Just to see you smile...

In our family, we are all about the holidays, especially Christmas. We started decorating for Christmas right after Halloween, and I started singing Christmas songs at bedtime to Gracie in early October. The other day, Gracie found Scott's big headphones and my old portable CD player, which amazingly still had working batteries. I tuned it to the station that is already playing Christmas music, and she walked around listening and singing all morning. I caught her in action while she was playing with the Christmas window stickers. What you can't tell is that she was dancing along to the music as well!



And if that didn't make you smile, maybe this picture of our little Ellie bean will...

Better Late Than Never

Life can get a little crazy, and our lives were no exception around Halloween. So... we carved pumpkins after Halloween this year. We decided it was better to do it late than not at all since Gracie probably didn't remember doing it last year and needed the experience and the memories. And it was quite an experience! Gracie was a great sport and did an excellent job cleaning out the pumpkins while Ellie slept peacefully in the background. Watching Gracie dive right in made me wonder how we ever enjoyed holidays before we had kids?!

A Happy Halloween

Halloween started with pumpkin pancakes (flavor, not shape), and as soon as Gracie's tummy was full, she wanted to put on her costume. She decided almost a month ago she wanted to be Minnie Mouse, and was extra excited to get dressed up on Halloween after wearing her costume to gymnastics two days earlier. She loved having her nose painted and was not thrilled that she had to wait for that part of her costume until after her nap. After some yummy pumpkin sage pasta (I was trying to stick to the day's theme), Gracie was the first one out the door when it was time for Trunk or Treat. She was a little less enthusiastic when it came to saying "Trick or Treat" because so many of the people passing out candy were men, and she isn't a big fan of that gender (other than Daddy, Grandpa, Uncle Brian and anyone under the age of 10). She got a good load of candy and was pretty happy at the end of the evening.


Ellie hung out in her carseat and supervised while Scott passed out candy. I bought a monkey costume for her, but when we tried it on she kept trying to eat it where it touched her face and she just didn't look comfortable so she was just dressed up in her cutest Halloween attire.



The morning after her Halloween adventures, Grace was excited to announce: "Now we can decorate for Christmas!" If you have been to our house during the Christmas holidays or know how we are about Christmas, you probably aren't surprised that our two year old is already a Christmas fanatic.

Cousins and Cookies

We frosted Halloween cookies with the Jacobsons and Mechams this year. The pictures pretty much sum up the experience for Gracie!