Christmas - Part 1

Since we were going to be spending Christmas in Oklahoma with my family we wanted to have Christmas at our house a little early.

The Friday before Christmas was "Christmas Eve." We made sugar cookies and decorated them, went out for dinner, and drove around and looked at Christmas lights.

Before bed we set out cookies and milk for Santa. Grace made sure we bought some carrots on one of our grocery shopping trips so we could leave them out for Santa's reindeer.

 {Ready to see what Santa brought}

The next morning (Saturday = "Christmas") Grace woke up earlier than normal and told me "My tummy feels like Santa came." Her tummy has been telling her some funny stuff lately! She waited patiently for Olivia to wake up. While we were patiently waiting for Olivia to wake up I put some hot cocoa on the stove to cook. I think the noise I was making in the kitchen made Grace's wait a little shorter. 

The girls both ran down the hallway to the stairs. Grace never looked down to see what was waiting until she turned the corner. The entire upstairs hall has the wrought iron banister.

And then Olivia had to stop to look downstairs.

The first thing Grace did was look in her stocking and look what was right on top peeking out! A new Glimmer fairy! This was the thing she always said she wanted Santa to get for her. I think if that is all she got she would have been happy.

 Olivia got a Tinkerbell fairy!

 {Look, a Barbie!}

After going through their stockings they decided to check out the big stuff Santa brought.

 How cool is the little trampoline? 

And we had to see if Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk. 

After moving their bog stuff out of the living room we sorted presents and started opening them. Grace couldn't seem to open them fast enough. As soon as she opened one it was on the the next.

Olivia wanted to take her time. After she opened a present she would say "Please. Open." And then she would play with it for a while.

See? She wanted to play with the princesses before she opened the next present.

They both got a lot of fun stuff! Grace got a fairy from the new Tinkerbell movie. And Olivia got a set of little fairies.

Just look how excited Grace was about her Easy Bake oven. We made cupcakes that afternoon!

We spent part of the day running a few errands (Christmas returns/exchanges before Christmas!) and Grace even got to pet a real live reindeer at the mall.

That evening we watched the movie Elf. Now we think about Buddy every time we have waffles with syrup on top.

Grace's Birthday

On Grace's birthday we wanted to have a FUN day! So we went to the movies. After the movie the girls got to play in the play area at the mall before we headed home for lunch.

While Olivia took her nap, Grace helped make her cake. We had baked a heart shaped cake the night before but we had to make frosting and decorate it. She chose a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and it was pretty yummy!

Before dinner we let Grace open her presents. Since she had her party over a week before her actual birthday she only had a few presents to open but she didn't mind. 

 

 She is really into Fairies and Barbies so she got a couple of Barbies and a Tinkerbell scooter.

After her special dinner (she chose steak, smashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls) she got to blow out candles and we had cake and ice cream.

She told me that this was the prettiest cake ever! I am sure glad she thought so.

Christmas in July

It sure did feel like Christmas to Grace last night! She received a package in the mail from her great-grandma and I couldn't get it opened fast enough. When her Daddy carried the box through the door she started screaming "PRESENT, PRESENT!"

As soon as we got it opened we started to dig in and we found all sorts of goodies! There was an adorable dress for Grace (which she wore today!) but she was screaming "DORA, DORA" Then I saw the dress that had Dora on it! After checking out the Dora dress we pulled out a Tinkerbell dress but she wanted to see what else was in the box. We pulled out a pink tutu and put it on followed by her princess crown. Then she saw a puzzle at the very bottom which she wanted opened right away. The excitement still hasn't worn off today. I had to almost pry the tutu... and the bathing suits and hats... off of her this morning when it was time to leave the house...

{Waiting patiently on Mommy to open the puzzle - "Oh-pee, oh-pee"}

{Showing off her crown}

{Finally time to play with the puzzle}

{She found a wand!}

A Present a Day...

After Grace's party on Saturday we decided that we would let her open 1 present a day until her birthday and then she gets to open the rest of them that evening. Her birthday is just the day after tomorrow! We are going to take 1 year & Christmas pictures that morning. Then we are planning on meeting Dustin for lunch at Chili's so they can sing to her. That evening we will let her smash her cake and open all the presents she has left.

Why did we decide to let her open a present everyday? Well, a dozen presents at one time may be a little overwhelming for a one year old.

So far we have been doing this for 3 nights and every single present has been a book! And she has loved every single one of them too!!

And guess what Grace is doing new?? She is walking!! All on her own. She doesn't even think about holding onto things anymore. We have been waiting for her to do this since she took her first steps at 9 months old.

Thank You Papa Bill!!

I got a package in the mail the other day. It had my Daddy's name on it but it was really for me! My Mommy opened it up for me since it had lots and lots of tape. She told me scissors are only for grown-ups. When the box was opened I saw lots of animals inside! And a special note from my Papa Bill.

I sat in my special chair with my blanket and the puppy dog and we watched a movie that we got at the library that morning. It was pretty fun watching a movie with my new puppy.

There was a gift card for the BX too so my Mommy is going to take me shopping. Daddy said I don't need anymore toys but Mommy said I can have more. I think Mommy is right this time.

Daddy can be right sometimes too. Like the other night when he had pudding and I wanted some

and Mommy said I didn't need any but Daddy said it was OK. I think Daddy was right that time.

Thank You PAPA BILL!!!!!

Christmas in Okinawa

This was our first Christmas away from family and Grace's first Christmas ever. We had a really great day full of presents and a big dinner. We woke up to find that Santa had been here and then we opened all of the presents. Then it was off to getting things ready for lunch. A couple soldiers from Dustin's battery came over for Christmas lunch. We made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos, sweet potato cassarole, and the biggest hit of all, dinner rolls. We even had some pumpkin pie for dessert!

As for the presents, Grace got some really cool toys and she loves to play with them. We all thought she would be to little to enjoy any of it but she will actually cry if we take a toy away. Some of her favorites are the pink rocking horse from Santa, the cool mirror from Uncle Andrew, and her ball from Grandma and Grandpa. We were playing with her ball yesterday and she actually rolled over!

Looks like Santa made a stop at our house!

Grace loves her pink rocking horse

Dustin opening the card from Grace

Opening Grace's presents

Grace in her Christmas PJ's