A Welte Family Christmas: Our Elf Breakfast

Our Elf, "Chippy" made the girls a good-bye breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. We woke up to our table fully set, powder doughnuts on the table, and a letter from our elf. 

The girls had their Santa plates, a hot chocolate package, a Santa straw, and a candy cane at their places.

We ate powder doughnuts. 

And, "elf hats" made of bananas and strawberries. 

Our elf also set out magic snow for the girls to play in.

Gretchen was surprised and then so thrilled and excited!

Gretchen kept talking about how this was the best breakfast ever and that our elf should do this every year, and I totally agree! The look on their faces was priceless.

After breakfast, the girls helped clean up, and then we went into the office and the girls called Santa on the computer.

I just can't even describe the look of magic in Gretchen's eyes. She was talking to Santa when he asked questions, and had the biggest smile on her face while watching their videos.

She was thrilled to find out that she was on the nice list!

I don't think Meggie quite understood, but she was still excited!

Then the girls enjoyed playing in their snow.

Addy finally joined us later that morning, after she woke up from her first night sleeping in her own room in her crib!

I finally decided that it was time for her to make the transition to her room in hopes of us all sleeping better at night. I was nervous that her crying would wake up Megan, but we've been closing Megan's door after she falls asleep, and Addy's only been waking up twice a night.

I started putting her to bed sometime between 7:15 and 8 pm, and then she woke up the first two nights around 9:30, but went back to sleep. Because we've had late nights getting ready for Christmas, I would feed her around 10:30 or 11 before I went to bed. She's woken up around 1:30, but was able to fall back to sleep without being fed, and then she's woken up around 5:30 to eat. I already am so grateful that we made the choice to move her, and she's still been a happy girl!

Addy Pearl's First Christmas!

A Welte Family Christmas: Painting and Playing

We spent the day before Christmas Eve cleaning the house in anticipation of family, painting projects, and playing! I really enjoyed not having to go to work on Monday, since the last few weeks had been so busy! I love that I can work in a public school and have pretty great hours and enjoy the time off! 

The girls wanted to help clean. Meggie is a pretty regular cleaner, but it's like pulling teeth to convince Gretchen to help clean. We pulled out our tiny vacuum and the girls had so much fun. They even helped mop the floors! I was shocked.

I had been wanting to paint with the girls for several weeks, but we've been so busy, that I hadn't had a chance to get around to completing our projects. 

Gretchen getting her foot painted!

Sometime between me taking the picture of the girls together and painting Gretchen's foot, Meggie disappeared and put on her pajamas. Then, she stood up at the bar and unzipped herself. #onlymymeggie

This girl is crazy.

Then, she put on another pair of pajamas. Y'all, she changes clothes 100 times a day, I swear.

These are our finished art projects. I had wanted to make a wreath with Adalyn's hands, but I messed up on Gretchen's angel, so we used the extra canvas to re-make Gretchen's. 

These are now hanging in my kitchen and will be a returning part of our Christmas decor every year.

All of the girls playing together.

Addy will be 6 months old on January 5th and I can hardly believe it!

My crazy Meggie!

A Welte Family Christmas: Part 1

I have a lot of blog posting to catch up on! The middle of December was crazy busy wrapping up work, buying last minute presents, celebrating our anniversary, and so much more! I'll be blogging over the next several days about our holiday festivities and then i'll be ringing in the New Year with lots of fun posts planned! I really hope you will sit and stay a while! 

A few weekends ago, DJ and I decided to take the girls to see Frozen. I took this picture before we left the house. It was the first time taking all three girls to the theatre! I had planned to take them on a snow day, but then I talked myself out of it, and i'm glad I did! I had to hold Adalyn in the carrier the entire time, and it's difficult to hold her and keep Meggie still. Then, Addy got fussy at one point and I took her out for a bit.

Frozen was so good! Tangled is my favorite Disney movie, and I do think that Frozen tops Tangled. 

The next day, we found that Megan had colored on herself with magic marker. Apparently, she decided she needed "socks". 

It was "warm" that day, so we took the girls out for bike riding. I know that Gretchen rode her bike for a while, but I guess I don't have any of those pictures. I know I took Meggie's picture, because of how hilarious she looked in Gretchen's hat, her nightgown, and her shoes. 

The week went by and Friday rolled around. I had the most busy work week, and I was looking forward to trying to attend the girls Christmas events, but thanks to last minute meetings and re-scheduling of meetings, I wasn't able to attend anything.

Thankfully, DJ had the day off and he stepped in for me!

Gretchen's kindergarten class sang Christmas songs at their morning assembly.

This is Gretchen and her "boyfriend." I love how happy she is holding him! She talks about him every day and they play together at recess and sit at the same table in class. She's talked about having a sleep over with him, but I quickly told her that it is not an option!

Gretchen and her teacher.

After, Gretchen's performance, DJ went home to put our dinner in the crock pot, and then he went to Megan's class party.

Her daycare has a book exchange every year.

Daddy and Meggie.

DJ had to miss Gretchen's class party, but I had a sweet friend send me one picture on Facebook of Gretchen celebrating.

Once we all arrived home Friday evening, we had dinner and then got our pj's on to look at Christmas lights.

We drove through a neighborhood and the girls would yell, "Look at daddy's window!" "Look at mommy's window!" Then Meggie would yell, "Look out my window!"

Then we went to a church here in town that has a light display.

You can walk through the display, but we decided not to since it was freezing rain outside. Instead, we drove through one more neighborhood and came home to put the girls in bed.

Addy Pearl passed out!

Gingerbread Houses

When we were snowed in a few weeks ago I decided that the girls and I could pass time making gingerbread houses.

We were actually suppose to make these while we were in Branson, but time got away from us. My mom's best friend was a preschool teacher, and she made and brought the little graham cracker houses to Branson. Since we didn't have time, we decided to bring them home.

I'm so glad that we did because this was the perfect activity on a snowy day!

The girls and I dug in to our left over Halloween candy for the decorations, and I made icing with powder sugar and milk.

 The girls were entertained for at least an hour making their gingerbread houses!