Christmas Day

Paul remembers waking up very early every Christmas morning of his childhood.  Well, Hayden is not a morning person at all, so we woke up about our normal time around 8:30 am!  She was very excited when she woke up and she knew it was Christmas morning!  

First we went and checked out our stockings.  Santa Claus left Hayden a note next to our empty plate of cookies and carrot.  He also left her a table and Minnie Mouse Birthday Bowtique.  We videoed this and so I have no pictures!  She carefully looked over each item in her stocking and was excited about each thing she opened.  Our elf Peeta, also let Santa know that Paul left his "cutie" in his stocking last year, so this year Santa had a sense of humor and put Paul's orange in a ziploc bag!

Next we went to our tree and let Hayden open this first, she always shows her emotions clearly doesn't she? Could she be any happier?

 This is probably Paul's all time favorite gift.  My mom found him a really nice copy of Atlas Shrugged, his favorite book.  There are only 800 copies and he got #81 I believe.  He was so shocked as he has looked for nice copies in our price range before without any luck.

Here is Hayden in her Rapunzel dress and toys!

My new favorite quote from Hayden occurred as she opened this present from Grandma Anne and Papa Steve.  When she saw the Belle dress she said, "Dreams really do come true!"  How hilarious is that.  We can't stop talking about how clever she was :)

Paul has wanted these new running shoes forever and I led him to believe I did not get them for him, so he was pretty excited about these as well! 

This may be one of Hayden favorite presents from my Mom and Dad.  She loves being Paul and I's physician and is constantly giving us shots and checking our blood pressure.  

Paul got me a really cute maxi skirt (I wore it to church today and got a number of compliments.  People were astonished that Paul picked it out all by himself!) and this sewing machine was my highlight.  I'm excited to embark on some new projects when I get some time!

After opening presents I made sweetie hotcakes while Hayden and Paul started watching Brave.  We let Hayden play with presents and we were able to face time with all our family.  Then around 3 pm we went back to our friends the Heinholds and ate leftovers and played games all night.  It was a great time.  I'm so thankful for our "family" out in the south, I don't know what we would have done without them.  Again, I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the Heinholds, we really do have too much fun! 

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

This is going to be a very long post because my blog has been temporarily out of service the last 2 months!  I ran out of storage and didn't want to delete past posts, but finally found a way to continue writing without deleting old posts.  So I have the whole month of December to catch up.  We had a great holiday season.  It was very busy, but wonderful to watch my 3 year old get excited about EVERYTHING.  So this post will be all about preparing for Christmas :)

We stayed busy the entire month!  We repainted our family room and got new carpet which has been an AMAZING transformation.  I used to hate our family room the most and it now finally feels like a homey place.  I should have taken before and after pictures, but I'll post some soon.  I couldn't have done it all without Paul's help and more importantly my two friends Stephanie and Brittney.  They came over and helped all day.

In the south, it is popular to put wreaths up in your windows.  I loved it so much last year that I bought wreaths when they all went on sale and put them up this year.  I loved the way it turned out and was sad to take them down.

 Hayden was invited to a couple of Christmas parties this year.  Here is her letter to Santa.  She asked for a blue Cinderella dress.

Decorating Gingerbread Houses

The whole gang

Poor Hayden had a cold and it affected her eyes so they were all goopy this day.

Next our task was to put up and decorate our Christmas tree.  This was our first year getting a fake tree (Paul actually got us an awesome deal on Black Friday).  Last year I had tons of allergies associated with the tree, so it was inevitable.  I've had a real tree my entire life, so it was kind of sad at first.  But I did grow to love not cleaning up pine needles all month!

Can you tell how excited Hayden was about this?  I couldn't get any clear pictures because she wouldn't stop dancing around.

This is one of my favorite pictures, why do kids love jumbling all the ornaments into one spot?

When I went to hang up our stockings this year, Paul's had weird black dots on the outside of it.  I was so puzzled and I looked inside and a small, black, wonderfully smelling ball popped out.  Yep, you've got it, Paul left his "cutie" from last year.  It molded the whole toe of his stocking.  This is a picture of the inside after multiple washes!  I was shocked that it still smelled so fruity!  I will never let him forget this one :)

We also went to the YMCA Christmas Party.  They had a petting zoo, crafts (or as Hayden calls them, "crapts") and a train ride with Santa Claus.  

 Here is Hayden and her friend Kyla waiting for the train to come back

 Hayden was terrified of Santa at first, but after she saw Kyla hugging him she decided to give him a try.

She sat on his lap the entire train ride!

We also have a tradition of making homemade gingerbread houses.  We invited our friends the Baggetts over for dinner and decorating. They have a son, Charlie who is the same age as Hayden.  The nursery leaders always tell me that Hayden is going to marry Charlie someday.  They love being together!

My Grandma Cowan always did the 12 Days of Christmas for all her grandchildren and my mom has carried on that tradition.  I love watching Hayden open her small gift each day because it brings back all the wonderful memories I have with my grandma and the special lady that she was.  Here is Hayden in her last gift, Christmas pajamas.  She LOVED the tutu!

We have amazing next door neighbors.  They love Hayden and have gotten her a little gift the last few years. Here she is in her bakers outfit.  She has been whipping up muffins, pancakes, and sweetie hotcakes for weeks now!

Christmas Eve we had a wonderful dinner with our friends the Heinholds.  They had no family in town either so we made the best of it by spending time with each other.  I made my grandma's rolls, a salad, and my mom's Derby Pie.  Stephanie made a yummy ham, potatoes, jello salad, and pie.  We played games and talked for awhile before going home to open our Christmas pajamas and reading the Christmas Story.  We must have had too much fun with the Heinholds because I didn't get a single picture!  I hate when I do that!

Hayden was so excited to put out cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph.  She talked in her room for almost an hour before falling asleep, she was so excited!  

December really flew by, we also went to a caroling party, the ward and Relief Society Christmas parties, and I had several doctors appointments throughout the month (I'll probably blog about this later...) Holidays are so much fun with Hayden!

Thanksgiving

For 3 years in a row now we have been fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with my cousin Becca and her husband Ben.  We have a great time with them each year and feel lucky to spend the holidays with family!  Wednesday, Hayden and I did a lot of prepping for Thanksgiving day.  We made 2 pies, rolls, and a fruit salad.  This is one of my favorite outfits on Hayden.  How cute does she look!

Here we are preparing the rolls, she was all to helpful and kept saying it was just like her play dough! 

Once Becca and Ben got through all the terrible traffic and finally got to our home we took them to the Marietta Diner for dinner and of course you can't go there without getting some dessert!  They are famous for their cake.  

The next day was Turkey Day, so that morning while Ben and Paul started forming a game plan for Black Friday shopping, Becca and I finished up everything in the kitchen.  Paul was in charge of the turkey again and we used a wet brine recipe my friend Stephanie Heinhold gave us.  Paul did a great job!  

Here in our table all set and ready for dinner to begin:

Hayden sure did love our company!

After eating and hanging out we got ready and went out to shop.  Neither of our families were ever really into  Black Friday, but last year we went to a few stores and had such a fun time that we decided to do it again.  It was much warmer than last year thank goodness.  Here we are out in front of Sports Authority. The first 50 people (or something like that) got scratch cards for free money!

Guess who won the one $500 amount???? BEN!  We were so excited for him!  He was able to get new golf clubs, and some new clothes for Becca.  They were so nice and even shared some of the money with us and got us a batting tee for Hayden and a crochet set.  Becca and I won $10 and Paul won $25.  

After a long night and day of Black Friday shopping we decided to hang out and play some games at home.  On Saturday we took them to Marietta Square and shopped around and went to Miss Mamie's Cupcakes as well as our favorite restaurant Papa Citas.  

We did a lot of eating, shopping, talking, and gaming.  We had a great time with them as usual and are so grateful for their friendship.  Traffic was horrible for them on Sunday as well and so appreciate the sacrifice they made to come visit with us.