Did Santa Come?

On Christmas morning I am pretty sure I was the first one awake at 6:00.  I laid in bed waiting for the first noise from the kids' side of upstairs.  Usually it involves Trey opening and closing drawers in his room for us to realize he is awake.  This morning though I heard him run out of his room.  I walked up to him in the hall and the first thing he said in sleepy wonder, "Mommy, did Santa come? Did he leave presents in our stockings?"  So after convincing him to stay in his pajamas we got Charlotte, sent Daddy downstairs with the camera and went to inspect what Santa left.

Trey seeing that Santa did indeed come.

Charlotte spotting the goodies from Santa.

Trey knew to dig into his stocking right away. 

After Charlotte watched Trey she was determined to get what was in her stocking.

Charlotte loved her Abby Cadabby slippers and wore them the rest of the day!

Trey showing off his Lightning McQueen slippers. 

Proving that the simplest presents are the best, Charlotte has been playing with the ducks from her and Trey's stockings over and over the past few days. 

Trey wanted to read his Chuck the Truck book to go with the Chuck trucks he got in his stocking. 

Charlotte's big present from Santa was a portable DVD player (Trey already had one).  Trey's big present was the Mickey sofa (Charlotte already had a princess sofa).  They still wanted to share Charlotte's sofa to watch their "puters" as they call them. 

As you can see from the pictures we were up and finished with Santa presents before the sun even came up!  This was the first year Trey really got what was going on and couldn't wait to see his stocking and Charlotte gets excited about whatever Trey does.  I look forward to next year when they are both super excited for Christmas morning. 

Christmas Cards

I love Christmas cards; getting them, sending them, looking through old ones.  My favorite are photo cards, especially from friends we don't see very often.  It is neat to see how families have grown and changed over the years. 

This year I was trying to figure out the best way to display our cards.  I saw some ideas on Pinterest and changed the ribbon on kitchen cabinets to putting ribbon on the door to our basement.  I couldn't find any red or green clothespins to hook the cards onto the ribbon so I just used tape to attach them to the wall.  This way I also don't have to worry about them being snapped off the ribbon by little hands.  Trey and Charlotte love to look at the cards and Charlotte likes you to open each one and read it to her. 

I also wanted to display our photo cards from years past.  After some digging in the basement I found our Christmas card from 4 years ago.  I still had one from last year and this year, but the year I was pregnant with Charlotte and Trey was 20 months old was a Christmas card disaster.  I remember Trey would not take a picture for us no matter what we tried, and once we got a halfway decent photo we stayed up until midnight creating the card from CVS because it was December 20th. Then CVS printed them wrong so we had to do them again and they barely got in the mail before Christmas.  So we have no leftovers from that year because I think we actually ran out.   Anyways I used cards from 2009, 2011, and 2012 for this display. There is supposed to be distressed red H in the empty box, but I keep forgetting to order it from etsy :)

 I used scrapbook paper I originally bought for another project and the frames were already on the wall with other printables so this was completely free and took about 30 minutes one evening.

2012

2011

2009

The kids love checking the mailbox for Christmas cards.  They also helped us mail the cards.  Here they are bundled up and ready to go deliver the cards to the mailbox.

Christmas Crafts

Our refrigerator front is filled with Christmas crafts the kids have done at home and at church.  Charlotte and Trey both love to do crafts and thanks to Pinterest I can quickly come up with crafts to do at home.  They really love to paint and especially make handprints.  The other night we made handprint Christmas trees after dinner.

Please forgive my 11 year old hoodie.  It is the most comfy hoodie I own and so I like to rock it on nights at home that involve paint, even if it is not much to look at :) 

Trey's tree

Charlotte's tree

 They also love stickers.  This was craft was leftover from my two year old class at church a few weeks ago.  Charlotte needed help peeling the stickers, but she was all about putting them on her tree and then taking them off the next day.  Trey wanted to fill up his tree so no empty space was left!

Trimming the Tree

Last Friday I thought we could have a picture perfect trimming the tree party.  I was going to make snowman shaped pizza and breadstick shaped candy canes while the boys went and got the tree.  Then after dinner we would drink hot chocolate and put up the ornaments all together.  Yeah. right.

Here is what really happened... I tried to talk Trey into going with his daddy to get our Christmas tree like he did last year.  Trey said the tree on top of my car scared him and he wanted daddy to go by himself.  So Jay took my car to work on Friday and picked up the tree on his way home from work so we wouldn't all have to go out :)

Then neither kiddo took a nap that day, so we knew by 5:00 a special after dinner activity would blow up in our faces with tantrums and whinning, so we didn't even attempt it! We did have our pizza and breadsticks and they were a hit!  We put the kids to bed at 7 and then used our tree entry method of putting the tree in the stand on the back patio, opening the french doors and carrying the tree (stand and all) into the house and setting it down 5 feet from the door. Seriously this is the best tree entry procedure ever and results in very little needles all over the house. 

We had our annual discussion about colored (Jay's preference) or while (my preference) lights and then strung the lights on the tree.  Of course we only have enough white lights for the tree, so we went with white :) I really have conceded the past 2 years and said we could go with colored, but when we look in the Christmas tubs we remember we don't have enough colored LED lights for the tree so we end up using the white ones- not that I am complaining.

All our ornaments are personal for us.  They have either been given to us (or our children) as gifts or we have picked them up when we travel.  Our most recent ornaments have come from our Sunday School class' annual Christmas party ornament exchange.  Each year we get two new ornaments from the exchange and I think we have 8 ornaments on our tree from those parties alone! No matter how tacky we are committed to putting them up, even if they do end up on the back like the stinky cheese ornament we ended up with last year.

As we put up the ornaments Friday night, we laid aside ones the kids could hang on the bottom of the tree.  They had a great time hanging the ornaments.  Trey is really good at putting the hook so the ornaments stas up.  Charlotte had to do it all by herself and if you offered to help her hang her ornament she would hug the ornament to her chest and tell you "NO!" 

Really going with our plan B made the event a lot easier and more enjoyable for all involved.  The kids love looking at the ornaments (especially ones with their picture on them) and it has been fun to watch them get into the Christmas spirit. 

A Meaningful Christmas

Two posts two days in a row??? What is going on??? I really do want to be better about blogging more than a couple of times a month.  This is my main record of our lives during the early kid years and I know I will forget a lot of these things down the years. 

A few weeks ago a lady in my church invited me (and 22 other ladies) to participate in A Meaningful Christmas.  The idea is that 24 ladies get together and make 24 ornaments based on a Bible verse in the Christmas story.  I had to make 24 ornaments based on Rev. 22:13 Alpha and Omega.  I searched online and in many craft stores for Alpha and Omega symbols but I couldn't find any, so we improvised. Jay was definitely very helpful in making my ornament!

The first thing I did was cut all the paper to 2" x 3" and mod podge them onto the wooden ornament bases.  The last time I used mod podge was when my high school friends and I made each other scrapbooks for our 16th birthdays, so needless to say it had been a while!

The Jay wrote Alpha and Omega in calligraphy on the white papers and I mod podged those to the ornaments. 

Before we had kids we made our own Christmas ornaments because, well, we had a lot more time on our hands :)  The snowflake cut-out is leftover from cards we made our first year married.  We had to dig in the basement, but I knew we had the snowflake punch somewhere! 

Here are most of the ornaments tied and ready to go.  I say most because I was about 7 ornaments short with the ribbon so Jay had to run out to Walmart Monday afternoon before the party and get some more ribbon! I think I mentioned earlier how helpful he was during this entire process because crafts are not really my thing.

Last night I got together with all the other ladies and we had an ornament exchange.  Everyone's ornaments turned out so cute and I love how unique they all are.  This would be something I would love to make for my family, but I would never actually get around to doing it so having this set up and organized was a huge blessing.

 I also got a devotional book to read one devotion each day with the kids and then hang up the ornament that goes with that day's devotion.  It starts on Dec. 1 and ends the 24th.  I think this will be a really fun tradition to do together and I am hoping to find a good deal on a small fake tree after Christmas that we can use each year just for these advent ornaments.

Playing Together

The kids are old enough now to play together and really interact.  Before Charlotte would just copy everything Trey did, but now Trey suggests an activity and they do it together.  So far their favorites to play together are cars, read books, any type of craft, hide and seek, puzzles, tea party, and bedtime.

Holding hands together outside. 

Sometimes Trey will ask Charlotte to play with him and she will say no and keep playing on her own.  We try to explain that Charlotte wants to play by herself right now and maybe she will play with him later.  Charlotte loves to ask him to read because she can't quite reach the books on the bookshelf and he will point to each one and ask, "This one Charlotte?" and she will say no usually 10 times until he touches just the right book, then she will say yes.  To be honest, Trey has an extreme amount of patience in dealing with her!

Drawing together on the chalkboard.  Charlotte couldn't reach so they both had to get step stools!

Trey cheesing up the picture!

Charlotte also adores Trey and gets very upset if he isn't when her.  If he has to go play in his room because he isn't being nice she cries and yells, "Bey!" until he comes back down.  Often we have to keep her from climbing up to his room to be with him.  And just like any good sibling relationship they try to be the boss of each other and tell each other if they are doing something incorrect.  Tonight Trey told Charlotte, "No, Charlotte, you need to be in your seat now to eat dinner." If Trey forgets to carry his plate into the kitchen Charlotte will say, "Bey, plate!" until he comes to get it. 

Trey is pretending to sleep in the princess sofa.  He brought down his batman pillow to add just the right touch.

Having a tea party together.  Trey even lets Charlotte hand feed him the goldfish and she loves to do it!

I know they will have their share of sibling disagreements and fights, and they still have some now, but I am so thankful that they love each other and enjoy playing together!

22 Months

It is hard to believe that Charlotte will be 2 in just a couple of months! She is definitely acting all toddler these days.  She loves to be around people and talks to anyone and everyone.  When we leave church she waves to every person and car on way out and says, "bye, bye!"

Her favorite place to be is outside.  She doesn't need a lot of toys, just running around is her favorite thing.  She is talking so much and it amazes me the new things she says every day.  She is very polite and says please and thank you and excuse me whenever necessary.  She knows what she wants and will often say it and if you don't understand than she will take your hand and guide you to what she wants.  At night she will pray for "Daddy, Mommy, Bey,  Mamaw, Mampa, Nana, Papa, Cooper, and cookies.  Amen"  The cookies line she threw in a few nights ago and has kept it every since!

 She is still a really good eater and will try most anything.  Her favorite foods are milk, applesauce, bananas, yogurt, beans, bacon, spaghetti, mac and cheese, oatmeal and goldfish.  She also loves to dip foods in ketchup. 

Charlotte sleeps from 7 pm- 7 am every night and takes about a 2 hour nap in the afternoons.  We put her to bed at 7 pm but she takes about 30 minutes to wind down and you can often hear her singing to herself in the crib.  We haven't made the transition to the big girl bed yet, but she is very content in her crib and most mornings doesn't want to get out.  She will sing Jesus Loves Me, The Itsy, Bitsy Spider, Deep and Wide, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, The B-I-B-LE, and the Wheels on the Bus to name a few.  She picks up songs really fast and loves to sing and do motions. 

Charlotte loves her brother and he is by far her favorite person.  She sometimes has to go to timeout because she will not stop climbing on him! As she is getting older they play really well together and she will pretty much do whatever Trey tells her too, but if she doesn't want to she will gladly tell him "NO!".  She watches everything he does and has learned a lot from him.  

Charlotte's favorite toys would have to be her books.  She will get a pile of books and sit on the sofa and read to herself for quite a while.  She is still obsessed with shoes and bags.  If you come in the house with your shoes on she will take them off for you and put them your cubby for shoes in the mudroom.  Sometimes she will bring you shoes to put on. Charlotte loves to be helpful and will help you clean up, take her plate into the kitchen, and put things back where they belong.

 It is so much fun watching Charlotte get bigger and take off on her independence! She will gladly snuggle in your lap for a story, but when she wants to do her own thing- watch out! Her sweet voice loves to say, "okay" when you tell her something to do and I am enjoying that so much because I know it won't last! Charlotte also has a mischievous side to her.  She knows she is not supposed to stand on the sofas or chairs, but she if you tell her to sit, she will sit and then stand up as soon as you look away.  The other day she stood up on the sofa and when I looked at her she got down and put herself in time out! I don't know if that is a good thing or not- she is disciplining herself but not just staying sitting in the first place! 

Charlotte is so full of life and loves to play at home and go places.  She is a very content toddler and as long as we stick to her nap and bedtime routine she is a happy girl.  We love you so much Charlotte!