Merry Christmas

Here's Emily putting on a show!

Her guitar!

Emily's dollhouse! She was SO excited! She also got a doll that crawls, tiny puppy, Barbies, and more!

Emily's beautiful Sleeping Beauty dress that Aunt Rachel gave her.

Emily hamming it up as usual.

They enjoyed posing with the presents.

Emily and cousin Ava

Above pic- This is as close to Santa that Emily would get this year. I was so sad not to get a picture of her with him that I took this one. She loved him only from a distance.

I'm a little late in posting this, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I had such a crazy week, with my brother's wedding and Christmas activities, that I'm just now rested! We had Christmas at Mimi's Monday afternoon after the wedding, then at my parent's that evening while Jeff was still in town. We went to Roy's sister's house Christmas Eve to celebrate with his family. My parents came up Christmas day to be with us and Roy's parents ended up coming over too. It was such a wonderful day. Emily got to play with her toys and grandparents all day long! On Saturday, we dropped Emily off with my parents so she could spend the weekend with them. She went to Aunt Barbaras for the Kordsmeier Christmas party. I did not want to travel again, so they wanted to take her. They had strict guidelines when watching her, but I guess they succeeded since she made it back home.

Wedding

My brother Matt got married the weekend before Christmas. It was such a fun weekend! I wish I could have enjoyed it more (if I wasn't 9 months pregnant)... It was killing me not to get on the dance floor more, but I got very swollen during the trip. Emily did so good as the flower girl!

Christmas Program and party

Christmas party at school!

Emily was the line leader that day!

Doing a craft activity. I'm in shock that Emily is sitting still doing this bead activity!

Singing "Away in a Manger"

Emily had such a fun day Thursday at school. She was the line leader, then they had a party in the classroom. The Christmas program was sooooo cute! She sang "Up On the Housetop" with her class. Then, the whole group sang lots of songs. She did a great job on the stage!!

The Nutcracker

My mom and I took Emily to see The Nutcracker this weekend in Fort Smith. I was in this production (Western Arkansas Ballet) as a baby mouse when I was little! I wish I would have been in it more years. I don't know why I only tried out one year. Emily loved seeing the ballerinas!

Sprinkle

Some gifts: The cutest Trumpette socks! I love them because they look like little Mary Jane shoes. I cute smocked dress for the summer. Notice the cute blankets too!

Another cute smocked dress from Cita and Poppy!

Roy painted the shelf. I think it turned out so cute! I think this is the dress she will be coming home in!

My friend Andi did this canvas painting. She did a GREAT job! She also did the letters below. Go to http://babyonthehip.wordpress.com/ if you are interested! She also makes fabulous taggie blankets (I didn't get a picture of it) and more!!!

Ella blanket!

My cutest diaper bag that Rachel and my MIL designed. They had it made by Keep It Gypsy in Fort Smith if anyone is interested.

The yummy food table! I had a wonderful day!

Some of my good friends here in town threw me a sprinkle. It is a cute term to use instead of a "shower" for your 2nd baby! It was so much fun to celebrate Ella that day. She got tons of cute things! Thanks to Ellen who hosted it at her house.

Fun Weekend

Making a gingerbread house!

Eating icing!

Putting up the Christmas tree.

We had a fun-filled (last) weekend! We went to the square so that Emily could ride the ponies. She loved it! We also made a gingerbread house too. After the square, we went to a drive-thru nativity. It was wonderful, but we sat in the car waaay too long with a 3 year old. :) I need to post pictures of my "sprinkle" that my friends hosted for me soon!

So far, I don't have any pictures of Emily with santa. I'm soooo sad about it, but she won't go near him. She won't even stand next to him with me there. I don't know why she's terrified of him. We have a wonderful one at the mall and I'm determined to get a pic. The only good one we've ever had was when she was 6 months old. I thought this was the year, but no. She will wave to him from a distance and is excited that he will come. I guess we'll stick to writing a letter.

Thanksgiving and shower

The beautiful table decorations! My mom made the fabulous diaper cake.

The beautiful brown and pink blanket Katie gave Ella. I decided not to show any belly pics on here because I'm SO huge!

Aunt Katie and Emily

Mimi and Emily

The beautiful and delicious cake! It matches her bedding!

Emily at the shower with her "Big Sister" ribbon.

Eating Thanksgiving dinner. Emily LOVES turkey now. :)Emily "reading" Ava a book. So cute!

Below: Cita, Emily, and Aunt Barbara

I'm behind in posting because I've been trying to get Christmas decorations up, Christmas gifts bought, Christmas cards, etc. I have lots of gifts to wrap, yikes! How am I going to get the energy to do that????
We had a wonderful and busy Thanksgiving. We went to Little Rock on Thanksgiving day. My family hosted a baby shower in the afternoon. I got so many lovely things for baby Ella. I need to post pictures of all the wonderful gifts too.

We went to Fort Smith the rest of the weekend. My mom talked me into going to Black Friday at 4 AM! Let me just say, I will not be doing that again while pregnant (we don't have to worry about that). My mom had to stand in line for an hour!!! I headed to Wal-Mart where I almost went into labor from all the chaos. I finally left there and got breakfast until it was time to pick my mom up from standing in line! I just don't know if it's worth it.

On Saturday, we went to Roy's family's Thanksgiving. Emily and Ava enjoyed playing together all day! I was worn out from the weekend!