Scenes from Christmas!

What a Christmas! We had a busy, wonderful, magical Christmas. We had Christmas Eve at our house, and then made the rounds to Nana and Baba and Mimi and Poppa, and then we all gathered at Mimi and Poppa's house for a Christmas dinner. GG and G Pop were in town too! So fun!

Bedtime stories for Cooper in his Christmas pjs from Aunt Farrell and Uncle David.

College friends here to visit! Ella was so excited to see baby Harper.

The girls.

Cookie decorating! Ella and GG were quite the team

G Pop helped too. I think he mostly ate them :)

These two are very serious about their cookie decorating.

Fun in the laundry basket!

Cooper loves his Mimi!

A serious Christmas Eve dance party.

One of my two Christmas blessings. I just love the look on her face.

She dances all the time. She even had to get up in the middle of church and dance in the aisle. I'm not kidding.

Great grandparents and great grandkids!

Miss blue eyes.

The fam. Cooper doesn't look thrilled, but I thought it worked pretty well for the rest of us.

Santa getting ready...

Look what Santa brought!

AND -- Santa brought a new playhouse! Ella just loves it. We had to tear her away from it tonight to go to bed. She always says it is raining and we have to get in the house. I can imagine many years of pretend in this house. The kids' own little place to get away!

Riding his new fire engine from Nana and Baba!

This girl loves to do hair.

Princess dress and Rapunzel hair. This outfit stayed on for the rest of Christmas.

Opening her new American Girl doll goodies from Mimi and Poppa!

After Christmas, we took a trip up to Aunt Jayne and Uncle Ed's in Pennsylvania. Ella loved seeing everyone, and especially playing with Beth and Mary's old barbies and trolls. This girl has quite the imagination! And we got to see Mary again before her little girl arrives in early March. We can't wait!

Cooper passed on the barbies and trolls, but was obsessed with the stairs at Aunt Jayne's. He went up and down them countless times. He loved to go to the top and yell (grunt) and waive at everyone below. King of the mountain!

My sweet sweet boy. Who does he look like? Mom? Dad? Still hard to tell. I guess he looks like Cooper Jaskot :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! WISHING YOU ALL THE BEST IN 2012!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Only one more week! Ella asks me every morning -- "Mommy, is it Christmas yet?" I will actually be kind of sad when Christmas is over because it has been so much fun getting ready this year! Our tree is one of the most beautiful we have had -- aside from the fact that for the first time, it is behind a gate. Cooper would have had that tree down in two seconds. Ella says the tree is in jail :)

And, before I forget, a certain someone turned nine months earlier this month!

Horton greets us every morning. This particular morning he was engaged in a game of tic-tac-toe with Santa. Some days Horton is very creative. Other days, Horton forgets to move until the very last second...

I love pajama time -- and I especially love Christmas pajama time! Ella's pajamas are courtesy of Mimi and Poppa -- complete with matching doll pajamas!

Ella and Jack hanging out at a holiday party. The two of them snuck away from the party and we found them in the room reading books! Innocent enough...

Cooper's favorite part of the party was the dog --

and the chandelier.

Playgroup. As you can see, we are getting quite a bit of use out of the monogrammed Christmas outfits :)

With Baby Charlotte -- who is not so much of a baby anymore!