Christmas Eve

Before this,

We had this,

We had family and friends come over on Christmas Eve and in addition to Clara's birthday they both got Christmas presents from family they werent going to see on Christmas Day. It was nice for Ben to have some presents too.

Yup, it too three of us to get clara's new fridge out of the packing. Sad but true!

After the present opening and fooding and the minis were in bed, we began the Christmas Eve construction. This year we only had one item that needed assembly. It was all hands on deck and they made quick work of it!

And finally this after Santa had visited!

Clara Eve/ First Birthday

Last year Christmas Eve Eve became Clara Eve in our house. As I was scheduled for induction on the 24th of December. She made her arrival in the early afternoon and it was the best early Christmas present Ever! This year we spent Clara Eve getting ready for a first birthday party and Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun! Matt is the best dad and dutifully frosted nearly 50 mini cupcakes!

We had family and friends as close as family coming over on Clara Eve to celebrate so we planned a bunch of finger foods, this is part of the pre-party stack!

Uncle Billy was the first party member to arrive, he is a Favorite Uncle! He had the Santa Tracker radar on his phone and Ben watched it for a good 20 minutes! It was super cute!

Soon Aunt Linda, Uncle Brandon, Uncle Aaron and Auntie Rachel all arrived and the real fun began! Food and Presents!

Ben gave sister a butterfly car for her birthday and he insisted it be one of the first presents, and that he get to help her open it! She took to present opening very quickly!

Later in the evening Uncle Mark, Auntie Melissa, and cousins Dalton and Brayden came over to celebrate. It was a really really good day!

She has not been interested in standing at all! Until she opened the Train! now she is standing independently and will probably soon be walking!

If you have seen despicable me and you can hear the little girls voice when she says, "IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!" that describes Clara's unicorn, she absolutely adores it! The birthday loot. Clara had a really awesome first birthday.

Rainy Day Solutions

Saturday was a terribly rainy day. We needed to go to the grocery and get some milk. Ben can not go anywhere without his blanket. When he went to the front door and saw the rain he began to stress out that blanket would get wet in the rain. Sooooo, This was Matt's brilliant solution! The picture says it all.....

The Ultimate Share!

Ben has been diligently working on his sharing skills. There are a few toys that are designated must share toys and a few that are designated do not have to share. The do not have to's are at his discretion, and they include mainly his trains and lighting McQueen (of all sizes). A couple days ago he had out his ride on McQueen which he had not had out for a while, but is one of his most well loved toys. Much to my surprise and pleasure he let Sissy ride Lightning and even helped her along! Way to go Big Man!!

Sorry these pics are a little blurry, my phone is not the best camera, but it is usually handy!

The second pleasing thing about this is how into the riding toy Clara is, as this is what she is getting for her birthday in a couple weeks! Hers is of course not Lighting McQueen, but I am sure she is going to love it!

The 3 days of Christmas Tree

Matt, again, surprised us with a live Christmas tree!! It is beautiful! It took us 3 days to get it decorated.

Day 1: in the house.
Day 2: lights on.

Day 3: ornaments and all other decorations!!

Ben was sooo cute this year! He just could not wait to put the decorations on, and was determined to put most of them on himself! He even went and got his step stool out of the bathroom so he could put them up high. We had explained to him that we did not want to put them down low where Sissy could get to them. He is very protective of the tree and shoos Clara away whenever she gets too close. Perhaps my favorite thing is how Ben says Christmas it sounds like "Missmas". Super cute!

The Last Warm Day

This has been 3 or more weeks ago, just how far I have gotten on blogging! Anyway, it was one of the last simply beautiful days of the fall, and we enjoyed it! I took the kids to the park and they had a great time! Ben is in to climbing slides, I only let him do this when there are no other kids around and this day was all his! Clara went down the tub slide herself! It was so cute, I held on to her arm and she was about half way down before I let go and Ben was waiting at the bottom! The slide flattens out and has a long part before the drop off so he was "catching" her. He is an awesome big brother!

Big Man

Yup, that's right. These pictures add up to Ben wearing underpants FULL-TIME! He has been too big for his diapers for a while, but they finally started bothering him bad enough that he was willing to try some underpants. Once I got him in them there has been no going back!! He is doing such a great job! and it is really cool to have such a big kid!

The cutie.

It has gotten cold! and Clara is sporting her fleece in style!

I include this photo to document the hilarious state of her hair! notice this luscious pig tails are comprised of hair from the middle, top, and sides of her head! the back is all about an inch long! It cracks me up! there are is a school of thought that says I should trim the long stuff so it looks all nice and even. But I disagree entirely! I love having the long stuff to play with! These pig tails are ridiculously cute!

And If I cut it there would be not full pony tails! She looks like she could be in an 80's music video!