Friday, December 29, 2017

Christmas 2017 part 1.

Merry Christmas! It truly was a great time. Kley and I commented that it was one of our favorite Christmases ever and the pacing of it was great. And it was Lucy and Ellory's first Christmas, and Norah is old enough to really understand, anticipate, and enjoy, so it all around was just so fun! What great reason to celebrate because of His birth and our families are great to celebrate with!

Thursday night we had the big gathering with Kley's mom's side, and Friday night with Kley's dad's side, and Saturday was our big Christmas celebration with the immediate De Jong family. We are so grateful for all of our family. It's so special to celebrate with all the different generations and groups. 

I love these pictures with my girls! They sure got some fun new toys!




It was declared that the De Jong celebration was pajama day, and Norah happily obliged. She'd wear her pajamas all day every day if we'd let her. (And she really does, if we don't have to go anywhere!)


Watching Toy Story, one of Norah's presents. I think she asked what was happening about every 30 seconds. She is really observant and sensitive to what she watches! Whenever there was any sad part or worry that Buzz and Woody weren't going to make it back to Andy, she said she didn't want to watch anymore, and we had to reassure her they were going to make it.

(We also made the mistake of letting her watch the first part of Home Alone and she was traumatized that they forgot Kevin. We were thinking she would just play and not really pay attention to it, but she paid way too close of attention and I had to take her to go do something else. We had to reassure her many times that we weren't going to forget her! And they don't speak very nicely to each other- definitely not three year old appropriate! Parenting fail.)



Opening presents- Norah was very excited about her new double stroller for her dolls!


Ellory and Papa!




I love this picture of me and Ellory. I want to do a better job of taking pictures with my girls individually! (I think Lucy was playing in the basement with someone, which is why there aren't any of her.)


Every Christmas has been fun, but it's great when they get old enough to really enjoy it!


Kley's pumped about his planer, some woodworking tool that I don't understand.


Finishing Toy Story after supper/presents.


Love these family shots!




Norah is 3 and Lucy and Ellory are 10 months. Love my girls!



Kley's sister/BIL had Christmas with his family, so we had Christmas day just to ourselves, which was perfect after a busy few days and was nice to have time to celebrate just the 5 of us. We made eggs and cinnamon rolls for brunch.


Opening Norah's stocking.




Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Praise God for sending our Savior!




Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Christmas light tour 2017.

We went driving around one night delivering Christmas cookies to neighbors/family and looking at Christmas lights, and it was so fun! Definitely a great memory we will do each year, and stopping at this place below will be at the top of the list. There are a couple neat houses in our town, but it was worth taking a little drive to a neighboring town to look at their lights. All of these pictures below were taken on one property! It's so incredible. Also, props to Kley for taking these awesome pictures. I was in the car with Lucy and Ellory who were sleeping for a bit and I asked him to take a couple, thinking he would take like 3-4, and he took all these! What a man.



It really is so cool. It's like walking through a Christmas wonderland- Norah absolutely loved it.






She was pumped to find Olaf and Elsa!




Love my Norah- she's growing up into such a sweet girl.


This was everyone's favorite- an inflatable singing/dancing Christmas band. 


And I can't get over their pom-pom hats and L/E's snow suits. So cute.


I had to add these two at the end of our living room because it's our first year with 5 stockings! Love it!





Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 22, 2017

Lucy and Ellory- 9 month photos.

Here is my attempt of taking some 9 month photos of the girls. I know I'm biased, but aren't they the cutest?












(Poor Lucy's nose is scabbed because she tried to pull herself up on the recently emptied trash can and it was too light and toppled over on top of her.)