My Sweet Girl Turns Two!

I love my kids' birthdays. I love celebrating my kids birthdays. I know I will never regret it. Lily's birthday party this year had to be several weeks after her real birthday because we had it at our church's gym. I waited a little to long and it was booked up. It was ok. So, on the day of her actual birthday we met a few friends for a special playdate at Magic Castle. Lily wore the same shirt Xander wore for his 2nd birthday and she looked oh so adorable in it. 

I even sprang for ice cream. 

                                       Lily and Amelia thinking the older kids look ridiculous. 

Boompa stopped by to give her a birthday hug. 

We gave Lily her present from us, a wooden cake set, for her kitchen. 

 This girl just loves to open presents. 

And special birthday cupcakes

Let it Snow!

Well, we didn't have a white Christmas this year, but the day after Christmas the snow came. Last winter we didn't have any snow, so this was Lily's first time to play in the snow. Honestly, she has a love/hate personality and I really wasn't sure if being out in the cold was going to be something she loved. I think you can tell from the pictures she did love it. She also LOVES to eat snow (this also includes dirty ice chunks from the driveway). Lily fit perfectly into all Xander's old snow stuff too, even the boots. 

 Xander had just as much fun playing in the snow as he always does. He loves to throw his body down. He also enjoys some snow shoveling. 

 Here is Xander trying to get hit by the snow from the snow blower. 

Here is hoping we get at least one more big snow this winter. 

Christmas Morning

We had such a fantastic Christmas morning. We wrapped all Lily's gifts in Hello Kitty wrapping paper so she would know which ones were hers. 

Jason really enjoyed buying Xander his presents this year. He got this helicopter large enough for action figures to ride in. Every present he opened was followed by an "ooo wow!", "this is awesome!"or "I can't believe I got this!". 

 We need to work on Jason hiding the remote for the camera. :) 

 Our children definitely have different opening present styles. Xander is perfectly happy to unwrap a present, open it, and play with it awhile. He could easily stretch opening presents into an all day event. Lily on the other hand just loves the opening. She wanted to rip open one right after another and since she knew which presents were hers she just kept going back for more. We like to take turns in our house, so we were having to tell her to wait because it was not her turn. At one point she walked over to the tree, picked up one of Xander's presents, took it to him, and said, "Open it. Ok, my turn now." 

 Lily opening her big present. Although it is really for Xander too. 

 Her favorite things about the kitchen are the phone and pretending to wash her hands. 

I felt so blessed to have these two kiddos to share Christmas with. 

Woodland Lights

We spent a fun "family" night with our some of our very bestiest friends the Comer and Schulers. We started the evening at the Schulers eat taco and then headed to Woodland Lights in Centerville. It was a really warm evening for December in Ohio. 

 The kids loved the free fair type rides. Xander is going to LOVE Disney world when we go there in February. 

 Lily and Amelia really wanted to ride the flying person ride. Lily kept saying, "me too" (which I hear a lot lately). She does not like to miss out. 

 I wasn't planning on letting her ride anything, but Jason was nice enough to sick her on. I told Xander to look out for her and if she tried to get out to keep her seated. 

 Xander wrapped his arm around her and kept it there the whole time. My heart melted as I watched them go around and around. Lily was so happy and Xander was taking such good care of her. I love the way the love each other. I love how in the end Xander is so protective of her. 

 You would have thought this ride was crazy and dangerous. It wasn't, but it did kinda whip you around the corner. The boys would yell and laugh. 

We ended the night at Cold Stone for ice cream. I am so beyond thankful for our friends and the memories we are making. 

Lighting Up

It was warm this year on the first day of December, so my Jason decided it would be a good day to clean the gutters (which is no easy task at our house since we live among the trees) and hang our Christmas lights. My younger brother, Will, was nice enough to lead us a hand. 

 Xander really wanted to be on the ladder or roof, but was still happy to help from the ground. 

 Lily thought it was pretty funny Dadoo was on the roof. 

Preschool Project

Xander brought home this cut out angel from preschool over Thanksgiving break and our job as a family was to decorate it. Well, we could have done it on our own, but I am not the artsy type. We called in the reinforcement...enter Grandma! Grandma with her construction paper and very large container of glitter. Xander said he wanted a rainbow angel. So, they made a rainbow for her to hold. Then Xander wanted to coloring the skirt red and green because those were Christmas colors after all. 

 My mom also cut out a little angel for Lily to decorate. My mom is big on making sure no one is left out. I love this next picture because it shows just how happy Lily was to have her hand in all that glitter. 

Lily was very into her little project and worked very hard. 

Happy 1st Birthday, Chelsea Sampsel

Last weekend we headed up to Westerville (just north of Columbus) to help celebrate this cute little lady turning one. We are so happy the Sampsels (Brian was Jason's roommate at Cedarville) live closer to us now. Although every time we get to Columbus I feel like we should be there and it is still another 25 minutes, that is the longest part for me (and Xander). Xander and Christine had a good time playing together. 

Chelsea wasn't all that thrilled about he cute cake, but hey it's her party. Now if you were playing a word association game with Lily on the other hand and you said "birthday" I could almost guarantee you the next word out of her mouth would be "cake" or "kitty" because she is having a hello kitty birthday party here soon. 

I love this picture of Grandpa Sampsel taking pictures of Chelsea opening her gifts and Xander with the play camera. 

We headed home from the Sampsels about 3 because I wanted to put the lights on our tree. Our tree decorating this year was a muli-day and stage process. We bought the tree and put it up inside for several days. We put the lights on it on a Saturday and then the following Tuesday Jason, Xander, and I decorated it (sorry Lily you were asleep). If I was a photographer or crafty these Christmas light pictures would be cuter, but this what you get people. I wanted to wrap them up together, but they didn't want to.