Our Christmas

 Our Christmas was wonderful.  I hope yours was too.

On Christmas Eve, we had my brother's family and Uncle Nate over for tamales.

 Nate spent the night with us, and Santa knew where to find him, thankfully.

 I bet you can't guess what Uncle Nate got for Daisy!  :)

 My kids were so much fun Christmas morning.  Ellie especially was way into it all, making it truly magical.  Poor dear was a bit upset though when she was more excited than the rest of her siblings.  Finally at 7:30 we allowed her to wake up the little kiddos.

 The aftermath:

 Maren got a Monster High makeup set, and she's been looking very beautiful ever since!

 The rest of Nick's family joined us that afternoon and we opened presents, round 2:

 I love that photo of Nick's mom.  Her smile is so genuine.

 Later that night I put Daisy to bed and Maren was whining/crying out in the hall (common occurrence, really).  When I came out of Daisy's room a few minutes later, I found this:

 Christmas is exhausting, no?  Funnier than this was now we have a pink mark on the carpet where her make-upped face once laid.  :)

Cute cousins:

 The rest of our week was good and relaxing.

Sunday morning, a little tea party for the sisters:

Take notice of Ellie's pinky finger.  Girl knows how it's meant to be done!  Also, take notice of our recently painted blue pantry door.  I guess we like some bright and happy around here.

Daddy's been growing out his scruff (per Mommy's request):

 Well, hello there blue eyes (x2).

Another awesome thing about this last week?  Lainey potty trained herself.  We really didn't have a choice but to put her in undies because she kept taking off her diaper to get on the potty and would keep her diaper dry all day long.  She's gone just over a week now with only a handful of accidents, which have included several trips out of the house.  She'll be wearing undies to bed before her brother.  Way to go, girl!  Momma was very happy to cancel the size 4 subscription on Amazon.  The one problem with being self-taught?  Girl can make a big mess without the proper procedures.  Enough said.