Christmas Eve

These days a post would not be complete without Mickey Mouse being apart of it. Emma was chilled out watching Mickey Mouse while holding her Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. 

Ok now for our Christmas Eve. :) We always go and eat at Pearly's (a home/country cooking place). Emma was loving the toast with jelly on it. 

It seems like a lot of people have made eating at Pearly's for Christmas Eve breakfast a tradition because it was super busy. 

Then we went back to my mom's to open gifts.

She got Emma a portable DVD player, doll house, babydoll, and a few other gifts. Brandon and Krista got Emma a stoller to push her babydoll in around the house.

Mom shocked us with a flatscreen TV. We were not expecting that. Then we came home to rest and let Emma nap before Scott's dad and Susan came over. Of course, Scott and Brandon were busy getting the new TV hooked up. Here is Joe & Susan!

Ashleigh and Grandma Mary came over once Ashleigh got off work. This was one of the first times that Emma has gone to Ashleigh and played with her.

I know Ashleigh was so excited Emma was letting her hold her.

Then they started acting silly!!

Silly silly girls!!! :)

Then Emma wanted to get a picture and Cali (BoBo) had to be in it.

Here is a picture of Susan and her mom (Grandma Mary).

We had a lot of fun with them. We snacked on chips and salsa, ate turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, pumpkin cheesecake, Santa hat desserts, and hot chocolate. They got Emma a bat/ball/tee set and a shopping cart.

Christmas Party, Gift, & Lights

Emma had her Christmas party at school yesterday. She loved eating the chicken I brought and the Cheetos. 

She got to eat beside her good friend, Abby. Abby's mom and I work together. Emma use to say Abby's name 1000 times a day. :)

Today, we had a lazy morning at home. We got up and cooked eggs and bacon. Then after lunch, my mom, Emma, and I went to the mall (crazy idea :)) for about an hour. Emma did so well in such a crowded place. We came home and she crashed in her bed with Duck Duck. 

Then some good friends of ours came over and brought Emma a Christmas gift. They gave her a puppy. Emma calls her and every other dog Bo Bo and this one looks very similar to Cali. After they left, we took her to ride a train and look at Christmas lights. 

 I think the news said this house has over 60,000 lights!!!

 They had all kinds of figurines & stands of decorations in their yard.

 Here is Emma and Scott getting ready to ride the train. I rode with her after they got back. We then went to Publix to get food to prepare during the next couple days. She did so well in Publix. She loves riding in the car grocery carts!! We have really enjoyed our Saturday!

Christmas Card 2012

Here is our Christmas card for 2012!! I LOVE it. Etsy is such a wonderful site. :) This picture on the front describes Emma's personality perfect. She is so much fun!!! We had this picture taken in October as part of our Fall mini session.

Here is the back of our card. The first picture was taken in October too. The other two were taken in January as part of my mom's Christmas 2011 present. Emma was just over a year old in the middle and last picture. She still LOVES to suck those two fingers. 

 We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year as well!!!!

Mo Mo & Duck Duck

Emma was running a fever one day last week so Scott stayed home part of the next day with her. My mom stayed the rest of the day with her. Scott treated Emma to Chick-fil-A for breakfast!

Then he started to wrap some of my presents from him and Emma. She was trying to help him! The helping quickly turned into playing. :)

She has been pulling this bucket around the house with her dolls in it. She then decided she wanted to sit in it and watch Mickey Mouse. She is a funny funny girl!

We took her this past Monday to see Mickey Mouse live. She use to be all about Mickey (mo mo), but now she loves Donald Duck (duck duck to her). She sat there the whole time and just stared at the stage. 

She loved eating her popcorn and drinking her lemonade during the show. It only took about 10 tries with the bright flash to get one where she was actually looking at the camera.

Not the best picture because it was dark and she was wanting to get down, but here she is with my mom, duck duck, and her newest friend my mom got her (mini Mickey Mouse).

She was playing with Donald's beak once we got back into the car to head home.

Then she started being silly because of the flash in her face. Then she played with mini Mickey before passing out and going to sleep. She slept the whole ninety miles back home.

Emma's class is having a Christmas party tomorrow at school. I made these cute goody bags for her classmates. One has food they can throw out for the reindeer and the other has reindeer noses in them. Eight chocolate candies and one red one for Rudolph. :) Super cute idea I found on pinterest.

Last night, two of my good friends got together to eat Taco soup and make something sweet. Emma loved the soup and did so good eating it all by herself. She is getting to be such a big girl and thinks she can do so much on her own! 

Being Negative Can Be A Good Thing (Sometimes)

Life has been busy since last Monday night. As I mentioned in Monday's post, I went to my SS Ladies Christmas Party. It was so much fun. After "stealing" an ornament from someone during White Elephant Exchange, I left with a very cute ornament that is now hanging on our tree. On Tuesday-Friday at lunch, I was participating in curriculum writing for my county. As nice as it is to get a break form my classroom, I was ready to get back to my students. Here she is last week playing on the bed with Cali. My two sweet girls!! Cali needs a haircut bad.

Friday night, Scott and I went to his work party. Mom kept Emma for us while we were there. Then Saturday evening, we went to our SS Christmas Party. This one was for everyone. Emma went and played with church friends while we were in another part of the church having fun! This week is flying by! Emma was burning up last night and has been coughing, so I took her to the doctor today. They checked her for Flu and RSV since both of those have been going around. They were both NEGATIVE (see how being negative can sometimes be a god thing :))!!! I was so relieved. By the time I took her to the doctor, her temperature was almost to 102. She was so hot!! She never really fussed though. I got her home and we took a good two hour nap. We gave her more medicine once Scott got home and she is quickly getting back to normal! She will stay home tomorrow with Scott half the day and then my mom the rest of the day (she is leaving work early to relieve him) so he can go to work some. I would if it wasn't a few days before Christmas break and I have so much to get accomplished before grades and all of that are due. But, if they could not stay home then I would definitely stay home. Family will always come before my work!! So Emma has gotten lots (even more than the ton we already do :)) of cuddle time and Mickey Mouse today and tonight while she has not been feeling good.

Peppermint Is In This Year

Peppermint stuff is everywhere this year. I bought some peppermint bark candy the other week which was amazing. I am going to be making some chocolate/peppermint cookies to take to my students later this week. And now I am making these peppermint/M&M/pretzel snacks for my Ladies night Sunday School party tomorrow night. These were super easy!!! Last year I made Santa hats with strawberries, icing, and brownies. Those were so cute and easy to make too! To make these peppermint snacks, you place a Hershey Kiss (any kind will work, but these are the cutest) on a square pretzel. Then you bake at 170 degrees for 5-6 minutes.

After the 5-6 minutes are up, take them out of the oven and place a green or red M&M on top of the  semi-melted kiss. Then place in the freezer for an hour. They taste so good too!!

Emma would say so too as she has had a few kisses and some of the completed snacks. Here she is playing with the left over pretzels. She let Scott put her hair in a poney tail with cute little clips on each side. So sweet!!

I am loving her Christmas pajamas!!

I have a few more snacks in the freezer and then they will all be ready for tomorrow night. I got this tree platter at my first bridal shower which happened to be a Christmas shower. It was my favorite shower by far! I still love using this platter each December!

Outside Girl & PJ Traditions

This was an awesome late night snack on Thursday. I didn't say the healthiest, but oh so good!!! Last night Scott and I had oreos and milk. While I do love milk with my oreos, I LOVE some coke with them!!

Saturday, Scott and my brother laid some sod in our backyard. Emma wanted to go outside so bad with them. Here she is with bedhead and everything. Yea- too bad those shoes did not help with the game Saturday night. They did play awesome though. I do not get into football, but I got all into the game last night. I love Mark Richt as their coach. He is a guy with great character!!!

After the sod, a few plants, and pine straw had been laid, her and Scott went back outside. She wanted to help water the new plants. Yes, she does not have one pants! We are in south Georgia and it was HOT on December 1st!!

Last year, we wrapped some Christmas pajama's and opened them on Christmas Eve night before going to bed. I decided this year to change our first annual tradition and start allowing Emma to open a couple pair of new pajama's on December 1st of every year. That way she can wear them throughout the month of December. 

It did not take her long at all to know what to do with that present. This is the first time she has really opened a wrapped gift. I did most of the unwrapping last Christmas and for her first birthday. She will really be into it this Christmas and her 2nd birthday (that is a little over a month away)!

She got a red/green/gray pair with a reindeer on them and then a pink/green/white pair with polar bears, reindeer, Christmas trees, and Santa on them.

She was trying so hard to dress herself. And because I am OCD about stuff, I went ahead and washed them before I wrapped them so she could wear them tonight. I freak out about wearing stuff that has not been washed. :/