Merry Christmas!!

Oh boy, oh boy...Merry Christmas!!! It's been an exciting couple of days around here. Katelyn is officially overstimulated and has been completely spoiled! And boy it's been fun... She looked adorable in her Christmas dress. Here she is opening her first present...

Oh a puzzle from Aunt Pam...thank you!!!

Aunt Diane and Uncle Ed...the beautiful Chinese doll you sent was fabulous...Katelyn especially liked the bubble wrap that was in the box. For her birthday y'all should really just send boxes, ribbons, wooden spoons, tupperware...

Here's Katelyn and I right before we headed off to church for Christmas Eve service.

Oh and the princess with her Pa Pa and Grammy who are loving every minute of their time with their granddaughter...other than the cold weather of course. Their Arizona blood is a little wimpy.

Katelyn got a play kitchen and LOVES it!!! She will get many hours of use out of this baby and therefore mommy will be able to get some things done around here....like clean up after the Christmas tornado hit our living room.

After waiting so long for Katelyn to be home for Christmas, I just watched her play with all of her new toys this morning...cooking in her kitchen, pushing groceries around in her shopping cart, watching a new video, playing with her dolls...This was what I waited for....I can't imagine a more delightful child. Having her here was the perfect gift this Christmas!!

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

But Katelyn Grace is so delightful!

We got several inches of snow last night so Katelyn was bundled up and taken outside to play in the snow. She's so cute. She didn't like being bundled...but she did like the snow. Although after about 10 minutes she said, "All done." And that was that. It took longer to put all the clothes on her than we got outside. But it was all worth it for this picture.

Grammy and Pa Pa are coming tomorrow!!! We can't wait!! (Of course they're coming...the weather is wretched. Dad brings the bad weather every time.)

Little ballerinas

Katelyn was invited to her friend M.'s 2nd birthday party...a TuTu Party...SO CUTE!!! There were four little girls and one boy (lucky guy, these girls were lookin' good!) I didn't do very well at the picture taking tonight. It was a BIT chaotic with all of the little divas running around. But here's a taste of cuteness..Poor Mike and Susan...their house was DESTROYED!

Here's my friend Megan and the birthday girl, M. (not Megan's daughter). The TuTu had already come off. Apparently they get in the way of the playing.

Two of the lovelies dancing up a storm.

Oh the blessing of little ones. I just watched them all and loved every minute of it. It won't be long and they won't be into Tu Tus and spinning in circles. They'll be texting each other and talking about who said what and what boys they like. I really would just like my little ballerina to stay itty bitty....because I think she's really fun right now.

Climb every mountain

or at least every couch... Katelyn is officially a climber. She figured out she could get up on the couch by herself. She was so proud. She did it over and over...probably fifty times.

And then mommy says, "Katelyn sit on your bottom or you will have to get off of the couch."

Fun with food

Aunt Shirley, thanks for letting us stay with you. I really liked it when Uncle John threw me up in the air. To show my gratitude, I'll share my peas with you. Ha ha, I'm funny. Mommy told me that you HATE peas. I don't really understand. I shovel them in my mouth as fast as mommy will give them to me. Maybe you should try them again.I've just discovered this awesome thing called Ketchup. You all should try this stuff. It's SO good. I could just eat it all by itself.
I get so excited every time mommy puts some of this red stuff on my plate.

I do like to dip my hamburger in it too. Num num.

A night with the pretty, pretty princess

Just an average night. It's Sunday and it's COLD out...so after Katelyn woke up from her nap we were in for the evening....but even on an average evening, Katelyn provides extraordinary entertainment. Look how long her hair is getting. She's looking more and more like a little girl. (Stop growing so fast child or I might just cry.)

Clapping for herself, of course. I try to promote a healthy self-esteem. :)

Another round of Itsy Bitsy Spider. (Although, I think this song has been pushed out by Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as the favorite.) I would like you all to take note of the pink pants with the white polka dots and the white shoes with the pink polka dots...yeah, she's cute.

Katelyn is getting very good at identifying body parts. This is "Where is your nose?"

Oh sock monkey, how I love you.

And what night would be complete without some reading!!!

And just so you know this princess isn't all frills, here she is working on her car. Uncle Mike is a good influence after all. :) (He's a mechanic.)

What is not captured here is our tickle fight infront of the Christmas tree. There's no way a picture can capture the joy of this child's giggling! (So y'all will just have to come and visit!)

Deck the halls with boughs of holly...

While Katelyn was napping this afternoon, I put up the Christmas tree. So pretty if I do say so myself. When she woke up I told her I had a big surprise for her...so we went downstairs and I flipped on the lights. She just stood there staring. She wasn't quite sure what to do with this spectacle. But I think she's decided that she likes it. I waited so long for her to be home for Christmas...and at last, she is here!Umm, look at those long eyelashes!! She looks so innocent. Pictures can be so decieving. :)
Here's the princess clapping. She was all of a sudden very excited about Christmas!

Here's the finished product. I even bought a star for the top today. Every year I say I need to get one and I found the right one today and it was on sale for $5.50. I couldn't pass it up.

The tree is up and it's beautiful, but my favorite place in the house is the little table by the tree with the nativity scene on it. I collect these Willow Tree figurines and my mom and dad got me the nativity scene last year for Christmas. I was so excited to set it up. Christmas is about Jesus and I want that to always be what our home focuses on this time of year. Jesus is the gift and the presents that we give each other are just a symbol of the gift we've already been given in our Savior.

So cold, but so cute.

These pictures are just because your lives would be sadder if you couldn't see this degree of cuteness when you turned on your computer and looked at our blog...

Could you just eat her up?? We were on our way out the door on this VERY COLD evening and the kid just looked so adorable...I had to snap a few shots.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went up to Michigan to spend Thanksgiving with my family and of course Katelyn was well taken care of. (Nobody likes her or anything.) Aunt Dee Dee got wrangled into reading books to the little princess.

While we were there, my cousin's son had his first birthday...Katelyn took over the ribbons.

Here's Katelyn with Great Mom. My grandma is such an amazing woman. I'm glad we got to spend time with her this Thanksgiving.

Here are my cousins Stacey, Nick and Jen. They are SO funny...and I'm not just saying that because I'm related to them.

This picture proves that Allison and Kyle (more cousins) helped with the dishes.

This picture is proof to my dad that I gave Grandma her chocolates...I didn't even eat any in the car on the way up to Michigan.

Here are Aunt Shirley, Austin and Aunt Jo. So cute!

Uncle Ed got dad's instructions to read to Katelyn. She likes Uncle Ed.

Adrianne was so fabulous and gave up her room for four days. Thanks Dre Dre!!!

This is a great picture of Janna and Brayden (my cousin's wife and their nephew).

Ummm, I'm not sure what to say about this picture. We all love some wine, but I think Brayden is getting started a little early.

Katelyn loved her first Thanksgiving dinner. I mean really, what's not to love???!!!!

Grandma was modeling the Thanksgiving decor.

I love my family so much. We all laughed a lot this weekend and I loved being surrounded by all of them. It was well worth the drive...even though I had to drive through snow to get home. :)