december. catch up.

literally no clue where i left off in my photo a day here. i’ll have to go back and read my blog in a minute.
xmas eve, was so different this year. my dh was working, and we usually host it for both families, but everyone was either working or out of the country. so, we attended the early church service, after going to a local pasta place. i was surprised at how crowded it was! emi had a friend over for a playdate in the morning, and her older sister came along, too. mari just loved running around acting like a big girl.
ok, i wish i had my camera working xmas. it is working, it is just the mem card is acting funny. and it wasn’t until after breakfast, while we were opening gifts and seeing the sheer joy on my girl’s faces that i felt the blessings He brings this time of year. i had just learned on xmas eve, that my dear friend’s husband had suffered from cardiac arrest. my brother and his gf are in costa rica, and xmas was just off. well, after seeing emi open her gift from santa, it brought it all back. she wanted 2 things: 1. to take tae kwon do lessons. 2. the wall.e movie santa delivered both, but seeing her excitement, and then the fact that she was so happy, she was going to cry [um, yeah, totally my kid!], it just melted my heart.
xmas was wonderful, we spent it at my parents, and after lunch and a much needed nap, we woke up to the wonderful smells only my mom’s kitchen can create, and just had a ball! the girls’ opened more presents, i started making my thank you cards- i made over 30 of them, and they are nearly all written, sealed, and addressed. i have a few more to make, and if i remember, i will photograph them and post them. the day after xmas, we spent lounging, playing outside in the glorious sun in my parent’s beautiful backyard, had an awesome lunch at our fave chinese food spot, and got another nap in:) my mom and i worked on creating her annual calendars for families and friends, however, this year was more time intensive because she chose to customize each one and we used the bind it all. we made 28 of them! we did 12 mini layouts per calendar, trimmed and then binded them. yes, 28. see where i get it from? LOL. my dh went to see a warriors game friday night with my dad, and us girls stayed up til 10:30pm working on thank yous and calendars. emi was tired! saturday, we had a wonderful breakfast, packed up and came home! and after unpacking, doing laundry, and vaccuming, emi and i headed out and ran some errands. i’ve got ideas for our extended family gifts for next year that will include emi’s artwork, and we scored on some ornaments at 70% off.
today, after church, i hit the gym! daddy took the girls grocery shopping, and played outside. he met his sis and bro for a late lunch, and us girls had our nap/down time.

anyway- my dh will work on recapturing some of my lost images…but for now, please enjoy this one:

gets me everytime. look at her, she is so happy playing in the dirt, yet such a lil girly girl with her lil doll, giving kisses to her fave animals, and all maternal. and at 2 yrs old, she is at 95% of her height and 50% of her weight, and full of sass. she almost has her ABCS down, and can now count from 1 – 10. and i can even understand about 90% of it. so very PROUD of my lil princess puff!!!