Sweet gifts from Great

A few days ago Caroline and Ansley went to visit Great.  The girls were admiring Great's Christmas tree.  Somewhere along the way, Great told each girl she could choose an ornament.  Well given the LOVE for our sweet Elf Bentley, Caroline has had her eye on these two guys for sometime now.  And since there were two of them AND she had a baby sister, she thought it would be a good idea to get both.  Of course, Great agreed and now these two little guys are hanging on our tree!!! :-)

I was so excited when Caroline brought them home!!  I love these little guys and have years.  I love them because they have meaning.  They are old and fragile.  Great thinks she got them in the early 70's.  Looking forward to pulling these guys out every year and thinking of our sweet Great!!

It's official, our baby girl is eating baby FOOD!!!!!!

I am not sure if I am lazy, in denial or just not with it but I was not ready for my sweet girl to start baby food.  I have been anxious about allergies.  I didn't worry with Caroline but for some reason I am concerned for Maggie.  I wanted to start her feedings when Andy and I would be around in case of an allergy. I spent time around Thanksgiving making organic baby food for her.  Then she got sick and we held off.  But yesterday was the day.  She wasn't 100% sure what to do with it or what to think of it but that didn't last long!!  By the end she was practically falling out of her seat trying to reach it.

Hmmm....

 Not quite sure...

 GIVE me some MORE!!!!!!

 Here's to the next adventure....

Christmas Eve Photo Shoot HAHA

SO I thought it would be nice to have a sweet picture of the girls all dressed up in their Christmas best.  Y'all I thought photographing Caroline was tough...well add a busy almost 6 month old to the mix!  OH MY!  I told Caroline her job was to always look at the camera smiling.  Well that didn't work!  While I didn't get a "perfect" picture, I got some of the sweetest snap shots.  (Did I mention my theme for this season it "Let it go?"  More to come...

This Christmas was magical and I can't really explain why.  But for the first time in a long time, I truly enjoyed this holiday!  I enjoyed the meaning of Christmas.  That Jesus was sent as our Savior!  I would be such a MESS if HE didn't come to save me.  I fall short as a wife, mom, sister, daughter, friend, individual everyday.  I am sinful and make human mistakes.  But my Saviour, he LOVES me, he came to save me from the yuckiness in my life.  My prayer is that I will REST in this truth as the new year approaches...

And my family...it's been my hearts desire for the past few Christmas' that the Lord would give us a second child.  And this year, our dream/wish came true. Maggie is the sweetest, most precious addition to our family!  Andy and I are blessed and we don't take it for granted!  Sure there are people who have more than us but there are also others who have so much less than us.  And not just material wealth.  So many are hurting this season.  We are healthy, our children are healthy and we have each other.  Oh what blessings the Lord has given us!!!

Enjoy these sweet pictures of our two greatest earthly blessings!!!!

Maggie ADORES her sister!!!!!!  Caroline ADORES her!!

Caroline asked if we could take a picture of her standing up holding Maggie.

After about two pictures she said "Can we sit down????"

Merry Christmas Friends!!!!

Quiet Morning

Well I am loving this extremely quiet morning.  The girls are still asleep and Andy has gone to meet the guys for Bible study breakfast.  I have some yummy coffee in a new mug from one of my students.  The Christmas lights are on and I am catching up on blogging.  I think I have said this before but I love a quiet house to start my day.  I enjoy an hour all to myself before anyone needs anything from me...AND add the fun of Christmas, it's almost more than I can handle!!

UPDATE: Maggie slept for 13 hours!!!!  Caroline went to entertain her while I got her breakfast ready.  Sweet fun in Maggie's crib!

Maggie 25 weeks

As I wrote this post I thought, what has happened this week????  Not really sure other than she celebrated her first Christmas!  That's enough right?

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

We started a tradition 2 years ago where Caroline sleeps in our bed on Christmas Eve.  The way our house is set up she has to walk through the den to get to our bedroom.  We didn't want to miss the excitement on her face so she wakes us up and then we all go in the den together.  The last two years I have had to wake her up at like 8 or 9 because of our late night before but not this year.  She was up and ready shortly after Maggie got up at 6. :-)

She said "Mommy my eyes are still adjusting to the light"

The camper she wanted for Clara.  This was a hot item this year.  It could only be purchased at Target , couldn't be ordered online and they only sent a few to the store.  Santa had to check the Target app almost daily.  Once he discovered they had one in stock, her sent an elf to be there when the store opened at 8am!!  She was thrilled!!!!  Clara also got a camping set as well as a horse riding set.

Sweet Maggie got a new car seat (fun I know) a jack in the box and another fun little toy.  She wasn't sure what to think about the jack in the box. :-)  Her big eyes lit up when it popped out!!!

She was perfectly happy to sit in her ExcoSaucer and play while we opened gifts and such.

Caroline helping her empty her stocking

We ate our traditional breakfast pie with fruit and read the Christmas story from Luke.  Then we opened stockings.  Caroline was trying to explain to daddy what a wet brush is and why she needs it.

Christmas morning with our precious girls!!!!!!!!

After breakfast and stockings, we watched "A Christmas Story."  I can honestly say it's the first time I have watched the entire thing.  And Sweet Maggie, well she was down for the count once again.

After the movie ended, we opened our gifts from each other.  This is the first year we have spread the fun out and Andy and I both agreed it was so much fun!  It gave us something to look forward to all throughout the morning.

Maggie soon got the hang of pulling out the tissue paper!!

these eyes and this sweet face!!

SO excited to have her first "REAL" big girl Bible!!!  And what makes it even sweeter, she can READ it!!!  What sweet words to hear!!

Mommy was pretty excited about my new bedroom slippers.  My old ones have officially bit the dust.  The soles were coming apart and all the cushion was GONE!  One happy mommy!!!!!

I was super excited about this gift for Andy!  I think he was pretty excited too!

Official "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation Marty Moose Mugs"

Caroline was SO excited for new matching PJ"s for she and Clara!!

Mrs. Susan came to visit around lunch.  We enjoyed yummy finger foods.  She held sweet Maggie while she slept.  Not sure why I didn't grab my camera for pictures...but I did manage to get a warm shower while she took care of Maggie!!!!!  And yes I didn't put my pj's back on!!

Mom came up early afternoon.  Caroline seems super jealous of Granny's time, which is really unusual.  She had Granny playing all sorts of games.

This sweet girl was as happy as could be!!

We ate a yummy meal and granny left to make her next stop.  I cleaned up the kitchen while Andy got the girls bathed and ready for bed.  It's crazy, I spent two days preparing food and it was all over in just 12 short hours!  But it was a wonderful Christmas!  My heart is full!  So very thankful for our girls and the gift of our Savior!

Christmas Eve Round 2

We left straight from Aunt Tomi Jeans and headed to Pop and Peeps.  I didn't take many pictures becase I had a sweet, tired baby girl in my arms. :-)

Caroline and Jay were both super excited about Jay's Ninga Turtle!!

The girls were so excited about their cameras.

Caroline can't wait to take pictures like mommy!

Maggie recieved a fun toy and some pj's.  She won't remember tonight but I am sure she will enjoy playing with her new toy and daddy is thrilled her pj's a zipper pjs!!!

Christmas Eve Round 1

Christmas Eve is our marathon day!  It starts with a beautiful Christmas Eve service at church and ends with Christmas at Pop and Peeps.  I wish I had taken pictures at our service.  It ends with the lights dimmed and each person has a lit candle.  We exit the church in silence after singing silent night.  GORGEOUS!!!!!

Next stop is Aunt Tomi Jean and Uncle Greg's.  We usually have something simple like soup and cornbread since we have all been at church.  Each person opened their gifts one at a time.  We started with the oldest grands and worked our way to Maggie.  The kids were oh so patient.

Sweet Mema has a yucky respiratory infection.  She wasn't feeling too hot but so thankful she was able to join us.  These two girls love their GREAT!!

Maggie doesn't remember too much about this event. :-)

Santa Mema and Uncle Greg

being silly

the whole crew

the girls got boots from Mema

Fun gifts for Mema

Every time someone asked Mema what she wanted for Christmas she said she wanted a pair of hose.  Well we listened and she received 18 pairs!!!

Mema with her girls

Mema with most of her grands and great grands

Fun with Pop and Peep

Today I dropped Caroline off with Pop and Peep for some holiday fun with Jay and Ansley.  I missed all the fun so I don't have any pictures.  But Caroline had a great day!  They ate a late breakfast/early lunch and then went back to work on holidays crafts.  I know for sure they made mini loaf cakes and oranges with cloves poked inside. Not sure what else as Caroline didn't say! haha But the most important thing is she enjoyed making memories!!

Sweet girls

We are loving these (not so) lazy days of Christmas vacation.  Christmas Vacation takes on a whole new meaning once you have a school age kid who goes to school 5 days a week!!!!  No lunches to pack, no alarm clocks set (although both girls have managed to wake me up at least by 6 am if not earlier (Caroline).  But with no where to be and no set agenda it's wonderful!!!

Caroline thinks it's wonderful to stay in her pj's all day

Santa called daddy's phone to chat with her

Poor Maggie is subject to her sisters silliness, but OH SO CUTE!