Christmas Pics

Now that the birthdays are over we are in mega Christmas mode. Here are some pictures from some Christmas-y things we have been doing lately.

First off, Kyle hauled out my magnificent, fake, prelit tree and set it up for us. It weighs about 100 lbs but is one of my most favorite Christmas items. Our first year in California, we did not go home for Christmas for some reason. We were a little bummed about that but Kyle went out and surprised me with this big, beautiful tree all set up in our little apartment when I got home from work one day. Every time I look at it I think of that :)

Allie helped me decorate the tree that evening while I fired up my Christmas playlist on iTunes. It was such a fun evening. She was so excited to help me decorate! My Grammie gives us Christmas ornaments ever year as gifts and it is really fun to look back on all of them. I have my ornament from the year I was born all the way up til Emmy's first Christmas. Some of them make noise and play music so those are Allie's favorite. It was a really special mommy daughter evening since Kyle has never particularly enjoyed decking the halls with me.

Emmy is in her walker in these pics, but believe me, this kid is RACING around the house. She stands up, gets her balance, and then immediately takes off, usually leaning waaaaaaay forward and then just drops when it gets too dangerous. She has a big bruise on her forehead right now from a pesky wall that got in her way.

Then I took our Christmas card pictures of the girls. I took these a night and they looked a little meh...

so I googled how to take pictures of my kids in front of the Christmas tree and I ended up with much better pics!

Sidenote: Emmy would sit in a chair all day long and let me take pictures of her while she smiled. Allie drove me CRAZY! I had to make up silly words while I took her pictures because her "cheeeeeeese" smile is anything but natural looking.

Then last night we went on a hayride through my old 'hood with our neighbors the Raska's.

It was so much fun! Allie and Nolan were super happy to find a house that had the Chipmunk's out front. Allie has never watched the Chipmunks, but because Nolan likes them, she LOVES them! She is funny like that. She will only wear the Cars pull-ups at night because those are her No-nans favorite. We also found a house in our neighborhood that has an inflatable Grinch and Allie about lost her mind she was so happy. She LOVES the bad guys in movies. I just don't get it!