Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  We have had a busy but fun week!  We did a lot of shopping, and had a lot of craft time.  Kennedy enjoyed making cards with her thumb prints, and salt dough ornaments for daddy, and her grandma's.  I made her a felt tree with ornaments to take off and rearrange how ever she wanted.  She played with it a little, but mostly ran around with them.  After all, Kennedy doesn't care much for anything that requires her to be stationary for more than 90 seconds.  I really enjoyed making new traditions with my babies.  And although I haven't been able to teach Kennedy to make animal sounds, I did teach her to say, "Ho ho ho!"  She has walked around saying ho ho ho all week.  And it's the cutest thing ever.  Unfortunately, it seems our new Christmas tradition is for Kennedy to be sick.  Fortunately she was in a great mood, but had snot running down her nose in most photos.  Christmas Eve was busy with last minute errands and baking.  Kennedy had a great time helping me bake and decorate cookies.  She stirred up a bowl of sugar and then tossed it behind her.  We kicked off Christmas morning with cake butter pancakes and got right to work with gifts!  Kennedy was greeted by a new table and chair set on the patio, a kitchen set and a Servin' Surprises Table.  The kitchen was a HUGE hit.  She scored tons of puzzles, Little People sets, dolls, their accessories...the list is endless.  As you'll see from the pictures below, Santa was very good to everyone!  It was an amazing Christmas!  I feel truly blessed to have a wonderful family and such amazing children.  It was so much fun to see their faces light up, and I know Christmas will only get better each year.

In an effort to get this blog post done while Kennedy is napping, I'm going to wrap up with a lot of pictures from the past week.

Yes, I know I'm cute.

I have all the attention on me, before my cousin's performance starts.

Giving brother kisses!

Hi Facebook people!

Baby's First Christmas!

Mom, this coat thing sucks.

This felt tree is cool, but not as cool as the real tree.

I'm ready to bake mama!

How about these sprinkles mom?

Can you put extra in?

"Ho ho ho!  I'm baking!"

It's cool mom, I'll just sit up here.

Can we make cranberry bark next?

Really mom?  I can decorate this?

Oh, you didn't want me to eat it?

This is yummy mom.  More please?

Ho ho ho!  Santa will love this!

Checking for Santa!

Ho ho ho!  Better get the windex mom!

Santa came!!

Baby's First Christmas!

The little chunky monkey!

For me???

Want some coffee dad?

Sure Grandma, I'll pour you a cup.

Who's on the phone?

I'm mixing up some scrambled eggs mom.

Running for the gifts!!!

Diving right in!

 I love it Grandma!

She ran to the door with her new keys and said, "Bye!"

This is cool mom.

My friend Mickey!!!

I love you baby.

Caleb made me this???

Giving "Stitch" kisses.

Weeeeeee go faster Grandma!

Talk about photo overload.  I'm determined that I'll be better about blogging in the new year! 

Mommy's Big Helper!

This kid loves to bake.  I may just have to buy her an Easy Bake Oven for her birthday.  I know, I know.  Now I'm being a little unrealistic.  But she LOVES it!  Tonight's pregnancy craving was cheesecake, so I had to resort to a Jello No Bake Cheesecake, since it was 8pm!  Kennedy was more than happy to help.  I wish I had caught it on video.  She was hysterical.  Flinging bowls around, reaching for the pie crust, and helping us read the instructions. 

Are we making Christmas cookies again mom?

Ooooh, this looks really good mom!  Can I try it?

Grandma, I think you need more milk in that.

I hope the cheesecake tastes as good as this box.

YUMMY!  The mix is really yummy! (Disclaimer: There was no egg used.)

Merry Christmas!

I cannot believe that it's Kennedy's first Christmas.  WHERE has the past year gone?  Last year at this time, my husband and I were on the couch, watching Christmas movies, and talking about how much different this Christmas would be.  And boy is it.  This year, we're watching Christmas movies, and frantically wrapping the last 20 gifts, after a day full of activities (and wrapping.)  Fortunately Kennedy is still young enough that she can sit and play while wrapping is going on, and she has no idea.  In fact, she was happy to help.

We are so blessed this Christmas.  We have an amazing little girl.  She's happy and healthy, and I truly could not ask for more.  We've endured challenges and fears over the past 10 months, that we never thought we would face in a lifetime.  It made the start of all the Christmas traditions with Kennedy that much more special.  Seeing her face light up each time the Christmas lights are turned on makes me want to keep them up all year.  As she gets older, and we continue to add to our family, I'm sure that we will continue to add new activities and traditions to the holidays. 

Amidst the craziness of the day, Kennedy and I took some time to bake cookies.  Kennedy (safely) sat on the island, and helped.  Today was the first time I realized just how thankful I am for a big kitchen.  Kennedy had a great time - she played with the rolling pin, the cookie cutters, the sprinkles, grabbed clumps of dough, and got into the canister of flower.  I hope Santa doesn't mind that she was chewing on the cookie cutters in between me using them.  I really did mean to wash them.  But in between trying to prevent her from throwing flour everywhere and from diving off the counter, I *may* have forgotten.

No mom, I wasn't eating the paper.

Okay, maybe I was.

It doesn't taste THAT great.  But it's fun.

Daddy you are so silly.

Let the baking begin!

I'm going to check out the cookie cutters mom.

Let me help you roll the dough out.

This is pretty yummy mom.

Do you need more flour mom?

Can we make cookies again next week?

And Miss Amanda says I don't use my hands enough.  If she could only see me now.  I just don't do it for her.

If I bite this long enough, I bet I'll get the top open.

Santa's coming!  Santa's coming!

I can't take it anymore!  Is he here yet?

Mom, why can't I have cookies more often?

This is really yummy.

Can I have more?

No mom, I'm not tired yet.

I'm gonna stay awake until Santa comes.

Well, she didn't quite make it until Santa came.  But she stayed up to read The Night Before Christmas, and she's tucked in bed with her Christmas pajamas on.  Most of the gifts have now been placed under the tree.  Santa may or may not have gone overboard this year.  Next year, we'll be doing this for Kennedy AND her little sister or brother.  I can only imagine that it will be twice the fun with two little ones.  And uhh...we may need to think about moving Christmas to a bigger room by the looks of the tree.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my readers and their families!  I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday.