*Christmas*

Christmas day is a whole new thing with a little one, isn't it? We knew it would be. We didn't care about the same things this year.  The things that mattered were much more important. We made some new traditions for our home and tried to make Mae's first Christmas with her family a very special one.

Our traditions are probably like yours: 

I made an advent string of envelopes that Maebelle loved opening every morning leading up to Jesus' birthday. 

We have always gone shopping for our dogs on Christmas eve.  We buy them each a small yummy treat and new toy.  It was fun having Mae's help to pick out something for her buddy. 

parking lot of PetSmart

We have always had family over for Christmas Eve dinner and this year we decided to have a birthday cake for Jesus.  We've heard of many other people doing this and it seemed perfect.  Mae loves blowing out candles too.

Mae got to open one gift (of Christmas pajamas).  This way she got a little practice and cute new pjs to wear.

Christmas morning, one thing was sure different... Cody and I are normally up and opening presents by 6am.   (We get rather excited, plus we always tried to make it up to my mom's for breakfast.) Not this year, Mae was still sound asleep at 8:00 so we had to start making some noise (:  We got her up and she instantly knew to be a little excited... probably just by seeing her parents faces. We took her downstairs to see her beautiful pink kitchen.  She was beside herself, truly.

She is still a little small compared to it but that didn't stop her. 

We had a hard time getting her to open any presents, she was much too busy cooking.  My mom and dad came over for breakfast and we left to go to their house for a whole other Christmas (:

***** Boppy & Nonna's House*****

 Mae got more food and pots and pans for her kitchen. 

Mae loves her Uncle Jon!

The coolest car EVER!  (I now know these are called plasma cars.) This was the best gift by far. 

 As, you can see everyone enjoyed a ride and Mae loves having a companion!!!

Mae makes everyone a kid again (:

 My sweet grandee, sister, Mae and me.  All his girls.

We are so blessed by this family and the sweetness of our darling girl this year.  We love this season of celebration and look forward to a new year.  Happy 2012 friends!!   

Christmas Time

Mae doesn't know what all this craziness is about but we've been trying our best to tell her about Christmas. We've told her all about baby Jesus, snowmen, Santa, presents, and twinkling lights! She has been very pleased with our Christmas tree and she even has her own white tree with pink lollipops, in her room. She also likes playing with her nativity and said "i love you Jesus" while we prayed a few days ago.  precious words!!! We do advent every morning.  She gets a small prize and then we read a verse... this is a routine that she has become very fond of.  I love making new traditions this year for our little family.

She loved having her bestie, Rosemary (and her mom) come spend the night! These precious girls wore matching pjs and played dress up together (:

two sweet tutu bottoms

and in the morning we made Christmas cookies... a tradition we hope to keep with Katie and Rosemary every year!

These precious friends loved it, and did a great job decorating and not eating them!

This year we have seen everything through the eyes of our girl. We CAN NOT wait to see her excitement on Christmas morning! Cody and I have always been a little giddy about Christmas (when it was just the two of us)... But I can guarantee we'll have a hard time sleeping this year! It's all too easy to remember longing for our baby this time last year... how magical it is to share this season with her. 

Merry Christmas dear friends!