Other Christmas Celebrations with Family

 Christmas Day at Grandma Gracie's.  Chaos!

 Merry Christmas Grandma.

 My mom, her mom, and sister Tanya.

 Christmas evening at Aunt Sharron's.  It was fun to see so much of our family!

 The day after Christmas at Grandma Donough's.  We went to the carousel.

 Not sure why there is no smile here.  She rode it three times because she loved it so much.

 Grandma and Kandice.

 Linda and Cindy:)

 Grandma with some of her grandkids and great grandkids:)  We haven't seen Dave and his family sinve our wedding!  They have 4 kids we have never met.

 All done with the carousel.

 Kyle reading to the kids.

 Dinner out at Thai 9.

 Happy Birthday Lana!

 Bowling with the family.

 Such a fun afternoon.Ell

 Christmas present time with the Fergusons.

 Lots of car toys!

The girls.  We have enjoyed such a wonderful Christmas season with friends and family.  Cannot wait to see what next year brings!

Christmas Morning

 Here she comes:)

 She noticed that Santa only ate one of the cookies, drank all the milk, and ate all the carrots.  he gave her a call the day before (courtesy of Leah) telling her to leave him some cookies but not to tell Mrs. Claus.  She concluded that he must have had too many other cookies to eat both of hers:)

 All the presents.

 Daddy's turn. (2 khakis, 1 jean, 3 shirts)

 Mommy's turn.  (family photo album, Columbia jacket, maternity clothes, jammies)

 So excited about Barbie Princess Charm School!

 Big hugs for daddy who did Santa a favor and picked it up for him:)

 Rapunzel doll and jams which she says is a real church dress because it is so fancy!

The mess!  Elli enjoyed her toys and clothes.  She loves her new stable and carriage as well.  It was fun opening her gifts and playing them with her.  5 1/2 is a fun age for sure.

Christmas Eve at my Parent's

 The boys were not all that thrilled with dinner veggies.  Wesley was secretly throwing them on the floor.

 Elli doing a usual pose in front of the tree and the enormous pile of presents.

 Luka was so excited about his book

 Present time everyone!

 She was so happy to Finally get Barbie Princess Charm School:)

 The boys opened their music table from us so they would play with one thing in one place for a while.

 Leah got Elli some new snuggle bunch PJs.

 Gary wanted some snuggle time too!

 Schoettmers

 O'Connors

 Browns

 Fergusons

 Papa snuggling the newest addition to our family.

The boys were so excited to play in this mess they created:)  Actually, we all played a little.  It was a fun Christmas Eve with memorable moments and gifts.

Happy Birthday Jesus

 We got together with the Masters and Raymonds for a little party.  Such fun to watch our kids lay together.

 We spent the next day with Leah and the boys.  We decided to brave the rain and traffic to go shopping at Target on the 22nd.  Crazy!  We all got hungry so we ate at Target and got special drinks at Starbucks.  (Elli convinced Leah to get her a slushy!)  Fun day despite the craziness.

 Elli has become such a big helper in the kitchen.  She helped me with the baking this year, including making the icing and choosing the colors.  She even iced about half the cookies.  It truly saved time:)

She was very proud of the way they turned out.  Due to my lack of decorating talent, you cannot tell which ones she iced and which ones I iced!

My 35th birthday

 I was getting a little help with my presents:)

 I have been admiring my mom's cute hoody with fur so she got me one of my own:)

 No Wesley, no Wesley, no Wesley.  They couldn't keep away from the tree.

 We got a surprise visit from Uncle Donald, Melissa and her husband Chris, Keona, and Melody.  They came just in time for cake!

 The girls.

Mom and dad.
Elli and I were throwing up the night of the 17th so we postponed my party to the 20th.  We still enjoyed P.F. Chang's take out, presents, cake and ice cream, but it was a bummer to be so sick on my birthday.  Sherry and Jeni brought me some flowers, balloons, jello, popsickles, sprint, 7-up, and gatorade.  Thank you friends and family for making my 35th birthday special!

Parties and Random Acts of Kindness

 Elli's kindergarten class at the Christmas party vbfore break.  Santa visited them and he remembered seeing Elli last year when she was at the preschool.  Elli was quite impressed:)

 Love her smile!

 She wanted to go shopping with me to get our family ornament.  We went to the Dayton Mall, got our ornament and went to Chik-fil-A.  Elli saw a little boy and ran to give him her new toy from her kids meal.  I told her it was sweet, but another lady saw her do it, came to our table, and said, "That was a very sweet thing you just did.  Here is a gift card ($10) so you can come back and enjoy lunch with your mommy again."  I told Elli was not that common to have two such kind people, herself included, in one day.  Then, we played with dogs where we both fell in love with this little yorkie:)

 The next day, Sat, Dec. 17, Ava had a Pinkalicious birthday party to celebrate turning 5.

 All the girls getting ready for cake!

Ava blowing out the candles with a little help from her mommy, Sally:)
What  fun couple of days.