Busy, Busy, Busy.....

It's been hectic to say the least over the past week and a half or so. We have done so much that I need to make this a long post so we can catch you up on what's been going on... We have seen Santa, had Christmas celebrations, my mom got married, we moved into our new house, and we looked forward to New Years for a day to be able to relax...

Dec 19th - I took Elaina to see Santa. It went about as well as you can expect an almost 18 month old to do. She sat in his lap and for the first 20 seconds or so had no idea who or what was holding her. However, when she tried to get down and he was clutching her in an effort to keep her on his lap for more pics, she began to scream. I had to put the camera down when that happened to get her but I do have a pic from the photography people of her screaming. It's a momento that every mom should have I guess. These photos are of the non-screaming times.

This was taken waiting in line... she was happy - she was clueless as to what was coming.

Just chilling with Santa - she about to crack.

This is me trying to convince her that Santa was an okay guy. She calmed way down when he gave her this gingerbread cookie.

Onto December 24th.. we had our usual Christmas Eve festivities at my mom's house. We went to church first and then came home to eat and let the kids open presents. Here are some pics of that evening:

My mom always has some sort of game to play at all our family gatherings. This time it was the battle of the cookie decorating-girls vs. boys. This is a pic of the boys in their aprons. Erik won the cookie decorating (hope he doesn't kill me for telling you all that). His really were very good though.

Elaina opening her presents with her Granny. She was not wearing her clothes because we were battling what my family likes to call the "back door trots." She had diaper rash so bad that each time she had an incident, I had to give her a bath to cool her little bottom :( After the festivities at my mom's we went home. Santa stayed up late putting all Elaina's presents together. Here is a final pic of her presents from Santa.

Dec 25th - Christmas.... we had a wonderful day. Elaina of course loved all her presents. The one thing I was amazed at was when I said "Elaina, let's open your presents," she brought it to me, sat on my lap and knew just what that meant. She tore that paper like a pro... Guess you don't have to teach them that. Here are some photos/clips of the day:

Playing with her kitchen - complete with her bedhead and all... this is pretty much how her hair looks every morning. It's cute.

Riding her bike that Santa got her..

Here is a clip of Elaina playing with her kitchen. She giving "bites"

December 27th - my mom got married. The ceremony was beautiful and everything went very well. We are all so happy for her. Here are some shots of the day:

Elaina in her dress. I just loved these dresses.
Mom, Gale and all the grandkids.

They walked down the isle with all the grandkids in tow. Here is a pic of my mom with Elaina just as she is about to hand her back to us. Walking down the isle with their grandkids (8 in all) was very sweet.

Okay... sorry to bombard with so many pics but I figured since I had time this evening I would. Hopefully, I'll get back into the swing of posting regulary now that we are somewhat settled. We got everything into the house with thanks to many wonderful friends on Sunday December 28th. We unloaded the entire POD in less then 1 hour!! It was awesome! We've just got about got everything in place.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you all many blessings for 2009.