Christmas Day Catch-Up

Wow, I really start catching up on this blog, then before I know it, time has past and I haven't even done my Christmas update and it is January!!    Here is a run down of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities:

Grammie, Popo, Bits, Gram, Jim, the girls and I all went to Christmas Eve Service at Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church:

 The girls got to go to the front of the church to hear a Christmas story being read.  It was about the birth of Christ according to a camel.  It was cute, and the kids all looked so cute listening to the Children's minister reading it.  On the big screens they put the pictures up so all the kids could see:

 It was a HUGE group of kids:

Then, on Christmas Morning, Santa left Kyndall and Avery each an American Girl Doll closet (well the Target brand closet), and Kyndall had given Avery a Target brand 18 inch doll to go with her closet.  Kyndall already has an AG doll that she got for her 5th birthday.

 Emery got a Teddy bear that plays Peek-a-boo with her.  She LOVES it.  It will raise its arms up and say, "peek-a-boo, where are you?"  and "Hello Cutie-Pie" and then when the round of Peek-a-boo is over it will say, "again, again, let's do it again"

Emery also got a playmat which Avery loves to play with her on!  She got it early, but it was a Christmas gift!!

They got A LOT of great presents, and love every one of them....but I am posting this during a lucky time where Avery and Emery are napping so I am limiting the pics so I can sneak in a shower and get some other things done before they wake up and need me!!!

I also had to give a double thumbs up to the Silhouette Cameo machine I got this year.  It is used for cutting shapes and words out of scrapbook paper, vinyl etc...  It is SO MUCH FUN!!!

I cut a mustache out of vinyl and stuck it to a coffee cup to make it funny and fun...

And....I am already thinking about Valentine's day...here is my idea, not 100% sure if we will do this or not...but on the Cameo, you can "print and cut" meaning I printed the hearts on cardstock and then sent it through my cameo to cut around it in the shape of dice (I got the design off of www.silhouetteamerica.com and just downloaded on my software and voila!!  Fold this beauty together, add a little glue and what a cute valentine.  You can open the top flap and I will put a single rolo inside with a note that says, "I like the way you roll, Happy Valentine's Day!"

Anyway, back to Christmas.....We celebrated Christmas Day with my parents and Grand parents....I am so blessed to have them here now.  Mom and Dad are still trying to sell their house in Lubbock, so if you could send up a prayer that they sell it quickly we would be so thankful!  Grammie and Popo already live here so we get to see them a lot more often than before! 

Here we all are after present opening and Turkey eating:

 What an amazing 2011.  A lot has happened with our little family:

1.  My family is moving here

2.  We had Emery (who is 2 months old and already has celebrated her first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year...whew!

3.  Kyndall started Kindergarten

4. Avery started Preschool

5.  We got a new car so we could fit everyone in!

6.  We went to Disney World with the big girls (Emery was there, but I was preggo with her)

A lot of other interesting things have happened, and our year has definitely been a fun and exciting one....we are ready for 2012 and so happy to see what it has in store for us!!!

Emery is 2 months old!

It is hard to believe she is 2 months old already!!! She can smile, play on her playmat, hold her head up on her own for a long time, weighs 11 lbs., Sleeps from midnight til 4:30 and then til 7:30, LOVES her mobile, and is very loved by her big sisters, mommy and daddy!!!

The Crafty side of Christmas and a little visit to the Big guy from the North

Even though this Christmas has been a little hectic having a newborn, I did get around to making it a little crafty!! First was this wreath for the mantel...inspired by Pinterest of course!

Then, I made the girls' teachers each a coffee cozy and embroidered their names on them:). I paired that with a travel cup from Old Navy and gift cards to Starbucks!

Next up was our nieces and nephews, which we gave gift cards to. So I made each of them an ornament with their name on it and a pocket in the back for the gc.

For my sweet baby, I made some Christmas bibs...here she is modeling one of them!  How cute is she???

Oh, and a little pic of her getting in the Christmas spirit with her santa hat Gram brought her:)  Thanks Janet for the fun little hat...she loves it!!!

Finally, I didn't forget my big girls....They LOVE arts and crafts so I found this cool idea off Pinterest:

(click on the picture to go to the website for a tutorial....I kind of tweaked it a bit for my girls...but easy to follow and turned out great)

I appliqued a cute silouette picture on the front and embroidered each girls' name on their own tote:

It has a pocket on the right side and elastic on the left to hold colored pencils, crayons, or skinny markers:

It is made to fit a composition notebook and I found some that have a space for a picture at the top and lines for writing at the bottom...Kyndall loves to write and illustrate stories.  She can write a few words and tries to sound out the ones she doesn't know.  She almost always remembers her punctuation too:)

We opened them early because we had church tonight, and I wanted them to have something to do while we were listening to the preacher....I think they liked them!!  Look at those smiles!!!

Okay, on to this year's Santa visit....

It started out great!  All 3 girls ready to tell Santa what they want for Christmas and Avery even promised to get her picture taken this year (she screamed and cried and opted out last year):

Don't they look happy and ready to visit the sweet old man??  Well, we got there and Kyndall sat right up on his lap, Emery calmly laid in his arms, and Avery screamed and ran to Bits and yelled to Santa, "I don't want to go over there, I am scared, Don't come over here Santa!!!"  and this is the picture we got:

Oh well, maybe next year!!!  But don't worry, Kyndall told Santa what Avery wants for Christmas!!!  I do love this picture:)

It's a Holly Jolly Kelly Christmas!

Well, we had another super fun time celebrating Christmas with Jim's side of the family a little early!  It was fun to see everyone, eat DELICIOUS food, and exchange some gifts.    Here are some pics I got from Grandpa of the evening!

Allison and Sue talking to Emery and Jim hanging with Allie!

 Here, Paul is watching as I am about to try an olive stuffed with garlic...it was interesting!  Check out the sassy scarf my friend Jenny Garland made me for Christmas!!!

 I drew Bill's name for the adult gift exchange and got him a personalized beer holster (check out his leg) so he could party hands free with his friends!

 Here are all the cousins with Grandpa....how cute!! 

 I made each niece/nephew a personalized ornament with a giftcard tucked in a special pocket I made on the back!

 Emery loved hanging out with Uncle Bill.  He is finally engaged to Allison!!  Woo Hoo!! 

What a fun time we had!  The girls got ALOT of fun toys and clothes...and Kyndall's big gift was a fish tank from Grandpa!!  So be on the look out for a post showing Kyndall's first ever pet that is her responsibility!  She even got to spend the next day getting all the things she needed for the tank and it all set up with her Grandpa...which was like a whole other gift to her getting to spend the day with him!!!

Oh, and Emery had a pretty fun 1st Kelly Christmas too!  Check out that lil' grin!!!

Some Sweet Pictures

Thank you to my favorite Photographer, Kim Peichel, for Doing yet another outstanding photo shoot of our newborn!  I taught her oldest daughter in 2nd grade and she has taken all my girls' newborn shots.  Here are just a couple of my favorites:

 

We also had her do family pics....I love how she captures the girls:

It's officially documented in pictures...Kelly party of 5!!

Thanksgiving Recap

I know I am WAY behind on posts...but 3 kids keeps me pretty busy!!  So here is an update...first we had Avery's Thanksgiving Feast and Program:

Luckily Avery is right there on the front edge, so we could see her really well!!!

 And how sweet is this???

 We were so proud!!

 Bits and Gram came...

 And so did Grammie and PoPo...we are so blessed to have them here now so they can come to these fun activities with the girls:)

Then it was Kyndall's turn to show off a Kindergarten Feast and Show:

Sorry about the blurry pic....but super cute anyway:)

 Kyndall and her super sweet teacher Miss Carboni....she LOVES her:)

 Family pic...see Em peeking out from the stroller:

 And everyone came to Kyndall's Feast too!!!

Finally, we got just a few pics from the famous Kelly Thanksgiving.  We love visiting with this big bunch!  Here are some highlights:

All the cousins minus Emery...who was sleeping!

 Alex and Aunt Allison holding Emery:

 Grandpa with Emery!!!

Oh, and some other big news.....our Mazda Tribute that we purchased after Avery was born just didn't quite fit all 3 girls with their car seats anymore...so we bought a new car!!  Yep, that's right...we got a Black GMC Acadia.  We LOVE it.  First of all, Avery can buckle herself up, she and Kyndall LOVE riding together in the very back (and can be kind of loud without driving me nuts), and Emery can be in her own seat (middle row has bucket seats instead of a bench seat) and not have her 2 sisters kissing/touching/messing with her during the ride from place to place!!