Our 2010 Christmas, Part 2

With our bellies all full from Christmas breakfast, we resumed opening up some more presents! Ilah was mostly in awe of the boxes wrapped up in pretty paper!.....

She didn't even know what was inside yet she seemed so thankful! Ha ha!....

I think at one point Ilah actually thought the wrapped box WAS the gift as she took to climbing on top of one! That silly girl!!....

One of the presents that we got Ilah was her first little riding toy! My husband and I sure did enjoys ours when we were around Ilah's age!

She seemed pretty happy about it!.....


A full, cute little belly! And indeed, she's been good this year : )

Daddy opened up Ilah's Disney Princess riding toy right away so that she could start playing with it....

She loves all the little sounds that it makes and the different things that she can play with on it. The seat lifts up too....she gave Minnie Mouse a little ride in it on Christmas Day! Ha ha!

"Does this thing have a cruise control button?"....

"Question. Can I make outgoing calls on this phone?"....

Things that we bought for Ilah this Christmas:

• Play N' Go Pony Stable Playset
• Disney Princess Riding Toy
• Playskool Garden Bench
• Infantino Matching Colors & Textures Puzzle Pieces
• Mickey Mouse Book
• Dora the Explorer Feeding Set
• Dora Shoes
• Dora Slippers

My inlaws came over to our house around 3:3o p.m. and we did our gift exchange with them. My husband's parents bought Ilah some clothes and my husband's sister bought Ilah V-tech's 2-in-1 Smart Wheels. She is going to love that!! My Aunt Janice also shipped Ilah some gifts from California! I'd say she was one blessed girl this Christmas!! And not just because of the gifts she was given, but also because of how much love she was shown. Everyone just doted on her and she got an abundant amount of kisses and hugs and endless looks of adoration and unconditional love.

After exchanging gifts with my inlaw's, I changed Ilah into her Christmas dress and we all headed out to dinner at Fogo de Chao!! Yummm!! Not surprising, Ilah was the center of attention as she sat at the table making funny faces, showing us how independent she was with feeding herself, making high pitch laughs and giggling away, and "talking" away....it was such a fun night with her!!

The night ended with a drive home in the snow {!} and looking out of the window and taking in the beauty of a white Christmas. The day was so special and so memorable in so many ways.

So it's now onto the next big thing!! "Someone" is turning 1 in just a few weeks!!

Wishing you all a very Happy {and safe} New Year!!

Our 2010 Christmas, Part 1

Christmas was full of extra excitement this year because we were sharing it with our greatest blessing - our daughter, Ilah. As you saw from the Christmas Eve photos, our girl has quite a personality so we knew that Christmas Day with her would be heaps of fun!

I started anticipating Ilah's first Christmas towards the end of my pregnancy with her. Last year on Christmas, I was just weeks away from Ilah's due date and wondered if she would come early and be a Christmas baby! I was SO excited for her to make her entrance into the world - and into our lives. She made her debut on January 12th, 2010, which means that this year, we shared Christmas Day with our amazing little girl, who is just shy of a year old! "Babies 1st Christmas" was more like "Nearly a Toddlers 1st Christmas" as Ilah has made the transition out of the baby stage all too soon. It's bitter sweet.

I was anticipating Christmas morning with our girl SO MUCH!! And it finally came!! As I said in my Christmas Eve post, the day was everything that I imagined it being!!

Ilah woke up, obviously totally unaware that it was Christmas {Ha!}, but we put a lot of excitement in the air with lots of "ooh's and aww's" when we went in her room to get her out of her crib on Christmas morning. I plugged in her Christmas tree and with excitement we told her that it was Christmas morning!

Ilah's Christmas jammies!....

The day started off with lots and lots of kisses!!....

We took video of Ilah turning the corner to see the Christmas tree all lit up with lots of presents under it {presents that weren't there the night before when she went to sleep}. When she saw all the presents under the tree, she stopped walking, stood still, and started pointing to let us know what she was seeing! It was SO cute!!

We dived right in and started opening gifts!....

Ilah is holding her Mickey Mouse Book that she/we just unwrapped!.....

I know it seems like a TON of gifts were under our tree; not all of them were from us to Ilah. We had spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house and we transfered her gifts to Ilah to our house and placed them under our tree along with the rest of the gifts that were giving to our families.

Ilah's Abuela got her:

• A Riding/Talking Plush Pony
• A plush Baby Boots {Dora's best friend!}
• Raggedy Anne & Andy dolls {I think they are SO cute!}
• A large plush Minnie Mouse
• An Inflatable Dora Garden Playyard with plastic balls
• 2 Winter Coats {one light, one heavy}
• A Dora Fleece Blanket
• And a Talking Dora Cell Phone

The first, and so far only, grandchild = spoiled!

Ilah was all about ripping a part the wrapping paper to see what was under it!....

And once Ilah saw what was under the wrapping paper, she took a closer look....at the wrapping paper! Ha ha!!

One of the things that we got Ilah was this Play N' Go Pony Stable Playset. I had one similar growing up and remember playing with it in the backyard. Ilah's set not only has little pony, cat, dog, and doll figurines, but it's also a building block stable and comes with lego-like blocks that you can stack on top of one another.

Ilah took to it right away!....

It has been her go-to toy ever since she got it on Christmas Day!

{Look at that cute little foot!!}

After we opened up some gifts, we took a break to have some breakfast!! We had french toast, eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, fresh fruit, and OJ! My mom came over around 10:30 a.m. and joined us for breakfast!

As I was making breakfast for my family, I couldn't help but to thank God for that very moment in time....for the mother, husband, and child that he had given me - along with the son that He had sacraficed for me...for the food that He had provided for us...for the warm home that were inside of...for our health and happiness. We are blessed in so many ways.

Naturally Christmas can't go by without me thinking about my father and wishing that he were still alive and here to share not only the joys of Christmas with us, but every day as well. It's always a sentimental day - for my mom especially. It made it extra special that she was with us from sun up, until sundown - and even spent the following two nights after Christmas at our home.

After breakfast, we resumed opening gifts with Ilah! In the below photo it seems as though she's trying to get a feel for what's inside the package before opening it! That silly girl!.....

More of our Christmas Day to come!!.....

Christmas Day Recap Coming Soon!!

In addition to a few days last week, we are enjoying having daddy home for the entire week this week. Today we spent nearly the entire day out and it was sooo nice! With Ilah fast asleep, we are now relaxing and plan to watch a few movies in bed tonight {99% chance that I will fall asleep 10 minutes into the opening scene! It never fails}. I hope to get around to posting our Christmas recap soon. It was such a wonderful day! Ilah's first Christmas was just as I hoped it would be, if not more!! And that IT SNOWED on Christmas day made it all the more magical!!

I snapped the above photo on my phone right after I had placed all the presents out for Christmas morning! I'm not sure why I didn't think to get this same picture with our actual camera on Christmas morning - probably because my brain was scrambled eggs by the time morning rolled around. I was up until 2 am finishing wrapping gifts. Where were the elves when you needed them?! ; )

I'd love to share as much of our Christmas day with you as possible and will probably break my Christmas recap up into two posts as to not make your eyes start spinning from the picture overload!

Enjoy your night/have a wonderful day!! Will be back with the first Christmas recap post in a day or two : )

Christmas Eve Recap, 2010

And just like that, Christmas has come and gone. It seems like it takes so long for this special time of year to roll around, and when it finally gets here, it goes by way too fast. I'm not ready to take down our tree, and all of the Christmas decor in our home just yet. I'm not done relishing in this special time of year. I want Christmas Day to come around again....next week! Unfortuntaely, it won't - so it's a good thing that we savored both Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.

We went to my mom's house in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve and left just before Ilah's bedtime. Those hours were filled with lots of laughter, yummy food {my mom got PF Changs!}, watching Ilah open up some presents, and chasing her around! Ilah had a great time gallivanting through the house and showing off her funny side time and time again! Here are some pictures taken of our girl on Christmas Eve.....

Little Miss Ilah walking up to her presents.....

What does she spy?....

Hmmm....what's this?.....

A pony!!.....


Making a new friend!.....


Ilah played with some toys....



Thought about what she could get into next.....


Ran up and down Grandma's hallway....

Showed us her trick of holding a plastic shape in her mouth with her teeth! Ha!.....


Prayed really hard to God for "___?___"......


Made a few phone calls.....


Ran around some more.....

Sang a few Christmas carols.....


And enjoyed Christmas Eve to the fullest!!!

I hope that your Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, was a wonderful one shared with those you love!

Merry Christmas!

We've all been on the countdown to the BIG DAY....and now tomorrow it's here....December 25th....Christmas Day!!

Wishing all of you, my sweet readers, a wonderful Christmas day...may it be a day full of special memories that you will cherish always!

The above Christmas project {advent box idea} is from Martha Stewart. Go here to read, and see, how one person spruced up Martha's original idea! I think it would be a neat idea to also put a note inside of each box letting your child/ren know how wonderful, unique, and special they are. One special note for each day leading up to Christmas!

Ilah, 11 Months Old

Ilah! Our precious gift from God. You turned 11 months old a few weeks ago. I can't belive that your 1st birthday is right around the corner - in just a handful of weeks you will turn 1! This year just flew by. I still remember the minutes leading up to the moment you were born, the feeling that I felt when I first laid eyes on you, and how for the first days and weeks I reveled in amazement at my beautiful, healthy, baby daughter.

In my vows to your daddy, I told him, "since I met you, my life changed in a beautiful, wonderful way". You, Ilah, are an outcome of our love - an extension of us - and I feel this exact same way about you. You have changed my life {our lives} in a beautiful, wonderful way.

Your daddy and I are always admiring you....not just how beautiful you are, but how outgoing, outspoken {well, right now, you're just boisterous! Ha!}, determined, smart, funny {you crack us up!}, affectionate, giving {you share your snacks with us!}, inquisitive, active - you are just so precious in so many ways. You have gone from being a tiny baby, who was so dependent on us, to now being an independent little girl!

So what have you been up to at 11 months!?......

• I'm afraid that 2 naps a day is coming to an end. The past week or so you have seemed to develop a new schedule which puts you down for a nap later in the morning, and has you waking 2 1/2 hours later in the afternoon, thereby excluding a second nap all together.

• You have graduated from "baby food" and you now pretty exclusively eat what mommy and daddy eat. Still no sweets - no sugar, no chocolate, no nuts, etc. Everything we give you is finely diced up for you. And man, do you LOVE "big girl food"!

• I'm going to begin introducing you to safe forks and spoons, made specfically for those tiny little hands of yours. Something tells me that more food will end up in your lap, or on the floor - we shall see!

• We are phasing out the bottle, and soon formula too. In just a few more weeks you will be drinking regular milk - out of sippy cups! I can't believe the time has already come for this! You have become a big girl so soon!

• You are growing, growing, growing!! You are in a size 4 diaper and you still wear clothes 12-18 months, but more 18 months. You wear a size 5 shoe - but you are quickly beginning to outgrow them. Wow! That was quick! I'm not sure about your current weight/height stats. We have your 1 year appt on January 13th.

• You are a total morning baby! You are SO happy in the morning!! You wake right up, start clapping, start talking, start laughing...and you give us the BIGGEST hugs and tightest little squeezes when we come to get you out of your crib!

• You have started saying NO! Ha ha! And you say it LOUD!

• You love to share things with us! You will reach out your little hand to give us a piece of your snack, or while you are playing, you will offer us the toy that you are playing with. But nearly all the time, you want it right back! Ha!

• You get around real quick now! You more than just walk - you practically run! You just LOVE when we chase you!!!

• Because you imitate sounds that we make, and gestures that we do, you have started to blow us kisses! It's sooo cuuuute!!!

In just a few days it will be Christmas. And there is absolutely no better gift that God could ever have given us than YOU. Our amazing little girl, Ilah. We pray that we continue to see you grow, not only in your own unique ways, but also in the ways of God. We love you!!

- Mommy & Daddy