We are getting ready for Christmas here at our house. It is such a wonderful thing to have a decorated house this year. Last year, we were in the process of moving to Harrisonburg (and actually, Monday the 17th will mark exactly one year since we moved!). Since we moved in the week before Christmas, there was no point in going to all the trouble to decorate and get a tree. So I'm especially glad that we have lots of decorations up this time. We got our tree on Black Friday this year, which is definitely the earliest we've ever gone tree shopping, but I was so eager to decorate =). Of course, as always, we got a tree that is too large for our living room and we had to cut some off the top, but it still looks good haha.
One thing I really appreciated doing this year was putting the ornaments on the tree. I literally haven't seen these ornaments in two years (because of skipping the decorating thing last year), so it was really fun to pull out all of our Christmas boxes and go through all of the ornaments. The thing I love about our tree is that we have some unique (maybe crazy and tacky) ornaments and every single one has a story behind it.
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| This is an ornament I received as a gift from my Sunday School teacher in middle school (my first Christmas as a Christian). It has always been very special to me. |
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| Our Disney World honeymoon Christmas ornament! |
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| Piper's first Christmas ornament. Ellie has a similar one from 2010. |
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| Our Chick-fil-A Christmas ornament from the Wards Road location in Lynchburg (our very favorite Chick-fil-A...and I'm realizing it's kinda sad that we have a favorite haha). |
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| A vintage elf, given to us by my mom. We have two others that are also cute in a creepy sort of way =) |
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| Our Smoky Mountains ornament |
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| Ellie's favorite ornament, a gingerbread house that lights up when you connect it to the Christmas lights on the tree. |
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| Gotta represent our doggie! |
We have also done some Christmas events this year, which we haven't really done in years past. We went to Dynamic Aviation's Christmas dinner party this year which was a lot of fun. It was held at and catered by JMU, so it was kinda fancy and formal but still fun for the girls. There were tons of kids there and the girls enjoyed receiving gifts from Dynamic.
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| Helping the girls open their gifts |
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| Piper was enamored with her very own baby doll |
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| Ellie also got a baby doll, complete with feeding accessories. This girl loves to be a little mommy. |
Last Friday, we went to the Harrisonburg Christmas parade (our first Christmas parade since we've been married, I think!). I wasn't sure how it was going to go...my fear was that the girls would be scared because of all the people and the loud music, but they actually had a great time. Ellie sat on Billy's shoulders and got candy (Billy and I got coupons for free Chocolate Peppermint milkshakes from Chick-fil-A!) and Piper rode in the baby carrier (strapped to me). The weather was perfect....it was cool, but not cold, and the girls especially enjoyed the marching bands. Every time a drumline passed us, Piper would kick her feet and bounce and Ellie would yell, "Drums!" I definitely overdressed the girls, thinking it would be colder, so we shed the hats and gloves pretty quickly. I got a couple pictures of the girls before we left for the parade...
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| Piper is not happy about wearing a hat... |
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| Ellie is so ready to get out of the house |
Lastly, I wanted to update a little on milestones. Piper is growing and changing constantly. Within the last month or so she's started feeding herself snacks (a great Christmas gift for me, because it gives me a chance to get a couple things done and she's content to snack away!). She is also crawling (in her own special way) and is getting into things, including getting trapped under chairs and the Christmas tree. Pretty soon we'll be doing the baby gate thing again. She is really enjoying playing with her baby toys, which I keep in a separate box for her. That way, I can just set her on the floor with her box and she's good to go. It was also one of Ellie's favorite things to do when she was a baby, and would often keep her busy for a long time.
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| Piper having a frozen banana...not her favorite (I think because of the temperature...she likes regular, room temp bananas just fine haha). |
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| Snacking away! |
Ellie is growing into a little lady. She is very much the girly-girl and loves shoes, purses, dressing up, and being a little mommy. We've also noticed that she's very musical and loves to sing. She sings along to the radio, and also has her personal favorite songs which include "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," the ABC song, and "Jesus Loves Me." Just the other day she was playing with the little toy piano, making music and singing "Jesus Loves Me" at the same time. She is very observant and likes to repeat words and phrases that she hears from other people. We're struggling a little with sharing with Piper right now (she says "That's mine!" a lot, which is kind of a no-no in this house). However, she's also very loving toward Piper and likes to tickle and talk to her.
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| This one loves peanut butter =) |
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| Wearing Mommy's scarf |
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| "Driving" the car while Billy and I clean it out |
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| I love this picture, because someday she'll be 16 and she'll really be driving away =( |
Anyway, I don't know if I'll get around to blogging again before Christmas, but Merry Christmas from us!
