Four Christmases 2015 edition

Another Christmas has come and gone. This Christmas has been a whirlwind, and I'm sad to see it end. The last four days have been full of gift giving, gift getting, eating, drinking, and celebrating. To say we are exhausted is an understatement. 
Let's do a little recap, shall we? 
Christmas Eve:  We spend Christmas Eve with my family. We have opened gifts on Christmas Eve my entire life. I have fond memories of being a child and about to burst at Christmas Eve mass, because I knew Santa had come while we were gone. I can still remember the smell when we walked in the house of my mom's baked beans in the oven. It's the little things you remember most. 
Ella is always SO excited to go to Mammy and Peep's on Christmas Eve. I can't imagine why?! I'm most excited for the food usually. It's my favorite meal of the year. I only wish I had two stomachs so I could eat more. 
All I wanted for Christmas was a good picture with my girls and a good family picture. Ella was not happy about it at first, but she always comes through for me. These two are definitely the best gifts I have ever received, even though they wear me out daily!

The girls wasted no time in opening gifts. They started tearing into them as soon as we walked in the door. 

Paige watched and took notes while the girls opened their gifts.  She loved opening a couple of her gifts until she got tired and slept the rest of the morning/afternoon.

It was unseasonably warm which made it a great day for Ella to ride her new Scooter. These three wheeled scooters are so cool. Ella has been riding it through the house for days now. 

Thanks family for cooperating with my picture request with no complaining and smiles all around!

Ella did not want to go to bed that night since she was so excited. I now see why my parents had us open gifts on Christmas Eve. Ella can never get to bed which makes it extremely hard for Santa Claus to assemble toys. Once I thought she was in bed Mrs. Claus went upstairs to help Santa assemble her gift. All of the sudden I hear little foot steps coming up the stairs, and I seriously almost had a heart attack. Ella probably thought I was nuts, because I screamed. I caught her before she hit the top of the steps and led her back to bed. Crisis averted! 
Around midnight we had everything ready to go. Ella's big gift was upstairs assembled, and we wrapped the empty box. 

Christmas Day:

Ella came busting in our room around 7:30 on Christmas morning. I was impressed she slept that long. Paige had me up twice during the night so I was still sound asleep. I went ahead and woke Paige up so she could join in on the fun. 

Ella had presents opened in no time! That girl can unwrap faster then any child I have ever seen. 

I sat Paige on the floor, and she immediately started tearing into the paper. I think she thoroughly enjoyed her first Christmas. 

 Paige sat and played like this for at least 45 minutes. She really loved what Santa brought for her. 

 This was the first year since Adam and I have been together that we were able to stay home all day on Christmas Day. It was so nice. Anyone who wanted to come over was welcome, but we wanted to be home. I made a big meal for dinner (turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls). It was good but next year I may simplify and buy a turkey already made to heat up. I'm all about simplifying these days. 

December 26th:

On the third day of Christmas we celebrated with Adam's mom, step dad, sister, and her boyfriend. We went to Winslow for lunch and to open gifts. 

You will notice as the days go on I took less and less pictures. I at least got some though. Paige was more than happy to sit in front of the tree for some pictures. Ella was too worried about opening gifts to cooperate with my picture taking. 

 Ella is obviously thrilled with this GIANT ball. We were going to make her wait until spring to play with it outside since it's so huge, but Adam had a weak moment. It's currently sitting upstairs blown up. 

Paige was in full on present mode again. She loved her gifts! 

Ella was thrilled with this surprise box of 40 shopkins!

 

Christmas is exhausting!!

By Saturday night we had toys everywhere and our house was a mess. I couldn't take it anymore so I did some cleaning out and organizing. I even took our upstairs tress down. I would have taken our tree down in our living room, but we still had one more celebration to do. Three hours later I had everything organized and clean upstairs.  

December 27th: 

We had our last Christmas celebration with Adam's dad, sister, and boyfriend at our house. We kept it simple and ordered pizza. I unfortunately didn't even get my camera out, but I did snap a couple of pictures with my phone. 

Ella got a new lego set that should keep her busy for quite some time. Let's hope I can keep track of all 365 pieces. 

Paige's life is officially complete. She now has her own phone and remote which are her two favorite things. 

We received a nice gift as well. Sometimes the best gifts aren't things, and we greatly appreciate our gift from Poppy! 

Later that day after everyone was gone I immediately started taking down the tree. Once it's over, it's over! I had everything taken down and packed away without a trace of Christmas in our house by Sunday night. 

This was such a special Christmas because it was Paige's first Christmas and our first Christmas as a family of four. I'm thankful to our families who made it such a nice Christmas for our girls and Adam and I as well. Christmas 2015 will be etched in my memory forever.

The days before Christmas and Ella's Birthday

Before I get to my Christmas post I wanted to recap a few of the things we did in the week leading up to Christmas. This whole month seems like a total blur. I love the holiday season, but this one seemed a little crazier then years past. Not only do we have Christmas, but we have Ella's birthday thrown in there as well. Back when I was pregnant with Ella I thought it was going to be this magical experience (l0l) having a "Christmas baby".  I didn't realize at the time we would have a birthday party thrown in with the holiday season, which makes it that much crazier! 

This Christmas season was extra special since we have another child to enjoy it with. Paige of course has no clue what is going on yet, but it's fun to think of experiencing Christmas through the eyes of another child. Ella is getting close to the age where she will most likely not believe in Santa so it's nice to know we will be able to experience it all over again with Paige. 

Paige had lots of Christmas outfits this holiday season. I think she got plenty of wear out of each one considering she was decked out in holiday attire almost every day in December. 

On the last day of school Ella had a Christmas party/pj day. Ella's teacher also gave her a stuffed animal for her birthday. Ella was SO excited for school that day. A party, stuffed animal, pjs, and the last day of school. What more do you need!? 

Last weekend was Ella's 7th birthday! We already had her party at Skyzone a couple of weeks ago, but we still had to do a little celebration. It was also my dad's retirement. After 43 years of work my dad finally retired. We had a small celebration for them both. 

I can't even believe my girl is SEVEN! The saying, "The days are long, but the years are short" is so true. Back when she was little some days seemed to drag on.  Now days, time just flies.  We are so so proud of Ella. She definitely deserves her own post about what a special girl she is. We hit the jack pot with her! 

On Christmas Eve Eve we made salt dough ornaments of E and P's hands. Ella's hand is getting a little big, but she still made one. It was Paige's first time making one, and I thought it was going to be easy since her hand is so small. Ha! She was grabbing at everything, and every time I would pull her hand away from the dough she would grab it. It was a mess. After two handprints I tried out a foot print for the last one, and that worked out better. 

Poor Ella does not want pictures with Paige these days, because Paige tries to pull her hair.  

After Paige went to bed (and I cleaned up the mess from the ornaments) we made cookies for Santa. Sugar cookies are not my specialty, but I think Santa enjoyed them. 

Stayed tuned for my post about our four days of Christmas:) 

Weeks 31, 32, 33

I thought I better get caught up before the new year so here we go. It's been a crazy past few weeks. I had a terrible cold, and Ella had an allergy flare up at the same time. Adam caught my cold and he as sick for a couple of weeks. Once I started feeling better my ear clogged up.  I seriously could not hear for a week and was a total grump. After a visit to two doctor's (the first said it was just ear wax) I was given a steroid and antibiotic which cleared it right up. I am so thankful to be able to hear normally again and feel better. 

Here is a quick recap of the past few weeks. Maybe in the new year I'll be able to keep up with these weekly posts again, but I wouldn't count on it. :) 

Since Ella and I were both sick a few weeks ago she slept with me. It was the LONGEST night ever. When she is congested she grinds her teeth. I thought I would going to scream. Paige was also up twice to eat so it was an exhausting night. Needless to say, the next night Adam was on Paige duty so I could get some sleep. 

I bought this cute sleeper last year while I was pregnant. It's a boys Christmas sleeper, but I thought she looked cute in it. 

Paige loves to sit and play with toys. She grabs anything and everything in sight these days. 

Ella and her classmates earned a pj day for reaching their AR goal. She loves wearing pj's to school, and it makes our morning run so smoothly! 

 Shopkins obsessed!

 We have had some unseasonably warm weather this December. Ella has played outside a ton. We got her bouncy house out one day and put Paige in it. She may look happy in this picture but freaked out as soon as she fell over. 

 Paige has been enjoying baby food just in the past couple of weeks. Her favorites so far are peaches and bananas. I have been trying all kinds. Her least favorites are vegetables, but I will keep trying. God forbid we have another picky eater.  She can also sit in high chairs now which makes life easier if we take her out. 

 Ella got a new bible for her bday. She likes to sit and bed and look at it. She said she can be just like Mammy now. 

This past Monday was Ella's first day of Christmas break. Paige still had mom's morning out so Ella and I were able to spend some time together. We went to build a bear and had lunch at the mall. We went back to church after, because a couple of her friends were there playing basketball. 

Paige is still doing really well at mom's morning out. She pretty much stays in the same routine. As you can see in the picture below she also takes good naps while she is there. 

 Paige can now sit in shopping carts which should make my life so much easier. This was her first time at the grocery store a couple of days ago.