Christmas Parties, Friends and Cookies Galore!

We had a couple fun get-together's planned for Christmas this year. First, we met with Jamie & Jaime, my 2 breast cancer survivor friends that I have come to just love and their families! This was the first time all our families have met, and it was a lot of fun! The Little One is a lot younger than their boys, but she loved chatting with the Mommies & being the only little girl around...imagine that, my little center of attention! :)
Later that evening was the annual "Baby Christmas Party" with some friends that are the Hubby's friends from High School and their families. We only had one "little" baby this year, but obviously there are several little faces that have been added to the annual couch picture since we started having the party 5 years ago! I think there were only 5 babies back then! We were missing 2 that couldn't come, and one family has a sweet little girl due in the next couple weeks, so we will have at least one more next year! :) We had a fun night catching up with everyone, and the little ones had a great time running around Ricky's house and just being crazy kids!

Another annual tradition we have is baking Christmas Cookies with Gammy. We worked hard again this year on the perfect cookies for Santa, and as you can see, had a lot of fun and a LOT of sugar was consumed in the process!

Yes, this cookie DOES have enough sprinkles on it...She had to put a little bit of every kind of sprinkles on the last cookie she decorated!

And to her, it was well worth it!

More Christmas Festivities

So I have to confess something...I kinda forgot about my blog last week! How sad is that? I had time to blog, and was home with the Little One a lot, but I didn't even think about it. I still love you all, and I'm sorry for the l-o-n-g delay! I'll TRY to do better, I really will!

Well, I think I left off a couple weeks ago at the Little One's Christmas performance at school. It was a great day for us, with her class "Happy Birthday Jesus" party during the day where they had pizza and cupcakes and did a book exchange with the other kids in the class. They also gave us all the Christmas ornaments and projects they had been working on and they were an adorable, glittery, paint-y pile of cuteness! Now I've just got to figure out how to preserve them, some are pretty fragile!

That afternoon, my in-laws, better known as Grana & Granpa, came down from Tennessee for the "big show" and The Little One couldn't have been more excited! She was anxious about being on stage, and told us she was nervous right before we left, but they did GREAT!!!

Her Gammy & G-Daddy, Uncle Andy, Uncle Mike & Aunt Patti also came to cheer her on along with Mommy & Daddy of course!

Just as they got on stage she looked out and saw the huge crowd, and I thought she was going to lose it. Her hands went up to her mouth (sure sign of sincere crying for her) and thankfully, just then the music started. She was absolutely fine once they started singing (And then I started to breathe again)!I couldn't get a really good picture because the lights were so bright on them and she was squinting the whole time, but you get the idea!

After the show we all went to pick up our little star, and she was more than happy to show everyone around her classroom & take some pictures before leaving.

December Fun!

Wow! I just can't seem to keep up with this thing lately...I apologize to those of you who faithfully check for updates since there haven't been many lately. Maybe I'll get back into posting more often very soon!

December has been so busy, but lots of fun so far! We went to a Christmas Parade in our town a few weeks ago, and it was a great night! The Hubby & my Dad both had to work late, so The Little One & I went with my Mom, Gammy. We had lots of fun, just us girls!

Snow machines are sooo cool when you're a kid! They were loving it!

The parade always ends with Santa's sleigh being pulled by real (stinky) reindeer! It's adorable!

That weekend we went to North Carolina to visit our friends, and help The Little One's best friend since birth celebrate her 5th birthday! We love spending time with them, and this weekend was no exception. We all had lots of fun at the Pump it up Birthday party! As you can see the girls probably had the most fun after the party with the mega makeup set the Birthday Girl got as a gift! They went crazy with it, but loved every second of it!

Fun birthday party :)

The Little One & Birthday Girl. They just love each other & we miss seeing them all the time!

Fun with Daddy in the bouncy house!

Makeup!!!

Before we left they exchanged their Christmas gifts from one another...and then got mad because they couldn't open up more gifts!

The next week was the Little One's field trip to the Christmas Tree Farm. It had been planned for months, ever since their first scheduled field trip to the Pumpkin Patch (at the same location) was rained out. They were so bummed when they found out they couldn't go, but excited to know they were going later in the year. Well, the morning of the field trip was c-o-l-d! It was like, don't think you can get out of bed cold. It was ridiculous! We bundled up & braved it, but the poor kids weren't able to enjoy it until a few hours in when the sun came out & warmed it up a bit. It was pitiful, they weren't even talking much, it was like an alternate reality & we were all just numb! The day turned out good though, and as you can see they did lots of fun activities!

Making "Candy Canes" with flavored sugar

Even a petting zoo is hard to be fun when it's this cold!

TRYING to warm up with hot chocolate! It worked a little.

Jumping on the giant pillow...she wasn't a big fan of this one, too many kids bouncing her around.

She always loves a good bouncy slide!

Well, that's the beginning of our month in a nutshell. We have had recent big happenings I'll post about later. They require more time and pictures than I'm willing to do at bedtime! Hope your December has been fun-filled and memorable too!

~Santa's Watching You~

Carter the Elf has arrived! I had always heard of "The Elf on the Shelf" from other people, and had seen it in stores, but I never thought my little scaredy cat baby girl would tolerate a magic Elf from the North Pole watching her & reporting back to Santa (whom she is petrified of) on her behavior.

If you don't know the story of the Elf on the Shelf, this is what the box looks like, and it has a book with it that you read the child all about their new Elf friend, and how they pick a name for him, giving him magic. He picks a spot in their house each night after going to the North Pole & reporting to Santa about the child's behavior. It also tells them their Elf can see them when they're not at home too, so they should be on their best behavior! It's a really cute story, and when my friend got one for her children, we showed The Little One & read her the book to see if she would be scared. She seemed to like the idea, and when one came to our house she took to it right away!

Each morning she runs to see where Carter is & if he's made any messes she needs to clean up. (Some people have naughty elves that make really large messes & the children clean them up, but Carter just has small "accidents" occasionally that need attention ;) She has found him sitting on the mantle, in the Christmas tree, having cocoa with Cinderella Barbie, Hanging from the lamp & sitting on the mistletoe.

His presence in our house has seemed to help behavior wise lately also (as an added bonus)! Not that she was ever really bad, but the attitude has toned down and she hates when I "have a talk with Carter". It amazes me how much she has taken to it & isn't scared of him or his "magic"! She even wrote him a letter his second or third day at our house that says "Dear Carter I Love You. Love, Olivia" She cut out a heart & wrote the note so sweetly that he had to write her back the next day, which was THE coolest thing ever in her mind!

I just love this age, it's so much fun!

Hope you're having fun getting ready for Christmas at your house, too! Remember...Santa's watching you!!!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

As you well know, Christmas is coming...quickly approaching, as a matter of fact! I (probably unlike you) still haven't ordered my Christmas cards, but it doesn't mean I haven't thought about them, and this year I'm planning to use a site I've used in the past for printing pictures but haven't tried out for cards yet. A friend showed me her family's Christmas card she ordered from this site yesterday and it is so perfect, I'm hoping I can have one almost as cute! Shutterfly.com has high quality photo gifts that are adorable, and if your family is anything like ours, everyone loves to get a photo gift (especially grandparents with pictures of their precious grandchildren on them, right?!). In the past I have put lots of time and effort into calendars, and given them to close family members full of pics of the Little One. Shutterfly.com has some adorable calendar layouts if you plan to go in that direction this year, and once you upload your pictures, they make it SO easy to fill in the words, pictures & even special dates yourself! So cute and affordable!
http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars
Of course, Shutterfly also has some of the absolute cutest cards I've ever seen, and I can't wait to select those perfect photos and do our layout this year. Here are some of my favorites!

I hope I can decide between all the absolutely adorable cards and photo gifts soon, time is quickly running out for me! Hopefully the Hubby & Little One will agree to take some pics for me and we can get some cute family shots so our Christmas card can be extra fabulous this year to go along with the amazing cards :)
Merry Christmas & Happy Shopping!!!