Christmas 2011

I opted to film Christmas morning in lieu of pictures, so I have none to post. These pics of M&E baking Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve will have to suffice...

Santa's gifts for this Christmas included a wedding dress for M (the girl loves some dress-up), a bow and arrow for E, and trucks for W. Grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles were extremely generous and what we thought would be a pretty small Christmas for us actually turned out to be a really great one.

On a side note, this was the Christmas of the worst tree ever. We came home on the 23rd to find bugs all over the floor, all over the gifts and crawling ALL OVER the tree. It was disgusting. Needless to say, the ornaments came off and that nasty tree was at the curb that day. At least we were that much closer to cleaning up all the decorations!

All in all we had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior with our family - including our new addition little Ward.

Callaway Fantasy in Lights

Mama Kaye treated us to the Fantasy in Lights show at Callaway Gardens this year. We all bundled up and rode the trolley (otherwise known as the "charlie") through the show. M&E loved it, but they had some trouble seeing everything so we decided on an encore performance. We loaded up in the car and drove through it another time. This time they had heat, snacks, and no obnoxious company. They REALLY loved it this time and each declared their own favorite part.

By the way, taking pictures of lights is not easy.

Ballet Nativity/School Christmas Program

Madeline's ballet class gave a little nativity performance and M was chosen to play Mary. She did a great job (she didn't cry) and the girls put on such a sweet little show. Daddy even got to come watch! M really loves ballet and constantly twirls around the house.

The next day, M&E had their Christmas program at school. Daddy and Mama Kaye came to watch. It was so cute! It was so fun to see the children perform the songs that I had heard them singing for weeks at home.

Our little angels:

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we decided to spend Thanksgiving here:

It was wonderful. What a beautiful time of year to be at the beach!

We celebrated my 30th birthday at Louisiana Lagniappe. I cannot think of a more perfect way to ring in my 30s than surrounded by my precious family in a beautiful setting eating delicious food!

The big kids had their own little hideaway in our suite and fought over the top bunk the whole time.

We spent most of our time in the outdoor heated pool and hot tub but we took a little walk to the playground for some fun one morning.

We also took a tour of the docks and we each picked out a yacht for Santa to bring for Christmas. (He must not have been able to fit them on the sleigh.)

These crazy kiddos even got in the gulf. It was NOT warm.

The five of us had such a relaxing vacation that we're considering a repeat performance.

Growing Up

I have been meaning to post on some updates for a while now, but life has been busy. These two big kids made some major changes several months ago and I feel the need to document them. In a single day, Eli gave up his blanket (that he had slept with since his first day home from the hospital), stopped sucking his thumb and took down his bedrail. About two days later, Madeline (not one to be outdone for long) also gave up her beloved blanket and had her bedrail removed. Then, as if my two precious oldest children had not given their poor mother enough to cry about, Eli decided to take up residence in the top bunk. My oh my. And those once sweet blankets that had become progressively more nasty with each passing year? I seized the moment when M&E decided to abandon them and tossed them in the trash bin.

This dear sweet baby is delicious. Seriously, irresistible. He's a little better with his napping but still not a great napper. He still gets up occasionally in the night, but the opportunity to nuzzle that sweet little fuzzy head in peace and quiet makes it so worth the interruption in my sleep. I feel like we may have a tooth any day now and he's starting to get quite good at sitting up, not on his own yet but soon. He has a healthy appetite and gobbles down his rice cereal, bananas, apples and sweet potatoes, and he's still great at nursing. He has been such an easy addition to our family and we all ADORE our sweet Ward.