Christmas Eve and morning

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

We tried to have pictures taken with Santa. Since we are in Illinois it was 14 degrees when we went with wind gusts in the 60s. Nana and Poppa waited outside until it was our turn. The picture above and the one below were taken while we waited.
We did get a picture of Barrett with Santa. Elaina WAILED! She wanted to have nothing to do with him.

Nana and Poppa got a tent for the kids to play in. What fun!
Barrett and Mommy constructed a gingerbread house. Mommy "glued" the pieces together and Barrett decorated. He was more interested in eating it though!

Poppa and Lainey watched

She got bored and thought it was more fun to rub off his hair.

I did it!
Now I get to eat it!

Who goes there?
Merry Christmas Eve!


Am I going to get caught?!?

Elaina playing the trumpet on the tree
One of her favorite presents from her stocking, a tooth brush and tooth paste. "I want to be a dentist."
Nana with Lainey and the toothbrush

Barrett's favorite present, a marble run.

In the kitchen, helping Nana cook

Before we leave

Before we left for Chicago I thought that I would put up some of the pictures that we have taken this last week. We hope that you all have a joyous Christmas.
Barrett was so excited about the sweater Mommy made for him. He got to pick out the buttons.

Eating Snowman Poop!

This is his first homemade Christmas tree ornament! He made it in Sunday school. They also had a live nativity for the kids while the adults were in church. There were live camels, goats, cows and sheep. At least that was the report we got from Barrett. He also told us that he got to see Baby Jesus and that he liked Mary.

My Little extra helper! She climbed up there herself and got into the cheese. Barrett had been helping me make breakfast, I guess she thought it looked like fun!

They love to cuddle together. I will post my Christmas pictures. Stay tuned!

Commercial Kids

Stop by and see our Mimi and Ddad! They have the best rugs for the best prices. We love them!

Lainey loved browsing through the rugs

And Barrett was all about jumping on them!

Elaina

Elaina had her 15 month checkup earlier this week. She had grown 2.4 inches and gained 1 lb 14oz. This put her in the 64% for height (up from 11%!) and 14% in weight (up from 10%) If she keeps on at this rate she will out grow me rather quickly! I went a little crazy with pictures of her today. Thanks for the outfit Mimi and Ddad!

This is our neighbor Eli. He and Barrett love to play together especially where they have not built the houses yet.

Barrett and Elaina love to look for ideas to ask Santa for. Elaina always cleans up and throws away the magazine though!

Christmas Tree

On Saturday we decided to find our Christmas tree. We went to a farm in North Ga and took a tractor ride to try and find a tree.

After the Christmas tree farm experience in RI we were sorely disappointed with this one. So we left without a tree. Barrett was nearly devastated. We promised him that we would find one. We ended up at Home Depot. It saved us nearly $50!

Barrett's idea of decorating was to place all the candy canes in the same 3 inches!

Lainey wanted to take them off!

Barrett and I made Reindeer mix on Sunday. He loves to cook but I think that eating it is his favorite part!

Barrett was very excited about the tree.

Our Little Reindeer

Elaina loves to blow kisses, so that is her blowing a kiss.