Christmas Morning 2008

Here are pictures from our wonderful Christmas morning. Emily was so excited to see everything that Santa brought her. He even ate all the cookies & milk. Emily ended up with her new drawing Easel, a pop-up fort, new paints and coloring pages, a robe of her own, a couple games, some clothes and lots of candy. David and I kept our gifts to each other small since we bought a new laptop, which works perfectly. Later Christmas morning we headed over to Grandma & Papa Wessel's home for even more presents. It really was a great day!

Christmas Dress

Emily got to go to the store with us this year to pick out her Christmas dress. She was very picky and had to try on multiple dresses before allowing me to buy this one. Even then, she complained that she wanted all the dresses, not just one. For such a tom-boy who hates dressing up and looking pretty, she sure is a pain to shop with. In fact, after putting on her dress on Sunday, she insisted that we tell her how terrible she looked because she did NOT want to be beautiful. But the bottom line is that she is completely adorable whether she likes it or not.

Getting Bigger

We remembered to take another picture of me. I am now at 33 weeks along and my belly is growing nicely. It is absoultely tiny when you compare me to Mandy, but Emily is amazed every time she looks at me. She insists on hugging and kissing the baby each night before bed and also enjoys tickling and poking my belly to feel the baby kick. Emily's favorite thing to do is to lay her head on the baby so she can get kicked in the head. It is hilarious.

Our new home

We finally got around to posting these pictures of our new house. Since this time, all boxes have been cleared from all rooms (except the baby's room since it is a 'catch all' room). Also we have a few more decorations up for the holidays. But you can get the general idea of how our brand new home looks.

Haircut

Today I took Emily to get her hair cut at a children's salon. I've been toying with the idea of cutting her hair for a couple months and I decided that today was the day. She got very nervous and had a hard time getting up into the barber chair. But once we told her she could play with a toy while she sat and that she would get a special treat when we finished, she was perfect.

Her hair was cut to about shoulder-length and they curled it and added glitter & a bow. (Emily wasn't very happy about the curling, glitter or bow---she is such a tom-boy---but I encouraged it)

Gingerbread House

We had our annual gingerbread house decorating party at Grandma's house on Monday. Instead of baking the house herself, Grandma had us use pre-made kits from Costco. The houses turned out great, and the decorating process went right as predicted. Both Kendel and Emily got bored after 20 minutes and started wiggling around until finally Sarah & I had to finish the houses ourselves. Actually, I'm not sure if Sarah ever went back and finished after all the frustration with the icing.

But it is at our new house now.......our first decoration of the season in the new home. Emily can't wait to eat it all up now.

Moving

Moving is completely exhausting. And when you are pregnant it seems to become an emotional time as well. And when you are a 4-year old, moving is traumatic.
Everything in the apartment is in chaos and poor Emily is having a hard time adjusting. There are boxes everywhere and she isn't allowed to climb in them, on them, or watch them tip over. All of her favorite pictures have been taken off the walls and she has to help decide what to keep and what to throw away. All of her toys are in boxes and she is running out of things to occupy herself. Mommy is ready to pull her hair out and every time Emily wants attention Mommy is on the phone, signing paperwork, packing boxes, or ready to collapse.
But today we went to our new house for our final walk-through. Aside from being very dirty (which will be taken care of by a maid service Friday morning) the house is great. Emily enjoyed running through the empty rooms and she tried to claim the biggest bedroom as her own. The backyard will be perfect for her. We will need to remove a dead lemon tree and fig tree, but we have already tasted an orange from our own tree and it was delicious. Emily can't wait to bring her bike over and to find her sidewalk chalk and ball so she can play outdoors. She was already jumping up and down in every room----which has been prohibited in our apartment for the last year. It will be nice not having to tell her to stop her gymnastic talents and to talk quietly. She will have freedom at last!
We get the keys to the house tomorrow and then the chaos of the official move begins Friday. Will will pack up the apartment and clean it top to bottom Friday night. Then Saturday morning, bright and early, we unpack the truck into the house and start arranging furniture.
Stressful, exhausting, traumatic. But very satisfying.