FIVE

It is so hard to believe that our little baby girl is now 5 years old. 

I have loved this girl for what feels like a lifetime. I can't remember life before her, her birthday was the absolute best day of my life. I already loved her something crazy but that day when I held her for the first time I was a goner. And somehow everyday since then my love for her has just grown.

She is my best friend, my sidekick, my sweetest girl.

Her favorite name to go by is Elle Belle.

She is in a HUGE baby doll faze right now. She loves playing in her room and taking care of all her babies. She pretends to give them baths, feeds them, changes their clothes. Her favorites right now are Ashlyn, Lily and Liam. 

She is an amazing big sister to Oliver and loves him so much!

She wants a pet cat SO BAD but Eric has told her we will never have a cat at our house. So now she tells us one day when she has her own house she will have 2 cats.

And she has started trying to talk us into getting her a pet fish since she can't have a cat. :)

She loves hotels and wishes that we lived in one.

Wants to be a teacher and a mom when she grows up. She just recently told me that she might also be a cook and hair stylist. She says she is going to have lots of jobs!

She is sassy, sweet and sensitive.

She has BIG opinions on her clothes. We go round and round on picking out her outfits.

She started fall soccer this year, ballet at school and wants to start doing gymnastics again.

She loves Little Ceasar's pizza and going on pizza runs with PawPaw is one of her favorite things.

She is our winter fairy.

and she says that "Piece of Me" by Britney Spears is her jam!

She thinks that growing up is taking forever but I couldn't disagree more. It is going by way too fast.

This girl is pure magic.

Happy 5th Birthday to the most beautiful, caring, smart, hilarious little girl in the world.

I love you to the moon and back, sweet girl. 100 times.

December

December is always such a fun month. We celebrate Elle's birthday, squeeze in as much Christmas fun as we can, our elves are always hiding in fun spots. We just really love December!

We spent one afternoon making these little hand-print Christmas trees. 

I had the kids in Christmas clothes, pj's, hats, etc. every single chance I could get!

Elle drew this picture of Santa and gave it to me.

I LOVE his hat!!!!

A lazy pj day at home with lunch in their fort.

We had some nice days that were spent at the park.

Ollie "helped" me wrap Christmas presents.

Look at this girl posing!

My very own little Kevin McAllister.

I adore this little boy!

Oliver loves picking Elle up from school. While we wait for pick up time in the car he always rolls down his window and waves to anyone walking by while saying "hi everybody!".

He also makes silly faces at himself in the mirror. He basically just loves sitting in the front seat.

We celebrated Mary's 36th birthday with Mexican!

And after dinner we went to mom and dad's house so the kids could help decorate their tree.

Elle brought this up from the basement to use for her baby dolls and loves laying in it herself. She fell asleep in it one night and as I picked her up out of it to carry her to bed all I could think of was when my baby Eleanor would lay in here.

And she also brought this upstairs from the basement for her dolls but Ollie quickly climbed into it and wanted to sit in this car-seat forever!

The boy is so tiny he fit comfortably in it still!

Watching daddy and Unc play hockey (along with his buddy Woody).

The night before St. Nick came, these were 2 very excited kiddos!

The next morning was a school day so Elle and I rushed out the door after she looked at her goodies and Eric sent me this picture of Ollie going through his stocking after her woke up. 

Sidenote, in the move Polar Express Ollie was TERRIFIED of the puppet this year. Like as soon as that scene in the train car started he would start crying and running for me to hold him.

We went to Sophia the First night at Chick-Fil-A.

As soon as Elle saw her she looked at me and said "I don't think that's the real Sophia!"

While we were there they had a caricature drawn together.

Snuggles with Ollie (and Buzz) are one of my favorite things.

These two made dinner one night.

Elle loves her dolls, LOVES them!

She takes care of them, changes their clothes, feeds them, baths them and even eats a picnic lunch with them on occasion. :)

We received one of our FAVORITE Christmas gifts in the mail one day, our Zoo membership!!

Cuddles and Christmas movies!

And of course December wouldn't be complete without a stop to see Santa!

Elle told him she wanted a pooping kitty (a FurReal cat) and Oliver was completely silent the entire time.

Smile if you're excited for Christmas!!!

And of course he broke out his signature pose of sticking out his tongue. :)

Obviously one of our favorite things about December is Sissy's birthday but that's a post for another day!