Christmas in Arkansas- Part 1

I love the holiday season. It sometimes gets crazy decorating the tree and buying and wrapping gifts, but I love spending time with family making memories. We left for Arkansas the day before Christmas Eve and got into town just in time to head to Fayetteville to enjoy the lights on the square and some pizza. Eli had a great time seeing the lights and the animals. There were camels, ponies, and a reindeer to look at as well the horse drawn carriages!

 Nana found Eli a new hat and mittens. He is really into wearing hats right now so he loved it!

We paid a visit to Santa's reindeer...

 ...and then saw Santa himself!

Hailey stayed bundled up in her carrier and did great the whole night.    

My whole family on the square!

Great memories. :)

Our Family Christmas

We decided to do Christmas with Eli and Hailey at our house before we packed the car for Arkansas. On Tuesday night we went out to eat as a family at Logan's Roadhouse. Logan's is a great place for us to take Eli because he usually can't yell as loud as the normal volume of the restaurant so people notice us less. :) After dinner we came back home to open gifts. We really want our kids to grow up knowing that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ. It is really easy for me to get caught up in decorating the house and buying presents but without Christ there would be nothing to celebrate and I wish I spent more time reflecting that during this time of year.

Marc and I decided before we had Eli that we would limit our gifts for our children at Christmas to three so that we could talk about how Jesus received three gifts from the wise men after he was born. A few years ago I heard about a family that did this and I thought it sounded like a simple way to incorporate a piece of the Christmas story into our other traditions.

Eli was really too young last year to understand how to unwrap a present but this year he caught on really fast! I knew that since we opened presents with Marc's family over Thanksgiving he would remember how to do it when Christmas arrived. All of Eli's gifts were hard to wrap this year, but I wanted there to be an element of surprise. So, with a lot of tape and a lot of paper I managed to get the job done!

Eli on his Sesame Street pull-out sofa

Eli loves riding in the shopping cart when I take him to the store so I thought he would enjoy pushing around his own.

And I also thought it would go well with his biggest gift!

This a Step 2 toy kitchen and it is SUPER! Eli loves it. My favorite part is when you put the skillet or pot on the stove it makes noises like bacon frying or water boiling. The colors are also gender neutral so it will work for both of our kids. :)

I feel like I say this a lot, but Hailey slept through the entire thing. :) Here she is with one of her presents, a Raggedy Ann doll.

We had a great night and Eli set a new record for his bedtime. It was just too hard to send him to bed right after giving him all his new presents :)

Brother+Sister=LOVE

I had to get some pictures of Eli and Hailey together to give to family for Christmas presents so here our some of our favorites.

 So, before you go thinking that our children sit perfectly still through photo sessions know that for every good picture I had about five more that looked like this.... Ha!

I do love seeing how these two are beginning a sweet relationship. I hope they are best buds some day. :)

Hailey and Eli getting BIG

Hailey turned 2 months on the 14th. She smiles all the time now and I love it! She is cooing and watches her brother's every move. She is getting lots of cute rolls on her thighs and arms. She weighed 10 lbs. 8 oz. (around 50th%) and was 23 inches (around 75th%) at her 2 month check-up. She is starting to take bottles of breast milk which is great. Marc really enjoys getting to feed her. She is sleeping 6 hours straight at night and will sleep for another 2 hours after that if I put the pacifier back into her mouth. She is not a great napper but is a very happy baby so I am just going with it. :)

Eli turned 20 months on the 18th and he is quite the entertainer. He is learning new words every day and is able to communicate with us so much more. He loves playing with his daddy and is a big football fan. He loves his sister dearly and loves to help change her diapers and give her a bath.

 He has started pulling his left arm out of some of his shirts that are still a little big. I guess it is just more comfortable that way. :)

 I love my sweet babies. Happy monthly birthday Eli and Hailey!

Christmas Card 2010 and Hailey's Birth Announcement

I wanted to share our Christmas card from this year with you all mostly to spread the word on the designer of our card. I have used Anita Pope from A Piece of Pope for any card/announcement/invitation I have had made for the past two years. She is so easy to work with and SO affordable for what you get. Check her out sometime! She also does stationary and address labels. :)

Here is our card from this year. I ended up cutting a little off the left edge because I was surprised at how big these were when they arrived. I usually get 5x7 cards but these were 6x9. I am not sure if it is because I requested card stock this time or maybe because I forgot to specify the size. :) I still loved how they turned out!

 This was Hailey's birth announcement. Anita really worked with me on this one to get it just the way I wanted it and it came out perfect. :)

Catch-up time!

My computer is still not back. The Geek Squad said the parts are in but it is still waiting at the factory to get fixed. :( But, the good news is that I figured out how to load our pictures onto Marc's computer. So, I have a lot of catch-up to do this week on posts before I start back to work next week! I have so many pictures to share and I want them to stay in order for my own keepsake and memory. So, I plan on starting these posts back a few weeks ago when we began celebrating the Christmas season.

We decided to take the kids to the Botanical Gardens for their illumination event. The garden pathways are lined with more than 4,000 luminaries and the trees and bushes are strung with lights. We knew Eli would love it! Unfortunately, the only night that Marc was free to go was the coldest night that we have had so far this December. So, I went out and bought hats, gloves, and long underwear for everyone to wear and we bundled up and headed out. We were able to meet up with our friend Kiran who is an international student here. It was great to get to see him (although I didn't get any pictures with him on our camera!). We grabbed some hot chocolate before we started walking the gardens which helped keep us warm!

My favorite area of the gardens was where they had blue lights bunched together and hung up to look like grapes on a vine.

I think Hailey and Eli stayed pretty warm. Hailey actually slept the entire time. :)

Afterwards we went inside to warm up a bit before we headed home. We munched on some popcorn while listening to a string quartet play some Christmas music. It was a fun night and a great activity for families (especially if you don't go when it is freezing!)

Look for regular updates this week as I sort through our Christmas pictures!

All I Want for Christmas

... is my computer back! A few days ago my computer started making a weird noise and then just went crazy.We took it in to get looked at and they think it is a malfunction with the hard drive (after only 6 months???) and Best Buy had to ship it out to get fixed (I am so glad we bought a warranty!). This means I won't get my computer for 2-3 weeks. This is not great timing since I was in the process of finishing my online gift buying and Christmas cards. :( Marc does have a mini laptop for work so I steal that one when I can to get a few things done, but I am not sure if I can load pictures off our camera onto his computer. I have some really cute pictures of the kids from this past weekend to share and Hailey has her 2 month appointment tomorrow. So, I hope to figure the picture thing out to get in an update or two before Christmas. In case I don't, I wanted to let you all know what was going on. :) Check back with us soon!

Stacey and Brandon's Big Day

My baby sister got married this past weekend! However, I guess she's not a baby anymore now that she has a real job and is married. :) We do love Brandon and think he is a great match for Stacey. It was wonderful being a part of their special weekend to show our love and support.

We arrived into Rogers on Thursday evening and left again on Sunday. We were a little nervous how the kids would tolerate getting in the car again after our long Thanksgiving car rides but they did great. Our drive is a little over 4 hrs. which is just a little longer than Hailey can go at this point without eating so we did have to make one stop for her to eat. Once I start giving her bottles that trip will be much easier because I can just sit in the back and feed her a bottle while she is still in her car seat. We did that a few times with Eli when he was a baby and it worked great. I really plan on getting serious about starting some bottles this weekend! She is only a few weeks away from starting daycare so I am only delaying the inevitable. I have been telling people that I cringe when I look at my breast pump after using it for so long with Eli. It is a pain but worth it for the baby and the pocketbook. :)

So, I digressed a little... back to the weekend. Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. As the Matron of Honor I had to give a toast after the meal. I was really nervous about it but Marc coached me during my practices and I think it went pretty well in the end. I still don't plan on volunteering for any upcoming public speaking events. :) It was a great night and I was SO happy to see my sister so in love. She was just glowing all weekend. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Friday night.

On Saturday we had a bridesmaid luncheon and then headed to the salon to get our hair done. It was so much fun. Hailey stuck with me all day while Marc tended to Eli.

The reception was just fabulous. My mom and sister have been planning for a year now and all their hard work really showed. The reception was held inside the Pratt Place barn and Stacey wanted it to look like a winter wonderland. It was beautiful and I think she was really happy with how everything turned out.

Weddings are a lot of work! I think my dad is glad that he is done with them now that both of his girls are married. Stacey and Brandon are now relaxing and are enjoying the warm beaches of Mexico. What a great way to start off your life together!

Thanksgiving- Part 3

We don't make it to Illinois as much anymore now that we live so far away so we try to make it a point to see our extended family that live in Peoria while we are there. Marc's grandparents always enjoy seeing him. I can tell they are so proud of him and love him so much. :) It is wonderful as well to get to introduce them to their great grandchildren. They loved meeting Hailey this year and seeing how much Eli had changed from last year.

Our first stop was Grandpa and Grandma Carrigan's house. We were glad to see several aunts. uncles, and cousins who were there as well. They are always so sweet to get a present for Eli which kept him pretty occupied while everyone was enjoying passing Hailey around. I actually forgot my camera so I had to borrow these pictures from Marc's aunt and from his parents.

Next, we went to see Marc's Aunt Kathy and her friend, Beverly, who has been very sick in the past few months. It was great to see Beverly getting around better. I think she really enjoyed holding Hailey. Eli enjoyed his race track from Aunt Kathy and Hailey got her first baby doll, a Cabbage Patch Kid named Marley Hazel. :)

Then, our final stop was to see Grandma Kelly who has also been ill in recent months. The last time we saw her was Christmas last year and she was still living in her own apartment. This year she is in a nursing home which I know is a big change for her. Marc and I both thought she looked well for all that she has recently been through. She soaked in some Hailey time as well.

Eli was VERY ready to go at this point. He had only a very short nap in the car on the way to Peoria and was tired of all the car stops and pictures!

Then, he found Grandma's fancy chair and enjoyed pushing the buttons to make it recline. Ha!

We really enjoyed seeing everyone and do hope to get back to Illinois before another year passes. :)