The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and it truly was my favorite Christmas yet. Christmas Eve at church was wonderful and then we had supper and opened presents with the Coens. Lauren woke up Christmas morning and was SO excited that Santa came! She loves her new doll house from Santa and has been playing with it every night.

We also had a great time with family up in Nebraska. We even got to spend a little time with little Kylie! She was less than 2 weeks old!

The big news of today is that Lauren got a big girl bed! She is sleeping in her new bed right now and so far, so good. :) She was so happy when she saw it. I got a little misty-eyed because it was a reminder that she isn't a baby anymore. :(

Lauren and Abby on Christmas Eve

Lauren with her doll house!

Special 4 Generation picture!

Lauren wearing her new apron from Aunt Denise!

Uncle Brent teaching Lauren how to write on the frosty windows. :)

Brent, Lauren, David and little Kylie!

BIG GIRL BED!!

Merry Christmas Eve and HBD Grandpa!

It is finally Christmas eve!! We are soooo excited for tomorrow morning! We had a great afternoon/evening yesterday celebrating Christmas with Grandma Di Di. It was a really wonderful time spent with family! We also had family photos taken and I'm very exited to see those!

Lauren has spent all morning playing with her new toys. The princess castle and the dress up clothes were a huge hit!

Lauren also called Grandpa Schlake this morning to wish him a happy 60th birthday!!! :)

Trying on ALL her new dress up clothes!

All ready to leave for Christmas dinner!

Playing with her new princess castle

New Cousin and Cookie Making!

After months of anticipation, we finally got to meet our new niece/cousin, Kylie! It is a girl!! We were overjoyed to get the news and rushed up to Nebraska to meet her on Friday. This will mean 3 girl cousins in a row for our family - sounds like a blast to me! Lauren was extremely excited and keeps asking me when we can see Kylie again. :)

We spent the rest of the weekend at home and worked on our holiday baking - Lauren got in on some of the action. She is also really interested in eating the cookies!

Lauren and Kylie meet for the first time!

Making sugar cookies!

Helping with the sprinkles!

Gingerbread House

What a fun family weekend! Lauren spent two nights at Grandma Di Di's house and she had the best time! She was talking about it all weekend.

We also went to her friend Nicholas' birthday party on Saturday and Lauren had a great time playing with all the kids and enjoying the party.

It is beginning to look a lot more like Christmas around our house - we are getting very excited for Santa and all of the Christmas festivities! Lauren and I made a gingerbread house on Sunday, she loved making it and was very serious about how it looked. Very fun!

Lauren and her gingerbread house!