Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!

Santa has come! Yeah! He even ate the cookies and drank the milk.

Wow, look at all the presents!

Look, Santa brought the purple bear that Emma asked for!

And a princess piggy bank!

A new tradition. Kevin and I are going to write a
Christmas card to our children each year and tell them why they are so special to us.
Emma doesn't really appreciate it now, but someday she will.
Oooohh, a pick necklace!

Look Abby, paints!

Emma loves cooking!

A Grinch, this will go great in her room!

A box of dress up outfits! Emma loves to be a pretty princess! Daddy too!

Now it is our turn to open presents. Notice Emma laying by Kevin when she realizes that all her presents have been unwrapped.

Look, baby Jesus has come! This nativity scene was my Christmas present from my mother and I just love it!! We left baby Jesus out of the scene until His birthday. Every day Emma would look to see if baby Jesus was born. We were so excited to show her that he had been born!What a great Christmas. It so much fun being the mommy and watching Emma open presents. I love starting new traditions and continuing with old traditions.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we did several fun things with Emma. We put out reindeer food in the front yard so that Santa would be able to find our house. Set out cookies and milk for Santa. And we read her The Night Before Christmas and the story of Jesus's birth. I can't wait until the morning, it will be so much fun.

Christmas Tree

Kevin really liked the lighting off the Christmas tree so he took some cute pictures of Emma by the tree. It is so nice to have a photographer in the family.

Silly Papa

Mema and Papa stopped by tonight and Emma was playing dress up. Papa put Emma's tutu on her head and Emma thought it was pretty funny!

Hair Clips

Emma doesn't really like having her hair pulled back in a ponytail, but she will let me put clips in her hair. I wanted her hair out of her face while she played. So I put in a ton of clips, it looked so cute!

Sleeping

Emma fell asleep folded in half. I was able to go in and take a few pictures and then lay her back in a normal position.

Family Night at Dance Class

Ok, I'm sorry that I have had a lot of dancing post, it seems that is the only time I am cracking out the camera. It was friends and family night in the dance class tonight so we got to sit in the dance studio and watch what the kids do. It was so much fun watching them all "dance" to the music. After class they surprised the kids with Santa. Luckily Emma didn't freak out by that. Here are some videos and pictures.

In this video Emma is practicing her shuffle step.

Ballet

Practicing the Silly Rabbit Song

Big announcement

My mom wasn't expecting on finding out the sex of our baby until Jan. So we wanted to surprise her at work. My mom has been saying from the beginning that we were having a boy. So Kevin thought it would be funny to give her a card that said we were having a girl and then later give her another card that said we were having a boy. It took some convincing on my part, but we bought two separate cards announcing that we were having a girl then later gave her one that said we were actually having a boy. It was pretty funny. Here is a picture of her opening a "You having a new granddaughter card". She called Papa and told him we were having a girl and told Emma that she was having a baby sister. "Can you say Charlotte" my mom asked Emma. It was all I could do to not crack up. So we took her out to lunch and she asked me for her phone to call other family members to tell them we were having a girl, instead I handed her the other card. You should have seen her face, at first she thought we were having twins, and then she read that we tricked her and actually are having a boy. She had to call Papa back and tell him we were actually having a boy. It was pretty funny!

Is it going to be a boy or girl?

Well, I couldn't wait until January to find out the sex of our baby. So I went down to the sono department at work and had the sonographer take a peek. I had taken an envelope down with a paper that said "It's a boy/girl" and I had the sonographer circle either boy or girl. She also printed out a picture and sealed it in the envelope. That way Kevin and I could open it up together at dinner tonight instead of me telling him over the phone. After dinner tonight Kevin and I opened it up. Since I had the sonographer circle the choice with a yellow highlighter it wasn't very apparent to Kevin whether we were having a boy or girl until I explained to him what she had done. Then he said, "It says were having a boy". "What! Let me see that paper", I said as I snatched it out of his hand. Sure enough it said a boy. And the sono picture was pretty clear too! Wow, so much for trying for another girl. Wow, a boy. At least we already had a boy's name picked out, Jackson Thomas. Oh my, a boy, what are we going to do with ourselves!

Kaleb

Here are some super adorable pictures of my nephew Kaleb. I so miss them. I wished they lived closer to Dallas. Isn't he the cutest little boy!!

Fireman Santa

Every year a our city's fire station drives around with Santa on the back of their firetrucks. When we heard the trucks coming down the street Kevin grabbed Emma to go and see Santa on the truck. Of course that freaked Emma out leaving the house so quickly so she was being bashful. But Santa waved and threw out some candy that they collected. I think it is neat that our city does this! Here is a not so good picture of the firetruck with the Santa on the back that you can't see! Heheheh. =)

Play Date

Emma and I went over to have lunch and play with her friends Luke and Sarah. It is so nice to be able to go to my friends house and sit and chat with another adult while she plays.

"Hey, Sarah, what are you eating?"

Tea party

Dancing

Emma is finally getting better about following the teacher in her dance class. As you can see half of the other class hasn't quiet gotten it yet.

Christmas Lights

We went out to look at Christmas lights tonight. We found a few streets where every house was lit up, must be b/c of a homeowners association. Anyways, the weather was beautiful and it's December! Kevin and I were wearing short sleeves! I just love Christmas light, this is a tradition that I want to keep going.

Santa Picture

I took Emma to see Santa again this year. She wasn't really happy about it, but at least she sat on his lap this time. It took a lot of preparation. Any time we would go to the mall we would stop and look at Santa. Prior to taking this picture we had walked by him and seen him about 5 times. When we got there Santa was on a cookie break. So we also took a cookie break and had some yummy cookies. We also wrote Santa a wish list. Emma has been saying for a few weeks that she wanted Santa to bring her a soft purple bear. So that is what we wrote. So when we went to see Santa Emma ran up to Santa to give him her letter, luckily there was no line. He just scooped her up and put her on his lap. As you can tell she isn't really happy about it, but at least she isn't crying.

Yummy Ice Cream

I met a friend and her son for lunch today. It's nice to get out and not sit at home all week. Here they are enjoying ice cream. Doesn't Emma have the most beautiful blue eyes? I just love this picture, even with the ice cream all over her face.

Dance Class

Oh, I forgot to mention in the previous post about Emma's dance class. It's a combination class. She is learning tap, ballet, and tumbling. Here is a couple of video's with Emma doing a ballet motion (sorry I don't know the name of the movement) and learning a tumbling motion. She just loves her class! At the end of the tumbling video she comes running up to the window to ask me if she could have a sucker. She is just so cute!