Christmas Happenings

We have had a busy first half of the month full of Christmas activities. I can't believe the month is halfway over already. We love Christmas around here! Here's what we have been up to:

1) I know a lot of people do Elf on the Shelf (which is great and I have nothing against it) but I just didn't want to do that and put more focus on Santa. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was perfect. The three wise men travel around our house each night following the star that leads them to Jesus, and then E finds them in the morning. She has had fun looking for them each morning.

They built a "snowman"

2) We saw Frosty the Snowman at Casa Mañana last Friday with our MOPS group. It was super fun and E enjoyed it. J even enjoyed and was flapping his arms and happy screaming with some of the music numbers!





3) Our HOA does a Breakfast with Santa for our neighborhood each year and I was able to get tickets this year! E was excited about seeing him, but then didn't want to sit on his lap once we were able to visit with him. She did tell him what she wanted for Christmas - an umbrella!!

Eating her pumpkin muffin

4) One of the towns close by us has a Christmas parade each year. Last year we went and decided we wanted to make it a tradition. E was so excited for the lights and the parade and was jumping up and down waiting for it to come down the road. J enjoyed it too =)

5) E's friend threw a Christmas cookie party last Sunday. They did a little craft and decorated Christmas cookies. It was a good time for everyone.

She loves the glitter glue

6) On Monday, we went to ICE at the Gaylord. I really wanted to go this year because the theme was Christmas Around the World. I do love traveling so I was excited to see what they did. E loved it but I think her favorite part was the ice slide. J enjoyed being snuggled in the parka with me, and I'm sure next year he will be chasing E in his own little parka.

P.S. If you go to this, go during the week around 4 - there is no line and we could take our time.

7) Another town near us was having Storytime at the Station this week and I took E because she loves fire trucks. She had a great time with one of her friends.

She wanted to get her picture by the Grinch. I thought she would be scared of him, but she asked for me to take her picture with him!

8) E made a gingerbread house with her daddy. She has been talking about doing this for weeks and they finally did it on Thursday. There may have been some frosting and candy eating during the making of the house, but I'll never tell.

 He was just a spectator this year 

9) And then.....sickness hit our house. I had it earlier in the week but just pushed through it and thought it was no biggie. E started throwing up Friday afternoon, and then J joined her today. It is so sad to watch your little love bugs be sick. Praying they feel better soon.

Christmas 2013 Part 2

Christmas morning! Seeing Christmas morning through they eyes of your child might be the most precious thing ever. We brought E into our room while I went and turned the tree lights on. When we asked if she was ready to open her presents, she took off running into the living room and grabbed a present under the tree and started bringing it toward us. So so cute. 

Playing with a bow!

Her big gift from us was the chair! She loved it! She also got a Leap Frog phone in her stocking that she absolutely loved!.  

Opening one of her gifts from Nana and Papa. They got her the Little People Nativity set -  with the shepherds too!

She also got a tea set from them. 

One of the gifts Jason and I got her was a my first photo album that has pictures of us and her extended family in it. She loves looking at pictures, and this way she recognize them when they come to visit. 

Ladybug Girl board books - a new favorite

She got this fun learning turtle from her nanny Brandis!

We had to take a break from opening presents with her because she lost interest and wanted to play with all the things she had opened and play with all the boxes and paper. Hehe. After her morning nap, she opened up some more presents, and we opened up presents from the rest of the family.  

Bow sharing with her cousin

The best little present

And then after she opened presents from the family, she went to go give them all hugs. Awwww!!

Don't we all look tired?! Ha! Did I mention our little one hadn't been feeling good the last couple of days and so our nights were not so fun. 

This was a common thing to see all day. E sitting in her chair in the kitchen. For some reason, that is where she thinks her chair belongs. Even now, she brings it into the kitchen to sit in it along with her phone. 

Another break from present opening and then she opened her last gift from us. A cute little baby doll. 

 

In case you're wondering, I just can't get enough of this cute little girl. Here she is holding one of her stocking stuffer presents - a Dr. Seuss book. 

E wanted to try on her cousin's slippers. This was the result. It was kind of funny.

All in all, it was wonderful Christmas. Filled with family, love, and celebrating the birth of our Savior which is the best gift of all. I hope you all had a wonderful merry Christmas!

Christmas 2013 Part 1

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did! It was so fun to watch E this year with presents. Definitely different than last year. She was actually interested in opening them! Her excitement and smiles were just contagious.

We started our festivities off on Saturday. Jason's dad and stepmom and brother came into town and we opened up gifts from each other.

She had fun ripping the paper and handing it to her Uncle Jared. She was very particular about getting all the paper off all the box before opening the present. Ha!

We had to stop opening presents because E got distracted and wanted to play with her things that she had already opened. So we saved some for later that day to open.

On Sunday, we missed church because of an epic blowout diaper that required an immediate bath =). Oh well. We hung out for the day and made to an outdoor shopping area in a nearby town to pick up a gift card for my brother for Christmas. It was cold so we had to bundle Elyanah up really well.

She loves loves LOVES to play in the water in the pans.

Doesn't she look cute?

*Fast forward to Tuesday*
We hung out at the house in the morning, and then went to lunch at Pei Wei together as a family before heading to Christmas Eve service. Christmas Eve service was great. I love the candlelight service that is a tradition on Christmas Eve, AND we actually got in this year. We got turned away from the service last year because it was already full. It pays to go to the smaller satellite church than the big one =).

After service, we ran a couple of errands and then came home and spent the afternoon as a family before my family came into town. We had gumbo for dinner. It's becoming sort of a tradition for our family. We then opened up our pajamas to wear for the night. E went to bed and we watched Christmas movies and called it a night around 10.

In our cute Christmas pajamas. 

I will leave you a fun photo shoot of my girl in her cute Christmas Eve dress.