Christmas 2013
Well, hello there!! How has everyone been? Trying to slowly make my way back to blog land (oops, last post was in October!)...thought I'd start with some pics from Christmas. I know its a little late, but better than never:) And selfishly, this is more for me than for you guys;)
So, there's this guy! He's 7 months old now. Say what?! Looove him!!
He even got in on the tree decorating action...hung out in the Baby Bjorn while I put on ornaments. (He loves this thing! I start to strap it on and he knows he's going in it and his face lights up...yes, he's a Mama's boy!)
We tried something new this year that I had wanted to do for awhile - constructed and decorated a gingerbread house (bought the kit at Michaels). My sister was here from London for the holiday and she and Maura really got into it! (I was in charge of piping the frosting along the edges to make it look like snow was dripping off the roof.)
We had so much fun that I've decided we're going to have a gingerbread marathon next year....get the whole extended family into it and make a couple of houses/buildings/whatever:)
We went and stayed at my parents house on Cape Cod for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We made and decorated sugar cookies on Christmas Eve to put out for Santa and even the "adults" wanted in on the action.
Maura wrote this note to Santa. It says "Dear Santa, Hope you enjoy these delicious cookies! Love, Maura and Ian". Next year I'll do a better job of prepping for this part of Christmas Eve and get some better stationery!
We also started a new holiday tradition this year....we gave the kids each one present on Christmas Eve - new Christmas pajamas to wear and a new Christmas book to read before bed (totally stole it from Pinterest). Maura loved it! (Note to self: shop earlier next year for the pajamas...could not find any Christmas feetie pajamas in size 9 months for Ian! He ended up getting stuck with a reindeer and a penguin driving a Christmas taxie!)
I was so proud of Maura on Christmas morning. We didn't start opening gifts until everyone was awake and had eaten breakfast and she waited so patiently. She was truly grateful and excited about each present and she spent some time playing with each one before going on to the next.
Paul's parents got Maura her first American Girl Doll (Caroline from 1812)! She is very into the whole wearing-the-same-clothes-as-your-doll thing.
We had a wonderful holiday (hope you all did too)! Extra special with Ian around this year:)
I'm hoping to start blogging more often now that the craziness of last year is over. Coming up...2014 goals, Ian's nursery, Maura's big girl room and converting our family room into an official play room.
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| {picking out the tree..photo courtesy of tree lot guy} |
He even got in on the tree decorating action...hung out in the Baby Bjorn while I put on ornaments. (He loves this thing! I start to strap it on and he knows he's going in it and his face lights up...yes, he's a Mama's boy!)
We tried something new this year that I had wanted to do for awhile - constructed and decorated a gingerbread house (bought the kit at Michaels). My sister was here from London for the holiday and she and Maura really got into it! (I was in charge of piping the frosting along the edges to make it look like snow was dripping off the roof.)
We had so much fun that I've decided we're going to have a gingerbread marathon next year....get the whole extended family into it and make a couple of houses/buildings/whatever:)
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| {we went for a snowy house in the middle of spring kinda look, thanks to a lot of edible green glitter} |
Maura wrote this note to Santa. It says "Dear Santa, Hope you enjoy these delicious cookies! Love, Maura and Ian". Next year I'll do a better job of prepping for this part of Christmas Eve and get some better stationery!
We also started a new holiday tradition this year....we gave the kids each one present on Christmas Eve - new Christmas pajamas to wear and a new Christmas book to read before bed (totally stole it from Pinterest). Maura loved it! (Note to self: shop earlier next year for the pajamas...could not find any Christmas feetie pajamas in size 9 months for Ian! He ended up getting stuck with a reindeer and a penguin driving a Christmas taxie!)
I was so proud of Maura on Christmas morning. We didn't start opening gifts until everyone was awake and had eaten breakfast and she waited so patiently. She was truly grateful and excited about each present and she spent some time playing with each one before going on to the next.
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| {Paul and I got her ice skates as one of our gifts...coincidentally she had her first ice skating lesson this past weekend and we will now be returning these and buying her different/real figure skates} |
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| {modelling her new hat and gloves} |
Paul's parents got Maura her first American Girl Doll (Caroline from 1812)! She is very into the whole wearing-the-same-clothes-as-your-doll thing.
We had a wonderful holiday (hope you all did too)! Extra special with Ian around this year:)
I'm hoping to start blogging more often now that the craziness of last year is over. Coming up...2014 goals, Ian's nursery, Maura's big girl room and converting our family room into an official play room.
Yay, so good to see your post! These photos remind me so much of our holidays and reason #101 why Sheila and Maura would be such good friends - Sheila has the same adorable sweater dress. I love that dress (and Sheila does too). Maura is so pretty and looking so grown up and Ian is such a handsome cutie-batootie - and do they have different color eyes? He looks like he has blue and Maura has brown? So funny how that works. Great to see your recap and looking forward to hearing about your projects. We moved some furniture around after we took down the tree and the layout of our living room is much different. I'll have to try to take some photos (good photos).
ReplyDeleteHey, Holly! Too funny about the Target gold sweater dress, you have good taste;) I know, I wish we could all get together some time! Too bad my parents moved away from Doylestown, otherwise we could come visit when we were down there with them:( Yes, totally different eyes...Maura got my coloring - boring brown hair and brown eyes - but Ian is more like Paul. His eyes are an awesome grayish blue right now and I'm hoping they stay that way!! Can't wait to see more pics of your house!
DeleteGood to "see" you around here! I love seeing your Christmas pics. Baby Ian is getting so big and Maura is always soooo cute! I feel like her personality shows so much throuh the photos you take of her. She seems so sweet! Gad you are doing well!
ReplyDeleteHey you!!! Thanks, good to be back. I feel bad, I don't think I commented on your last couple of posts. Can not believe how fast Ian is growing, he is totally out of the baby baby phase and doing so much new stuff every day. Yes, Maura is sweet, but she can be so bad sometimes too!!! Having some listening/discipline troubles right now. But I'll take her out on errands with me any day...and this time last year I would avoid that at any cost. They are such little characters:) Hope you guys are well too!
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