Christmas 2011

 This year was by far our most fun Christmas. The kids were SO excited. Every day for at least 2 weeks before Christmas, Emma was  counting down the days. Both kids loved the Christmas decorations, the music, the stories. It made it all so magical and exciting.

We spent the 2 days before Christmas with Jon's family, hanging out, visiting, and eating lots of yummy food. On Christmas Eve we spent a perfectly sunny afternoon playing at the park.

We got these balance  bikes for the kids in October and they LOVE them.

Christmas Eve night we did our traditional festivities...a nice Christmas dinner, acting out the nativity, singing and playing Christmas songs, and a white elephant gift exchange. 

Our little angels love our little baby Jesus.  :)

Mary and Joseph with the baby

We went home after the Christmas Eve festivities. Christmas morning, I was up at 7, but the kids all slept till 8:00! Jon and I were starting to feel like the little kids on Christmas waiting for their parents to wake up. 

We had a lot of fun opening presents and playing with everything.

Crackle nail polish!

Pillow pets from Grandma and Grandpa Hiatt

Matthew got his Francesco car, along with some of the other Cars 2 character cars.

I really wanted to get a picture of all of the kids in their Christmas clothes, but Ellie was sleeping before AND after Church.

We attempted one when Ellie woke up, but the kids were DONE with taking pictures.

We had a great Christmas. We have loved being able to spend time with family and doubly love having Jon home this week (one of my favorite things about his job is that he always gets the week after Christmas off paid!). Pictures of our other Christmas adventures to come!

Some More Quotes

I know I post these things a lot, but I find them hilarious.

We saw Santa recently. After Matthew had his turn, Santa gave him a lollipop and sent him on his way. He came to me and said, "I think he forgot. I need to go tell him again." Confused, I asked what he was talking about. Very matter of factly he said, "I told Santa that I want the Francesco car but he gave me a lollipop".

Emma to Matthew: Buddy, I don't want you to take a bath with me because you like to do boyly things and I like to do girly things. 

We put Matthew's pants on him right after they came out of the dryer. As he put them on I said something about them being nice and toasty. He finished getting dressed and ran to Jon's mom and said, "My pants are so warm, just like bread!" (Toasty- bread....haha!)

 

Some More Funnies

We recently got a Kindle Fire (which we LOVE). While we were waiting for it to come, we explained to Emma that we were getting something that was like an Ipod, but was called a Kindle Fire. Somehow she took that to mean that it's name was Kindle Fire and now she tells EVERYBODY,  "I have an Ipod and it's name is Kindle Fire".

 Playing a matching game on Kindle Fire  :)

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Matthew found my slippers the other day. He put them on, started walking around, and then excitedly said, "Look, I'm walking like a Mommy!"

Six Months

 

Guess who's SIX months old!? These last six months have flown by soooo fast! And now my tiny little baby is not so tiny anymore. At 6 months Ellie is:

-15 lbs and 24 3/4 inches (the exact same weight and height as Matthew at the same age....Emma was 15 ounces heavier and the exact same height)

-sitting like a pro. She's been able to sit on her own since about about 4 1/2 months. Now she can scoot around on her bottom to get where she wants to go. She will sit and play with her toys by herself for long periods of time, which means I can cook dinner or clean or help with homework. It is AWESOME!

-so fun. I LOVE this age. Ellie always has a big smile ready for anyone and everyone who looks her direction. She loves when people stop us in the store, at church, etc to talk to her and tell her how cute she is.

 

-still not rolling. Really, she barely tolerates being on her tummy at all unless she is really distracted. Usually though she starts fussing, and scooting backwards and in circles trying to get off her tummy.

-eating solids! She also started this around 4 months. She will eat baby food, but doesn't like it. She really just likes to eat what we're eating. Ellie has really sensitive skin and has been getting terrible rashes and dry skin around her mouth about once a week. We're still trying to figure out what sets it off, but it seems like cutting out fruits and other acidic food is helping. Aquaphor has also become our best friend.

-babbling and talking and laughing and making all sorts of fun noises. She thinks Emma and Matthew are so funny. If one of them comes into the room she smiles really big and stares at them till they notice her. Then she squeals and laughs and waves her arms all over. It's really cute.

-constantly putting everything in her mouth. If she doesn't have something in her mouth, she has her mouth hanging wide open waiting for something to go in. It's kind of funny.

-bouncing and standing. She is a STRONG girl. When she's not sitting, she wants to be standing. When I try to hold her on my hip, she scootches her little feet up and then pulls herself up so she's standing on my hip. She also loves her jumperoo and bounces like crazy when she's in there.

-a sweet, mostly easy going little girl. She is so patient with all of our errand running and school pick ups and drop offs. She hates being in the car seat, but will usually fall asleep once we get going. I often say that she's easy going because she's the 3rd child so she has to be, but I do still feel lucky.

We love this sweet girl!

The Holidays

I have so loved the holiday season this year. This Thanksgiving was the first in our married life that we haven't spent with family. Usually we spend it with Jon's family, but since none of his siblings were coming home this year, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and have Thanksgiving with some of our church family instead. We had 3 families over- 8 adults and 8 kids...it was crazy but SO fun. (and I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a single picture!) Good friends, good food (LOTS of good food!), good fun. It was a really enjoyable day.

We waited a few days to break out the Christmas decorations. As you can see, we don't have much, but it's just enough to make it feel like Christmas. Jon talked me into getting a real Christmas tree this year, and I have to admit, I'm glad he did. I LOVE the smell, and as far as looks go, there's just no comparing it to our sad little fake tree. It really is gorgeous. I love turning off the house lights in the evening, and sitting in the living room with just the Christmas lights on. And I love this time of year with kids. It's so exciting and magical. It's interesting to me to look back and see how Christmas has changed for me over the years. I no longer care about getting presents. The excitement and anticipation come in watching the kids' excitement. And as we try to teach the kids about Christ and his birth....the REAL reason for Christmas, I find myself reflecting more on Christ and the events surrounding his birth. I love this time of year!

 

Emma Says

I was getting Ellie to sleep when I heard "the laugh" coming from the play room. You know the laugh (kind of like the quiet) when you know something is going on that shouldn't be. I went to see and found Emma and Matthew painting each other. I got pretty upset and told them to start cleaning and then I took the paint. While they were scrubbing paint off the table (and I was lecturing on why it's not okay to paint other people), Emma looked up and very seriously said, "I really wish I was you right now". Made me laugh out loud.

When Emma gets upset with Matthew she yells "you're not my best friend anymore!". And then when he does something she likes she'll enthusiastically tell him that he's her best friend. The other day he must have done something that really upset her because she told him "you're not my best friend forever anymore".

I was brushing Emma's very tangled hair and explaining how hair gets tangled. She looked over at Matthew and very seriously told him, "Being a girl is REALLY tough!" When I laughed she looked at me and said, "It is, isn't it Mom?"  Haha, she's a quick learner.  :)

The Magic Binky

 Ellie LOVES her binky. Out of all the things and people in her little world, the binky might just be her favorite (though I'm probably a close second :)  ). When she was only a week old, my dad started calling it the magic piece of plastic because she loved it so much. It can make her go from screaming hysterically to sleeping peacefully in like 2 seconds. 

Because she loves her binky so much she is getting really good at controlling her hands enough to pick it (and everything else within reach) up. It usually goes like this...

She spots the binky

Grabs it like a pro

That was the easy part. Now to figure out how to get it in the mouth...

 

Close...but this works too...feels really good on those teething gums.

Got it!

Oh no! It fell! Don't worry though, Mom came to the rescue and she was sleeping with her  beloved binky about 2 seconds later.  :)