Birthday girl!

Well, Maelee's birthday might've just past, but here's some backtracking to the end of January for a look at Lilee's birthday celebrations!

I came down with a nasty illness/flu/cold- like virus on the morning of her big day, which ended up wiping me out for the rest of the week, but thankfully, her party was the day before the mystery bug hit!

We celebrated with many of her closest pals at a new, nearby indoor playspace, Scramble, and she had an awesome time. All she wanted on her cake was sprinkles so that's what she got! She was so happy that Nana, her besties from church (Chloe & Emma), several friends from preschool, and even "cousin" Holland were able to make it. She soaked in every minute!

More birthday party pics

HERE

Thankfully, she had school the morning of her birthday as I was pretty much worthless. The blessing in disguise for her with my incapacitation was that Daddy was able to show up at the end of class with banana muffins and a story to read! She LOVED that. 

Our sweet Lilee was very gracious to me the rest of the day and happily enjoyed pizza for dinner and opening all the fun gifts. She was especially blown away to open her very own "My Generation" doll (named Lilia!) from Mee-Maw & Grandpa! And she loved getting to spread out the birthday celebrating with Nana & Pop-Pop the day after her birthday!

More birthday pics

HERE

And of course, our obligatory "4 year photo shoot" pictures!

More sweet shots of this cutie
HERE

Lilee has been growing up so fast lately. Her vocabulary gets bigger and bigger each day but still with her adorable, little voice that we hold tight to! She shows quite a creative streak like big sister, too, with her made-up stories and songs. So adorable. She continues to melt our hearts with her kind, tender spirit and it has been so sweet watching her develop such a special relationship with her brother. We are told she is such a joy to have in class with her cheerful, helpful attitudes and that doesn't surprise us one bit. We are so grateful for this sweet girl!!!

24th & 25th and more!

More backtracking to the end of last year!!! 

It's still hard to believe we are 4 months into the new year...  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking this time as I relive Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We all deeply missed being with my Too-daddy and Mary Catherine for our Christmas Eve tradition , and were grateful to still be able to get together with so many of our DE family at my Uncle Tom and Aunt Viv's home.  My parents and brother and I were able to spend a few moments with TD & MC at the hospital beforehand, and like I mentioned in my last post, having 5 sweet kiddos running around taking in the excitement of the season, sure helped in getting us more into our Christmas Eve festivities given the circumstance.

Despite having had his surgery just days earlier to correct his droopy eye, Ollie didn't slow down one bit and absolutely LOVED playing with his cousins, eating LOTS of food, and playing with ALL THE TOYS!  It was so much fun to watch him just enjoy himself.  Maelee read 'Twas the Night before Christmas beautifully and as always reacts to each gift as if it's the most amazing thing she's ever seen.  (We love that about her. :) Lilee played hard and loved well and was tickled over just about everything.

The kiddos always love the rides on the Gator!

So excited for their matching Christmas pjs before our ride home!

And that's a wrap on Christmas Eve!

CLICK for more pics from Christmas Eve!

Christmas Day was filled with everything it should be - lots of yummy food, sweet time with family, and too many presents. :)  

A lion charm for Lilee and an elephant charm for Maelee!

Reindeer hot dogs for lunch!

Tickled over the new trampoline!

CLICK for more pics from Christmas morning!

After checking out all their new toys and having a little bit of down time, we were off to my folks for Christmas dinner and more gift exchanging! It was so sweet seeing Ollie, in particular, interacting with his Uncle Dan and he remembers each gift he gave him!

  

Gotta get everyone in there!

CLICK for more pics from Christmas at Nana & Pop-Pop's!

We had a delicious dinner and a wonderfully sweet time celebrating the rest of our Christmas day with Nana & Pop-Pop and my brother.  Our bellies, hearts, and arms from carrying all the loot (!) were quite full.

And finally, we had one last hurrah of the Christmas season when Steve's parents, Mee-Maw & Grandpa came up the last weekend of December.  We loved introducing them to Ollie and we had another fun gift exchange where the kiddos got tickled once again.  We also had a great afternoon at the National Harbor where Ollie was in heaven on the little train ride.  It was a fun ending to our holiday activities and fun to ring in the new year together, as well!

CLICK for more pics from our visit with Mee-Maw & Grandpa!