Back At It!

Well, I'm back.  At least I hope to be.  I have been thinking about starting up my blog again (I mean updating it) and have finally decided to take the plunge!  So, I am hoping to write a couple times, or at least once, per week.

We had a big change since I last wrote....we moved!  Yay!  We actually just moved last week, so it's a very new change.  We had lived in the same house for the past 5.5 years, since Paul and I got married.  Since then we got a dog, had a child, and then had another two children.  Needless to say, we were yearning for more space.  We lived in about 1400 square feet, including a partially finished basement.  Paul works from home, and I work from home.  It was a bit of a tight squeeze to say the least.  We were so ready for this move!

We moved up to the north side of town, about 30 minutes from where we were.  It is a big change, especially since the girl's preschool is down by where we used to live and I had really grown to love the area there and the people we had met and become friends with the past few years.  Already though, our neighbors here seem SO great, welcoming, and friendly.  There are lots of kids in the neighborhood and the elementary is right in the neighborhood.  That will be wonderful when the kids start school there.  We are very excited for our big move, more space, and new beginnings.

Leaving our old little house was very bittersweet for me.  All of the most memorable moments in our lives happened in the house.  We had our kids there (well, in the hospital...but you know), they grew, we had good times, and some tougher times.  It was hard to leave, as we will always have so many memories of that house and the love that was shared there.

I insisted on one final family photo in front of our house the day we moved.  Paul was not happy, and neither were the kids or my sister (who took the photo).  It was cold and starting to rain, but I knew I would want this photo in the future.  Here it is:

I am excited to start writing again.  I plan to try really hard to keep up, and make time for this!  Thanks for reading, friends!

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!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend at my parent's house.  Lots of food, family, games, our traditional Black Friday shopping.  Lots and lots to be thankful for.  I ended our stay earlier today with a nice visit to see my grandma in the nursing home.  Oh, and a Buckeye win was a plus as well :)  Enjoy some of my favorite photos from the holiday!

We got the girls up and got them ready to go early Thursday morning.  I made these turkey shirts for each of them from an idea from Pinterest.  I love how they turned out!  I'll post the instructions sometime later this week.

Love that Ella and hugging Hannah in this photo!  Hailee's face is pretty funny too :)

Leah and I made this turkey veggie tray.  This was another idea I got from Pinterest.  I have no idea when I became so crafty and domesticated but I kind of like it!  I'm hoping my craftiness continues on through Christmas as well!

Little Miss Ella

Ella and I made these turkey cupcakes on Wednesday evening to bring to my parent's.  Ella LOVED making these and talked about them for a week until it was finally time to make them.  I was happy with how they turned out too!

Me, mom, and my girls :)

Paul was proud of himself for helping with dinner by mashing the potatoes :)

Uncle Ryan photo bombing mine and Hannah's picture.  At least it's laughable :)

Everyone looking at the ads, preparing for the next day of shopping!

Hails loves Uncle Ryan

This is hilarious.  Ryan has a roll in his hand and the babies and dogs are all surrounding him, all wanting the roll.  I'm curious as to whom won...

We helped decorate the Denomme family tree yesterday.

H&H loved it!  I can't wait to do ours!

Ella hung all of the ornaments next to others that they "matched".  In other words, she hung all of the same ones next to each other.  Ha!

Me and the babes.

Now the Clark family goes in to full Christmas mode for the next month!  I am so excited for the holidays this year!  Yay for more fun times ahead!