Sneak Peek...

I did a photo session with our babysitter and her husband and here are the un-edited photos that are my favorite... I don't have a professional camera, so I'm having to make-do for now. I'm hoping to get a little cash for Christmas and maybe at least upgrade a little, but I think these turned out great for what I had to work with. (my camera, not the people!!)

Our week...

Ava's ready for her Christmas party at Mother's Morning Out.
She talks about her "Mah-Mah" all the time - Maggie is one of her friends there!

This is the Paula Deen Peppermint Cake that
Ellie and I stayed up so late making last night - it was SO worth it!!

Ellie and I got to have a "big girl" day and I took her to see the Nutcracker ballet.
We had such a good time. We do little things here and there, but it's always really special when she and I get to do things by ourselves. Jeff and I are going to start spending more time with both of the girls individually because it's so different and so fun to make them feel so important that they get Mommy or Daddy to themselves! Poor Ava rarely gets one-on-one time, but she eats it up when she does.

A diaper cake Ellie and I made for a baby shower at church.
The topper was a Christmas ornament they could keep and
the ribbon in the center was a hairbow for the big sister!!

We've had a busy week! Started with a visit to the ENT - both girls are getting tubes in their ears on the 29th and Ellie is getting her adenoids taken out. Then, Ellie had a stomach bug, then Jeff got it, which meant I changed my work schedule and have had to reschedule for later this week and didn't get much sleep (something I should be catching up on right now!!) Last night, Ava had a rough night and Ellie and I were making a cake for her teachers at Mother's Morning Out (actually, it was for all the staff), so I went to bed at 2am (Ellie crashed way before then) and was up at 7, but was up with Ava 2 times between then. We took the girls to Chuck E Cheese just for fun as a family yesterday and I took the girls caroling at a nursing home tonight. I love Christmas and all the activities, but I'm almost ready to slow down...my favorite thing about January.

Christmas Open House

An outside picture of the first time we have decorated anything outside!
We never had a house of our own, so we didn't want to buy anything that we couldn't use for several years. Last year Ava was so small that we decided not to, plus we bought the lights after Christmas on sale! Jeff did a great job of hanging the icicles!!

One of my favorite snowmen...

At the end of our hall, we have our stockings and
a great Christmas pop-up alphabet book some friends gave the girls last year.

The centerpiece on our dining room table.
(A wreath laid flat with a candle in the center.)

Ornaments on display.

Our tree...it was my parents' tree when I was growing up and I love it!
All of the ornaments are ours that we have collected through the years.
Nothing trendy, just good, old fashioned collectible ornaments.

Our nativity.

I guess most people who check this blog don't get to visit our home, so we hope you enjoy a few pictures of how we like to celebrate with decorations!
Merry Christmas!

Have yourself a very Nashville Christmas

Nannie had such a good time!
We wore her out, but we had a blast with her!
I am so thankful she went with us.

Sweet Hadlie checking out the lights outside...
and licking the window!?!?!?

Ellie being goofy
Nannie and I braved the cold and went outside to see the front entrance.
We did not, however, ride the carriage in the freezing cold!

This is one of my favorites of the girls together - I especially like this one of Ellie!!

All of us -
this lady started taking pictures of our girls, so we asked her to take one of all of us together. We let the girls get down and run and play and they had a blast!! We were all laughing at them and people we didn't know were coming up and taking pictures of them!!

This is one of my faovrite pictures of Nannie ever!
She loves flowers and we had never seen miniature poinsettias before.

This one is for mom. Didn't turn out exactly like I wanted, but it's still pretty cute.
They were sitting in front of one of the poinsettia trees.

Another one in front of the poinsettia tree.
Hadlie is very laid back, which is why she's looking right at the camera in this one. Ellie is a mama to everyone, so she was making sure Hadlie wasn't going to fall and making sure she was happy and Ava is just happy and silly and so darn cute -
this picture shows their personalities perfectly!

My favorite of Ava by herself!

Going to see Tishie - this was taken at our hotel.

The outlet mall has the cutest train - we rode it once -
Ellie taught Ava how to say choo choo!

Ellie, Hadlie, and Ava waiting to talk to Santa.

We went with Jeff this week to Nashville - he had to go for work, so we decided to go with him and visit with some friends. Then, my aunt Tishie had to go to the hospital and my mom and dad were going to be out of town (my Dad got a cruise for meeting a goal at work!!). Anyway, I invited Nannie to go with us, thinking she could stay with Tishie as much as she wanted, but Tishie got to go home much earlier than expected and is doing much better!! So, Nannie got to stay with us, which was so nice. I loved having her company (I used to be attached to my Nannie like crazy!!) and she was such a big help with the kids! We all had such a good time. We also got to visit with Brad, Julie, and Hadlie, our friends from when we were first married.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know, I'm behind in posting, but here is our Thanksgiving picture this year. Missing a couple of special people, but they were with us in spirit, I know.