The Christmas Spider Visits

Last night was a great kick off for the Holiday season. We started a few new traditions for our little family. We started the night off by building a ginger bread house. Eleanor and I picked a kit up at Costco a few weeks ago and she's been so anxious to put it together. John was a good sport and put in a few good hours frosting all the pieces together and helping Eleanor decorate it. By the time he finished he was sick to his stomach from all the frosting (and that frosting is disgusting!).

A few years ago my mom and Elyse made all of us a beaded Christmas spider. I thought it would be fun to teach Eleanor the story of the Christmas Spider and include it with the ritual of setting up the Christmas tree. So, after the building of the ginger bread house, the girls got a bath and I got things ready for the spider. All week I'd been telling Eleanor all about the Christmas Spider and how she would leave the girls gifts under the tree when she got to our house. Eleanor has had quite an obsession with spiders this year, so she was beyond excited to "hold" the Christmas Spider.

After the bath Eleanor had to find the spider on the tree and then got to open the presents she left for the girls. The spider left them matching Christmas pajamas. This was the first time Eleanor and Amelia have had matching clothes and Eleanor loved it!

Once everyone was changed into their pajamas we turned off all the lights except for the Christmas tree and Dad read us the story of the Christmas Spider. Eleanor was so cute and listened to the entire story. She then wanted to tell us her story. It was pretty much the same as John's, but in her version the little girl didn't have to put the Christmas Spider back on the tree.

We also finished decorating the tree. This is our first year of not having a real tree. Although I miss the smell, I'd have to say a fake tree is much easier! While decorating the tree, Eleanor found the wooden horse ornament from my mom and John and I told her about Mimi's liver transplant. She asked us to tell her the story about 3 times and then called Mimi and Grandpa to tell them.

It really was such a fun night. I told John the Holidays are so much more fun with kids! I love the excitement Eleanor has for Christmas this year. The poor girl wakes up every morning and asks if it's Christmas yet. I remember being a kid and thinking Christmas took FOREVER to come each year!

Eleanor the Fashionista...

The past few months Eleanor has been a little obsessed with dressing herself. She has quite the imagination and has put together some pretty entertaining outfits. Her outfits include 0-3 months clothes, my bra and lingerie, John's boxers and of course she always has to have a hat. Most days she puts together at least 3-4 outfits. It can become quite the battle to get her to wear an outfit of my choosing when we leave the house.

Eleanor and Amelia

Everyone keeps asking how Eleanor is doing with the new addition of Amelia into our family. The answer is "GREAT"! She loves this little baby. She is always wanting to hold her and keeps asking me if she can just carry her around like I do. Luckly she's never tried carring her, but she did drag her across my bedroom floor. Poor Amelia lost a good chunck of hair during her "slide".

Eleanor is constenly helping me out with Amelia. I can ask her to run and make sure Amelia isn't crying or tell Eleanor to go talk to Amelia so she doesn't cry. The other day I was getting into the shower and asked Eleanor to lay on the bed and keep an eye on Amelia while she sleeps. When I got of the shower Eleanor yeld to me, "Mom, I'm going to get something in my room. Can you please keep an eye on Amelia and make sure Bear doesn't get her". After a few minutes she came back into my room, got on the bed and told me thanks for watching Amelia.

Eleanor is also great at taking Amelia's diapers to the garbage. All I have to do is tell Eleanor I have a special delivery for her and she comes and takes the diaper to the garbage. The other day she even changed the diaper with me. By the time I have my next baby it will be just like having a live in nanny!

This is Eleanor's favorite way to hold Amelia. I'm not too sure if Amelia feels the same way....

Love her

Even when she is crying!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was very enjoyable. It was nice to have John home from work for one day! John's parents decided to take everyone to a restaurant rather than cooking this year. On the way to the restaurant I made John stop by the photobooth so we could take photos for our Christmas card. Who knew it would be so hard to get a good photo of a 4 week old baby! I tried my hardest to get her to wake up. I undressed her, ticked her feet, took her out in the cold but nothing worked!



After dinner with the Martins we went home and John, Eleanor and Amelia all took a nap. I took our photobooth photos and finished our Christmas card. We then headed up to Farmington to have our second dinner with the Baldwins. The company and the food were great!

The past few weeks Eleanor has insisted on being called Savannah. She is quick to correct ANYONE who calls her Eleanor. It's starting to drive me nuts! Well Thanksgiving was no different. She made all the Baldwins call her Savannah. Then she got tricky on us and switched her name to Sleeping Beauty (Rachelle helped her dress up as Sleeping Beauty).

Before we sat down to eat, Eleanor went up stairs and changed into a dress-up. Before she would come down the stairs I had to make an announcement that Savannah was coming down the stairs. She was dead serious about it!


Overall our Thanksgiving was fabulous. The only bad thing about not having Thanksgiving at your own house is you miss out on all the leftovers!! Maybe next year John and I will brave it and have the celebration at our home!

Amelia Studio Shots