Christmas Stuff (Long Post)

I picked up this gingerbread house on clearance before Christmas and Grace and I had a great time putting it together,  It took some finangling and one broken wall but they gave us a bunch of icing so it worked.  Then she and Aaron had a blast eating the candy off!

 Aaron wishing he could help too! Just a drool bucket he is.  He is talking more, and walks up and down the halls following me saying, "Ma Ma Ma Ma!"

 The finished product side one.

 The finished product side two, with a cutie pie waving.

 This is Grace's new to her toddler bed.  Aaron loves being able to climb up into it.  I got it for $35 with the mattress and a pink fitted sheet.  It had some stickers on it and some paint scuffs.  We got all the stickers and paint off and the foot board still has some scratches but will work and Grace LOVES it.  Every night she is excited to sleep in her toddler bed.  And so far another added bonus she hasn't gotten out in the morning after two nights! In the morning when she hears me up with Aaron she calls out, "MOM!!! MOM!!!" K and I were pondering tonight whether she hasn't realized yet that she can get out, or what I think she is just is so behaved and used to routine. 

 After her first nap in her bed.  I have to record this funny story, on Christmas day Grace was acting up a bit and driving daddy a lil bit crazy with her constant sass.  We were getting ready to go up to K's grandmother's place and we were buckling her into her car seat and she was just being her lil spitfire self.  (Side note story) So at night we sing to Grace before bedtime and we sing You are my Sunshine.  One of the lines in the song is, "You never know dear how much I love you".  Grace runs around all the time saying, "You never know dear!"  Sometimes silly and sometimes full of sass.  The other thing she is always pointing out is who are boys and who are girls.  Like Daddy is a boy, Mommy is a girl and so on and so forth.  So anyways we had buckled her into the car seat and Daddy was getting into his seat telling her she needed to stop being so sassy or something to that effect.  She said something sassy, and K says, "I'm a warrior!!!!" in a boisterous voice.  And Grace replied as only she can, "I'M A GIRL...YOU NEVER KNOW DEAR!!!" K and I started cracking up at the underlining meaning.  It was the most hilarious thing and of course since we were laughing she thought she was just the cat's meow.

 

 We had a great Christmas with the kids.  They slept in till about 8am and that was perfect.  Grace was so thrilled and now that she can open presents a lot faster the morning spend by!  Which was great because last year it seemed to take hours and hours and we were just so busy.  This year we were able to spend some time just relaxing until it was time to cook and then head to K's grandmothers for the evening.  K also had Monday off after Christmas and so we spent another day doing nothing just hanging as a family.  Tonight we tried to take Grace to her first dance class but despite me calling earlier this afternoon to double check the instructor wasn't there.  Grace was a little disappointed but she had fun playing with daddy and singing with him on the way home and she quickly forgot.  We are going to try again next week. 

We are also planning Grace's birthday party.  I can't believe she is turning 3! My sweet first born is getting so big and articulate.  We are planning a joint birthday party at Bouncing off the Walls an indoor bounce house place with a little girlfriend of Grace's who is turning 4.  We went there a few times with playgroup during their 'open' bounce time, and decided to split the cost since our daughters birthdays are so close together and have the same friends.  It should be fun.

I finally am posting some belly pictures!!! I am 23 weeks along and hadn't taken any belly pictures of this sweet girl growing until tonight!  Another few more weeks and I will be in the third trimester.  This pregnancy has been pretty easy compared to the other two.  I am starting to feel the heaviness of pregnancy I suppose.  In the mornings my joints are creaky and I have my mattress topper on the bed which is great.  Still not a lot of heartburn or gas which is so great.  Today I did start to feel tired and took a shower when I put the kids down, then tried to take a nap.  It was great because both kids got great naps.  I have been working on transition Aaron to one long nap a day and today he did pretty well.  First this morning he slept straight through until 8am, no early morning fuss (he always wakes up on the wrong side of the bed), and he did wake up after an hour at nap time but then I settled him back down for another hour!!! WooHoo!

Tonight we are watching Cowboys vs Aliens which has been surprisingly interesting and not much alien footage which is good.  Hope you are enjoying your holiday as much as we are!