Merry Christmas!

We could not have had a merrier, happier or more blessed Christmas!  The arrival our little early Christmas present made this Christmas an especially joyous one.  What a fabulous time of year to be born! 

A little stocking stuffer

This is such a magical time of year for little ones and I have loved seeing the excitement and pure joy in Riley over all things Christmas.  She loves the tree, the decorations, our holiday books, "Udolph", her elf on the shelf, gingerbread house decorating...and eating, cookie baking, zoo lights, lights on houses, the Grinch, her Christmas jammies, her advent surprises, Santa and of course the presents.

 We spent Christmas Eve going to the children's mass at our church and then heading to Gigi, Popdaddy's house where we spent the rest of the night, eating our fave pasta, opening lots of gifts and having fun with our family. 

They don't really make special occasion dresses in premie sizes so Piper's outfit was absolutely huge on her, but it made me happy to see my 2 girls in their matching Christmas dresses.

We were all excited to have Aunt Judi, Uncle John and the McGuffee's with us this Christmas.  Riley absolutely loves when they are all around and both of our girls were spoiled by their Aunts, Uncles and cousins.

Riley could hardly wait to dive into the presents under Gigi and Pop's tree.  Now that she can read her own name, she helped to find all of her presents.  She loved having an audience for opening all of her gifts and we loved watching her reactions as she dug into her surprises.  Gigi and Pop and also her aunts and unlces gave her tons of great gifts and I was so proud of her good manners and gratitude as with each package she would say "Oh, thank you!  It's just what I wanted!!!"

Riley had quite the list for Santa this year and had even ranked her wishes in order of importance...1.) Flipper Ariel tail, 2.)Rapunzel dress, 3.)Doll, 4.)Kitchen

Roo must have been very good, because Santa left absolutely no room for disappointment. 

After playing for a while with her Santa surprises, Riley was ready to dig into the rest

of the presents under the tree

She was also the designated opener/helper for everyone else's gifts too, especially Piper's since she was too little to do it herself.  Riley would open Piper's gifts and then show them to her...

"look at what you got Pipey!"

Kris and Riley doing their signature knuckle bump and blow up

Piper was completely exhausted by the excitement,

so she spent most of the day doing what makes her

happiest...sleeping and being snuggled on

We spent the afternoon of Christmas having lunch and opening presents at

Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's.  Riley decided that the perfect attire for the day was her

Christmas jammies with her new Rapunzel dress on top.  Perfect!

Riley and Piper were spoiled again with some really great stuff...

There was some serious winding down in order after all of the excitement of our

Christmas celebrations, so we spent the rest of the day relaxing, working on a puzzle 

watching Roo play with her new toys.  

The day after Christmas, Uncle David, Aunt Ruthie and our cousins Cyd and Reece drove up from Oklahoma for a few days.  Riley was so excited about her cousin Reece coming to visit and as always they had a great time together and we all enjoyed getting to have lots of our family around to celebrate Christmas.

We had a totally happy Christmas and have enjoyed all that the holiday seaon had to offer.  2011 brought us so many blessings that we are so very thankful for...especially our sweet new baby girl.  We can't wait see what 2012 has in store!  Happy New Year!

Cookie Playdate!

What's not to love about Christmas?  It is by far and away my favorite time of year, the music, the decorations, the gifting, time spent with friends and family and of course...the sweets!  A couple of years ago, our friend Lacey started hosting a Christmas cookie decorating party for our little ones that has become a holiday event that we look forward to each year.  It's a time where we let our very eager kiddos loose on some sugar cookies with lots of sprinkes and frosting.  Unfortunately, with 2 very sick kids this year Lacey had to bow out of hosting this year and our friend Katy offered to relocate the cookie craziness to their downtown condo. 

Our kids always have so much fun together!  The moms enjoyed watching them create and we were quite impressed...this year they actually did more decorating than ingesting.  Riley is still all about the sweet...the more the better.  Her technique was mostly about applying as much frosting and as many sprinkles as the cookie could bear. 

Some post decorating reading

Too little to join in the fun just yet...our little elf had her own fun during our playdate.



Santa Party!

This past weekend we hosted our friends and their little ones at our annual Santa party.  With Piper arriving so close to the holidays I was a little bit worried that we might not pull it off this year but we all look forward to this Christmas get together and couldn't stand the idea of skipping a year.  It has been so much fun to watch Riley and her friends who have grown from infants to full on kids now.  They have gone from babies who scream on Santa's lap to big kids with wish lists to share.  Not to mention that we have added so many new little ones.  So cute!

Riley scoping out the cookies. 

In true Riley fashion she followed her sweet tooth, picking the biggest cookie on the platter...and then she had 3 of them (as a disclaimer, this is the only time that she gets this kind of free reign)

The kids reaction to seeing Santa. Alec and James were so excited, Riley was a little bit cautious.

She didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, but was happy to stand next him.  It took a little persuading to get her up close to him, but I convinced her that it would be a good idea to at least tell him what she wants for Christmas.

Piper did what she does best, sleep and cuddle

 Mac checking out the Christmas lights

The Nichols boys and Nelson girls