Hey, remember me???

I realize I'm a little behind getting things posted, but better late than never I guess.  Between keeping busy at work, tutoring elementary kids 4 evenings a week, chasing a toddler, attempting to keep the laundry and house clean, and the dreary cold winter weather, I just haven't been able to find time, energy, or motivation to do much anything else.  Not to mention it is now 30 days into the new year and I haven't begun to work on the few New Years resolutions that I did make!  Sorry for being a Debbie Downer!  So my goal this week, as we head into February already (yikes!) is to get back on track.  Stay tuned for several new posts this week!

Christmas Celebrations

We began our Christmas celebrations a week early by celebrating at my Aunt Kay's.  My mom has 3 sisters, so by the time you add in aunts, uncles, cousins, and now our husbands and children, it makes for a lot of people to try to plan around.  We've found it a lot less stressful to celebrate early.  I remember celebrating Christmas with my cousins - singing Christmas carols in front of the tree while waiting for our moms to finish cleaning up dishes so that we could open our presents.  (I'm pretty sure dad has those videos somewhere, bet those are pretty embarrassing!)  Now we're all grown up, and it's fun to watch our babies get excited over gifts.

Hailey opening her first presents of this Christmas season. 

She got a dress up doll, peek a boo baby, and a vacuum cleaner.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Kevin's family. His aunts, uncles, and cousins were there too!  Hailey got to play with her cousins and they had a blast.

Hailey and Addison provided the dinner music

 Present Time!

We stayed up pretty late and ended up having to wake Hailey for Christmas morning presents with just the three of us. She was pretty excited to get her very own kitchen!

 

It took a little work to convince Hailey to leave her kitchen and get ready to head to my parents house for Christmas breakfast.  

 Opening presents is hard work,

 

 But after a quick nap, she was right back to playing...

 

and eating her fair share of Christmas goodies!

We had a great Christmas season.  Being able to experience it all with a toddler is that much more special.  Can't wait until next year when she's old enough to better understand santa claus -that should be fun!

Christmas Fun



Here's a run down of some of the activities that kept us busy leading up to Christmas.

Hailey is still not a fan of the big guy in the furry red suit.......



This is the best pic we were able to get.  Oh well, maybe next year!

And of course, we had to make our annual family trip (Oliver included!)  to see the lights at Creekmore!



Then it was time to decorate some Christmas cookies!

  You can never have too many sprinkles!

 She didn't quite get the idea of decorating now and eating later...