Christmas Traditions

Ever since Jeff and I got married, I could not wait to start family traditions @ Christmas. Once we had Lydia, it became even more fun!! She has been a blast this Christmas season so far and the fun has just began!

One tradition we started last year was driving around looking @ Christmas lights. I'm sure we did it before Lydia was born, because it's one of my favorite things to do this time of year, but last year really sticks out in my mind!

 Eating a little pre-light snack! This girl LOVES going to McAllister's and getting a HUGE chocolate chip cookie after her grilled cheese! Thankfully she shares it with Jeff and I! ;)

 After dinner we hit up Starbucks for a little "coffee" and then hit the road!

 Enjoying the lights and some Teddy Grahams! She was absolutely adorable when we would go past houses with lights! She gets so excited over ever single house. I love it! She loves all of the Santas, Frosty the Snowmen, nativities and Mickey Mouse!

A tradition we started this year was making a gingerbread house!! Or in her words, a "jingle bell house"!! I guess that is what she heard when we said gingerbread house, because that's what she called it! All day she would say, "I make a jingle bell house"!

 Can you tell she was a little bit excited?!?

 Her and Jeff did most of the decorating while I put the icing on. She had so much fun doing this and loved giving Jeff and I candy to put on. I LOVE that she loves to share!

 She was concentrating pretty hard!

 Each piece had a special place!

 Such a silly girl!

 I'm not very creative or artsy, so this was the best we got this year!! Hopefully next year will be a little bit better!

 Look at all the yummy candy!

Had to get a little monogramming in! =)

Another tradition that we started last year is going to our church's Christmas Eve service. This year we are having it @ a different location and are hoping for 1,200 people to be there! It should be AMAZING! Love taking a little bit of time out of all the Christmas craziness to focus on Jesus and His birth.

I'm Such A Big Girl!

We finally transitioned Lydia to her "big girl bed" a little over a week ago. We were waiting on Jeff to be done with football season to switch ... and finally the day came! =)

We celebrated Jeff being home and off work with cinnamon rolls with Christmas sprinkles on them! She was really excited! Not sure if she was more excited about Jeff being home or the cinnamon roll ... I'm thinking Jeff being home! She's been GLUED to him pretty much non-stop! She's loving it!

Then it was time to make her big girl bed! She wanted to help and loved being a part of it.

She could not wait to get in bed and try it out!

If only she was this still when it was bedtime!

Such a sweetie!

Reading before nap time! Her new thing is she has to hold a book and turn the page whenever the book being read to her needs the page turned. It's so cute!

She's done pretty well with the transition. She has stayed in the bed, which is awesome! She even cries for us or lays back in her bed talking when she wakes up until we come and get her! It's been taking her a LONG time to go to sleep, but I'm not sure if that is her being in a different bed or if she just can't calm down! We'll get there one day!

Lydia and Santa

Last year, Lydia wanted NOTHING to do with Santa ... this year, she still wasn't too sure about him, but finally got a little grin out of her! She did like the fact that Santa had a beard. When we were waiting in line she said, "Santa scruffy like Daddy!"

Isn't he a sweet Santa?!? Love that sweet little girl sitting in his lap too!

So far, she has asked for a new tent and a "packpack" ... We'll see what Santa decides to bring her! 

Christmas Festival @ Midtowne Church

Instead of doing a Fall Festival, our church has an awesome Christmas Festival every year. Last year, Lydia was not at all interested in anything that was going on ... games, inflatables, food, etc. ... but this year was a totally different story! It took her a little bit to get warmed up, but boy did she have fun once she did!

Before we left the house she said, "Mommy take a picture" ... think she's heard that once or twice?!? =)

 Showing off her dance moves with the hula hoop! She was too cute!

 One of the games that she played. She loved throwing the ball through this hole.

We've tried inflatables with Lydia at other places and she has never wanted to do them. She would look in them and even climb almost all the way in, but then she would back down and not want to do it. I didn't know how she would do today, but did she ever surprise me!

 Does she look like she's having fun or what?!?

 I think once she figured out that it's just like jumping on Mommy and Daddy's bed she was hooked! She kept saying "Mommy, this is awesome" over and over and over again!

 Going down the little slide ... wheee!!

 She then got brave and climbed up this HUGE slide and went down! I wish I would have got a picture of the whole thing! She looked so tiny coming down!

 After much bribing, I finally got her to eat a hotdog and a little bit of popcorn and then she got COTTON CANDY! She was a huge mess when she finished but she loved every last bite of it!

On our way out she noticed the animals that they had for a little petting zoo and she wanted to go over and see the animals. Then ... she spotted the pony!! We waited in line and I figured she would never get on it by herself, but yet again, she surprised me! I did have to walk beside her, but she did so good!

 Look at that smile!!!

 Such a little sweetie!

 She was telling me she wanted to go some more! Hah!

 Petting the baby pigs ...

And baby cows!!

As you can see, she was WORN OUT by the time we left. We had a little meltdown when it was time to go, but thankfully it didn't last too long! She had so much fun and I loved watching her! Seeing the smile on her face makes everything worth it!

Christmas Fun

Christmas has been so much fun this year. I LOVE seeing Christmas through Lydia's eyes. Not only is she starting to understand a little bit what Christmas is about, but everything is so magical to her. The Christmas lights, presents, Santa, and most importantly Jesus' birth (one of her favorite books is about His birth and she calls it her baby Jesus book!). I pray that we can always keep Christ our center focus at Christmas time ... because if it was not for Him, we would not have anything to celebrate!

A new tradition we started this year involves a little Elf, Lydia named "Ellie". Jeff has been working ca-razy hours ... putting in 14+ hours a day for a over a week now, and I wanted him to be there when Lydia got her new book. So we met him for dinner at Senior Tequila and she opened it with him. She has missed him SO much so she just had to sit in his lap when she finished eating.

Getting ready to tear into her present!

 "What can it be?!?"

 "Mommy, it's my elf book"!! Can you tell she was excited?!?

I took the elf out of the box so that when she opened it, she was gone. We told her she was already at home waiting on her!!

 Daddy reading "The Elf on the Shelf" to her. Even with all the craziness at the restaurant, she was totally engrossed with the book.

When we got home ... the hunt was on!

 She kept looking in the box thinking she might be in there! I kept trying to get her to look up, but she never would!

 Finally she did ... but as you can see, she was not too sure about her! Hah!

But, after we got ready for bed and read the book again, she said "I go take picture with Ellie and say 'Cheeeseee'"!!

 So we did!!

Today, Lydia got a special email from Santa!!

 She was SUPER excited to see Santa and hear him talking to her! It is the cutest little video ever!

 She was VERY serious ....

 Showing Santa all her friends!

She even got a special letter from Santa!

Can't wait to get out and do more Christmas things with her! She makes this time of year even more fun!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!!

So ... this post is WAY overdue!! We decorated for Christmas the weekend before Thanksgiving and I am just now posting! And, unfortunately, I have not gone back and taken pictures since we finished ... maybe I will do that before we take it all down! =()

We had so much fun decorating with Lydia this year. She was more interested in giving ornaments to me or Jeff to hang on the tree than hang herself, but she was so cute passing them out! She LOVES to share!

Decorating her pink tree for her playroom!

 Me and my little girlie girl!

 Putting on the first ornament!

 "Look at my tree!"

 In front of the "big tree", as Lydia likes to call it!

 She got sidetracked with the Grinch ... or as she likes to call it "that Grunch"!

 She loved checking out all the ornaments!

 While I was going through some stuff, I looked over and this silly girl had put one of the stockings on her leg! It was so funny!

 Daddy helped her get the other one on ...

 Our little Santa Baby!

 This was one of her FAVORITE things to do last year and she still loves to do it! She will fill up the vases and then dump them out and start all over. She will sit there for the longest time doing it. So fun to watch!

 Watching "Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown" with Lydia. Love that we get to share some of the movies we watched when we were little with her! She really liked it!

One Saturday morning while Jeff was sleeping after a LONG night of working, Lydia and I went over to his mom's house to help her decorate. Mimi got Lydia her very own purple tree for her room!

 Helping decorate!

 She was just staring at the tree! 

Loves her Mimi!

Lydia and I went to Searcy last weekend while Jeff was working and had a girl weekend at the "G House"!! We helped decorate their house for Christmas and had a blast! I didn't have my camera with me ... so no pictures. =(  It was a lot of work, but by the time we left it sure did look like Christmas there! Decorating is one of my favorite things to do and I'm glad I get to do a lot of it!