Christmas Day

Christmas Day was just as great as Christmas Eve.  We woke up in the morning, opened Santa gifts, took our time getting ready, let the girls play a little, and headed over to my Aunt and Uncle's house.  My parents, brother, and sister met us over there.  We had a great day once again!  The girls loved playing with so many new things and were so good all day.  We could not have asked for a better holiday!

The girls woke up to this in the morning.  The note was Santa's doing and Mrs. Clause didn't know about it :)

There was no way Hailee and Hannah were letting any cookie go to waste.  Hailee took one and shared the other with her sister.

Let the gift opening begin!

Ella was so happy and excited with each gift.  It was so cute and fun!

Hannah, showing us a gift.  She squeeled after each gift that she opened.  It was so funny!  She loved presents!

Busy babies.

Mama and Hailee

Hannah's favorite gift was this shopping cart.  She pushes it all over every day, waving, saying "Bye, bye!"

Mommy and the babies

Hannah and Hailee kept sitting on these ledges on the house.  They must look like seats to them.

Daddy doing what daddies do best:  opening the toys and putting them together!

Notice the real waffles on the picnic blanket.  Cute.

All of the girls got a dress up outfit and doll.  They all wanted their outfit on and wanted nothing to do with the Christmas outfits I had intended for them to wear.  We let them be and headed off to my aunt and uncle's with two Cinderella's and a Belle!

Playing with cousin Erika.  They love her so much!

Daddy and Hannah

Hailee moved right on to open Uncle Don's gifts when she was done with her own!

Brad and Erika

Erika and Shelly

Hailee makes this hilarious face all the time now.  I think it's her "I'm trying to make a cute smile because I know you're taking a photo of me" face.

Me and my sweet girl Ella.

The best family photo we got all day.  Well, the only one at that.  Notice Ella is still in her gown.  The twins had been through the gowns, their Christmas outfits, and now pajamas and Ella is still in the same gown.

Paul and I.  I have no clue what kind of face he's making.  I think he's trying to be cool.  Ha, love you babe!

Christmas Eve

Well, I really wanted to just post once for Christmas Eve and Day, but I didn't want to bore you all with the amount of photos I wanted to share!

This year we stayed here all throughout the Christmas holiday.  Yep, that's right, no traveling for us.  We started a tradition Ella's second Christmas (her first one she was only 3 months) of making it top priority to be home, just us, on Christmas morning.  This has made it somewhat difficult in past years with both mine and my husband's families living out of town.  This year we were lucky enough to have my parents down in Columbus for the holiday.  There was no driving home at 10:00pm Christmas Eve and no two hour car ride after Santa gifts were opened on Christmas Day.  It was lovely. 

Christmas Eve my parents, brother, and sister came over early in the day.  We opened gifts, ate, and had fun all day long.  We left the house early evening to attend the Christmas Eve service at our church.  It was so great.  I know I've said it before, but oh how I love our church!  The service was just beautiful!  I came home with a heavy heart, focused on exactly what it should've been that evening.  Christ's birthday and His love for us. 

Enjoy my favorite photos from Christmas Eve!

Ella was SO excited to start gift opening!

All of the girls loved opening gifts this year.  We literally had to do nothing (well, besides clean up).  Last year we pretty much opened everything for H&H but this year they were pretty good at getting each gift opened all themselves!

I love this photo of Hannah.  I don't know why.  She just looks cute :)

Hannah and Auntie Leah (or Auntie Ya-Ya as they call her)

Gammy and her grandbabies

This is a Lalaloopsy dress up outfit.  I don't even think Ella knows who that is, but she sure did like the outfit (and looked super cute in it too)!

Hailee insisted on getting this dress on herself.  Needless to say, she looked like this for a good ten minutes before she finally asked for some help.

Then there's Hannah.  She was just naked.  Opening gifts naked.  Who knows why.  I think she eventually put on a dress up outfit too.

Love this photo and love these girls!  Play Doh ice cream making!

This house was for all of the girls from my parents.  They all LOVE it!  Paul says it was the best gift bought this year.  It has definitely gotten the most use out of by everyone thus far!

I love this photo.  Hailee is Uncle Ryan's buddy (or Uncky Rynie as they say).

The best photo I got before church.  Yeah, they weren't feeling it.

This photo is hilarious to me!  This was right before we all left for church.  I love everything about it:  Hailee trying to get away from Paul, Ryan and dad staring off into space (actually it looks like dad is giving me a dirty look!), Leah looking annoyed at whatever mom is saying :), who knows where Ella is (I think at my feet), and Chloe trying to get through everyone.  Love my family!

Girly Girls

I feel like now that Hailee and Hannah are starting to have their own interests and show their personalities more, they are following closely in Ella's steps.  They all love all things girl!  Our favorite things to do around here are dress up and play baby dolls.  Hannah and Hailee want me to dress (and then they undress) their baby dolls literally 15-20 times per day.  They are so nurturing and it is just adorable.  They love to feed, push, wrap, and carry their dolls around everywhere.  They also LOVE anything Disney Princess or Minnie, also just like big sis.  I can't wait to see how much fun they will have with some new gifts they are getting for Christmas this year.  Below are some fun photos from a morning of dress up last week. 

Hailee as Minnie.  She loved the ears so much and didn't want to take them off!

Hannah as Aurora

Hugs (or choke-hold) for Aurora

Fun in Ella's Princess room!

I always swore I would not have some cheesy character room set for my girl's rooms.  For Ella's birthday she got a princess comforter set for her toddler bed, wall decals, and some other princess decor.  She absolutely LOVES it all!  She wakes up and says "hi" and "good morning" to her princesses on her wall.  Surprisingly, it doesn't even look cheap or cheesy and I just love that she is so happy in her room!

Hannah jumping on Ella's bed.  All three girls love jumping on Ella's bed together!

Changing into another princess outfit!

Can't forget the heels!  They sure do love their heels!

This is the same little tea set that Ella and her friend were playing with in a recent post.  I laid these towels out on the ottoman one day and let the girls have a tea party.  They had so much fun!  *If you are wondering why the girls are dressed for summer, it is simply because I choose my battles with the girls these days.  Ella wanted to wear this sundress so bad the one day and then she wanted her sisters to "match me" so I put them in dresses too.  I really don't care what they wear when we are just hanging out around the house.  Ella is SO opinionated about what she wears that sometimes it is just not worth arguing with her about it!

Tea Party fun!

Ella helping Hailee get the last sip of tea.

Pouring a cup for Hannah too!

Mmmmm, good! :)

Ella's Christmas Play

On Wednesday Ella had her Christmas play at school.  It was so cute.  She was a little angel.  We made a big deal of it all week.  She was so looking forward to it.  The morning of she was jumping up and down and squealing until it was time for school.  Gammy and Uncle Ryan came for the play, and of course daddy, Hailee, and Hannah too!

Gammy and Hailee

Ella with other angels, animals, and wise men :)

All of the angels!

The whole class

  She was not very smiley through this whole thing.  A bit intimidated I'd say.

This is all three of the classes in the preschool.  They all came back out and performed a few songs together after each class did their own little production.  Ella is in the lower right.

Somebody must have gotten tired during the singing!  Ha!  I could not believe she sat down in the middle of a song!

This was Ella's present for us that she gave at the end of her program.  It is a tile with an angel made by her hand prints.  It is so cute!  My favorite gift of all!