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| Our good friends Jody and Jennifer Akins came to town and brought us a delicious dinner. It was great to sit down and catch up. So happy they got to meet our baby girl in person. |
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| Just rounding the corner to see what Santa brought |
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| Ella Catherine is looking at what Santa brought and Carter is still waking up |
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| Digging into her stocking |
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| And he is beginning to wake up |
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| Cassidy oblivious to what is going on but loving the cuddles from Nana |
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| Opening gifts from Aunt Kelly and Cousin Cori |
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| Opening gifts from Aunt Kelly and Cousin Cori |
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| Opening gift from Aunt Lori and Uncle Brian |
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| Opening gifts from Aunt Lori and Uncle Brian |
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| Cassidy slept through all the action |
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| Her American Girl Doll from Nana and Pop |
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| Loves construction equipment! Way to go Uncle Doc, Aunt Carolee, Stephanie, Caroline and Nick |
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| Loves her "teenager" dress as she calls it. Way to go Uncle Doc, Aunt Carolee, Stephanie, Caroline and Nick |
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| His twin size MSU blanket crocheted by my mom |
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| LOVES Spiderman...Way to go Brian and Lori |
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| Super excited about his new helicopter. Thank you Becky |
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| Showing off his Buzz Lighter Year and Woody from Toy Story, Thank you Nana and Pop |
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| One tired baby and daddy after the chaos was over |
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| Big sister LOVES her little sister |
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| Nana reading some of the books Santa brought |
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| Trying to get a family picture |
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| And we got one! Love the look on Carter's face |
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| But not before there were some antics from Pop and Carter...I believe this is where the face above from Carter started. :) |
| We made our annual Christmas cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. Ella Catherine and Carter each had their separate sugar cookie dough to roll out, cut with cookie cutters and decorate how they wanted. Then come Christmas Eve night they could each choose 2 to put out for Santa. Afterall, Santa visits every boy and girl in the whole world so we don't want him getting too full at our house and not being able to eat some cookies at someone elses house. We spent the rest of the day playing and watching Christmas movies. Typically we go to Mass Christmas Eve but with a new baby we did not venture out. Instead we read the bible story about the birth of baby Jesus and discussed the true meaning of Chrsitmas. Then the kids got in their PJ's, put out the cookies for Santa and Matt read Twas the night before Christmas. Ella Catherine was terrified that Santa would come to our house and we would still be up and so he would pass us by. She was hurrying everyone up to get in bed and turn off the lights. Matt and I made the mistake of giggling and she told us in no uncertain terms that it wasn't funny. Love these memories!  |
| Getting started |
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| Rolling out the dough |
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| Needing a little more flour |
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| Rerolling her dough |
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| Cutting out the cookies |
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| Decorating with Sprinkles |
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| Never too many sprinkles |
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| Saved some cookies for icing |
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| Icing cookies |
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| Also never enough icing |
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| Our Elf, Jess, got a little crazy her last night and put all Ella Catherine's and Carter's underwear on the tree |
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| Putting milk and cookies, plus water and carrots out for Santa and his reigndeer |
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| Time for Daddy to read Twas the night before Christmas |
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| Everyone but Cassdy was interested in the book. Cassidy was ready for some milk and bedtime |
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| Sisters |
