It All Started with a Little Skittle...

This is what happened when four excited elves get together.  They take pictures of each other doing silly things while waiting for Santa to come by and pick them up.   Apparently Santa thought they were being cute and took a photo of all four of them together before leaving Grandma and Grandpa's house. Our elves always come up with such a fun way to keep the kids excited until next year.

This was the first Christmas we've ever gotten to celebrate with Mark's kids! We went to Dallas and enjoyed celebrating Christmas with all of my nieces and nephews (on the McIlroy side) together under the same roof. The girls helped me make a birthday cake for Jesus Christmas Eve aft er church and then they sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus before cutting into the cake.  It was magical having them all go to sleep together excitedly waiting the arrival of St. Nicholas. Sleepy baby the last to wake up Christmas morning (probably because she was the last to sleep) The cookies Gabby decorated for Santa The morning of, Uncle Mark refused to even allow the children to peek downstairs before breakfast was cooked.  Then Grandma and Grandpa tortured the children by making them wait until they were finished with breakfast before allowing them to tear into their gifts.  The kids were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. The kids impatiently waiting to ...

A few hours after her recital performance, Gabby's cousins Cate, Reagan, and Molly came over as well as a few friends to see Santa.  The kids were playing in Gabby's room when we started to hear jingle bells in the house.  Gabby ran to the front of the hallway and started to yell back to her friends, "Guys, Santa is here!"  The excitement had begun.  We started by showing Santa to his seat and naturally asking him if he would like a cookie.  Santa ate a cookie while Gabby talked to him.  She asked him what his favorite type of cookie was and luckily we had guessed right because he said it was chocolate chip.  Santa told Gabby what a good girl she had been and all of the children took turns telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas (except for Cate and Molly who weren't too happy to meet Santa in the flesh).  We showed Santa Gabby's bed and then we thanked him for visiting.  As Santa was leaving we got a call from a friend that was almos...

For the last two years Papa has bought Gabby and I tickets to the ballet tea party that benefits the local Nutcracker performance.  Gabby looked forward to it for days (because that's the only amount of time we let her know about it).  She was in awe from the moment we walked in to the hundreds of people flooding the reception area.  As soon it was time Gabby stood in line to get her hair and make-up done, then she got her nails painted, and finally we walked in to choose our sweets before searching for two free seats.  As soon as we were seated and introduced to our table the performance began.  The ballerinas performed each scene shortened totaling 20 minutes of dancing.  Gabby never took her eyes off the the wonderful dances. Getting her nails painted Meeting a Sugarplum fairy Gabby complementing two of the ballerinas after their performance One of the ballerinas followed us to our table and talked to the girls.  They love...

So after a whirlwind few days we completed it with one last excessively busy, blessed day.  We started this day with breakfast and then getting ready for the most efficient concept of a "recital" I have ever attended.  I dressed Gabby in her hot pink tutu, put her hair in a bun, added a little lip gloss, blush, and glitter (to her hair) and we were ready to attend the fastest recital ever! Mommy, Daddy, and Gabby arrived 15 minutes before the performance was to begin.  The parents waited in line to enter the room where the girls would perform the recital.  Once the doors opened we all found our seats and then the little ballerinas gracefully entered the room.  The stood in line and were each asked one thing they wanted for Christmas.  Gabby had missed the final dance class due to Corbin's birthday, so she had to come up with something she wanted on the spot.  Naturally she chose a cat.  My crazy cat baby always wants another cat for her ...