Let The Christmas blogging begin

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.  We sure did.  Christmas Day was a bit exhausting but totally worth it - we had fun with family and enjoyed spending Christmas Eve and Day with them.  We crashed when we got home, that is for sure.
The first post I will dedicate to our second annual Gingerbread decorating party with our friends, the Fords.  We  had such a good time doing this last year that we had to do it again this year.  The Fords just welcomed their third child, Elias James.  He is so precious.  Because of his arrival a few weeks ago we had to put the gingerbread making off closer to Christmas but we are able to squeeze it in just before and were glad.  These first few pictures are some of Elias....

This is a picture of me holding him when he was a couple of days old as Elaina looks on

Elaina held him - this is the first baby she has ever held.  She's never really been into holding babies but after she saw Olivia do it, she had to join in.

This is me and Elias the other day when we did Gingerbread houses.  He is already so much bigger

Silly husbands.....  All ready for Santa Claus

 Now, onto gingerbread house decorating...

Getting ready...

Elaina and Olivia are old pros at this

Erik is an "old" pro too :)

The kids put a on a performance for us...  Isaac's outfit reflected in the flash

And the finished products

Don't you love the stick figure on the left.... I do.

This was super fun again this year.....  Thanks again to the Fords - can't wait until year #3.

More Christmas Eve and Day Festivities to come..... 

Breakfast with Santa

This past Saturday we went to Lakeside Tavern to eat Breakfast with Santa.  We had a great time together as family.  It was put on for charity - Mission of Hope - and, needless to say, Santa was there.  We ate some delicious pancakes and sausage and saw Santa.  Note, I only said "saw" Santa.  Elaina wanted nothing more then to watch him from afar.  Oh well, it was still a good time together as family.  I recommend this to anyone with kids.  It was a nice quiet setting to visit with Santa and was nicely set up.

A pose in the booth before Santa got there

What else do you do when you are waiting on Santa but to take a picture of your half eaten plate of food.  I took this, not Elaina :)

Our booth was literally right beside where Santa sat. 

Outside waiting on Santa to arrive

And, Santa showed up in a Fire Truck, of course!  ??

Family pose - as you can tell Elaina is freaked out because she just saw Santa

Now it's my turn to pose with Elaina

She sat and watched all the kids sit on Santa's lap

I took her to get in line - this is me talking it up for her to sit in his lap.  She was having none of it.  Oh well, not the end of the world.  She did still have fun watching all the other kids sit in his lap

Ornaments

Each year since Elaina was born, we have gotten a family ornament that is personalized....  They are hands down my most favorite ornaments and I love going each year to pick them out.  We just picked up our 2011 family ornament yesterday so I thought I'd post a blog about it and show you the ornaments of years past....

2007

2008

2009 - the year is written on the bottom of this one but you can't really see it

2010

And 2011... Elaina picked this one out.  This is the first year she has been with us to pick them out.  She was very much into it

I love them all and the memories they each have with it.  My favorite so far is 2010.  Your favorite??

Early Christmas

As usual, we attended the Fantasy of the Trees again this year - the day after Christmas.  Elaina and I went with a friend and her two children because Erik had to work.  While there, Elaina went into Santa's Secret Shop to buy things for me and Erik for Christmas.  I love this idea.  She had a helper help her pick things out.  And they wrap it up for her.  I remember doing this when I was younger - it was called Ms. Claus's closet.  I always got my dad a rabbit's foot.  Remember, Dad?  You acted surprised every year....and more importantly, you acted like it was exactly what you wanted (what a good dad!) :)

Anyway, back on track.  Elaina was so excited that she told me what she got Erik as soon as she walked out and started to tell me mine until I stopped her.  All the way home she asked for me to open my present and for her daddy to open his.  We told her multiple times that we were going to put them under the tree and open them on Christmas.  Well, about an hour later after we got home, she took Erik's too him and proceeded to rip it open it with him.  She was so excited that we couldn't bear to stop her excitment.  I like that she is excited about giving presents.

Erik opening his mini football - very appropriate gift.  She was very proud of that find

I got a red teddy bear, which she argues is a puppy, and a picture holder for my desk (it's pink)

Here we are with our gifts.  We will forever cherish these. 

Merry Early Christmas!!! 

Oh, Kate...... "ONE PRESENT NOW, ONE PRESENT NOW!!!" :)

From Halloween to Thanksgiving, and then there is Christmas

I have not posted anything since Halloween.  We've been a bit busy.  So, just to give you a glimpse of our life this past week (and to maybe make you smile), here is a video of Elaina entertaining us.  Just some song singing... she gets "Old McDonald" and "BINGO" mixed up.  Cuteness.

Also, this past weekend, we got our Christmas decorations up.  Loads of fun.  Elaina had fun helping us get our Christmas Carols on the tree.  Christmas carols, you say?  Yes, that is what she calls them this year.  Funny.  It took me a while to figure it out.  As I was putting the tree up, I had Christmas music on in the background.  She kept asking, "Mommy are we going to put Christmas carols on this year."  I kept telling her they were already on.  Then, she opened up my box of ornaments and said, "can I put this Christmas carol on the tree?"  OOOOOHHHH!!!  That's what she was talking about.

Speaking of ornaments, my Grandma got me an ornament every year since I was born.  She did that for all her grandkids.  I still have all 31 of them.  My mom does the same for her grandkids.  Elaina has 5 (my mom bought her one before she she was born).  I let her put them on the tree.  Here some of those memories...

Thanksgiving is tomorrow....stay tuned for a re-cap of action from the Stringfellow household.  Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to all our blog readers.  Hope your day is special.  We have so much to be thankful for.

Halloween Fun

Halloween came and went again this year but not without the absence of a little bit of fun with a little 4 year old you all know... Elaina wanted to be Rapunzel this year.  Shocker, I know, since she spends half her time at home in her Rapunzel dress.  But, who am I to change her mind.  She loves her and quite frankly so do I, so we went with it. 

First fun activity was a Trunk or Treat at a near by church last week.  We met our friends Tami and Justin there with their 2 children, Olivia and Isaac.  Much fun (and candy) was had by all.  I had never been to a trunk or treat - they actually hand out candy from the back of cars.  Who knew "truck" actually meant car trunks?  They also had many activities/games for the kids to do.  It was fun.  We will definitely go back to one.


Erik walking in with Elaina, I mean Rapunzel, on his shoulders




Isaac, Olivia, and Elaina




Elaina and Olivia on the hayride...can you tell they are excited?



They had a fire truck there, Elaina sat in it...



Happy at the end of the night.  She really racked up on the candy.

The next night we carved our family pumpkin.....


Top off... guts out....





Helping me carve...




Check out the concentration on that kid




And to the front porch it went.... 




Also, over the past several weeks we painted pumpkins with different friends.  They have all made it into this bowl for display.  This was a fun activity to do with friends

 Finally, Halloween night...  I got a wig for Elaina to wear with her Rapunzel dress.  I would love to tell you that she wore it all night but that would be a lie.  We did persuade her to put it on for 1 minute to get a picture.  Below is about as happy as the pictures got....  she was not into this wig.  So, for the rest of the night, she was Rapunzel at the end of the movie when they cut her hair and it turned brown.  That works for me.



She is much happier in this shot.  No wig but she is equipped with her frying pan to defend her from the evil trick or treaters :)



After about 30 minutes of trick or treating, she decided she wanted to camp out in front of our house and hand out candy.  She had much more fun doing this then actual trick or treating.  So, we accommodated her request and had some fun handing out candy for the rest of the evening.



It was a great Halloween.  Can't wait until next year!  Hope you all had a great Halloween too!