crazy, insane, exhausting christmas, but seriously awesome!!
cookies left on our santa plate that we made at the ceramic painting store - it has santa's, ella's and max's handprints. :-)
we stayed up until 1am putting the finishing touches on our project for the kids, then the next morning, we started opening presents.
the kids LOVE their 'stuffies' from nana - max has been dragging his dragon around with him everywhere. :-)
they each got two awesome superhero capes - from gigi and auntie meegan.
my mom and dad opening their gift from steve and breanna - a gorgeous album of pictures from their wedding. loved watching their faces as they looked through it!
aw, yeah! max has his own camelbak backpack from uncle steve and auntie bb!! he kept this on for the remainder of the time opening gifts, ha ha.
and el rocking her new boots and hiking hat from uncle steve and auntie bb.
superhero ella! to the rescue!!
after all of the presents were unwrapped, we unveiled the new, revamped playroom. roger and i have been wanting to paint their playroom forever. we bought the paint and some alphabet letters and were planning on surprising them for christmas. last friday (as in 4 days ago), i was looking into ideas on pintrest and found some amazing little forts with slides. my loving, understanding hubby agreed that this would be cool, and he spent the entire 4 days designing and constructing the fort!! i need some better pics of it, but here are the pics from christmas.
ella's expression when she first saw the fort. i just looked at the video (too long to post) and she immediately said "thank you!" seriously, oh my goodness, love this girl.
max and ella climbing the ladder up to the platform
the slide is on the right. underneath, they have a ball pit with their own little light. they can also use it as a puppet theatre with the curtains that my mom made to cover the opening. :-) roger, you are so so so talented and amazing. this is beyond awesome!!!! love you baby, thanks for making my christmas perfect as always!!!!
oh, and ella asked santa for a pinkalicious book, pinkalicious doll, and ginormous stuffed giraffe that she could ride. and santa delivered:
els and max looking down from the top of their fort
max also got a wagon from gigi and poppie. the intent to pull his toys and stuffed animals around and the sign on the inside specified children should not be the riders. they have been pulling each other around pretty much non-stop. :-)
the best christmas present ever - ella made a reindeer photo frame ornament at preschool. <3
then auntie elaine, uncle norm, uncle nolan, aunt rachel and uncle alan came to spend christmas with us!!!!
playing around in the fort - ella decided that she was snow white for the day and aunt rachel would be princess ella. this caused quite a bit of confusion. ;-)
a few pics from nolan's phone of them playing in under the fort.
and thank you again to auntie elaine for being the holiday photog!!
still abusing the wagon...
reading and cuddling with uncle alan. they've missed him!
more gifts from very generous aunties and uncles and then we had a yummy christmas dinner!!
uncle nolan, auntie rachel and uncle alan spent the night and ella had some fun with auntie rachel's phone cat app this morning:
then we headed to my parents' house for a delicious brunch!
he's been SUCH a cuddle bug lately. and i can't get enough of it.
she spent the ENTIRE day in her ariel princess dress. ;-)
amazing christmas. need sleep. so thankful. love my family.
