Merry Christmas. . .a month later

I wanted to share a few snapshots of moving day and our best Christmas ever. We moved into our new home FIVE days before Christmas. . . to say the least that was not my idea but it turned out great and now we have fond memories of the first Christmas in our first real home.

Moving day. . . my thoughts exactly

That's right, we moved all our presents and put up the Christmas tree twice.  I was especially grateful for our older kids that day.

Thankfully Grandma Allen was there to help along with my parents.

Some boxes were heavier to move than others

On to Christmas- the kiddos made Santa milk & egg free cookies this year.  Poor Santa may have been suffering from allergies all this time and never spoke up. 

My sweethearts

This year for our annual Nativity production Harper scored the role of baby Jesus, and you can tell how excited she was.

A recent realization of mine is that when you have five kids sometimes you just got to be happy with the shots you get.  Believe it or not this was the best one out of about twenty, and yes Hallie does have some of Santa's cookies on her chin.



Christmas morning was wonderful.  We were all healthy, happy, and together.  I have to share that Santa found this trampoline at a yard sale for $8 and the family through in Harper's present (a bouncing zebra) for free.  Santa scored big this year:)



Happy Birthday Dear Harper

My baby. . . she melts my heart everyday

We celebrated Harper's first birthday last Saturday, and I am just dumbfounded by how fast this year went with my sweet princess. She came into this world mellow and good natured and I am so thrilled that she is the same today. I love so many things about this girl but I will only list a few.

..I love her big blue eyes
..I love her two front teeth with the silly gap in the middle
..I love her blonde hair that refuses to lay down
..I love that she has a special bear that she named tata
..I love that she sucks her thumb when she's tired
..I love that she adores her sister, and only wants a toy if Sis is playing with it first
..I love that she will eat anything at anytime
..I love that she has a low chuckle that I would recognize anywhere
..I love that she is so nurturing and love to hug and kiss all the time

Love this face, and thanks goes to Nana for finding someone who can make a yummy vegan cake that we all could enjoy.

She needed a little sprucing up after the cake

Loved, loved, loved her new baby dolls and Hallie loved her wagon.



The girls were excited that even great grandma go to come for a visit



Some Random Pics of my Sweetheart

I wasn't kidding about the gap, how could that not make you smile?



She loves finding new hiding spots



TaTa and thumb. . this girl's ready to sleep

Almost always a good sport

 

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She began walking a couple of days before Christmas and is getting hard to keep up with.  This is the cutest stage to me when she is walking with her arms stretched in front of her ready to fall. . . . love it