Christmas Day

Oh my, Santa came!!

Dumping out the stocking

Notice Alison had face painted herself already :) and Mommy sure does look excited about her gift!!!

Daddy re-enacting his Colt's picture!!! Thanks cousin Jeannie!

Just a little lounge time with Grandpa Bobby..watching 'A Christmas Story'

We had a wonderful Christmas Day, we are so very blessed!!! The biggest squeal out of Alison was for her LadyBug pillow pet! It took us almost 9 hours to open gifts because Ali wanted to play with each gift she opened and we let her :) Both sets of our parents came to spend the late afternoon and evening with us, thank you for coming so we didn't have to travel!!!! We are very fortunate! It was a jammy day for the whole family and we wouldn't have had it any other way!

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve at our house. We woke up and went to Strollerfit as a family and then headed to Pinheads to do a little bowling. We did duck-pin bowling for the first time and LOVED it! We came home and had lunch with naps and then went to Christmas Eve Mass. I always love Christmas Eve service, something about it makes me feel so happy and blessed! After a dinner out at O'Charleys we came home to get ready for Santa..........well we couldn't forget the reindeer too.....
a little carrot sticks and Skittles for the reindeer!
and picking out exactly what Santa would like for a mid-flight snack! Of course, a Santa chocolate lollipop..yummo! and then it was off to bed......

Santa has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to you!

As the shirt says...she is 4!!!!! We can hardly believe it. We had a wonderful day...I hope she enjoyed every second too! We had a lollipop themed birthday party. Her request was lollipop cakes that are pink with purple and purple with pink....here is my creation! They are Fabulous!!!!! So yummy!

Singing to the Birthday Girl! Alison, I hope all your wishes and dreams always come true!

I fun new beanbag for our new big girl room...fits perfectly in the reading corner.

And the big gift of the day, Molly...an American Girl. Molly was a gift to Mommy when Mommy was about 10 years old, she was very well loved and now passed down to Alison from Meme and Papa. What an awesome gift!

Birthday Eve fun!

We always let Alison pick a special activity to do for her birthday, just Mommy, Daddy, and Alison. This year we had her pick out something to do on Friday night since Sat. night we'd have friends and family over for the P-A-R-T-Y!!!
She chose Monkey Joe's.....she ran/jumped/slipped/and slid for a full hour. She loves that place and is finally at an age where she can do everything by herself, we were only allowed to watch :(
She topped off her evening with dinner at her favorite restaurant, Panera Bread. Alison claims they have the best mac n cheese EVER!
We had a great night celebrating our special girl!




Disclaimer: yes, she is in her pajamas....we had jammy day at Strollerfit that day and she asked very politely to stay in them all day, how could I not oblige?!

Annual Cookie Day

Every year my mom hosts an annual Cookie Day. We all get together, baked Christmas sugar cutouts and then decorate. This year, we shortened the process and only did decorating. The kids get un-interested pretty quickly :) The gang---Sheryl, Becki, Kitty, Great Meme, Courtney, Izi, Gabi, and Alison

The ladies....enjoying a warm and fuzzy hot chocolate!

Meme and Alison in the midst of decorating!!!

My mom also purchased a gingerbread house kit this year....as you can tell from the pic...did not go well. Yes, we are holding it together with large cans, the icing is running, and the candy isn't sticking. Next year we are forgoing the icing and using epoxy glue...it just might stay together that way! Izi and Ali were real troopers though and were big helpers!!!

I always LOVE this day and look forward to it every year. Thank you Mom for hosting!