House of Hylton: December 2014

December was a good month. I was so worried about Elle's birthday being so close to Christmas but it makes the month so much fun! The Christmas season flew by, we watched Christmas movies on repeat, shopped til we dropped, baked and drove around looking at Christmas lights almost every night.

PawPaw and his babes

Dancing with daddy

One day I said to Vito "Monkey, give her a five!" Elle replied "Monkey no have hands, monkey have toes....Eleanor has socks."

We started the month by celebrating Mary's birthday. One night Mary, Mom and I went to the theater to see the new Hunger Games movie, It was my first time in the VIP Lounge and I'm hooked.

We also had a birthday celebration for Mary at mom and dad's house. Dad picked up some really yummy cupcakes from a bakery in Cottleville, they were Bear approved!

Loved getting birthday mail!

All of the birthday celebrating wore Eric out.

We headed to the Bailey Family Christmas the day after Elle's birthday. On our way there Eric ran in Smoothie King and Elle and I were waiting in the car. I turned around to check on her and she said "hi, boo boo!" which is something I say to her all the time. She is the cutest!

Sunday morning breakfast date with daddy.

Trying to get my love for Lucy to rub off on Elle. The I Love Lucy Christmas special will always be a staple in our house. :)

Some last minute Christmas shopping with MiMi, Henry and Charlie. This trip was a disaster. We were in the Christmas aisle for ages.

We did some baking for Santa Claus. We decorated cookies and cupcakes. Elle was a big fan of the sprinkles and we definitely had a struggle over the sprinkle bottle at one point.

Elle loves having her pictures taken with the dogs, especially Vito...Vito couldn't care less.

Loves to brush her teeth!

We went through the Celebration of Lights one night. We stopped and picked up a pizza to eat in the car while we waited in the long line to get in. Elle was so excited to sit on my lap in the front seat with me. After the lights we stopped by Orange Leaf for some ice cream.

Elle has a bad habit of hiding her lovey's. I found her pulling several out of a speaker one night.

When she can't find one it's the end of the world. I always ask her to look around and try to remember where you hid it. She never looks and always responds, "me no find it". She gets this from her dad!

We spent the days after Christmas fighting the stomach bug (both Elle and Eric had it in our house) and playing with all of Elle's new Christmas and birthday toys. Elle loves all of her play foods and will regularly bring me a homemade meal. :)

We started the transition to her big girl bed right after Christmas. Our first night in her big girl bed.

The first two nights I slept in bed with her all night, after that if I do lay down with her I get up and go to my room or if she falls asleep in the living room I lay her down in bed. She usually wakes up at some point in the night and either cries or runs across the house to our bedroom. We're fine with her coming to our room in the middle of the night as long as she starts in her bed.

Our New Years Eve was super wild and crazy this year. We headed to mom and dad's for some appetizers, gingerbread making and vacation discussing. Elle completely shocked me and stayed up past midnight, she even outlasted Henry who I thought for sure would be awake to ring in the new year.