Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Caution: Long post with lots of pictures!

The holidays are my favorite time of year. I love being off work for two whole weeks spending time with my stink-pot, and actually trying to be a domesticated wife (david and I worked out a new system, he ALWAYS unloads dishwasher, and I ALWAYS fill it)! Which is working out very nicely if I do say so myself!

 This year I hope to have started many Christmas traditions with my love-bug! The first tradition is baking and decorating cookies with Georgia to put out for Santa Claus!

Hayden was doing a great job! Just couldn't quite get the 'ball' effect!

She kept making them into little tubes!

I loved this! Did you know that Math and Science are the two subjects that girls do not exceed at as well as boys? Being a teacher there is always room for a science lesson! I loved how they saw the cookies go from eggs, butter and powder to dough, then onto cookies. It really does let your child understand more on how things work. Let them HELP you! 

The learn sooo much more being hands on!

Then it was time to decorate! Let the messy fun begin! I was afraid that Hayden wasn't going to have enough decorations for her cookies because she kept eating all 

the marshmallows and m&m's!

They had so much fun and so did I. I love it that Hayden got to 

participate in this new tradition!

We always have so much fun at Georgia

s house!

After we decorated the cookies we traced our hands onto the sheet that we sat on, 

that way next year we can leave another mark and stamp our memories!

We started off our week with a visit from my brother and his family!

Hayden and Brookie, the princess' of the family!

Hayden and her Uncle Danny! She just loves him!

Brooke is getting so big. She has two big ole teefers!

It was so much with Brookie! She is such a laid back easy going baby!

Hayden had a lot of fun playing with her cousins. 

My pictures posted out of order, but this is

 Hayden & uncle Jimmy (david's brother) on Christmas eve.

Brookie is so cute here! 

She just lets everyone do whatever they want with her!!

On to Christmas eve...after family left our house we set out to 

put reindeer food on the lawn for all of Santa's Reindeer.

I'm not sure if Hayden fully understood that Santa was coming

to her house, but she does know who Santa is, and that we were feeding Reindeer.

I had a blast with her!

Getting ready for bed we put our new Pj's on that we got from Aunt Teresa, 

then we put out cookies and milk for Santa!

This is what the view of what Santa brought looks like from our staircase!

My First Dollhouse!

Art Easel with Magnetic letters and a chalkboard on the other side!

One of her favorites...her "bike". 

She also got this Karaoke machine that plugs into the TV and you can 

see yourself on the screen. She loves it!

She also got a toddler size basketball goal!

Then we noticed something....Santa ate all of the cookies and

 left only marshmallow crumbs! How exciting...

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This year was very exciting, I can honestly say it wasn't much work hiding gifts from her because she didn't really realize what was going on. However, I am not looking forward to next year, when she will actually have list and santa will have to be more discrete!

Memory Lane

I began working at the Children's Courtyard when I was 18. I was a Senior in High school about to graduate. I continued to work there until I was a junior in College. I loved working there. The hours were great and it was super easy! While I was there I made some friends that will last a lifetime. I talk to Ashley almost every week and Angi and I live only a couple of miles from each other now. Sara and I just got reconnected and I am sure I will see her a lot more in the coming year. I feel very blessed to have them in my life. Ashley's little boy, Landon, and Hayden are only 2.5 months apart in age, which makes for lots of fun when we hang out!