeching off the stairs face first. Lovely. Of course it was right after we finished bragging about how good she was. Oops. Check out the fun video below.

If you clicked on the link I posted earlier taking you to the blog entry when Cora and Parker first met, you would see a side-by-side shot of them laying on this pink blanket. Linds and I wanted to an take an updated one on this trip. Well, here is the photo I got. Both girls flipped over and beelined it away at the exact same time. Lindsey got a couple of the two of them behaving. Is this a precursor of what we can expect in years to come? The two of them speeding away from their mamas...together? Oy vey. I did however get a video of them being cute next to each other. Check out the very short clip below. :)

Little Alex. Those baby blues are just delicious.

Aunt Lindsey with Cute-as-a-button Parker and Not-So-Modest Cora.

Our next and last big outing in Omaha was to the Children's Museum. Lee and I hadn't been there for a very, very long time. We thought it would be fun for Cora. Well, it may have been a bit much for her little soul. It was very neat, but there was a lot going on. I could see Cora was a touch overwhelmed, but she was a trooper! She loved the water play, the giant piano thingy, and the infant/toddler room. Of course, the things she really liked were the most boring for the entourage of adults that followed. Oh well. It was worth it. :)

Cora didn't look like she was 100% awake. LOL

Sunglasses look good on these ladies anytime of the day. :)

Weee!

She wasn't too sure about the slide in the first place. You can see in her face she was hesitant. Her hesitance kind of surprised me considering she is such a daredevil.