Party Preparations.

Thursday, the girls and I were busy were party preparations and decorating for Sarah's Lady Bug party...
We began the day building a tent in the living room:

Snacked on some leftover Christmas goodies...

Made the girls sit through countless pictures to test the sharpness of my new Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens:

Hannah is modeling her new Cinderella dress-up dress she got for Christmas

Sarah got in on the dress up action, too.

She flipped when this hat fell off and insisted we keep putting it back on.

Then we started on the cake. The girls enjoyed licking the wisks...if Daddy had been home, this would not have happened...;)

Finally, the decorations:

Stay tuned for the first birthday post!

Sarah is ONE!

My baby is one. It's bittersweet...watching her grow and learn and spread her wings is bliss. Realizing my baby is growing into a little girl is a little sad.
For comparison, here's Sarah in the delivery room just minutes after birth. All pictures were taken by Micah. :)

And on her first birthday:

Sarah, you have been such an amazing blessing to our family. I can not even begin to tell you how much I love you and how you've changed our family for the better.
Happy Birthday, precious girl! We love you so much!

Christmas

This Christmas was by far the most wonderful, memorable, emotional, joyful Christmas that I could have ever imagined. Words can not describe the absolute joy, love, gratitude, excitement...it was just...perfect.

We began our celebrations at Aunt Cheryl's house on Christmas Eve. Hannah was so excited the entire day. On a whim, we decided to drive past our old home to see how they had decorated (yeah, I guess we're weird like that...) and Hannah knew instantly that we were going the wrong way. "Why we not going to Aunt Cheryl's house?!" she'd exclaim from the back seat. :)
After a yummy dinner and some fun, presents were passed, piles were made, children were gleaming. Hannah was so excited that she literally shook and paced waiting for the okay to begin tearing open her presents. It made my heart melt.

This baby has not left her side. I love how she's holding her hand...

We returned home that evening, arms full of gifts, hearts full of love. The girls got comfy and had just enough time to try out some of their new toys before bed.

Be still my beating heart...

Surprisingly, the girls went right to sleep and slept past 8:00 Christmas morning. Micah and I were in shock, as Hannah was so excited about what awaited her the next morning.
Sarah was the first to round the corner into the living room...

Hannah dug right in...

Watching her face was like pure heaven. My heart was so happy that morning.

These two gifts, the flower pen and the Mobigo, were by far her favorites from Daddy & Mommy..;)

Although Sarah didn't quite grasp the whole unwrap-the-gift thing, she did manage to tear open a few presents with Daddy's help.

Christmas Day is our busiest of the holiday season. The girls finished opening gifts, and then were hurried out the door (with a few of their new toys) to Gram & Pap's house for more gift-giving and the infamous, annual Christmas breakfast.

R.I.P. 40 year-old electric knife...

Love, love, LOVE

Breakfast was, as always, delicious. The company kept was, as usual, amazing. I love this time of year. I love my family. I love Christmas

(Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Gene...how did I miss you?? I need some pictures!!)

Christmas was fabulous.

Take a little of this Christmas cheer into the New Year...

Merry Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We began decorating our home indoors and out last week, and although we still don't have it exactly as I've imagined, it's getting close. A new mantel will be installed tonight, so stockings and garland will be arranged within the next few days. I can't wait.

We've been a bit under the weather here the past few days, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to document our wintry transformation, so these few will have to do. We seem to be on the mend, so hopefully I'll be able to continue decorating and documenting very soon. :)
Speaking of being under the weather, I can't comment on that and not on how absolutely wonderful my husband has been. The girls have been sick, and between stuffy noses, sneezes, coughing, vomiting, and being up all night, he has been fabulous. He not only made us homemade tortilla soup yesterday after pulling an all-nighter running Hannah to the bathroom, but he cleaned the whole kitchen up afterwards as well. I seriously couldn't ask for a better man. I love him.

The girls have been enamored with our tree...

We've been spending a lot of time in our living room by the tree in the evenings.

We're raising two musicians...

This is the best I could do of our tree. I know the picture is really crooked. I promise that was me and not my house. ;) I am blaming it on the fact that my head felt as though it were floating several feet from my body, but we all know that probably didn't have much to do with it...;)

Lastly, my kitchen. We've skimped on the decorations in our family room/kitchen area, but I'm hoping to fix that tonight. ;)

Merry Christmas...

Twinkle Lights

I jumped on the bandwagon and with the help of my dear, sweet, patient husband, I was able to get pictures of the girls in their Christmas PJ's with a twinkle light background. Yay! Sorry for the spoiler if you join us for Christmas breakfast! (PJ's are a part of the tradition!)

Micah set up my backdrop stand for me with my Bone seamless. I tried this with white seamless before and I thought I'd like it better, but I'm actually partial to the Bone. It warms it up a bit and I liked the overall look of it much better.
Hannah needed some coaxing, but she eventually hammed it up for me.

Sarah loves to have her picture taken!

This one is a tad soft, but I love how serious she looks!

We're in the midst of decking the halls around here. Pics to come soon...hopefully! ;)