Christmas Eve

We had a very nice and relaxing Christmas Eve this year (well until church time...). Yammy and Papa (Greg's parents) always come to our house for Christmas Eve and then stay the night so they can watch the girls unwrap their presents Christmas morning. We usually have a very formal dinner before church but this year we decided to go a little less formal (but still very yummy) so Greg's dad made his famous orzo dish...it was wonderful! The girls were also able to make some sugar cookies just in time to leave out for Santa...Mommy got a very late start this year!

As we were getting ready for church Abbie began to act a little funny. She seemed really tired and started to get really miserable. I figured she was just tired since it was close to her bedtime and continued to get her all dolled up in her beautiful little Christmas dress. We made it to church and as expected it was a full house...so we all packed in and sat down to enjoy the candelight service. Abbie fell asleep in my arms (a little strange since she had done this since she was a baby) but I enjoyed holding my sleeping little baby and it was much better than having her wanting to run around. Then about 20 minutes later my sweet little angel woke up and started to get a little ornery. As I started to stand up to walk her outside my dear little Abbie started to vomit and I am not talking a little spit up. This poor thing vomited everywhere! I tried to shield everybody so I put her little face into my sweater right as she went for round 2...but it still went everywhere...oh my it was bad! I mean BAD! I rushed her home and we both got right into the tub. I did manage to get a couple of Christmas Eve pictures of my little sweetie...

Little did I know this was Abbie trying to tell me, "Don't do it Mommy!! Don't bring me to church!"

"I'm not kidding Mommy...DON'T do it!"

The big girls all ready for church...

The aftermath...

All Daddy's girls wearing their Christmas jammies and ready for Santa to come-any other year I would try for a MUCH better shot (preferably one where my husband is not wearing a 7 year old t-shirt) but I knew I was walking on very thin ice with little Abbie! :)

Christmas post coming soon!

Christmas Excitement!!

I love it! This is the first year the girls (Sophie and Ella) are visibly excited about Christmas! Sophie is a little sweeter (yay!) and they both are a little more bouncy! I love to feel their excitement b/c it makes ME excited!! Here are some cute pics from the past week...

Wordless Wednesday...

Ok...this technically is not a Wordless Wednesday b/c I feel the need to explain why my dear little Abbie is not in this picture...typically in the past when one of the girls was scared of Santa I would hold them and consequently be part of the annual Santa picture...However, I am officially in the "pudge" phase of my pregnancy which is not very pretty so I decided to forgo the picture with Santa and just have a cute picture of Sophie and Ella on Santa' s lap...ok I feel better now after explaining...

Fairy Tea Party

Last weekend we traveled to Syracuse for my dear little neice's, Emily, 5th birthday party. She actually had a Fairy Tea Party and it was just the cutest thing! The girls had a great time and they just love being able to spend time with their sweet cousin. Here are some cute pics of the girls being prim and proper! :)

Princess Emily

Princess Ella downing her tea...she has a ways to go on being prim and proper! :)

That a girl Sophie!

I LOVE this picture of Ella...

Christmas time!

On Saturday we woke up bright and early so that we could go and eat breakfast with Santa. We enjoyed some yummy pancakes and eggs and then the girls got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Unfortunately, Abbie was NOT into Santa. As we got closer and closer her grip around Mommy's neck got tighter and tighter! Oh well...maybe next year.

Then after breakfast we went to the Christmas Tree Farm to pick out our perfect tree. Every year Greg and I disagree about the size of the tree (Greg choice is always way too short!!!) But believe it or not we found the perfect tree within the fist 10 minutes. Yayyy!!!


Here are some cute pics from our Christmasy Day!

THe Whitacre clan standing in front of the perfect tree!

Daddy hard at work...

I LOVE this smile!!

Look how much Abbie has changed in a year!!

Mommy's FOUR little Blessings!

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day, Sweet Ella!

On Saturday we celebrated our 2nd official Gotcha Day with Ella. I was actually sick this weekend so poor Ella did not see much of her mommy but I was sure to wish her a Happy Gotcha Day! She loves hearing about our trip to China...so we reminisced about our first meeting (which we often do)...she always giggles now when I tell her how she didn't like Mommy at first...I think it's hard for her to even imagine...let's hope it stays that way-even through the teenage years...





I can't even begin to imagine our life without Ella. She is such an amazing child with such a huge heart-which I know I say a lot. I know God has huge plans for this little one and I can't wait to see those plans unfold. We are so incredibly blessed to have Ella as our daughter...and even 2 years later I am still taken back when I hear her call me "mommy"...still in awe of God's perfect plan...





We love you so much Ella!

Too cute...

I've been feeling a little out of sorts lately so I don't have much to write...but I do have some cute pics of my little Abbie to post...

Ella's birthday...8 days later

I did post a Happy Birthday post and then forgot to post about her actual birthday...seriously-blogging can be so confusing!!! I don't know how people post about events (with pictures) on the actual day of the event...how do you find the energy after a long day to download the pics from your camera onto the computer...only then to wait forever to upload (or download-honestly I have no idea the difference) to flickr and then try and come up with a cute post...that is a lot of work!!! Anyway I really digressed...here are some cute pics from my sweet little Ella's birthday!

We let her unwrap one gift in the morning before school...since she learned to tie her shoes a couple months back we decided to get her a new pair of sneakers...she LOVES them!

Ella and Abbie enjoying Ella's birthday doughnuts...

I love how you can see the excitement in her face...

She just loves Ni Hao Kai Lan

She told us that her favorite part of the day was when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her...that was her favorite part last year too!

(I also let her have orange soda for dinner...hence the orange mustache!)

Blowing out the candles...

We love you, Ella!!!

Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween!

Sorry this is almost a week late! Anyway...the girls had a fun Halloween-well Ella had a fun Halloween until all the scary monsters came out and then she called it a night. Our village has set trick-or-treating hours so I made sure to get the girls right out at 5 in hopes that Ella would make it to more than a couple houses before getting freaked out...well we made it to about 6 houses and then the wagon had to make a u-turn back to our house so Ella could stay home with Daddy and Abbie and help pass out candy. Just like last year we all met up around 7 on our front steps and the girls binged on candy and helped pass out nerds rope to the trick-or-treaters!

My children have no Halloween etiquette...they would peak into windows, walk right into peoples houses...they have a ways to go... :)

A little pumpkin on the loose!

Back home...binging on NerdsRope that are supposed to be for the trick-or-treaters!

We had a neighbor who rented a cotton candy machine and gave out little bags of cotton candy...funny story about that to follow...

I am so happy I got this picture...to somebody who wasn't there it just looks like Ella enjoying cotton candy and Sophie walking back into the house...but this is how it REALLY went down:

-Sophie finishes all her cotton candy

-Sophie then turns to Ella and asks Ella to share her cotton candy

-Ella looks at Sophie like she is crazy and tells her "NO! You already ate your cotton candy!"

-Sophie screams, "I'm going inside! Nobody is being nice to me! Why is nobody being nice to me??...another Maddie moment (John and Kate plus 8-they definitely have the same flair for drama!)