Christmas Re-Cap

Well, it's hard to believe December is almost over.  We had a fun time having family in our home.  My mom and brother came to visit a few days before Christmas.  It was a treat since it's been like 9 years since we were able to celebrate Christmas with Jimmy!  He was able to stay one night.  Mom stayed a few more...not long enough, but we were grateful for those few days!

 Learning how to hold her sister's head up!

 We hosted the Strange gathering this year!  The cousins had lots of fun running around and helping their daddies re-tell the Christmas story.

 The girls gave their daddy a Christmas tree made with Elliana's hand and Avalyn's foot.

We've been eating a good bit of "food" now that Elliana has a kitchen as big as Mommy's.  :)

 How fun!  A school bus that sings and that you can take people in and out of!  Even penguins get a ride in the bus!

 Needless to say, we had fun in the snow!  A couple of days later, Elliana and Mommy built a snow girl.  We used a carrot for her nose, and Max realized today that there are deer tracks leading right up to it.  We saw it was missing but would never have guessed that a carrot thief lurks about...

A Christmas Comparison

 

This was Christmas last year.  I didn't take very good pictures, but it's still amazing to see the difference in Elliana.  I think the biggest difference is in her verbal communication, which obviously is not captured here in these pictures.

The other difference was how much more involved she wanted to be in the whole event.  She was rather excited to participate and continues to talk about when Christmas is coming.  She doesn't even really know about the presents; she just sees all the pretty lights and decor and hears stories about Jesus being a baby.  That is enough to excite her, apparently!  Max enjoys playing around with the camera settings to get the cool effects.  :)

Warm days and walks

Out for a walk!  I've been trying to get out for just short walks, especially on the nice days.  I don't remember knowing this pic was being taken.  I'm guessing Max had to zoom in quite a bit, hence the fuzzy, washed-out look.

 Family pics on my 30th birthday, and a smile at the end of the day!

 She's gonna love her daddy a lot, too!

 

We took advantage of a warm day to get some Christmas pictures!  It's so nice to be able to just go out to our back yard and take all the pictures we want (or at least that I want) instead of possibly having an audience at our apartment whenever we wanted pics outside.

4 weeks old already!

 I'm 4 weeks old today! (The day the pic was taken, not when it was eventually posted to the blog. :))

 What is this thing my mommy sat next to me?

Looks like they had a little role reversal, Daddy sleeping and baby wide awake.

 Elliana doesn't normally smile that big in her sleep.  She's pretending she's asleep so she can join the rest of the sleepyheads.

 Elliana really enjoys watching Daddy work. 

 Our beautiful little girl with her chubby cheeks

Hopefully this is just normal baby cross-eyedness!