merry christmas

"for unto you is born this day,

in the city of david, our savior

lord jesus christ"

what a blessing it is to celebrate this holiday for what it truly means. this year ellington was more engaged in knowing what christmas was and why we celebrated jesus' birthday. she played with her manager daily, setting it up, telling the story and trying to engage beckett in it too. ellington joined us for the christmas eve service and at 3 years old i'm glad she did. it's fun to share with her how we worship and learn more about who jesus is.

we love this time of year, spending time with family and creating traditions. one of our favorite traditions started 7 years ago with just josh and i on our first christmas eve together.

new pj & pizza!

beckett sportin' his new jams...monkey boy :)

elle with her new jams...horsey jams and our new tradition - new family game

it's fun to have a kid old enough to play real board games.

christmas morning @ home

santa delivered!!

it must of been the yummy cookies and reindeer food we left for him.

ellington had been asking for a "minni {mouse} guitar" for months. usually she mentions something and then move on from it, but this time she stuck to her guns and "really" wanted a guitar. we took her to see santa and sure enough she asked for a minni guitar and a mickey guitar for beckett. so the hunt began for a minni guitar from santa - yep we're going with the santa thing!

stocking traditions: ornament, socks & undies!!!

snowboarding dog for beckett

ballerine for elle

we finally hit the princess phase, elle's first princess doll: belle

beckett enjoying "his chair"!

thanks grammy & papa

garden stone for grammy & papa's new cottage

sibling presents

ellington picked out a truck for beckett and beckett {got} ellington a princess painting kit

christmas @ the vogels

kids table

8 of the 9 cousins

all the grandkids' stockings

handmade by grammy

birthday cake for jesus & the christmas story

ellington's library backpack

beckett's vacuum cleaner

baby doll for elle

all the kiddos

love the controlled chaos and love all their sweet smiles

gift for the cottage - grandkid beach canvas

we had a wonderful christmas with family. we feel so blessed to have both families close to enjoy these holidays with.

girlz christmas party!

love these girls

we have been so blessed to have these fun girls in our life for the past few years. all of us moms (julie, ani and i) taught together and now we get to hang out outside of school with our girls.

enjoying some breakfast treats

presents!

{thank you ani for the puzzle, elle LOVES it}

so fun! hopefully, we'll all be in lakeshore school district by the time they hit school so we can be room moms together :)

our first craft : gingerbread houses

the decorating team

sadly ours didn't stay standing...i think i used a little bit too much icing {oops}

craft #2 : santa faces

rocker girl {all she wanted for christmas & santa came through}

love fun times likes these to share with ellington. these girls have so much fun together and we're secretly hoping for a boy from ani come feb. beckett is holding his own though with these girls.

chillin' @ home

this month has been filled with LOTS of family time {ONE of my favorite things} it's fun to see ellington and beckett interact and play with one another now. she is all about helping him and likes to "teach" him how to talk. no clear words yet, but she's persistent!

we've had a few christmas parties with friends, our small group from church, and a few kids' christmas parties {posts to come}but other than that it's been pretty quiet. so we've just enjoyed the extra time that we're all at home before we hit the road for the holidays.

family movie night - frosty the snowman

movie snacks - goldfish

{not the most flatter picture, but she got her self dressed for bed and added the headband so she could be the pirate princess....gotta love it}

movie snack - ice cream w. m&ms

learned our lesson quick with ice cream before bed...took a while to go to sleep and a tummy ache

nightly bath time - these 2 LOVE the water

beckett loves to stand in the bathtub, trying to break that habit and elle likes to float. this summer is going to be lots of fun at the pool and beach. water babes for sure!

the first snow is the BEST!

tackle LOVES the snow & LOVES the kids playing outside

taking it all in...not sure what to think of it. he did fall a few times {face plants} but took it in stride, got back up {with a little crying & brushing off} and tried it again.

sledding!

"mommy, i can do it"

"he's a little heavy...but, but, but i got it..."

"ok, mommy you can pull him"

"i'll just pull my baby"

she asked me to get her baby doll so she wouldn't be outside alone after i took beckett inside to warm up before nap. she sang to her and then pulled her around in the sled and even pushed her in the swing.

just a little snippet of what we've been up to.

25 days of christmas

the holidays are here...and still no SNOW

i absolutely LOVE holidays and tradition. it's fun to have so many traditions between josh and i's families and the one's we've created and continue to create with our own family.

here's just a few of our favorite things about christmas so far...

2 kids + 1 big guy with a white beard = very cute pictures & NO TEARS!!

a few weeks ago we took the kids to the mall in south bend to visit Santa

we asked elle what she was going to ask Santa to bring her and well....

"i'd like a minni (minni mouse) guitar and beckett would like a mickey guitar"

a new tradition we started this year was to wrap up 25 Christmas/winter books and let the kids unwrap one each night before bed.

(ok, so this is a posed picture but you get the point...books wrapped for bedtime stories. ellington was helping me get my background set for a photo shoot)

last year we started an advent calendar with ellington and this year beckett has joined in on the fun. can be a little tricky to remember who does what each night, but surprisingly ellington can keep track (organization skills like her momma)!

each little sock is filled with a special treat or a little dollar toy item, sock, notebook or something fun

stay tuned, more traditions to come...

gingerbread houses

christmas eve pizza & pj party