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!