Christmas Part 2

The first part of the day after Christmas we laid around and recovered from Christmas Part 1 (and I took my kids to the grocery store decked out in Christmas outfits and hoped nobody looked at them too closely but hey, we still had a day of celebrating ahead of us!). Emmie of course chose not to take a nap that day and while I was cleaning up some Christmas stuff I found a gingerbread house kit I'd forgotten about so I went and got Emmie out of her room and let her work on it. She had the BEST time building her house (and was QUIET) and it was so much fun to watch how serious she was about where every piece went...she definitely had a plan!



She was so proud of the finished product and her Mama (who's a little biased) thinks she did a great job too!


After naps Gin-g, Fred, Blake, and Emily came for Christmas Part 2. We all got some really great gifts and of course the girls were spoiled rotten for the second day in a row! Our families know exactly what these little girls like.

\

Ellie was so taken by her Ugly Duckling book. What's really funny is that Emmie has a CD with a song on it about the Ugly Duckling so she gave Ellie a quick synopsis of the story.

Among other princess things, Emmie got some princess gloves from Emily and Blake and she's quite obsessed!

There are two favorite presents in this picture (along with the little ride on car also known as the worst present ever...thanks Abby and Ben...yours is coming in February!). Anywho, back to the GOOD presents that don't make noise...Emily and Blake got these adorable tailgate chairs for the girls. They are AWESOME and the girls were thrilled! Ellie sat in hers the rest of the day! Also Emily and Blake got Ellie the baby doll outfit. I was quite happy to get the present as well because this poor baby doll came with a robe but spends most of the time naked...we're all glad she has clothes now! Ellie is obsessed with that little outfit (and the baby doll is probably pretty glad to have it as well)!

Gin-g and Fred got the girls wooden baby doll highchairs and one of their friends painted their names on the chairs. The chairs are BEAUTIFUL and the girls have spend a lot of time feeding their babies!

I didn't get a good picture of the actual present but I just have to tell you about it because I think it's great! Gin-g and Fred gave this Santa to Emily and Blake and we also have one that we got right before we got married. The Santa is holding different items that represent things about Emily and Blake. (It has some Summerville stuff, Clemson tickets, and a figurine that looks like Emily's dog among other things.) When we get ours out every Christmas, Paul and I always look over it and find all the things that tell our "story"!

Emmie helping Papa put together one of my favorite presents that the girls got...a toy organizer! Emmie was so proud that she helped Papa put it together!

Emily and Ellie

LOVE the toy organizer!!!!! You can also kind of see the puzzle rack beside it which I was really excited about as well. The girls have done a pretty good job putting their toys back in the right bucket and hopefully we can keep it up after the holidays but even if they end up in the wrong bucket at least their off the floor!

Funny story of the night (sorry Blake but I couldn't resist telling!):  I went to open one of my presents and I looked at the tag and it said from Blake and Emmie...oops...Blake you might want to remember that your fiancee's name is EMILY! (However, we can all empathize because I think we call Emily and Emmie the wrong names pretty often...and it's even more confusing when Emma's around!)

Christmas Part 1

Christmas Eve I put the monitor in Emmie's room so I would hear her when she woke up and catch her before she went in the den. Fortunately she slept until 7:30 which was great! (Minus a 3am wake up where she talked for about a minute and then went right back to sleep...it was pretty funny.) I went and got Emmie and Ellie and convinced Paul to drag himself out of bed and then we all went and checked out what Santa brought. The girls weren't quite sure what to think of all the toys...I think they were in a little bit of shock!

The goodies Santa left!

(By the way Emmie was scared to go to sleep Christmas Eve because she was scared of Santa coming to her house...if you think about it, the whole Santa thing IS a little creepy...a large, strange man is going to come into your house while you're sleeping. I can see where Emmie was coming from!)

 So the girls checked out their Santa presents and we all opened our stockings. Franklin was the most excited about his stocking. I think he thought he'd been left out and you should have seen that little tail wagging when I pulled out his jam packed stocking! He also loved having his sisters help him with his stocking because they wanted to give him lots of treats!

The fairy wings were a definite hit at our house as were the wands.

This little fairy wants to be jeweled out just like her big sister.

Emmie helping Franklin open his stocking.

Making sure Paul got everything out of his stocking!

Hi Ho Cherry-O was a big hit with Emmie. We've had to play it many times and she picked up on how the game is played pretty quick. Funny though she didn't really get what it meant to "win". She's never been involved in anything where there was a "winner". I found it funny that I had to explain it to her but kind of sweet at the same time.

The baby pack n play was a HUGE hit and our babies have done a lot of sleeping lately! Emmie spent the entire Christmas lunch telling us to be quiet because the baby was sleeping. We've decided that Emmie is going to be quite the character when Mary Ruth starts coming over on Fridays with Clara...on the downside I later found Emmie putting the baby through the basketball goal...Clara, you might want to keep a close eye on Mary Ruth...lol!

For breakfast I fixed us some delicious (and easy!) Pillsbury cinnimon rolls. I wanted to have something easy for breakfast because I wanted to be able to take in every minute of the Christmas joy my little girls experienced!

After we finished breakfast my family showed up including the infamous Uncle Ben who flew on his plane(according to Emmie it's Ben's plane!) to come see us (Emmie was a little sad that he didn't bring his plane to our house...lol). The girls had a great time playing with everyone and showing off their playhouse that Gran and Grandaddy got for them for Christmas!

There's a giant in the house!

Emmie loves her new t-ball set from Santa.

We ate lunch (my mom brought lasagna and salad)and opened presents and we all got good stuff, of course!

My Christmas place setting. I love getting to use my china and crystal and silver!

The baby doll from Uncle Ben was a big hit!

Paul's blower..aka tshirt launcher...haha!

The girls got calendars and handprint ornaments for everyone. I was so excited about how they turned out!

The girls missed naps and Ellie was glazing over so we took her on a walk and she fell asleep sitting straight up in her stroller. Too funny!

We had a wonderful Christmas day with family...our little family and our extended family! I have found so much joy in Christmas the last few years. There is truely nothing that compares to seeing the world through a child's eyes and being able to share those moments with family!

Sleepy Ellie and Gran

Trying to get a picture of the crew.

The ladies...4 generations!

Eeep!

...that's the reaction I had when I saw this cuteness! I'm so glad her hair is finally long enough to put up in a rubber band!



(She was busy stuffing cheerios in her mouth...that's the only way I could get her to hold still for her picture!)



Merry Christmas!

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!

I will do all my Christmas pictures after we settle down a bit but suffice to say we had a wonderful holiday with family and it continues tomorrow!

Our day was so much fun it wore Ellie out!



Christmas Eve

We took the girls to the Children's Service at church this afternoon and the girls were super wiggly but fortunately it was a very relaxed atmosphere and so wiggles were ok! They had all the kids come down to the front for the "talk" (as it was phrased in the bulletin) and after a little encouraging Emmie decided that she would join everyone else and of course if Emmie was doing it Ellie had to do it too. Emmie did enjoy singing along to the songs she knew during the service. At the end they did a "candlelight" portion and all the kids got glowsticks...I think Ellie thought she was at a rock concert...she kept waving her glowstick around. I love that our church has a special Christmas service for the children!

After church we came home and ate an early dinner and then settled in to watch the Polar Express. I popped popcorn and made some baked brie (apparently I'm the only one that likes it at my house but that just means more for me) and we all enjoyed a good movie together.

After the movie it was baths and then off to bed for the girls. I just looked at the NORAD Santa tracker and Santa just left Brazil...Emmie better hurry up and go to sleep!

I want to finish this post by sharing with you the lyrics of one of my favorite Christmas songs. It gives me chill bumps every time I hear it...such powerful words and I think the music just adds to the power of the words.

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine!
O night when Christ was born
O night divine!
O night, O night divine!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in His name, all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us praise His holy name

Christ is the Lord!
Thy name forever praise we
Noel, Noel
O night, O night divine
Noel, Noel
O night, O night divine
Noel, Noel
O night, O holy night

17 Months!

I am 17 months!

• I wear 12-18mo clothes, a size 5ish shoe, and a size 5 diaper.
• I sleep 12-13hrs at night and nap for about 2hrs during the day.
• Most nights I go down very willingly. Mommy or Daddy rocks me for a few minutes and then I usually ask to go to bed. Sometimes I don't even want to be rocked...I just want to go straight to bed!
• At bedtime (and randomly throughout the day) I have to have my baby (which baby that refers to changes every now and then) and my blanket (my yellow duck blanket).
• When I'm not super tired I love for Emmie to come in my room and sing and talk to me once I'm in my crib and if I'm upset I generally want Emmie.
• I am a very good communicator and have lots of words in my repitoire and recently have started jabbering sentences (you usually can't pick out all the words but I'm practicing my big girl talking!).
• This month I celebrated Thanksgiving in Greenville with Mommy's family and in Boiling Springs with Daddy's family.
• This month I got to go see the Christmas lights at the zoo.

• I LOVE baby dolls.
• I am still pretty content and even tempered most of the time but every now and then I show some pre-2 year old temper! I also am not as good a listener as I used to be...getting a little bit strong willed! Overall though I'm super sweet and loving.

• I LOVE to play with Emmie.

Sometimes I even get to be the boss!!

• I still enjoy reading and have been branching out to new books!

• I love slides.

• I like to play in the leaves as long as they're not too deep.

• I have become more friendly with people who aren't my Mama. I will willingly let someone else hold me even when my Mommy's around. 
•  This month I went to my first Carolina game. I was such a trooper and stayed for whole game! I did fall asleep for about an hour and even slept through the fly over!

• This month I got my first haircut.

• I got to play with some chickens this month at Emma and Mary Jane's house. Emmie was a little scared of the chickens but I thought they were great!

• I love to dance!

• I've started "singing" and will try and immitate what Emmie is singing.
• I love to give hugs and kisses and if you're someone I know I might come barreling across the run and suprise you with a big hug!

O Christmas Tree

We put up our tree a few weeks ago but I never got around to sharing pictures! The girls, especially Emmie, LOVE the tree and it stays lit up from the time they get up until they go to bed at night.

*Yes, I know our tree is a bit of a Charlie Brown tree but it was our first tree and it has grown on me over the years. It has character :)