Nana opening gifts
Laughing at mommy doing "tricks" to get her to look at the camera.
It's a party everyday in Elia's world!
Gifts!
Let's eat!
Although not her party, Elia is always willing to help blow out the candles.
This was the successful slide. Most of the time she landed in the snow face first!
This is her snow man. See his tiny head? That was her contribution!
This is very serious work for daddy.
She was thrilled to finally be outside!
Just got hit by daddy's snow ball!
Happy snow day!
This is what happens when too little girls sneak into the kitchen...a plate o'chips!
Why not have a party near the front door?
One word: Cupong.
Looking at this does not get old for me!!!
The girls!
Rapunzel, let down your hair!
These profile shots tug at my heart every time.
Are you getting an idea of this girl's personality now? That's her response when I said to say, "cheese"!!
This was the only photo that I was able to get with Elia sitting still! On Christmas morning, just as the children were about to open their gifts, it began to snow!
Elia ran to the window and said, "I wished it would snow, and I just knew it would"!
There are 95 more pictures just like the one above, but I will spare you! Let's just say it was chaotic, fun, and over way too fast!
It was a light dusting, but they were thrilled!
While Julian and his dad rocked out on the Wii's DJ Jam Party Thingy-magig, Elia just HAD to "play" in the snow...
This was Elia and her cousin, Alexa, making chocolate mint and almond candy.
When Isaac's mom was down for his graduation, she made our our "favorites"! This was the night of chile rellenos!
I decided to go "green" this year & use good ole recycled brown paper bags (simply because I had an abundance and they were super cheap!)
Despite my obsessive tendencies, I wanted Elia to be creative and decorate each bag herself. Ok, I may have helped just a bit, but for the most part she was the artist! Then we filled them Christmas goodies!
We used card stock, a square dye cut punch, ribbon, stickers, and ornaments to embellish our finished product!
As if the 3 year olds wouldn't be satisfied with simply a bag full of candy and trinkets, I decided to make each child an ornament with their name and the school's name, along with the year, and Elia's name. I'm sure it will be passed down for generations (it better be after all that hard work, ha!!)
What I do hope & pray is that even if the children don't remember every "project" we do, they can look back on our pictures and know that I wanted to cherish each and every moment with them. I try to make even the smallest task a major "event" in our home so that we can create precious memories that the kids will take with them throughout their lives.
