Nothing like...

ringing in the New Year as a couple of princesses...

 and dancing the night away

in our jammies!

Wouldn't have done New Year's Eve any different!

Christmas in review!

It's only 18 days into the new year but I feel like I am way behind on our Christmas post.  The Christmas season was SO fun this year because Alivia "got" it!  She started to understand Santa, we could even use him as leverage for good behavior.  But, more importantly, she started to understand the true meaning of Christmas -  the birth of our Savior!  She loved all of the lights, ornaments, music, goodies, etc.!  We wrote to Santa and received both a letter in the mail and a video via email.  We had an plush elf named Buddy that she fell in love with.  Next year I think we are going to request an elf that we don't "play with" since Buddy missed a few reports because he went missing in the house.  I can't wait to do it all over again next year when she "gets" it even more!

I couldn't find an Advent Calendar that I really liked so I decided to make on...Needless to say, it wasn't actually usable until about half way through December.  And it isn't actually finished - notice there are only buttons on the bottom half.  Hoping to finish it sometime before next Christmas!

 Making cookies for Santa

 Alivia decorated these cookies specifically for Santa...

boy were they covered with frosting and sprinkles!

 Setting up the plate for Santa and his reindeer

 Screaming for excitement that Santa is FINALLY coming

 Buddy hanging out with the "leftovers"...which I had to explain was part of the proof that Santa was there.  Alivia was a little disappointed that the cookies were all gone.

 the goods!

Opening her bitty baby from Santa! 

Princess Livi taking a break from playing 

Christmas was GREAT to this little girl! 

and sharing the experience with her was PRICELESS for us!

The big man!!

Alivia showed surprising interest in the big man Santa this year!  I was for sure we were in for another crying Santa photo but I was wrong!  We were walking through the mall right before Thanksgiving and Alivia spotted Santa and nearly knocked him over as she ran to hug him.  She then proceeded to have about a 5 min conversation with him.  I didn't have my camera with me at the time but we definitely made another trip to see him (and in my opinion a really good one!)!  We also grabbed a couple photos of each of us with her!

Thanksgiving...

We spent Thanksgiving with Tom's side of the family.  Alivia loves spending time with her cousins and family!

The Fourth with Friends...better late than never!

 Lady Liv-erty!

 Baby Harrison

 Will, Alivia, Jackson, Harrison, Kate, and Noah

Kate, Alivia and Jackson hanging on the deck

Bunny Foo Foo

Easter was super fun this year.  Alivia LOVED hunting for Easter eggs and by the 4th hunt (yes 4) she was a pro.  We saw the Easter Bunny (aka Bunny Foo Foo) at the mall but only for a short hello...no picture.  If you saw our Santa picture, you can only imagine how the bunny would have gone.  We did manage to take picture with the Easter Bunny when it visited Jamie and Darren's house.  If you look at her face you will see she wasn't too happy about it. (If she only knew it was her Uncle Darren!)

Easter Egg Hunt #1 at Aunt Jamie and Uncle Darren's

 Easter Egg Hunt #2 with Gigi and Papa's neighborhood

Easter Egg Hunt #3 on Easter at Church

Easter Egg Hunt #4 on Easter at Jamie and Darren's 

(I guess I didn't think we needed any more pics of Easter egg hunts)

St. Patty's Day!

Alivia started St. Patty's day not wanting to take pictures...

 But finished the day super happy...

 loving the weather,

 and then heading to Gigi and Papa's for corn beef and cabbage!

My little Valentine...

was so excited to spend some time outside today

 in her Valentine's day shirt

 and her new red kicks

 with the sweetest little smile on her face.

A New Old Fashioned Christmas

We are so excited to be part of the newly formed church Streams of Life.  

(Quick back story)

After a series of events, we decided to leave the church that we had been attending for a number of years.  It was the church that we were married and Alivia was baptized so the decision to leave was extremely hard.  Ultimately we felt that we were being pulled from the church and later decided that God was releasing us from that church to be able to do His work with what turns out to be a new church plant.

So with this new church came a who new Christmas tradition.  We currently meet in a basement and have already outgrown that space on a normal Sunday so we knew we would need a different venue for Christmas.  We were blessed with a perfect little Church and Hall in Elk City, just a few minutes northwest of Elkhorn.  With this location we were able to have our first New Old Fashioned Christmas.  It was absolutely perfect!!  I had the privilege of helping lead the service and my niece Ayla and brother-in-law Darren took part as well!