Santa Came!

We had a lovely Christmas Day! Santa obviously came during the night and dropped some goodies off for us.

Santa seemed to enjoy his brownies and milk. The reindeer goodies also disappeared, so we did our part to keep Santa and his reindeer nourished!

Amelia was ready for breakfast first thing, so we took a few minutes for a blueberry waffle before bringing Madeline down & opening gifts.

Madeline is so funny on Christmas morning. She gets a shy bone with all the attention, so she wants to be carried down the steps and into the spotlight.

Grandma greets her with a Merry Christmas!

Amelia was apparently really hungry, so instead of making Madeline wait for her to finish up, we moved her breakfast seating into the living room.

Madeline started with her stocking, and she received a Barbie doll. She was very excited that Santa must've read her letter!

Patiently waiting for Mommy to undo the Barbie from her wrappings.

Who needs presents when you have wrapping paper?

Gift opening with Madeline is sort of a long process. She enjoys getting out each gift and playing with it immediately. Her face says it all!

Christmas Morning family photo!

Amelia finally got around to opening up one of her gifts, and she loved the blocks.

Amelia received a little Barbie doll as well.

All in all, a wonderful day spent with family. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve & Other Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Our family had several pre-Christmas gatherings in order to accommodate everyone's desire to visit with as much family as possible during this busy time of year.

Nana and Papa came to visit us Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve. We enjoyed playing with them and opening a few gifts. We had a nice visit with our Stewart grandparents. We also had a pre-Christmas celebration with my brothers and their families. We had a lovely day of heavy appetizers, gift opening, and visiting.

Amelia showing off her walking skills for Nana and Papa. Notice she is not in the above picture. She wanted nothing to do with a group picture.

Madeline especially loved her matching jammas. Now she and Stella can be twins!
Uncle Pat and Aunt Kim made an appearance.

Amelia just chillin in the middle of the festivities.

Opening gifts with Nana and Papa.

On Christmas Eve night, we set out our reindeer food. Madeline really enjoyed this little activity!

Santa sent us a special request for brownies and milk, so of course, we happily obliged.
All bathed up and ready for night night! Snuggles with Grandma!
Sweet dreams and Merry Christmas!

ONE YEAR OLD

Sweet Amelia is 12 months old! What a wild year it's been for all of us. Amelia is such a sweet, silly girl. She loves to laugh, cuddle, wave, clap, eat, and play with Little People & blocks. Unfortunately, Amelia also does a lot of fussing, drooling, snotting, and running fever. Poor thing, she was dealt a rough deck with reflux, ear infections, intense teething pain, and many little ailments along the way. Poor baby is super tight with our sweet Doctor B.
Amelia eats like a champ when she's feeling good. Waffles, carrots, green beans, crackers, yogurt, applesauce, and milk are probably her most favorite things. However, she's learning to point at our food on our plate and will try just about anything we are eating. She has tasted and loved pickles, banana peppers, chips, pretzels, cheeseburger, chicken, french fries, roast beef, and the list goes on! Those four teeth can gnash and tear up some food! :) Just recently, Amelia's discovered the use of her pincers to pick up the little scraps on her tray. Gotta love those newfound skills.

Amelia lights up when she sees Madeline and other little babies. She's a social little thing. She doesn't like to be excluded from the crowd. Her babbling, squealing, pointing, and knowing what she wants is really improving. It's getting easier to understand her wants, and we've got another little independent girl on our hands. Amelia makes it known what she wants!

She's a playful little thing. Amelia can turbo crawl after Madeline, and she gets to her destination quickly! She's pulling up and starting to cruise along furniture, and she loves to walk with us holding her hands.

Look at that belly...so cute.

Amelia got her first haircut a day or so after her birthday. Just like her big sister, she seemed to really enjoy getting pampered.

Madeline was super excited to celebrate Amelia's birthday --- cake, singing, presents are FUN!

Amelia wasn't so sure about her cake.

Hmm, what is this?

Kinda sticky...

Not a huge fan of the cake, but I'm sure that will change!

Amelia, we love you to pieces sweet girl! You are a blessing to our family, and we are looking forward to seeing what this year brings!

Countdown to Christmas Continues

Madeline really got into picking her "list" from the Advent Calendar and finding Patty each morning.

We had hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and A Charlie Brown Christmas after bathtime. The hot chocolate was a first and a huge HIT!
Patty participated in our "list" that day.

To celebrate Mommy's 36th birthday, we made s'mores on our indoor maker. Again, Madeline felt like such a big girl coming down after bathtime to do something fun!

So carefully roasting...

Possibly the best reaction to food EVER from Madeline after she bit into her delicious treat, "Mmmmm!"

Mommy had fun celebrating her birthday super low key. Seems to be a theme for us this year.

The Gingerbread house...

So proud of her handiwork...

Silliness after the Gingerbread house...Patty brought those headbands for the girls.

Decorating Amelia's birthday cake...again, a simple family party for Amelia's first birthday. Madeline used this spatula for about three swipes of icing, and then...

thinking about it...

the licking began! Mommy had to finish the icing while my chocoholic went to town on that spatula.

A Stewart cake is not complete without sprinkles!

A few more sprinkles...

And, a few more!

Licking all the icing covered sprinkles off her hands

Amelia's first birthday cake! Such a homegrown little party for our sweet girl, but we had fun.