Saylor's Fourth Birthday

How can it be???? Our little girl turned FOUR this weekend!!!! We had such a fun weekend celebrating her and we are beyond grateful for every single day of the past four years we have had with her. We are so blessed by this funny, smart, sassy, determined, expressive, and sweet little person God has put in our lives.

We celebrated with our traditional balloon and streamers that we snuck into her room while she was asleep.

 Sleepy balloon hair!

 We opened lots of fun birthday presents

 And had birthday morning pancakes

 She and her baby got matching PJ's from Gammy and Pop Pop

 A whole set of Box Car Children books from Nona and Dave

 And GUM from Aunt Ellen and Uncle Miguel! This was such a big hit (only part of their gift but Say was SO excited because we haven't allowed her to chew gum until she was 4).

 A new bike (Cinderella)

 me and my sweet girl! Can't believe she's so big! While she helped me make her pancakes that morning she said "mommy, i'm stirring (the batter) so much faster than I did when I was 3!"

 The princess cake she really wanted. Out of no where she has become a very girly girl. She only wants to wear "twirly" dresses and she loves princesses. I'm not sure if this is just a new phase or if it will last.

 Blowing out her candles at her little gymnastics party

 Here she is on the day she was born. I'll never forget that day!

 Her first birthday!

 Almost her 2nd birthday

 Third Birthday


Some of my favorite pictures of her over the past year

Happy birthday, Say! We love you so much and we are so proud of the person you are!

Christmas 2012

What a fun Christmas we had last week! It is such a special time with two young kiddos, and this year Saylor definitely understood more than she ever has before. Since we celebrated Thanksgiving with Matt's family, mine came up for Christmas. It was fun to be with everyone in our new house, and it's always a really special treat to have any extra time with my sister and Miguel. Here are some pictures from our time together.

Ellen and Gray on our way to the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan

Lookalikes. :)

Saylor's face cracks me up. She was not too fond of how cold it was!

Our giant parkas

Enjoying some awesome ice sculptures

It's hard to tell from this picture, but Gray got stuck halfway down the kiddie slide. He was laying on his back staring straight up, helpless and unmoving. Matt and I were both laughing so hard. He eventually flipped himself over and finished head first.

On Sunday night we did a carriage ride through Highland Park. It was beautiful and fun, complete with lots of Christmas carol singing!

We had lots of indoor time in our PJ's!

Tracking Santa's route on the ipad!

And making him some Christmas cookies

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed our annual "dinner of many nations" - Rice Pudding and Waffles from Norway and Tamales from Texas (don't judge us....it is actually very delicious). One lucky person wins a prize if they get the nut in their rice pudding. Saylor was the winner this year!

Leaving a note and some goodies for Santa

It's hard to read but she asked him why she couldn't come to the North Pole to see Rudolph for real...ha!

Calling up to see if Santa was here yet

Gpa Dave

Some Christmas morning pics: lots of fun and chaos!

Gray giving kisses to Woody

He is completely obsessed. He's been carrying these around ever since and talks about Woody and Buzz like they are his besties.

Some awesome new dress up clothes!

Family pic before church on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve night it stormed - BAD. It woke me up and I was legitimately scared of how loud the thunder and lightning was, so I knew Saylor would be awake and crying within minutes. She was, of course. I ended up sleeping with her for the rest of the night (which I secretly loved. We don't have the best sleepers, so we try hard not to sleep with them or let them sleep with us, because of course they just want that again the next night. But I made an exception for Christmas)! I remember her rolling over in the middle of the night and asking how Santa would make it to our house in the rain?! I assured her he would. When she woke up around 6:30 and I let her peek down to see what he brought, she was SO excited! She had to wait a little bit longer before everyone else was ready, though. ;)

We continued to have rain that morning and by the time we sat down to eat around 1 pm it was snowing! It was so beautiful, and just a reminder to me of God's nearness and presence.