Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! On Christmas Eve, Meg, Jared, and Allie came over to exchange presents. Gracie got a Little People airplane and the twins got formula! She gave Allie a puzzle and Meg and Jared gift cards. It was fun!

Gracie hung the final ornament on her advent calendar. Her tree is now complete.


Then that night, we headed over to my parents for a yummy dinner. All the kids went in thier Christmas jammies!

Well Gracie wanted to wear her Christmas dress one last time too so she posed by Grandma and Grandpa's tree.

She also played some Christmas carols for us on her pink piano.

Then it was home to leave out cookies and milk for Santa! We also sprinkled reindeer food in the yard for Rudolph!

On Christmas morning, Gracie awoke to find that Santa came and left her Dumbo, which is what she did ask him for, a marker coloring table, and a dollhouse! And that thing in front, that would be a velvet Elvis poster for her to color.
Gracie got Marvel superheroes stuff too thanks to daddy. She got some figures such as Hulk and Wolverine, which she knows by name. She opened them up by saying "cool daddy, Hulk!" But she also knows the princesses so she is not total comic geek.




Here she is enjoying her new marker table. Now we just need to pray and hope that the markers only get used to color the table and nothing else!

Gracie helped Millie with her stocking too. Millie must have been a good kitty because she got an automatic red light beamer that goes on it's own for 15 minutes! She loves it!





Even Presley and Evelyn had some fun things in their little stockings.

I made Gracie a zoo scrapbook. It contains all the pictures of all of our trips to the zoo starting with her first trip to the most recent. She loves the zoo and the animals so I wanted to make her a special book just for that. Now I can add to it everytime we go there!

Elvis even left a little something for everyone this Christmas.

Evie got an "all shook up" outfit.

And Presley got the cool red, white, and blue suit. He is "the king."

Gracie, among all her many presents, also got a floor mat to play with all her little people cars and houses too. We are runnning out of room in this house too!

Santa even went in the basement and left Gracie this grocery store to play in. It is so cool because she can color it herself! Coloring and "crafts" are Gracie's favorite things to do so this will be much fun for her!
After opening presents at home, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for breakfast and more presents. Here are Presley and Evie on their first Christmas morning.
Gracie had lots of goodies in her stocking including big girl underwear which we can hopefully wear soon!
Our family on Christmas Day!

Aren't these the cutest little behinds you have ever seen?


My sister painted and decorated these cute letters for Presley and Evie.

Too bad they don't have a room for us to hang them in:(


Gracie also got a Bitty Baby, which is a type of American Girl doll. She got a backpack to store all the cute outfits and the backpack even doubles as a baby carrier! She even named her baby " Evie", after her little sister!

Santa even came to Grandma and Grandpa's house! Here, Gracie also got a tea set complete with cart. She loves serving everyone "coffee."

Auntie Amy also put together this adorable dress-up box! After Halloween, she apparently started buying leftover costumes for real cheap and put them in the box. She decorated the box real cute too! Some of the outfits in there are Dorothy (my favorite), Zoe, from Sesame Street complete with wig headband, cowgirl, cheerleader, Minnie, flapper girl, Batman, a princess. She even got princess high heels which she does her best walking in. Thanks Auntie Amy!

Here she is wearing Batman.

Here is Gracie with her Minnie Mouse outfit on.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We sure did. We made a lot of memories and that is what I had hoped. Christmas 2009 was the best yet!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house....

I keep thinking of Christmases past and the memories that were made then.

Having kids makes Christmas all the more special and you can even become a kid again too. Each year just keeps getting better and better. This year with 2 more kids is special and next year will be even more fun yet crazy with all 3 walking around! Have a merry little Christmas and cherish the memories you make with your family! Check back tomorrow to see what Santa brings us!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Merry 3rd Grade Christmas!

Last night was our 3rd annual 3rd grade Christmas! My team at work is the best. We are all close friends. We started this the first year we had kids. When I was pregnant with Gracie, there were 8 people at school pregnant! 3 of us were in 3rd grade. Jacob, Jackie, and Gracie were all born 2 months of each other. Andrea already had her twin boys Jake and Kyle. Well after that, Kelly had baby Brandon2 years ago, and then last year Holly had baby #2, Olivia, I had the twins, and Becky is due in April with her 2nd baby boy! We just keep growing and growing. If you don't believe me, look at the picture. Trust me, we keep subs busy in our district!

Well, Patti's husband, Gil, plays Santa for us. He has done this for years. He gets Santa gigs all over town and has been kind enough to come and entertain our kids as well. He starts growing his beard out in the summer and doesn't shave it off until Christmas Eve night! He makes a great Santa. Gracie though was being a stinker and wouldn't sit on his lap. She knows him too. I thought since she didn't like mall Santa, she would at least sit on Gil's lap, but nope. She did manage to go get her gift from him though.

At least the twins didn't mind Santa! They reminded him that they have both been good these first 6 weeks!

Don't they look all jolly and merry in their Christmas sleepers? These were courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Claus (aka Patti and Gil)

Here is the whole gang again. Next year will be even more fun!

It was a fun party and everyone was tuckered out.

Snow Much Fun With Grandpa!

Since we had a little snowfall the other day, Grandpa could hardly wait to get Gracie out in the snow. Even though she is fighting off a litle cold, we decided to go for it. Last year Gracie was not a big fan of the snow but this year, it was the exact opposite. She loved it! She had so much fun. Grandpa brought over his sled and strapped her in. The sled didn't go by itself down the hill so Grandpa had to pull Gracie. (It's a safety sled for babies I guess). She did want to stop. She tried making a snowman and snow angels but there was not enough snow for that. She loved being pulled down the street too! In fact, when it was time to come in, she said "No Grandpa," which is what she always says to Grandpa anyways. She can hardly wait to go out there again. I told her that if she is a good girl, she can ask Santa to bring some snow. It's always nice to have a white Christmas! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

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Starting New Christmas Traditions

Christmas for me, like most people, is my most favorite time of the year. Family has always and will always be a huge part of Christmas but having my own kids just gives it extra special meaning. You can be a kid yourself again! Gracie is excited for Christmas this year and I can hardly wait to see her face on Christmas morning. But anyways, we have been trying to start our own family traditions to do with her. Next year Presley and Evie will be able to join in too but this year it's all for her.

For one, Gracie is into "crafts." She loves coloring, glueing, and anything related to that. We go to the library every week where we listen to stories, sing songs, and make a craft. We are even taking a class this spring called "messy masterpieces." I can hardly wait! Anyways, we made Halloween crafts and now we moved on to Christmas crafts. Auntie Amy bought her this foamy Santa's house kit to build and decorate. What fun she had! Although she likes pulling the decorations off and putting them on herself, she still had fun. We also painted window hangies, like the ones we had when we were kids. We will give those as gifts!

Last Christmas, my mom made Gracie this adorable Advent calendar. After Christmas, we got little wooden ornaments to fill the pockets. So this year, Gracie got her own Christmas tree for her room. It is prelit and even has it's own little tree skirt. Each day we go to the calendar and hang up and ornament. The concept is still a little hard for her to understand we only hang up one a day, as I have caught her grabbing all the ornaments and hanging them on the tree. I sneak them back into the pockets. I think next year we will understand the concept of counting down a little bit better. But anyways, she looks forward to that everyday! And of course, what Christmas tree would be complete without an Elvis tree topper? That would be courtesy of daddy!

Christmas family traditions are the most special ones. Treasure yours with your family too.