Ellie's First Cake

Ellie got a cake decorating kit from Santa for Christmas. She loves helping me and John in the kitchen with decorating cakes and she bakes brownies and cake by herself all the time. This is her first time decorating a cake all by herself:

cake

This cake was done for Stephanie's birthday...her favorite color is yellow :)

Lexi - 7 months

Little Alexis is starting to move...almost crawling but not yet. I'm torn between excitement and anxiety... are my floors clean enough, how fast will she wear out the knee area in her pants, the constant arch of her back to get down from my arms to explore (especially places I don't want her to), the messes to clean, the scary things she could put in her mouth.... ugh

she looks really Asian in this picture:

Her scooting around:

Christmas

Our Christmas was so much fun this year. Here are some pictures to share of our morning:

Ellie and some of her loot:

Josh and some of his:

Even Lexi scored from Santa:

And there was no forgetting Leia:

The best gift this Christmas (to quote my kids) was the newest addition to our family, little Bella. She was hidden and the kids had to follow a scavenger hunt of clues to find her. She is a sweet little chihuahua, and hopefully a good friend for Leia, who has really needed a play friend since we lost Skippy:

This Christmas really helped us to realize that we are so blessed to have so many great friends and family.