Christmas Eve 2012

Christmas Eve was hosted by Cori & Jeff for my side of the family. We always love going to their house! The food and the company is fabulous!! Thanks for having us - as always :)

 

 

Emily with her curly locks all ready to go!

 

 

It was Audrey's first Christmas and she was as sweet as can be!

My dad with his grandchildren - ALL GIRLS!!!

Me, my sisters, our daughters, and my parents

Mom, Casey with Audrey and Cori

Sisters with Audrey!

Mary with a sleeping Audrey

Emily and Braenna all ready to open gifts

Emily had to help everyone - here she is helping Ray

Mom opening her gift from Dad - a Kindle!!!

Bee-bop

Emily loves her Lalaloopsy art kit!

Ohhh Mikaiya got legos!

Yes! Casey got all sorts of Bears gear

Emily talking to Audrey

All three girls

Mikaiya loves her peace signs!

The boys did it again - got all us ladies "beautiful" shirts

 We had so much fun watching the kids open their presents. It's amazing how much they change each year. They are all such good girls!

When we got home - Emily set out 2 cookies, some water and a letter for Santa. It was so cute!!

Oh and reindeer food! She made it at school so we put it out on the back deck where we told her Santa would leave the reindeer while he was delivering her presents.

Pre-birthday presents...

The night before Christmas Eve, we braided Emily's hair after bath so it would be all curly for Christmas Eve celebrations. she loved her braids!! So she was being silly and making faces...

 

Posing in front of the Christmas tree

How did she grow up so fast???

My silly girl!

My parents decided to come by and give Emily her birthday presents just a few days early! 

A cute outfit!!

Ohhh and art thingy! Her favorite :)

A barbie hair salon??? OMG!

What is this huge present??

Oh my gosh!!!!!

Grandpa made me a high chair for my dolls!!!!!

 Later that day, Barb our neighbor came over and asked if she could make some chocolate covered goodies with Em. Barb is so sweet! So here is her and Em making treats for us!



Christmas at the Brahmstadt's

Kory's sister Kalli, her husband Mark and their 4 boys moved from Portland to Barrington, IL this past fall. Kalli gratiously invited all of us over to celebrate Christmas at their new house on the weekend before Christmas. We had such a nice time!!

 

 

Emily posing in front of the tree before we opened presents

Emme and her baby all ready to open presents

Zander waiting patiently!

Mr. Maddox! Such a cutie!!

Grandma Bonnie, Tyler and Nathan

Zander and Emily helping Reese with his present

Aunt Kalli and cousin Reese

AJ helping Em

Reese and Grandma

Emily loved feeding Maddox - and Maddox loves to eat :)

The boys playing Rummikub (Ethan, Kevin, Tony, Kory and Tom)

The other table of Rummikub (Emma, Kalli with Maddox, Nathan, Kacey with Em)

We had such a nice time celebrating with the family. Thanks to Kalli & Mark for hosting! Can't wait until next year :)

Christmas Party at School and Snow Day

Thankfully Emily's class had their Christmas party at school the Wednesday before Christmas break. She wore a hand-me-down dress from Braenna - she looked so darn cute :)

Emily all dressed up for her Christmas party at school

 On the next day, Thursday, we got PILED with snow. We ended up with close to 20 inches. Then on Friday it started blowing all over the place. Not fun. So needless to say she had 2 stay home days with mommy.

Here she is shoveling a path for Otis

Look at that scary girl!!!

This is her outfit of choice for a snow day. Good thing it was warm and cozy inside.

The deck and grill after the snowstorm

We still have lots of snow, and it doesn't appear to be melting anytime soon!! Is it summer yet??

Emily's 5th Birthday Party

We had Emily's 5th birthday party this past weekend at a coffee shop in town. They hosted a doll tea party and it was fantastic! Emily and 13 of her closest little friends had such a good time. It was a perfect party!

Em and her G all ready for the party

This was the tea party all set up when we arrived

Emily and some of her friends from the party

Braenna and Mikaiya listening intently to the tea party instructions

Emily and Keira

Here is the owner helping Emily with her tea

The girls hugging Frosty

All ready to start their tea party project (Abby, Emily, Isabella and Keira)

Mikaiya showing off her finished tea pot!

This was such a cute project they did

Emily opening her presents

More presents!

Em's princess cake

Happy 5th birthday sweetheart!

Cutie!

All lined up to play the game

Braenna throwing the marshmallows in the tea hat

Here is a video of Em's friends singing Happy Birthday to her - she loved every minute of it :)

Here is a video of some of the girls dancing to Frosty. They had a blast!!!

Thank you to all her friends that came out to celebrate with her! It was a really fun party and can't believe our little buggie is almost 5!!!!!