Tuesday, December 27, 2011

backing up a bit...christmas eve

the week before christmas came and went so quickly and i never posted about anything
molly and i were busy beavers in the kitchen that week...
she cooked
 and i cooked

 my little assistant

 her new favorite hiding spot...
under the sink

 we made cookies for santa on christmas eve

 my favorite thing to do...read cookbooks and cooking magazines to plan holiday celebrations!
 on christmas eve we dressed up and went to our church's christmas eve service at 3:30
this outfit is a size 18-24 month and i stuffed her into the tights
i just wanted her to wear it for one more year!

 we met up with the cousins at church
 granny  maze went with us
 sorry, i cut eddie's head off here, but it was a bit chaotic!

 molly and madison
 we came home and got in our christmas jammies
molly checked the chimney for santa
 aunt nancy read twas the night before christmas to her
 we put out cookies, but i forgot to take a picture
this is the note santa left for molly on christmas morning
 molly was so tired from a full day that she went right to sleep
unfortunately i forgot to put a pull up on her and she woke up at midnight with a wet bed
she was half asleep so she didn't think to check on the toys

 i love the house on christmas eve after santa comes
it's so magical!

molly loves playing with all of her toys from christmas
today we have stayed in our pj's, watched movies, and played all day:)
after christmas bliss!!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

walking down memory lane

we continued the fun tradition started by our neighbor, aunt nancy last year
she came over on christmas eve to read twas the night before christmas to molly



(molly wore the same green gown this year)


another dress we could wear again
love that!

and this adorable outfit could barely fit
but, i made it work for christmas eve

Christmas Decor and Fashion

i'm about to start the removal of all things christmas
and it's kind of sad:(
but, after 5 weeks i'm kind of read to get things cleaned up and back to "normal" around here too

so, before the mass cleaning begins i thought i'd take a look back and make sure i captured all of our christmas spirit appropriately 

the tree was so pretty this year
we slid it in the corner for the first time and it found it's rightful place



i love reach detail of the tree and every ornament that hangs on it
they each have a story to tell

i love the freedom of decorating for christmas in mostly pink decorations:)

this year i brought in sprigs of live evergreen so it smelled like christmas even though i have an artificial tree








for the first time this year i put lights and decorations outside
molly loved it:)



i loved the constant glow of the christmas tree inside

this year molly was a little more into our elf on the shelf
she originally named him "ted" on day 1, but then just resorted to calling him elf on the shelf each day
we'll wait to name him in a few years maybe
he's really a sneaky guy and gets into lots of stuff, but i didn't take a picture each day

and finally, just for my memory i have to include her wardrobe pictures
she had lots of adorable casual outfits, but i mainly took pictures of her dresses
i love having a girl!!

it's christmas day

we started our christmas day by having a little devotion together, reading the christmas story
this will become a yearly tradition
we've been reading from her toddler bibles a lot lately and she enjoyed listening to the story of Jesus' birth once again today
i want to emphasize the true reason we celebrate is because of Jesus and not just Santa before we opened presents
with so much hoopla this month, it's easy for the big celebrations to overshadow the true intention of the holiday

 after our reading and prayer we went into the living room to see if santa had come
she literally gasped when she walked in, she was so excited!
 just as last year, she got so focused on playing with things as she discovered them that she forgot their were more presents to unwrap!
these little kitchen toys...mixer, coffee maker, and scale were a huge hit!
they are adorable and she probably played with them for about 20 minutes before she every realized she had stepped over the new trains and train track on the floor

 mom bought her a smaller train track and thomas set for an early christmas gift and she loved it!
santa brought this (target brand) figure 8 track with a "hill"
she loved playing with it a long time too!
 her new train from the thomas line is the "rosie" battery operated train
some of the others are just off brands that fit the tracks and some thomas trains she already had
 after some play, she looked over to realize santa had eaten the cookies and drank all of the milk she left for him
he also left a note for her
we quickly went outside to see if the reindeer had eaten their carrots and they had!
magic was in the air!!
 stocking fun!

 after about an hour, she finally spotted the box she thought may be her belle doll
she was right!


 she loved her kissing simba & nala set!
they are so cute!
 she got an elefun game
 she had fun re-doing belle's hair with her new princess hair accessory kit!
 this was  a miniature lion king set
don't all kids love playing with tiny items??





 she mixed in her lion king characters with her new set of wild animals
she really loves role playing with them!




it was a truly wonderful Christmas morning
mom came over and enjoyed some breakfast snacks with me while we watched molly open presents
we were able to relax and take our time all morning together
it took her about 3 hours to open everything just because she stopped and played with everything as she opened it
i remember that from last year too and tried to scale it back this year because it just doesn't take a lot to make a little one happy on christmas morning
but, as the season went on i seemed to keep adding things to her list
it's so hard to practice restraint!!!!

now we are getting ready for an early bedtime in order to have a good nights sleep before tomorrow morning when we will have breakfast and gifts with eddie and his family!

the madness continues!!1
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