Merry Christmas!

....a belated Merry Christmas that is! For those of you feeling snubbed because you didn't receive a Christmas card from us, don't! I didn't do one this year. I drafted it and put it in my cart but didn't get around to placing the order in a timely manner. So, here is what I planned on sending out and what I planned on posting at a more appropriate time (like Christmas).

The week before Christmas we took Lily to see the lights on the river. I heard there was a Santa there but didn't expect much.  We decided to go on a Monday to avoid the crowds. I wasn't expecting to walk in and see a very authentic looking Santa with no line at all! Anacapri taught Lily about Santa aka, "Sammy" over Thanksgiving so we have had many conversations about him. I picked her up so she could see and her face lit up! It was at that moment I regretted not putting her in the Christmas dress I had set out (I didn't even take the time to fix her hair!). She squeezed my neck tightly with excitement and went right to him when he prompted her to sit on his lap. He asked what she wanted for Christmas and she answered, "Presents!" We continued on through the lights and she went "snow" tubing a few times. It was a great way to get in the holiday spirit dispite the unseasonable warm weather. 

Speaking of warm weather, we had our Christmas sweater party in 75 degree weather!....but we had a blast!

Notice they are all eating? That's the only way we could get them

to stand there for a picture. And we are still missing one!

Hopefully I will get around to posting about what we are currently doing before Valentines Day! ;)

Oh Christmas Tree!

Decorating for Christmas was more fun this year than ever, thanks to my little helper. I turned my back for one minute and she was up the ladder, garland in hand.

She loved going through the ornaments and she wanted to hang them all up high!

Decorating the little tree for her room.

I have a small nativity scene I put on the coffee table for her to play with.

'Where is baby Jesus?' is a daily question. I just love it!

She obviously thought her baby cradle is a better place to sleep than a stable.

Then inside the baby stroller. His little sheep are always with Him too!

I am looking forward to all of the magic and wonder that this Christmas season has to bring!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Once again Thanksgiving was a memorable, action packed day....3 days actually! The gang arrived Wednesday night and the festivities started immediatley. We are one of those families that eat late. I scaled back this year, deciding to only do only a few things. Everyone did their part and we had an awesome meal!

My Grama's glasses!

The kid table.

Begging at it's finest!

The dogs have a special way of seeking out the weakest person in the room.

Molly thought if she acted like a child by sitting nicely at the table she might get a plate. 

Nope! But, don't worry, the pups had plenty of scraps.

I was sitting right there, but Lily chose to snuggle with Aunt Haley! :)

The new trampoline was a hit, not only with the kids but the adults too! We spent lots of time outside enjoying the beautiful 70 degree weather. The kids make the holidays so much better! There may have been toys strewn though every room in the house but Pat and I loved it! We ate, played, ate, played and so on. I even think there might have been some workouts done by a few (crazy) people.

The family that jumps together, stays together!

Girls, nightgowns, babies and love!

"Going on a bear hunt" with Aunt Shelly!

Tree decorating

Girls, girls, girls!

Sweet baby Lincoln!

Denver = All boy!

Playing in Papa Jon's car!

Friday Pat's cousin, Thomas and his family made a visit to our house, within their visit to Charleston. They happened to have the movie, Frozen in their car and many of us were wanting to see it on the big screen. Lily has never seen it and she was completely memorized! That is definitely getting added to the Christmas list (even though I know I will probably regret it later).

We made Christmas cookies and watched the game on Saturday before everyone headed home.

 The silence was refreshing for a few minutes but it wasn't long before I was missing everyone!

TWO

That's right, Lily turned two on Sunday! We did the same thing as last year; family, chili, and cake. This year I was so much more excited. We haven't really bought her gifts yet but I had a long list of things I would have loved to get her. We decided a few months ago that we were going to get her a trampoline. She loves to, "Jump high, to the sky" so I couldn't resist.

Her first gift arrived in the mail on Saturday. I was like a child; I couldn't wait one more day for her to open it, I insisted she do it immediately. She opened the box, pulled out the newspaper and swooned over it, "Whoa, cool!". I urged her keep looking and soon she found the good stuff. She loved it and carried her "pets" around all weekend!

I am so lucky to have the best friends and family that love Lily so much. My good friend Jenny came in town to hang out and celebrate the birthday girl. She was also roped into babysitting (Denver, while Ryan and Haley went to a wedding) and party prep. Lily loves balloons so I wanted to surprise her with them when she woke up but didn't want to run out in morning so I picked up a small helium tank from Walmart. Jenny and I sat on the floor after Lily and Denver went to bed filling balloons and tying on string. After about the 15th balloon Jenny starts laughing, really hard. While reading the box and discovered that the balloons only lost 7-9 hours. Duh! I knew that! That's why I wasn't going to get them until morning. I was in prep mode and completely lost my mind. Luckily most of them stayed up until morning so I greeted Lily in her bed with a giant bunch of balloons. She was speechless! She literally just stared at them before jumping up and down with excitement. She drug them around with her all morning. She would grab one, say the color (getting it right about half the time) then give it a kiss! So cute!!!

Thank you Jenny, for helping to make my girl so happy!

Her reaction when Anacapri arrived was priceless!

We ate, opened a few presents, cut the cake, then went outside for the big reveal!

I'm not sure if she was more excited about her gifts or all of the people cheering for her.

Her gifts weren't enough to distract her from the puddles!

She wanted to wear a "hat too?!" like Anacapri.

We had a blast celebrating the fastest, most fun two years of my life!