A Magical Christmas

Here I am blogging a little late about Christmas-surprise, surprise, but Lena Kate still wants it to be Christmas, she even prays for it to be Christmas at night!

We started off the festivities at the Daws' Christmas Eve party. This year Lena Kate was big enough to play with the other kids without direct supervision which allowed us to visit and have a good time. She was making pictures and bringing them to us periodically. Ainslee was a good little girl too. Then we headed to Granny's.

Babies bring Granny much joy. Can you believe she is 91 years old-and no her hair is not colored?!

Santa came to see the girls soon after we arrived. It is so special to have our very own Santa visit every year. He's so very special to us. You have to love a Santa in cowboy boots! Lena Kate LOVED Santa this year and was SOOOO excited that he came to see her at Granny's house.

She declared it the best Christmas ever after he left. Ainslee liked him this year as well.

She was fascinated by his beard.

Lena Kate wanted to open her gifts as well as everyone else's.

I was so happy to get some good Santa pictures. Christmas day Lena Kate was the first to wake up and surprisingly she came to our room first rather to checking out Santa's offerings. I had to show her the piles Santa left and we waited for Daddy and Ainslee to get up before she was able to open her gifts. We headed over to Mimi and Papa's for lunch and Christmas with them. Lena Kate was on Christmas overload, but had a super fun day. Ainslee was a good girl too. This year I got new boots from Lane which I absolutely LOVE. They are Ariat's and sooo comfortable. I crocheted my little heart out and was able to get Lane an new .270 rifle with the earning from my hat sales.

We spent the rest of the week visiting Mimi and Papa at their condo in Rockport and going to cousin Matthew's 6th birthday party. We topped off the week by heading to San Antonio for New Year's Eve at Trent and Nancy's house. Leelee and Paw joined us and we had a nice dinner and just visited and played with the girls. It wasn't a wild party considering the biggest excitement was Trent calling the cops on the neighbors shooting off lots of large fireworks across the street. You know your are old when you are the one calling in the illegal firework shooters rather than shooting them off yourself...granted we have only shot them out in the country. Why would you put your home and others' at risk?! Anyway.....it was a good time and we are excited about the new year.

In our home the new year brought on sleep training for Miss Ainslee. She was waking nearly every hour and it was getting ridiculous. With Lena Kate it took her 3 days to learn to go to sleep on her own and cut out night feedings as well was sleep through the night. Ainslee has been a bit tougher and cried longer, but she is definitely doing much better after nearly a week and the last two nights when she woke up, she was able to go back to sleep without me having to go in at all after 20 minutes and then just 1o minutes last night. She still cries for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes before going to sleep for a nap or bedtime. It is hard on a Mama to hear her baby and not rock them and hold them the way they want. I so love that she wants me to cuddle her, but it is just too tough to get up every hour when she wakes and I know it will be better for her in the long run, as well as the rest of us. If only we could pick and choose when we got to rock them and when they would go to sleep on their own. I'm definitely soaking up the cuddling when I'm away from home at naptime-like today at church. Day 4 was ROUGH and I had a rough night. I think I cried more tears than she did. The dark of night at 3:30 in the morning can be a lonely sad time when your baby is crying for you and all you want to do is go get her, yet, you are the one keeping yourself from doing it. It is tough to know that soon she won't want me to rock her and I'm denying myself that joy on purpose right now when she does. Fortunately, the next night was much better. I prayed that it would be and God granted me the relief and reassurance that everything was going to be ok. God is good, all the time. I had a momentary dip in attitude, but reminded myself I was so blessed to have a healthy and happy baby and that soon it would be just a memory. With the rise of the sun comes a new opportunity.

I love that my girls are so different. -both personality and looks. Lena Kate is miss independent and Ainslee, at this point, is a Mama's girl for sure. She will crawl/scoot across the room pretty fast to get to me, and I love it. I think that they will be alike in the fact that they walk early. Ainslee is already pulling herself up to standing at 6.5 months, so I'm thinking she'll match her sister and walk in a couple of months. It is funny to see such a little thing standing and playing.

Random note: Children's time at church is hilarious. This morning Pastor Patti was talking about shells and LK immediately took the shell and put it up to her ear declaring she could hear the ocean. Then when talking about Jesus being baptised in the river, Lena Kate said, "the river, ducks live at the river-quack, quack." There was another line in there that got everybody chuckling but I can't remember what it was. I need to record each Sunday. She's a hoot. When they pray at the end, she quints her eyes shut and it is so cute. Gotta love my little precious "angel".

A classic photo

Surveying her loot with new doll she got the night before and her milk in hand.

Her favorite gift from Santa-Princess slippers-these are ALWAYS on now :)

May you have a blessed and God-filled week.