Christmas Eve

 

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent’s house in Hot Springs. 

The kids acted out the Christmas Nativity again this year.  Ellie was baby Jesus(with earrings and a passie).  Maddy was Mary, and Livy was an Angel.  This is becoming my new favorite Christmas tradition.  Then they all sang “Away in a Manger”, it was so sweet. 

Grandpa gave all the kids a vegetable.  They weren’t impressed until they learned there was money hidden in them! 

I played Santa this year.  All the kids were anxious and excite to open their presents.

Ellie loved her new toy!

 

We got home from Hot Springs and the girls got ready for Santa to come. They sprinkled Reindeer food outside and got Santa’s cookies and milk ready.

They passed out pretty quick and Santa came.  He filled their stockings and put presents under the tree.

Christmas Morning

Madison woke us up at 1 am asking to open presents.  My response was, “Get the heck out of here!”  Micha’s response

was, “Why don’t we go ahead and get up?”  Ha, that didn’t happen,  we held her off until 6 am.

I remember doing the same thing as a child  teenager.

I love seeing the excitement and joy on those little faces as they open their presents. 

As expected, Ellie could care less about opening presents.

  We saved Livy’s “I-pad”(lucky for us a tablet passed for an Ipad) for last.  She was so excited when she opened it!

The girls got mustaches in their stocking

Ellie loves her new toys!

Maddy and Livy got new Toms.

 

 

We went to the Bailey’s that afternoon and ate lunch and opened presents.  Grandpa Bill did the traditional hiding money in candy, it’s our favorite!  Ellie enjoyed eating the candy and holding our money.

Ellie Belly’s first Christmas.  She’s wearing her cute jammies from Grandma DeVaux

We got a Christmas miracle, SNOW.  A LOT of snow!!  It was icing and sleeting all day and around seven that night it started snowing.  We ended up getting about 8 inches! CRAZY!  The only downfall to this was our power went out around 9pm. 

We went over to Micha’s parents house to stay the night since they still had power.  They ended up losing their power too during the night.  Luckily for us, our power was on the next evening,thousands of people were without power for several days!  It made for a interesting and memorable Christmas. 

Thanksgiving

 

We had a great/relaxing Thanksgiving this year.  It’s tradition to go to Branson with all the Baileys every Thanksgiving, but we weren’t able to go this year because of my job.  Then Grandma and Grandpa Bailey offered to take Maddy and Olivia with them.  We were hesitant at first because we didn’t want them gone for the holiday but changed our mind knowing we were going to have a pretty low-key weekend and they would miss out on a lot of fun.  So it was just Micha, Ellie, me and the Andersons at my parents. 

I was a little bummed about not going to Branson(it’s my biggest shopping day of the year), but I was excited to get to spend Thanksgiving with some of my family.  As always, the food did not disappoint.  Micha and I made Bang Bang shrimp(they serve this at a restraunt in LR, Bonefish) and it was so GOOD.  My dad talked about it all day and if you know my dad, he isn’t the easiest person to impress when it comes to food.  Mom made crab stuffed mushrooms and smoked salmon and Marji made Jalepeno Popper dip(a favorite of ours).  These were just the appetizers…….

Mom set the table with her wedding china.  I love eating on this china, it reminds of the holidays growing up because that was the only time we used it. (I think it’s beautiful and have requested to receive it several times:)  The glasses were some that my mom inherited recently that belonged to her grandma(I am loving them too) 

 

Thanksgiving lunch was all the usuals: ham, turkey, cornbread stuffing, nutmeg potatoes, green bean casserole,  and rolls.  Everything was perfect!  The best part about having a small crowd at thanksgiving is getting to take home lots of leftovers!

Micha and Ellie enjoyed a 2 hour nap after lunch.

I love this time of year and I am thankful I was able to spend it with family.  I am thankful that my inlaws were so sweet to take our girls with them and give them lasting memories that they will always cherish. 

Halloween 2012

 

My little Razorback Cheerleader(we are still fans even if the Hogs stink this year)

My little posing angel.  She won a best costume award at the church Halloween party.

My sleepy little Kitty.  She passed out right when it was time to leave, which was perfect timing for drawing her nose and whiskers, but not  good timing for taking pictures. 

We didn’t do our annual Halloween party because the Church was doing their party on Halloween night and we didn’t want to conflict with it.  We missed having a party but we had a GREAT time at the Church party. 

The girls loved trying to eat the donut off the string. 

  

It was pretty entertaining to watch

 

Micha had to be part of the action too.

 

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!