Christmas in Charlotte

Each year on Christmas Eve we go to Christmas Eve service with my family. It is fun to see how this changes each year with the kids. This year Hailey actually knew some of the Christmas carols we sang, held her own candle and wanted to sit with her cousins instead of Mommy. 

I love the tradition of going to this service because I feel like it really sets my heart in the right place before all of the craziness begins. 

After service we go to Ryan's parents house to do dinner and gifts with his extended family. This year Hailey and Maddox (Ryan's cousin's little boy) were two peas in a pod and played so well together. 

I tried to get a cute Christmas Eve picture of the kids before bed but...

Christmas morning we went to my parents house first. The kids had fun opening gifts and then just playing together. 

Hailey got all things Paw Patrol and Reece got some cute new toys. 

Reece trying to check out Das' presents. 

Hailey made ornaments for everyone for Christmas. She was so excited to have them open them up 

I love these cousins! I hate that we were missing Caleb 

Around lunch time we headed back to Ryan's parents' house for round two. The kids had a blast again. 

Hailey in a mountain of presents

Reece finally had fun with the present opening...on the last gift

He loved his new ride-on toy!

Hailey got some awesome new toys and crafty things I can't wait to get into! 

After a fun, exciting and yet long Christmas Day we were all exhausted. But we needed to rest because we were leaving for Tennessee in the morning!...

Pre-Christmas Fun

We left for Charlotte on December 21 and continued our Christmas celebrations. We spent a few days with Ryan's parents and did some fun things like 

Have a tea party. Reece got invited to this one. He's not quite as "refined" as Hailey. Ha!

Visited Concord Mills mall and rode the carousel. It was Reece's first ride! He liked it until his horse started moving. 

Had a fashion show with Mimi's shoes

Built a gingerbread house

Made cookies with Rebecca and Mimi

And Reece got his first hair trim by Mommy

Before:

After:

We had so much fun leading up to Christmas but it was only beginning!

Raleigh Christmas 2015

Since we are traveling for Christmas we decided to have our family Christmas on Saturday. Hailey was SO excited. She had been asking all week when she could open her stocking and presents. 

Earlier in the week she was so excited she decided to stuff "stockings" for all of our family. It was adorable. She stuffed them with her little toys. I love that little girl!

Anyways... I got the stockings stuffed for real on Friday night and just waited for the fun to begin Saturday morning!

Look at my little cuties on Saturday (Christmas) morning!

They both enjoyed pulling things out of their stockings. Reece seemed to be the most excited about his new sippy cup and Hailey was excited about her Paw Patrol toothpaste. 

Then came the main event! Presents! Ryan and I decided before Hailey's first Christmas to do three presents per kid: a need, a want and a surprise. 

Hailey got new shoes to wear outside in the yard, Hungry Hungry Hippos and the Lookout (from Paw Patrol). She was super excited about Hungry Hungry Hippos and we've already played it a lot. She of course loved the Lookout and spent a lot of time before we left coming up with adventures for her pups. 

Reece didn't get as into ripping the paper as I thought he would. He got new pants, books and a sports toy. Of course he didn't care one bit about the pants, he liked the books and he played a lot with the sports toy. 

This year I decided to let Hailey pick out presents for Ryan and Reece. She had the best time shopping for them, wrapping them up and especially watching them open it!

She got golf tees for Ryan

And a ball for Reece (he LOVED the ball)

After presents I made breakfast and then we spent the rest of the day playing and packing for our trip. We played many rounds of Hungry Hungry Hippos and threw a ball lots of times. 

We also took time to read the Christmas story and talk about the true meaning of Christmas. I pray that through the fun and busyness of traveling over the holidays that we all remember that. 

We had a great family Christmas! I loved spending time as just our little family of four but now it's time to celebrate on a larger scale! Charlotte here we come!

Reece is 10 months old!

Only two more months until we're celebrating this little man's first birthday! How can that be?! 

Reece weighs about 19 or 20 lbs. we is wearing 12 month clothes, size 4 diaper and a size 3 shoe. He has 4 teeth and one more trying to come in. 

He is still a terrible sleeper although we did have almost a week where he slept from 7:30-5. Unfortunately he is now back to waking up once a night. Reece still takes a 30 minutes nap every two or three hours. One bit of progress us that he is putting himself to sleep for those...

Reece is completely on table foods now, no more baby food for him! His favorites are mixed veggies, butternut squash and cheese. He also likes Mac and cheese, grilled cheese, bagels, waffles, cereal bars and as of last night tiny bites of pizza. Ha! He still isn't a fan of fruit although I can get him to eat mandarin oranges. He does great with a sippy cup. Reece still gets s bottle in the morning and at night, although we just stopped his reflux medicine. Yay! He nurses every three hours during the day. 

This boy is a climber! And *almost* walking. He is so close! He will now cruise from furniture to wall to walker/toy. He just won't let go yet! 

Reece loves to push his cars and trucks all around the house and it makes me smile everytime. He also learned how to throw a ball this month and can entertain himself quite nicely just throwing and chasing his ball when mommy is busy. 

He is mischievous and always into something 

He still loves his daddy best, unless he doesn't feel well. He watches Hailey like a hawk and wants to play with her constantly. 

He loves to play with our instruments. The maracas are his favorite. He loves to crawl around holding onto the maraca and just stop every so often and shake it and just smile. 

He has quite the temper when he doesn't get his way and can pout with the best of them. 

He melts my heart daily and I can't imagine life without him. We love you Reece Anthony!