At home with the Harpers

I'm playing catch up here, trying to upload some photos from the holidays so bear with me!

Prior to Christmas, i did a mini photo shoot with the kids, trying to get a nice picture for the Christmas card. Here is how that went...

this face was unprompted... ha!

visiting Santa :)

my Christmas elf!

whispering secrets to Santa!

Maddy decided to feed Ethan his breakfast one morning :)

We also had a visitor from "Nimble", our elf.... BOTH children really enjoyed looking for him every morning. Even little man would look for him when he woke up! Definitely a fun Christmas tradition! Here are just a few of the places that we found him...

riding the reindeer

playing the piano

hanging on the tree... he also added a Santa hat as the topper this year... it stayed all season

he hung a string of crazy star lights around our table

No idea how he got up that high! ;)

He was also found hanging from the lights many times, reading Christmas cards, hanging candy canes, etc. On the "rare" occasion that someone may have had a behavior issue, he was known to leave a note for an incentive for good behavior. :)

Here are a few more pics of Christmas fun...
making Gingerbread houses

watch out! here comes Molly

getting so big!

me and the kiddos!

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday as much as we did!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
I can't believe Christmas is over!! Well, it is TECHNICALLY over. We are still acting as if it is Christmas every day at my house. All of the lights are on and the Christmas tree is plugged in as soon as we walk downstairs. :) I do not know what I am going to do once we take all of the decorations down. Little E-man still "ooos and ahhs" over every little thing, EVERY time I plug things in, or light a candle, like it is the first time he has seen them. So sweet! I find myself getting sad, thinking of the holidays being over. I LOVE this time of year! So much thought and preparation goes into planning for the holidays. Not just the gift part... though that does take a lot of planning/effort/thought. I'm talking about the "magic" of the season. I remember Christmastime in my early 20's prior to having children. The "magic" was missing. I still loved Christmas and being with family, etc. But the "magic" was missing. My daughter's first Christmas... there it was! Back again! I think it is being able to witness the season and all of the excitement through their eyes that brings it back to me.
Our family had a wonderful Christmas! To help keep the magic alive, we had an Elf ("Nimble") come to live with us. He arrived right after we got home from Thanksgiving in Ohio (which I will be posting pictures of a little later). The kids thoroughly enjoyed his presence. He left little notes, hung around in weird places (like the ceiling fan, light fixtures, Christmas tree), he left a special candy canes, hung a Santa hat on our tree, hung tons of paper snowflakes in the family room for Christmas Eve morning, had a tea party with my daughter's stuffed animals (she was actually very angry about this!!), rode on some of the reindeer decor, among other things. Nimble was not as mischievous as other elves that I've heard about.Thankfully our elf encouraged good behavior! ;-) My daughter enjoyed him, finding him every morning. Surprisingly E-man was TOTALLY into it! He seriously looked for him every morning. They also enjoyed an advent book basket from Grandma Locke. We tried a new routine this year for Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with the Locke family, had our own Christmas morning at home and then spent Christmas evening with the Harper family. It seemed to work well and the kids didn't feel rushed around on Christmas.
Unfortunately I have been unable to visit with either one of my grandfathers due to illness and bad weather. Hopefully we will be making those trips VERY soon! Anyway, I just wanted to share a few pictures. I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday, had safe travels and spent lots of quality time with loved ones. Keep that Christmas spirit alive!!!