A Very Merry Christmas

I do believe we have recovered from Christmas. While Christmas is always magical and so much fun, it is a lot of work. I never realized it until being a mom. Parents put in a lot of work for Christmas. It is so worth it though. Seeing Eli's face Christmas morning when he saw his train table was amazing. This capture does not even express the real thing but it is a reminder.


We made the kids sleep in our room Christmas Eve so Eli would not come out and peak at his presents. Sadly it meant no sleep for us. Lilliana decided 5:45 was the perfect time to get up and of course thought the rest of us needed to join her. She likes a party when she gets up.  At about 6:00 I just turn and look at Anthony and say, "Shall we just get up and enjoy it?" The entire time pushing out of my thoughts those wonderful natural light shots I had hoped to get of Christmas morning. It looked like the flash was just going to have to be used. He agrees. So we head downstairs to begin opening gifts.
Eli's big gift from us was a train table. He LOVES it.

So does his sister..........


Lilliana got a push-a-long walker as her big gift.

They played with these toys for a good long while and we could have just gotten them those and they would have been happy. BUT the show must go on. Eli had to be kept off his Spring horse at that point so we could just begin opening. Once we started that he was ok with it and really enjoyed it. There were presents from Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Great Grandparents from my side in Idaho.

I even let Eli open a few of my presents as he was just loving opening presents. Lilliana in a lot of ways could have cared less. She was just interested in playing with everything.

My favorite gift opened that day was by Eli. We got him a battery powered Salty from the Thomas The Train series. He loves his trains so this was just perfect. He loves it.



After opening it was time to clean up and get ready to have Anthony's family over for dinner. We had a great time and all my cooking paid off. We opened presents although it was chaos with the 3 grandkids so I pretty much gave up on taking pictures but was able to get this one.


Thankfully Anthony's mom and step dad stayed to help clean up so we had a nice clean house come Monday morning including dishes being done.


Monday of course brought hours of playing with toys..........

Lilliana LOVES her doll we got her as you can tell from her face. Eli spent many hours sitting on that toy box playing with his train table. Many of these photos are due to Anthony. I have to say I was a little preoccupied enjoying my kindle fire and reading a book. Since getting it I have read three books. I love that he took the camera and just took pictures. He also took it upon himself to just play with them and let me rest. I was tired from getting everything ready for Christmas day.  It was a much needed nice break!

Tuesday brought us our White Christmas two days late. Many thanks to Grandma Terri who got Lilliana an adorable snow suit. All four of us made our way outside to enjoy the beautiful snow.


We then came in and enjoyed some hot chocolate and more playing with toys....

Nobody told me but I got a little Indian for Christmas!


Finally I let Anthony play with my Kindle. Some things never change as he was playing games with one kid on his lap. I secretly think he got it for me so he could play games and I could read and I will stop asking to upgrade to an Iphone. Either way I don't care I love it!! I love having books galore and I have not had to pay for one yet!

Yesterday I had my first official baby appointment. It also marked the first day of the second trimester! It is hard to believe. It was a bittersweet day. As I was getting ready to leave Anthony texted me to tell me his boss was on the way to the hospital and they suspected he had had a heart attack so to pray for him. Then as I was driving in he called to tell me his boss had passed. They attended our church so we know them outside of work and his wife is one of the sweetest ladies I know. It was ironic that as I was going to hear the heartbeat of a new little life for the first time while one other life was being called home to our dear Lord and Saviour. He will be missed. It is the second death to hit Anthony's company this year. I know Anthony was pretty upset last night as was I.

I was thrilled to hear the baby's hearbeat though. My midwife could not find it for a while. She knew we should be able to. I was not too concerned but she was determined and I am glad. I finally had to go to the bathroom so my bladder would not interfere. One day I will get better about taking belly pictures. I have not been on top of that this time and need to do better!


Today brought more toy playing. I love that we have now added to our toy collection baby dolls and strollers. It is wonderful! Little girl loves her new stroller and baby.
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They have also fallen in love with Legos all over again. I am thinking we might invest in some pink ones for Little Sister's birthday. She loves legos and has for a while. It has only increased with the new ones Eli got for Christmas.

She especially loves the little men.

Eli loves his new Mater lego. It shoots something and he loves playing with that and building big towers to knock over.


All in all it has been an Amazing Christmas! We are not done and have Anthony's extended family Christmas to attend on Saturday. Stay tuned for a reflections post of the year too! I hope you all had as Merry of  a Christmas as we did.

Christmas Eve

This week has been so busy! It has meant less pictures and fun things. We are having Anthony's family over for Christmas dinner and I am making the majority of everything so I have been a busy woman in the kitchen. Anthony was out of town most of the week and Lilliana was terrible. I ended up taking her to the Dr. It was just teeth 5 teeth trying to pop through and one that already did. Thankfully it is Christmas Eve and we are all feeling good. I am exhausted but thankfully the majority of everything is done so tomorrow I can RELAX!!! Yay for planning ahead.

Yesterday Eli helped me make rolls. We made them homemade. The only problem was I think the dough may have gotten a little too worked with Eli's help. They still taste good.


Many other things were made yesterday. Finally today we got around to making sugar cookies. I never got them decorated but that is ok. We will probably do that tomorrow and Eli loved doing them.



Lilliana also fell asleep sitting up in her crib for a nap. She was not crying but playing I think. I went in to check on her and found her like this........


Tonight we went caroling to a family friend although she is more like family. We had been working with Eli on singing, "We wish you a Merry Christmas." He would only sing it with his cousin Trista though! He loves Trista. He did not sing much tonight but I think he had fun. We were able to bless and I like that.



We also started the tradition of opening one present Christmas Eve which happened to be pajamas. They also got to open two more. This was Lilliana's first present ever she opened.

She got her first Bible and we replaced Eli's as his has been loved a lot and is pretty worn.

Then we read the Christmas Story and gave them their pajamas to open. Lilliana was ready for bed so a melt down began, but Eli loved them. He loves new jammies!



Finally it was time for the big present of the night. We recently got a web cam so we could Skype with my parents. We decided that they would be able to see them open the presents they got them in real time this year. Due to the time change so they did not have to get up early tomorrow we did it tonight. So we got on Skype and they got to see their presents..........


Grandpa and Grandma always give fun gifts. Lilliana is not the biggest fan but Eli is in love with his horse! He did not want to go to bed tonight and had a huge meltdown for fear of not having his horse which he named Grandma Nicole. Then he changed the name to Brown so I am sure it will be ever changing.

We got a quick picture in our new jammies and then sent the kids to bed. Yes I am as tired as I look:)



Now the children are in bed and everything is ready for tomorrow! It has been another amazing year in the Reuther house and we have been BLESSED beyond words! I love my family and would not trade them for the world. They bring me such joy, my wonderful husband especially who we would have none of this were it not for him! Merry Christmas!