Are they related?

Emerson 8 months

Ashton 4 months

This face

Isn't this face precious?

So spunky and yet so sweet.
So expressive and yet so shy.

I love this face to pieces.

Christmas 2010

First of all, I did a terrible job of capturing Christmas this year. I mean really terrible. I barely took any photos and the ones I did took did not come out so great. I had the best of intentions, but I feel like it was a whirlwind and since I had a baby in one hand I could not really take the camera with me as much as I would have liked...I am sticking to my lame excuse, (especially since there were 8 adults here and I am pretty sure that they all held Ashton a fair amount).

Thursday my grandmother, Steve's parents, sister, brother and brother's girlfriend all arrived. It was nice having everyone here for a few days. Christmas eve was spent getting everything prepared. Emy and I made a birthday cake for baby Jesus that morning. Emerson specifically requested that the cake be pink, so that is what we did. After we finished decorating it we went on a mommy-daughter date to see Tangled. Loved it!

We hosted Christmas eve dinner at our house. We have a tradition of having mexican food on Christmas eve. Sticking with the tradition, Steve made fajitas. They were delicious. After dinner, Mimi (my grandmother) read Emerson The night before Christmas...this is another tradition of ours.

After Emerson was in bed, our living room was transformed into Santa's workshop. Seriously, isn't this picture hilarious? There were 4 different assemblies happening at the same time.

The tree lit up before everyone was asleep. So pretty!

Christmas morning Emerson woke up excited (duh) and we started with stockings. We did this while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive. No, I don't have any good pictures. Another thing I did not get good pictures of is Emerson getting her presents from Santa. She specifically requested a bed for her babies and Santa delivered. She loves it!

Ashton got plenty of snuggle time during the present opening.

After we did presents at our house, we went to Steve's parents. Santa does not visit their house, but there were still tons of gifts to open.

After all the gifts were open, Emerson put on her apron to help Steve's mom and Melody in the kitchen. Emy loves to help cook.

This was my little "big" gift this year. I am so pumped about it but I really need to learn how to use it more. It is a prime lens that does not zoom but will eventually take gorgeous photos when I get some practice in.

Ash had just gotten up from a nap, hence the reason his face is half covered with a blanket.

Here I was playing with the new lens. Ashton did not want to cooperate. See how pretty the lights in the background look? Oooo, I love it!

Look at these cuties:)

Why did someone not tell me to put on some lipstick?

Helping in the kitchen

Christmas was wonderful. Great family and friends, great food, generous gifts and a lovely time. I hope yours was as blessed as ours.

(Somewhat Controlled) Chaos

Aka- Decorating gingerbread houses with 6 kids and 2 babies!

First of all, when Amy invited us over for a playdate to decorate gingerbread houses this week, we were pumped because it gave us something to do since the kids are out of school. I was envisioning them all decorating one house, maybe two. Wrong! Amy baked each kid their own house using her own templates. Uh huh. Stephanie brought the supplies to make homemade frosting. Uh huh. I was in charge of bringing decorations. Guess what I brought? Bags of $.99 candy from CVS. Can you tell who the slacker in this group is?

Anyways, the kids had a blast but I truly think the mommies had more fun. It was complete chaos from the moment we got there but it was lots of fun. All the kids ate candy by the fist-full. Literally. They were running around like maniacs when it was all said and done. I don't know about the other kids but there was no nap at our house this afternoon. Let me tell you, coming down off a sugar high like that with no nap is really ugly.

Maribel picking through the table of decorations (candy)

Carefully sprinkling her rooftop

Seriously concentrating

Mari only interested in getting handfuls of candy

Ethan, also only interested in the eating of candy

Izzy and her house

Annie eating sprinkles from the jar

One of the only moments that Ethan showed an interest in his house

Beautiful houses

Chaos

More houses

Creating a perfect roof-line

Hard at work

It was a busy day but I am glad that Emerson is in bed (early!). Merry Christmas.

Getting bigger...

Ashton at 3.5 months. This is an almost wordless post...lets face it though, the pictures are the best part anyway so I doubt you will mind.

Look at this face! This is Ashton's warning face, "I don't want to fuss mommy, but I will". Heart breaking.

From our family to yours...

Dance Party

One of Emerson's friends had her birthday party last Friday. It was done up in a dance party theme and was super cute (and hilarious). The kids got to dress up like rock stars. They walked into the party on a red carpet and once inside went into the "dressing room" to get ready. In the dressing room, they got to put on make up, jewelry, boas, tiaras and temporary tattoos. It was so fun and Emerson absolutely LOVED it!

In the main party area, the kids got to have a ball and dance to the Kid Bop CD's (If you have not heard of them- they are toddler versions of popular music. Think Katy Perry and Pink with kid friendly lyrics). They were all seriously jamming out. It was so fun to watch. Emerson had a blast and really got into the dancing. I swear she danced more than anyone else, including the birthday girl. (Note to self- we might consider a dance party for Emy's next birthday).

The back patio was transformed into a dance club with bright pom poms and lights hanging over head. It totally set the scene.

Look at this cake!

Emerson showing off her braided hair and star tattoo

Jamming

Look how cute Bo was with his spiked hair!

The girls had to take a break to play princesses for a little while:)

Emerson and Reese were totally rocking out in this picture. When I was watching them I envisioned them as teens at a junior high dance just giggling away:)

Cheers!

Annie being shy when it was time for cake!

I *think* this was the last birthday party that we have until January. Whew, this fall has been jam packed with parties and I am kind of excited to have a little break.