Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We couldn't let Christmas arrive without a trip to see Santa and let him know what Elle and Ollie are hoping for!

We headed to Von Maur and waiting in line for a little over an hour before it was our turn.  Elle was excited and walked right up to him and asked for a "baby unicorn that flies and eats purple strawberries and a yoyo"

When Eric put Ollie on his lap his face turned bright red, he covered his eyes and after a minute he started crying.






3 days until Christmas!!!



Pre-K 3 Christmas Program

Elle's first year of school has been going smoothly.  I have been SO EXCITED for her first Christmas Program.  Leading up to it we kept talking about singing "LOUD & PROUD"...girlfriend did just that. :)

The Program is for PK3, PK4 and Kindergarten but the church was so crowded! We arrived 30 minutes before it started and quickly realized that wasn't early enough.  We grabbed the closest seat we could and I went ahead and let Eric know he would be at Church mid afternoon next year to save us a seat. :)  

The night was already so special but to make it even more so, Elle wore my Aunt Colleen's coat from the 50's.  Aunt Colleen had given this to me when I was pregnant with Elle, I remember thinking how long it would be before it fit...here we are already.


We were so lucky to have picked seats with a pretty clear view of our girl.  They sang a few Christmas songs and Elle did so great!!



Ollie attempted to steal the show by clapping and cheering as loud as he could after each song.  Absolutely adorable!!!


So proud of her!




After the program we went to Stefanin's with my mom and dad to keep the party going.  Sissy was on cloud 9 all night!

St. Nick's Day

St. Nick made a stop at our house in early December.

These were two excited kiddos getting ready for bed.


By chance, Elfie arrived the same night. :) This year he brought a second Elf, a girl named Coco. 

Elle had been hoping for this since this past summer!

When we walked out to the kitchen I made a comment about the snow that was all over the kitchen table, Elle said "Mommy, that's just from the donuts."

:)



Goodies from St. Nick






Ollie wanted this "guy" opened immediately.  I don't think he had any idea it held candy. 


Fun morning with my babes.  Elfie and Coco have been having fun flying through our house, eating marshmallows, digging through the candy jar and sometimes just staying cozy in the same spot they were in the night before. ;)

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Life Lately

We have been doing a lot of Christmas shopping, preparing for a very special girls 4th birthday and listening to Christmas music practically nonstop. :)

We've just been hangin' around enjoying the Christmas season and all the fun it brings. ;)


We made cookies one night.  It was a really neat Frozen box set where you made the dough, rolled it out and cut out the cookies into snow-globe shapes.

Truth by told this was our first time rolling out cookie dough and using the cookie cutter for anything besides fun sandwich shapes. :)


The kit came with Frozen edible stickers to place on each cookie and little edible paint palettes to paint them. 

Big hit with my kiddos.

Sidenote: Elle picked out her own outfit, girlfriend has her own unique style and I love it.


Ollie loves to read, love love loves it. 
His favorite book is Little Penguin Gets the Hiccups.  We have read it so many times he knows what pages say, "1...2...3....BOO!!" and he will sit and "read" those pages out loud to himself.

Even when flipping through this Olaf book he was saying "1...2...3....BOO!!" over and over again. :)


Terrorizing MawMaw's pantry after Mary's birthday celebration. 
My mom keeps this pantry stocked to the brim with goodies for these 4 and they loooove going in there to pick out a treat. Or spill a bucket of pretzels in Ollie's case. 


Christmas music playing and gingerbread house making with my girl.


Give us all the hot cocoa in December. :)



Out Christmas shopping with the Voss crew.  The kids are all looking down on Santa.
About 40 minutes after this was taken Elle had a massive meltdown over pushing the buttons on the "alligator"....elevator.


That TV tray is her desk and  she is being the teacher and I am sitting on the couch as a student. Love that she chose to have the Eifle Tower as a decoration on her desk. 

She forgets the name of it sometimes and will ask me, "Mom, what is the name of that thing that is in Paris?".


Rocking the man bun!
Keeping his hair long and the curls extra wild. :) 



Letters to Santa!
Sissy wants a unicorn that eats purple strawberries, she randomly found this on Kids YouTube and a YoYo. That came out of left field.

Ollie just wants to use the pen he is writing with to color all over his hands and clothes.


:) 

Lindenwood Christmas Walk

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we went to Eric's parents house and walked with them to Lindenwood for the Christmas walk.

This was our first time going and it was a fun way to kick off Christmas celebrating.



All the lights were so pretty.



We got to see one of Santa's reindeer.  Elle was so excited to pet him and Oliver wanted nothing to do with him.  I tried to set him down next to Elle and there were immediate tears. :)






Grandpa Scott took Elle inside for a quick peek at Santa.



The girls made Christmas ornaments for the kids in the Children's Hospital.



And then we headed back for soup at Grandma Chris' house for dinner.

Fun little night with my babes. :)



Thursday, December 1, 2016

Life Lately

This time of year is so much fun.  I feel like once September hits it is just constant holiday fun through December.  My most favorite time of year.

One night after baths we had Christmas music playing and Elle and Ollie were in the kitchen dancing together. These are the little moments I never want to forget. 


Hot coco and cartoons. :)


On the way home from my parents house we spotted the super moon. Eric took Ollie inside and Elle and I stayed outside to admire it. 


Big boy eating breakfast in an actual chair and not in his booster seat. 


Eric is a pretty skilled fort builder, even if they only last about 3 minutes before it is knocked down.


Elle is still doing great in school.  There are some days that she says she doesn't want to go but we have never had tears when it comes to dropping her off and when we pick her up she always seems like she has had a great day.  The teacher assistant told me one day that she must be bursting to talk to me when I pick her up because she is so quiet all morning at school. Better quiet than crazy!!

Ollie and I have fallen into our Tuesday morning routine quite nicely. You can either find us at Target or Schunucks after dropping Elle off...or if we have no errands to run we come home, have breakfast and Ollie can watch Toy Story in peace without Elle begging to turn on something different.


Elle started an indoor soccer clinic. Some days are great and it holds her attention, other days (this week) she does everything except actually play soccer. 

She is wanting to try cheer-leading and ballet next so hopefully we can find some of those classes this spring.


Decorating our Christmas tree! We drag all the decorations up from the basement, the house looks like a bomb went off, we order pizza and eat in the living room and just go to town decorating!


Ollie got himself all tangled in the lights. 



And did his best to remove as many ornaments from the tree as he could. :)

He was obsessed with our Buzz Lightyear ornament and a rocking horse ornament from Elle's 1st Christmas.  He had Buzz riding the horse all night.

Look at that crazy hair!!


Night 2 with the tree and trying to teach him not to touch it.


I was in the kitchen cleaning and Ollie was sitting at this box getting toys out and playing with them.  When he was done playing he picked up all the toys (unprompted) and put them all away.

He knows the way to his mommy's heart!


Putting up the Christmas tree in Ollie's room.  
This is our first flocked tree and I'm obsessed. I now want to buy a similar one and change out the tree in Elle's room. 

These two had more fun in the box than actually helping put the tree up. 


That's life lately! Rumor has it St. Nick is stopping by this weekend and Elle is so excited to see if her elf, Elfie, comes and brings a girl elf with him to live at our house. We shall see!