A CHRISTMAS STORY

We had a fantastic Christmas holiday with our little family.  While Elle still didn't grasp the entire concept she understood A LOT of it. That made it supper fun.  By Christmas Day she was so excited to see anything having to do with Santa and Baby Jesus so mission accomplished.  

If you follow me on Instagram I am sure you have seen a lot of these pictures.  Sorry for the repeats.  

We started off the weekend on Sunday night grabbing a quick dinner at Newk's and then going to see Starry Nights. We have never been so late into December so the line was definitely long, but worth it.  Elle loved seeing all the lights, and horse and carriages go by.  I do think her favorite part was sitting up front with me.  She has never been able to do that before. (no worries, we were going like 5 miles an hour.)

 Taking in the lights.

On Christmas Eve morning we made cookies for Santa. Since Elle is a little too young to help with baking we just did slice and bake sugar cookies and let Elle handle decorating with sprinkles.  Kenny got creative and made a snowman, a candy cane and a Christmas tree. Elle shoved most of the sprinkles in her mouth. Good times.

Then it was off to Christmas Eve service.  We attended the Children's service and Elle was so excited to see Baby Jesus in person.

After church we went home to have some cocktails, stuff stockings, watch movies and enjoy chicken enchiladas.  The enchiladas are a huge Christmas Eve tradition in our house.

 No fireplace so the stockings ended up here. A mantle is on my MUST list for the next house we buy.

 Santa's presents left for Elle.  She loves her new easel!

Christmas morning, wouldn't you know Elle slept in.  We are still sleep training so I went in and woke her up around 8 because that is the latest she is supposed to sleep.  We were all ready to start Christmas by that point!

Elle would go through phases of being interested in opening presents.  There were a few gifts she was so excited about though and she has been playing nonstop with all of her toys.  I put a handful of them away in a closet to rotate out at some point.

 Playing with a new puzzle.

 Daddy playing with one of Elle's new Bitty Twins that looks a lot like him ha! 

Also modeling a new scarf I got him.

 This was the last present we opened and I started bawling as soon as I saw it.  We are moving in a week or so and I am going to miss our little house a lot.  It is the house we brought our little girl home too. The painting is from my mom and the artist did an amazing job capturing the quaintness of our house.  I am obsessed with, so thankful and cannot wait to hang it when we move.

Elle received some of the cutest toys and had so much playing with everything.  It was so fun to watch.

Christmas Day afternoon Kenny put Elle down for a nap and enjoyed some alone time (without the women) and the girls went to see Les Miserable.  The movie was amazing.  I cried through the entire thing but I would not of changed one thing about the film adaptation.  It was perfect. After the movie it was time for more Christmas movies and a traditional Christmas meal of ham, turkey and all the fixins.

We got one last Christmas surprise that night.  It snowed! Kenny took Elle out to play and they ended up making a small snowman which Elle was so excited about.

Look at the clothes on the child.  I had nothing appropriate for snow.  

All of that I put on OVER her footy pajamas ha! Our little vagabond.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE LACEYS

ENCHANTED FOREST

Last week we met up with Elle's bestie, Loftin and my good friend Lindsay for a play date at Enchanted Forest.  This was my first time to visit the Enchanted Forest during the holidays.  I always heard that it was a little boring.  But a friend of mine was just raving about how perfect it was for kids Elle's age.  She was exactly right.  The little mechanical toys are old timey and the perfect size for them.  

They also have lots of gorgeous themed trees decorated by local businesses and people.  Not to mention Elle loved their Santa.  The day we were there she got the cutest picture but she wasn't dressed in her Christmas garb and was holding Elmo. I still bought it though because she wasn't screaming. This week Kenny, Annie and I took Elle to see Santa again and we got another decent non screaming picture that I am pleased with.  I plan to post all of our Santa pictures in another post.

Snowman Christmas tree.  She loves her a snowman.

Like I said.  Loves.

She loved these little mice. The one on the right was asleep, "night night" and his book 

rose and fell like he was really breathing.  They were so cute!

Elle and Loftin looking into the little beavers igloo.  They were having "yummies."

They don't look so thrilled but they were having fun.

A hug on a bridge in a winter wonderland.

INTERRUPTING REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

HELP! CAN WE GO BACK TO THE NEWBORN INFANT STAGE.  PLEASE.  BECAUSE I WAS GETTING MORE SLEEP THEN THAN I AM NOT WITH MY TWO YEAR OLD.  I AM AT MY WITS END.  I HAVE GOOGLED AND GOOGLED AND ASKED FRIENDS.  AND NOTHING IS WORKING!

Here is the rundown.  A few months ago Elle started waking at night and screaming bloody murder.  She would not go back to bed.  She was frantic she wanted me to pick her up.  A few times I did and then when I went to put her back down she went absolutely nuts.  So I stopped picking her up.  I would just go in there and try to quiet her down.  That didn't work either.

I have tried letting her cry it out too.  Problem is she stands up in her crib and she is not tiring out.  If she is standing up she is NOT going back to sleep.  Bringing her in our bed (which we have done maybe 3 times) is a no go because she doesn't go to sleep.  She rolls around and kicks and plays...all night.  Literally.

My friend suggested we leave the door open when we put her down and that worked.  Oh glorious sleep.  She was sleeping all night and sleeping until 7:30ish in the morning.  Oh my god was it wonderful.  For three weeks we were in heaven.

Then it was back to screaming.  The two things that get her back to sleep.
1. Sitting outside in the hallway where she can see you and waiting until she falls back asleep, which never works because I am so tired and we have hardwood and I am uncomfortable so I don't have much patience for sitting on the cold floor for very long.

2. One of us (Kenny or I) going to sleep in her nursery. The second she sees one of us headed in there with a blanket and pillow she lays down immediately and passes out.


Which you think problem solved.  But Kenny and I sleeping in the same room is important to me.  I just don't want to be the married couple sleeping in different rooms every night.  The amount that one of us is already sleeping in the nursery (maybe once a week) is worrying me.

So there it is in a nutshell.  Is this a phase?  Is she two and jedi master manipulating us?  Have we warped her in some way and she is trying to tell us?  I just don't know what to do.  Plus our family is about to go through major changes and I am terrified this will only get way worse.

Please all you hundreds of thousands of blog readers (just kidding) please help.  I will try anything.

HOLIDAY FUN AND WHAT'S BEEN KEEPING US BUSY!

Things have been pretty busy around the Lacey house.  I might have mentioned this a few times right? Ha! Outside of the holidays we have been super busy because WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!!  If all goes well (fingers crossed) we close on January 4.  We love our little house so much but Kenny and I are thrilled to close this chapter of our lives and literally move on with a fresh start.

So, despite not having any more showings, thank goodness, we have been consumed with inspections, appraisals, surveyors and lots of other things.  Crazy me has decided not to start packing until after Christmas.  So things are bound to get even more hectic.  I am getting sweaty just sitting here typing this.

In the meantime here is a little of what we have been up to.

Elle and I had to have an impromptu lunch date after music class on day because 

the inspection of the house ran a lot longer than expected.  We had fun.

Story time on a day where Daddy managed to pop in.  Any time he comes she is 

so excited he is there and sits in his lap the entire time.

Elle's PDO program had a Christmas program last week and oh my gosh was it cute.  We had been getting notes home from the teachers that they had been rehearsing and practicing every day and those little babies did not disappoint.  I know I am biased but Elle did a great job.  She rang her bell extra hard and sang her heart out.  She also did not freak out when she noticed us sitting in the front row which I was super worried about.  What was most amusing was the absolute zoo that happened with the parents.  Flash photography and a little bit of a crowd pushing forward for everyone to see and get good pictures.  I left photography up to my sister and he iphone and for some reasons the pics are really grainy.  But I just have to include them for my blog book purposes!

Note: Yes that is Elle is blue! She was wearing all of her Christmas outfits to PDO the weeks before and then I got the one I had been saving for the Christmas program and it was waaaaay to big.  So cute little blue romper it was.  Oh well.  It was kind of nice because you can pick her out easily. 

And finally our family took a little road trip to Columbia, Missouri to visit some friends who live there now and do some other things.  The first night we were there we took Elle to see this amazing tree that is covering in thousands of lights.  It is called the Magic Tree.  Of course iPhone pictures don't it justice (as always) but it was so neat! Definitely a must see if you are ever in that little college town during Christmas.

Daddy daughter moment of wonder.

ELLE'S WISH LIST FOR SANTA

Here are just a few of the things that might be under the tree for Elle this Christmas.  She has been a very good girl so Santa is bringing her lots of art themed presents.  Along with the easel she is getting a fun little smock, paints and paintbrushes.  She loves to color and draw so I think Santa's gifts will be a hit.

Little People will also be present as we love everything Little People along with some new Disney movies, doll accessories, a small train track and maybe a few surprises.  Christmas morning should be lots of fun with a two year old.  I cannot wait.

ELLE'S WISH LIST by mallory-cornell on Polyvore

Melissa Doug Deluxe Wooden Standing Art Easel Set
$78 - overstock.com

Crayola 52 ct. Sidewalk Chalk Box
diapers.com

Baby Gund 'my First Purse' Play Set
nordstrom.com

Fisher-Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm Fisher-Price
toysrus.com

Melissa & Doug 'figure 8' Train Set
nordstrom.com

Brave (Collector's Edition) (3 Discs) (Blu-ray/DVD) (Widescreen)
target.com

ON THE LIST

Here are just a few of the things on my Christmas list this year.  I am so thankful that I received a Sephora gift card and the perfume from Kenny's parents this past weekend. I can't wait to go get some new makeup.  

Perfume is one of my favorite Christmas gifts to receive.  I am not a signature scent kind of girl.  I am a mood girl.  I pick my perfumes depending on where I am going, how I am feeling, what I am wearing.  I have over a dozen bottles and love getting samples too.  Yay for smelling good!

The other items are just on my wish list.  We will see if Santa thinks I have been a good girl. 

All I Want For Christmas by mallory-cornell featuring cross body handbags

Frye flat knee high boots
neimanmarcus.com

Stella Dot cross body handbag
stelladot.com

MICHAEL Michael Kors michael kor
michaelkors.com

Viktor rolf
sephora.com

All-Clad d5 Stainless-Steel Stock Pots
williams-sonoma.com

BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR ELLE

I mentioned yesterday we had Elle's two year old birthday party on Sunday.  It was a little early but there is a whole lot going on at the Lacey household that I haven't mentioned on here just yet.  It all started with this cute little invite I had my Susan at JPress Designs do for me.  

            

Early on I found a fun table scape inspiration picture that I wanted to do so that was kind of the idea I was running with on how the invitations looked. No theme really.  More of a color scheme I guess.

We had the party at a place called Special Kids that had lots of fun things to do for Elle and her friends age. They had so much fun.

Elle had no idea the party was for her but she was so happy to see all of her friends and family in one place. Here are just a few of the pics we took.  I actually used my camera thinking our pics would be better but honestly most of them were pretty blurry. Granted, Elle never stopped moving.

Our little tablescape.  The lighting is terrible in this picture but it all looked really cute. 

Swinging with Daddy.

Some of Elle's besties playing at the train table.

Baby Mack came too! He probably won't remember much because he never woke up.

One of our best play date friends, Alice, and Elle playing in the ball pit.

Blowing out our unlit birthday cupcake, shoeless from jumping on the trampoline. Oh we are so two!!

CHRISTMAS HUSTLE AND BUSTLE

Oh my lord was this weekend B-U-S-Y! My mom arrived in town Thursday night to go see Jersey Boys with my sister.  The rest of the weekend we stayed busy running errands and then Kenny's parents came into town on Saturday afternoon to celebrate Christmas with us and because we threw Elle a birthday party on Sunday. It was important for all of her people (that is what we say about our little family) to be there for her in one place to celebrate with her! More on the birthday party tomorrow.  Here is what we were up to before the big party day!

Saturday morning we took Elle to see Santa at Vineyard Vines.  We love this little event.  Santa is always so nice, they have donuts form our favorite donut shop, peppermint hot cocoa and of course Kenny loves it because he always walks out with some sort of new clothing.  

All the girls waiting in line so Elle could talk to Santa Claus.

We were hoping this meeting would go a little bit better.

Kenny and I decided maybe it would be better if we just stood and talked to Santa. That did seem to help a little.  I mean here she is giving Santa a fist bump.  So that is definitely some progress.

Then I decided to back away and see if we could get a cute picture.  

No such luck. She started crying. Oh well.

Enjoying a yummy whale donut for all that Santa trouble.

Saturday night, we celebrated Christmas with Kenny's parents.  They were so excited and happy to give Elle the gifts they had picked out for her. She was a lucky girl and they gave her a precious set of little play golf clubs, some blocks and a huge Elmo book set which she was crazy about because if you know us at all we are Elmo crazy right now in this house! Kenny and I are also very thankful for the fun gifts his parents gave us too. 

Sitting on a present while playing with a present. 

And please ignore all the things on my table.  All stuff for the birthday party.

Helping Daddy open one of his gifts.

Playing with her new toys.  Lucky little girl.